Longest Trip Without Resupply

[Tipi Walter]

I'm interested in learning about other backpacker's trip lengths and how far they've been able to stretch out their food and fuel load for one trip. 15 days? 21 days?

I'm also interested in setting up a food cache to go even longer, like 30 or more days. Anyone use a couple of bear canisters as a hidden food cache? How do you keep it secure w/o rolling off a mountain side? Anyone have experience with food caches?

[garlic08]

Hi, Tipi.

As a thru hiker, I think in miles. My longest was 165 miles between food supplies. I did cache once for a 240 mile trip and just hung a plastic grocery bag from the end of a downed 25' lodgepole propped against another tree and that worked great as far as leaving no trace and not having to pack out/pick up the container.

[nox]

i was told that the best place to store a bear vault is in the middle of the thickest pricker bush you can find.... have fun getting it out

[DAJA]

A buddy and I once spent a winter at an old loging camp in Northern Ontario.. In the summer we paddled in through the lakes with an old Quebec Wood Stove and dry goods and stashed them as close as we could get them to the cabin we'd be staying in. Roughly 4kms from the Cabin. With the advantage of the canoe's we where able to put all our dry goods in 50 Gallon steel drums... Hiking you won't have that advantage. Once freeze up hit, we snowshoed for 3 days to reach the cabin pulling our gear on tobogans... Once we reached the camp we spent several days setting it up and got the Quebec stove pulled across the ice and put in place... In total we spent 96 days in the bush, only once having to snowshoe out for supplies at Bear Island. We saw a grand total of 3 people the entire stay... Two RCMP officers on snowmobiles and a bush pilot who saw the smoke from the cabin and landed on the lake to investigate what we where up too...

Using bear canisters would definitely work, perhaps you could sling them into a tree like a bear bag to keep them from disappearing..

[Tipi Walter]

I'm planning on putting two BearVaults by a small rock overhang(on a steep hillside)and wrapping them in duct tape with a carabiner on each tied into a cable to secure somehow to the rock and/or blowdown log. Then again, I'd like to forego the whole cache and pull 21 days with everything on my back.

[DAJA]

Bear vaults generally advise against securing them to something as it gives an advantage to animals so that they can get leverage and may possibly open it.. You may want to look into that...

Man 21 days of food on your back at minimimum would be 40lbs of food... I know your prone to carrying heavy loads but wow, that would be a mega load..

[Tipi Walter]

A buddy and I once spent a winter at an old loging camp in Northern Ontario.. In the summer we paddled in through the lakes with an old Quebec Wood Stove and dry goods and stashed them as close as we could get them to the cabin we'd be staying in. Roughly 4kms from the Cabin. With the advantage of the canoe's we where able to put all our dry goods in 50 Gallon steel drums... Hiking you won't have that advantage. Once freeze up hit, we snowshoed for 3 days to reach the cabin pulling our gear on tobogans... Once we reached the camp we spent several days setting it up and got the Quebec stove pulled across the ice and put in place... In total we spent 96 days in the bush, only once having to snowshoe out for supplies at Bear Island. We saw a grand total of 3 people the entire stay... Two RCMP officers on snowmobiles and a bush pilot who saw the smoke from the cabin and landed on the lake to investigate what we where up too...

Using bear canisters would definitely work, perhaps you could sling them into a tree like a bear bag to keep them from disappearing..

That sounds like a pretty good adventure. Did you have a chainsaw for wood gathering or just a couple of bowsaws? Did you keep a journal of your trip? When I lived at my tipi I hauled a 140 pound Atlanta Stove Works woodstove up a one mile trail with an elevation gain of 800 feet. It kicked my sac! And I didn't carry it, I pushed end over end like a domino and when it finally got to the top and inside the lodge, it was well worth it. I sure miss my old woodstove in the winter when I'm backpacking, but I've found a suitable replacement: GOOSE DOWN and lots of it.

[Tipi Walter]

Bear vaults generally advise against securing them to something as it gives an advantage to animals so that they can get leverage and may possibly open it.. You may want to look into that...

Man 21 days of food on your back at minimimum would be 40lbs of food... I know your prone to carrying heavy loads but wow, that would be a mega load..

I might have to forego my usual 4 or 5 books. but I'll definitely keep my little radio.

[Pedaling Fool]

I'm interested in learning about other backpacker's trip lengths and how far they've been able to stretch out their food and fuel load for one trip. 15 days? 21 days?

I'm also interested in setting up a food cache to go even longer, like 30 or more days. Anyone use a couple of bear canisters as a hidden food cache? How do you keep it secure w/o rolling off a mountain side? Anyone have experience with food caches?

I've never really looked over my logs to see what my longest outing has been, but I know I reguarly do ~10 days between resupply. I just don't want to go to town every 3-5 days like most and I didn't mind the weight I had to carry to make that possible.

But, I don't get the cache movement, that seems to be getting more popular. That seems like it would require a lot of driving. Why would someone want to drive all the way up 30+ days of walking trail, stopping at various places find a hiding spot and then have to drive back.

Maybe it's just me, but I really hate driving in a car, probably because I've used a bicycle as my primary form of transportation for over 20 years. I hate driving so much that since my retirement, most of my trips to and back from D.C. have been on a bike. But I would not want to ride a bike(much less a car) to-and-back various cache points.

[garlic08]

...But, I don't get the cache movement, that seems to be getting more popular. That seems like it would require a lot of driving. Why would someone want to drive all the way up 30+ days of walking trail, stopping at various places find a hiding spot and then have to drive back.

Agreed. The only time I did it was a one-way car trip and the cache point was at a pass right on the drive. I walked home, carrying the cache bag with me. It worked well that time, but I sure wouldn't make a habit of it. I'm pretty sure it was illegal in the USNF, too.

[Snowleopard]

There are lightweight wood stoves:
http://www.titaniumgoat.com/stoves.html These are 2.5 to 3.5 lb. I've seen ( online ) cheaper light stoves designed for use in wall tents, but can't find them right now.

Cheaper stoves in the 20 to 60 lb range are at: http://www.walltentshop.com/CatStoves.html
Kifaru has cheaper light stoves: https://www.kifaru.net/stoves2009.html

I've seen antique folding wood stoves that were probably in the 15 lb range.

[DAJA]

That sounds like a pretty good adventure. Did you have a chainsaw for wood gathering or just a couple of bowsaws? Did you keep a journal of your trip? When I lived at my tipi I hauled a 140 pound Atlanta Stove Works woodstove up a one mile trail with an elevation gain of 800 feet. It kicked my sac! And I didn't carry it, I pushed end over end like a domino and when it finally got to the top and inside the lodge, it was well worth it. I sure miss my old woodstove in the winter when I'm backpacking, but I've found a suitable replacement: GOOSE DOWN and lots of it.

We took a couple of bow saws, hammers, and various other tools as our purpose was to build a cabin of our own on a small lake north of where we where staying... No power tools... The cabin we built was used by firefighters fighting forest fire nearby a about 6 years ago... That winter DNR went in and burnt it to the ground as it was on crown land...

Firewood was mainly procured from the logging camp as there where piles of 4 foot logs that had never been removed from the camp... Most where rotten and provided little use, but as you dug to the bottom of the piles you could scavage some very dry usable wood...

The most difficult part was keeping the water hole cut in the lake open...

I miss those days...

[DAJA]

Oh and no I never kept a journal... I always have good intentions of journaling, but then I never actually do it... We would always be so tuckered by the end of the day of building or exploring that I was usually flat out asleep shortly after dark..

[Gumbi]

You could bear bag your food a ways off the trail. A gps unit to mark the locations seems like a very good idea...

[The Weasel]

A few thoughts on food caching:

1) In many places it's illegal. If found, it likely will be taken. When you come to the cache and nothing's there, you have a problem.

2) It's a bad mistake to leave a bear vault on the ground. Bears are very likely to find it and move it away, even if that means uncovering rocks on it. Again, it will be gone and you have a problem.

3) If others find your cache, you may find that it's been consumed or removed. Again...

4) Absent extremely conspicuous landmarks, it's easy for caches to be overlooked. Again...

Good luck. Risky, though.

TW

[WalkingStick75]

I have used a 50 cal ammo can on a few occasions for re-supply. Use a 10-12' cable to a tree. The length of the cable helps so the bear can not get leverage. Everything inside is vacuum sealed and the can itself is air tight. I have never had anything get in and only once did "something" play with where I put it. Not sure if it was man or bear.

[Mags]

10.5 days/~200 miles or so (included a Mt. Whitney side trip) from Kennedy Meadows to VVR on the PCT/JMT.

Lots of snow and beautiful, rugged terrain that is still the highlight of my backpacking "career".

Runner up was 8 days in the Wind River Range area. The resupply was a stop at the "town" of South Pass City. More of a (very small) historic area that hold packages for CDT hikers. Still, after 8 days, it was a welcome little pit stop. I then went to Rawlins a few days up the trail for a real town stop.

I could go 30 days without a resupply by hiking one mile a day. Sometimes thinking in days vs. miles is not a good baseline unless I know what that translates into for a typical day. Is a person basecamping? Hiking all day? Something in between?

[Deadeye]

I have 3 bear vaults, primarily for use as caches. I have had them out for 3-4 weeks without being disturbed (the caches, that is, I'm always disturbed) I usually just walked a few hundred feet up trail from a road crossing, then a few hundred feet to either side, and placed the canister against a downed tree, rock, anything. It was very easy to remember where I left them, even after weeks. I even left one within sight of a shelter - no problems with humans or bears molesting the food.

Did this 3 years running, no problems.

I included my wife in the delivery process - we'd make a day of dropping caches. I think it's a great way to travel & hike, and not have to go into town if I didn't feel like it.

[Deadeye]

Using bear canisters would definitely work, perhaps you could sling them into a tree like a bear bag to keep them from disappearing..

Don't do that! If you put your bear can in a bag, the bear has a handle on it and may drag it a long way... lost forever. Bear canisters are designed to be too big for the average bear to get in his jaws. They'll bat it around and chew on it, but won't take it away. Just put it somewhere that it won't roll too far, but like I said, mine have never been touched. I think if you keep it near roads and away from campers, it won't be on any bear's normal route.

[The Solemates]

i think people resupply all too often on the AT, but I also doesnt think it matters....to each their own.

we've done up to 17 days without resuppling. on our AT thru we often did 10-12 days without resupplying.