[at-l] Fwd: pt 2: A question of money: estimation of throughhike costs

[Raphael Bustin]

At 11:08 AM 9/20/2006 -0700, Sloetoe wrote:

>--- Raphael Bustin <rafeb at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>
> > The guides say you want about 2 lbs of food per day,
> > but I found that to be too much.  I was eating about
> > half of that, and still feeling fine.
>
>### You also lost weight, right? Not good on a
>throughhike -- unless you want to get to New England
>tired and worn out. You have to be self-sufficient,
>and getting "camel" calories in town will/does fail
>you. I finished my hike feeling stronger than ever
>before in my life; toooooo many hikers nowadays finish
>tired and pissed off. Entirely avoidable.


This is one place where an 11-day section is not
really comparable to a through-hike.

I'm at least 30 lbs over my ideal weight, so on those rare
occasions where my body *isn't* craving food, I welcome
the change.  Maybe it was just a surplus of adrenaline.

On my "attempted" thru in 1990 I lost all of five pounds
over the course of 60 days and 650 miles.  (About the
same weight-loss that I experienced in 11 days, this
last time around.)

I'm just saying... it feels stupid to have walked three or
four days, only to arrive at a resupply point -- and find out
that my "pantry" was nowhere near empty.

Almost -- but not quite -- as stupid as arriving at a fresh
spring with a full quart of water that I'd just lugged for the
last 8 miles.


rafe b
aka terrapin