Food calculations

You don’t store food along the trail on the AT you go to town and buy food along the trail and or get drop boxes sent to towns where you stop and pick them up. Some may stop at Walmart if that is the only place in the town they are stopping in but usually a grocery store or small convenience stores near the trail ,hostels motels ect. The AT is not out in the middle of nowhere it actually passes right through or is close to towns for a lot of the trail. Wired is hiking the trail right now , you can follow her trip HERE . It would be impossible to carry everything for the whole trip without resupplies as you go.

Well that is not hardcore then.
Ok what about adventurers far from civilization,that want to do long trips without shopping.How do they do it?
Dropboxes?Is that mail send to an address?

Yes , Andrew Skurka has resupply boxes sent to him you can see his Yukon Expedition HERE . His mother usually coordinates all of his packages that he prepacks , THIS is a video of his trip from National Geographic.

So without outside help ,long adventures are impossible??

The longest that I have done was 25 days in Nepal. There were nine of us trekking with a Sherpa staff and porters. When we started out, we had eight or ten porters just carrying food to be cooked. After the eighth day, the Sherpa cook was able to purchase some extra goat meat and rice. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

After most of the food was eaten up toward the end, they had paid off some of the porters and sent them home, so we had only two or three carrying food.

The arctic explorers have a much larger task. A tremendous part of their planning is simply getting enough food carried.

–B.G.–

HERE is the 2006 Arctic 1000: 625 miles in 24 days carrying everything, and THIS is an article by Roman Dial entitled How Far, How Fast, How Heavy?
Calculating the range for unsupported, long-distance hiking (you will need to be a member to read the BPL article)

What is your hiking adventure background what kind of trips do you usually do ?

Don't count on getting many calories living off the land while thru hiking.

"Don't count on getting many calories living off the land while thru hiking."

I will have to.I am even willing to cut down miles to save more energy and find some food.

Where are you planning on going , for how long and what is your background for this adventure since the AT won't be hard core enough,did you research the trail before deciding on it .

I think i will have to replan for 30-40 days supplies.

"Where are you planning on going , for how long and what is your background for this adventure ."

This is getting out of hand fast.
I am obviously new to backpacking,only dayhikes and 1-2 day trips so far.
Like i said i am in Greece going north.

So you still plan on doing the AT , I thought you were saying it was not hard core enough and therefore were not going to do it. Why are you against doing resupplies if they are available, carrying that much would not be fun HERE is an old thread you might be interested in from 2006

"So you still plan on doing the AT , I thought you were saying it was not hard core enough and therefore were not going to do it. Why are you against doing resupplies if they are available, carrying that much would not be fun HERE is an old thread you might be interested in from 2006"

I didnt say i will do the AT.
Wish i could.
I just have it as a baseline for gear and long-distance planning.

My list btw:
http://lighterpack.com/r/892443

"I will have to.I am even willing to cut down miles to save more energy and find some food."

You could stop and live off the land and you would likely starve. Please go to trail journals and read through some AT journals. You plan will not work, period. Good luck.

One final thought. Put the AT&T on hold until you have done at least a week long hike. It will save you considerable expense. If more people did that then the completion rate would be above 20-30%

It didn't work out for Christopher McCandless, either.

–B.G.–

Hmmm, goat. Yummy stuff.

"Hmmm, goat. Yummy stuff."

The goat was vegan. We weren't.

–B.G.–

Is it still April 1st???

But if this inquiry is actually serious, here goes:

In rural places, from time to time, you will come across small villages, or at least an occasional farm. Whenever that happens, you go to the farmhouse/village, and ask the people if you can buy some food. Obviously, you must be prepared to eat whatever they have and are willing to sell you. Often, this will be bread, sausage or cheese, and maybe some fruit. You eat some, add some to your pack, and repeat at the next village/farm.

If you're very lucky, you may be invited to enjoy the hospitality of the house for dinner, or sometimes you'll be asked to stay the night.

I heard the AT is busy enough that all you need to pack is a taser and you can resupply with all the necessary gear and food every night.

:)
Edited: that has been an joke a few of us have shared on the trail. Just a joke.

"Whenever that happens, you go to the farmhouse/village, and ask the people if you can buy some food."

Might do that,in the end.
Cant count my calculations on that.

Sure, Kat. It's just a joke;)

Bunta,
I've looked at your list and your several posts.

What food, exactly, can you "get from the land" that will provide 1000 Cal/day? How will you harvest it? Is it plants, animals, or both? What is the legal situation with that? IIRC, there's a reason why our ancestors either: 1) settled down and became farmers; 2) developed very clever–and time-consuming–methods for processing otherwise-poisonous wild staples (e.g., acorns, camas, etc); 3) ate as much fatty animal tissue as they could harvest, esp. brains and marrow.

Your list gives 700 gr food/day for 4200 Cal–that's average 6 Cal/gram, or 168 Cal/oz. That's incredibly calorie-dense–what sort of meals are you planning, macadamia nuts with an olive oil sauce?

You are proposing carrying a 65 pound pack (actually more, given that your tarp, pack, and a number or other items aren't listed yet–so let's say, 70 pounds total). With little experience in same.

I suggest you add another book to your pre-trip reading list: Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods." It's an account of setting off on an overly-ambitious trek, with too little experience, and a too-heavy pack. Unlike "Into the Wild," it has a happy ending. And is (intentionally, anyway) funnier.

"So without outside help ,long adventures are impossible??"

Bunta, nobody can hike long distances while gathering their own food.

Early migrants or explorers of North America took pack animals so they could carry a ton of food. In some cases they may have stopped to hunt big animals like bison or elk, but that entire process would take days of hunting and drying meat. These animals would yield massive amounts of meat that their pack animals would carry for them. Hunting animals that are small enough for a quick meal or to carry in your pack for a few days is not the most time/energy efficient way.

Mountain men had cabins where they could settle and gather/hunt from. When they left their cabins to hunt, trap, or make a long journey to civilization for supplies or to sell furs they carried their gathered food with them and would not waste too much time gathering along the way.

There were people who could live in the wilderness. They were hunter/gatherers who lived that lifestyle for their whole life. These people had tribes to help them out. Were you raised as a hunter/gatherer? I'm guessing not.
There are also people mostly living off the land in Alaska, but they have homes, guns, fish nets, snowmobiles, heavy traps, ect. and they plan their harvest in the summer so it will last through winter.
Do you know how to hunt? Can you track animals and set traps? Are you an expert on the edible and medicinal properties of plants? Can you safely identify mushrooms?(an important food source) Will you be hiking in a place that actually has animals to hunt? Can you legally carry a gun and hunt while in Greece?

I think hunting and gathering while hiking is a good idea, but only as a supplement to the food you already have. While hiking it's easy to spot and gather edible plants on route to your destination. If you are hiking off trail you will inevitably see animals that you could shoot while walking towards your destination. You can fish lakes when you stop to rest in the evenings.

But you can't actually stop hiking to hunt and gather, it doesn't work for hiking.
In order for that to work you would need to stop, kill a large animal, and have a pack animal to carry the meat.

If you want to live off the land, that's very cool. But don't try it on a hiking trip. Plan a trip where you are camping in one spot for an extended period of time.

Lembas bread, or Elvish waybread, is filling enough that “One small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man.” The real-world recipe can be found here.

Of course you’ll need the fruit from the Mallorn Tree, which may prove slightly improbable, but this would make the journey possible I imagine.

Short of that, a good deal of Pemmican, flour, and baking soda, along with a Ruger 10/22 Takedown, 200 rounds of .22 LR and a good cleaning knife might be a good start. Of course you could always tow a wagon, like they did back when they actually traveled like that. Mad Jack had a burro if I remember correctly.

Only in the movies do they traverse hill and dale with only a walking stick and a ruksak. Of course the magic of a wizard does make the journey more feasible as well, along with some Elvish rope and dwarven Mithril chainmail.

Obviously this all sounds ridiculous (except maybe the Ruger), but I can’t help but think it’s just as appropriate as someone who’s planning to carry 12 rolls of toilet paper.