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What's the furthest trail/route distance you typically plan for on a thru hike on one food resupply?
The furthest I went was 237 miles on seven days food on the CDT. Typically I plan on resupplying no more distance than 180 miles.
colorado_rob
12-11-2019, 12:53
My answer, mileage wise is way less than that, pure guess, but I'll say 140-150 miles, basically 8 days, longest I can remember on a 2 or 3 letter trail.
But TIME wise, I've carried 21 days of food (and fuel) before, wound up only needing 19. I guess I overpacked?
Slo-go'en
12-11-2019, 12:56
I try not to carry more then 5 days of food. For me, that's about 70-75 miles on the AT.
Outside the AT where resupply towns are much farther apart, there would be no choice but to increase mileage or carry more food.
fastfoxengineering
12-11-2019, 16:11
What's the furthest trail/route distance you typically plan for on a thru hike on one food resupply?
The furthest I went was 237 miles on seven days food on the CDT. Typically I plan on resupplying no more distance than 180 miles.173 miles. Cohos Trail. No resupply. Nobo 2016. 11 days of food!
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Cookerhiker
12-11-2019, 21:03
Longest for me was 110 miles on the John Muir Trail. Usually aim for 50-60 mile intervals.
fiddlehead
12-11-2019, 21:13
Carried 12 days food once.
Haven't eaten Ramen, or instant oatmeal since.
I like to do 3-5 days (average mileage is around 20-25)
But in the past few years, have done 6 or 7 days a few times.
In the desert, I once was 10 days going just out of the pack, but have to admit that I got invited by some locals inbetween (so at the end I had some surplus food)
In the mountains back home, my longest stretch was 9 days without entering a house or eating anything other than I've carried. Had a beer two times though, one I've found in the middle of nowhere, and another I bought in a hut.
Going longer than 10 days might cause me some puzzle how to pack, I think.
garlic08
12-12-2019, 10:56
Truly unsupported would be the 180 mlles (seven days) on a CDT section across the Weminuche and South San Juans. I had just enough food to avoid hitching into Pagosa from Wolf Creek Pass on the July 4th weekend.
I hiked 240 miles (nine days) on the CDT between Rawlins and Grand Lake, but there's an asterisk on that record. I got lucky at Rabbit Ears and yogied a decent meal and scant resupply from an RVer, to keep me from going into Steamboat. I also got a snack from a day hiker (chance encounter with an acquaintance) earlier that day at Buffalo Pass.
devoidapop
12-12-2019, 10:57
What's the furthest trail/route distance you typically plan for on a thru hike on one food resupply?
The furthest I went was 237 miles on seven days food on the CDT. Typically I plan on resupplying no more distance than 180 miles.
I imagine those 237 miles were difficult physically, mentally, and logistically.
Did you have to strictly ration food per day to keep the weight and volume manageable?
Were the miles at the beginning, with a heavy pack or at the end, when you were tired and hungry harder to make?
Most importantly, would you do it again?
First section we did on the AT, 10 days of food and only made it ~70 miles.
Now a days, the longest I plan is 7 days without resupply. I have one such trip currently planned(loosely) that is 223 miles.
Will do a 9 day carry this summer but that will only be 9 days of breakfast and dinners + electrolytes. I can't buy any of that on trail. 166.4 mile trip total.
I may consider mailing a box to the one place we plan on stopping but I hadn't really considered it until now.
FreeGoldRush
12-12-2019, 12:33
Started off hiking with 4 to 5 days of food and roughly 80 to 100 miles planned per resupply. By the end of my thru I was getting much better at carrying less food and doing more frequent resupplies. Food is heavy. Other hikers had varying ideas on resupply frequency. Budget often drives the decision since town stops consume money. I was getting a thrill out of the bigger and bigger daily miles my body could do on a thru. Traveling light facilitated this. Most people would at least give the appearance of not caring about their daily mileage. It all comes down to the experience you want. Being disconnected from The Matrix 5 days at a stretch is also a neat experience well worth having, regardless of mileage. The 100 Mile Wilderness was particularly memorable.
I imagine those 237 miles were difficult physically, mentally, and logistically.
Yes but that's relative as I was well into the thru and in very good thru hiking condition. At the time I was averaging about 3700 miles/yr for 7 or 8 yrs. Now, I'm doing a fraction of that yearly and not in the best shape of my hiking 'career.'
Did you have to strictly ration food per day to keep the weight and volume manageable?
Yes. Advanced or evolved LD ULers as I am recognize consumable wt as a category of TPW(Total Pack Wt) so low gear wt(Big 4 wt at sub 5lbs on that resupply, nearly SUL) still kept me balanced out and within the good graces of UL philosophy. As far as daily food yes that is known and adhered to. Getting a hold on my eating consumption has been a significant factor in reducing daily trail food required. That's why I also harp on getting a hold on nutrition as it plays significantly into UL and so much more. This was a mailed resupply too. I also never carried more than 1.5 L of drinking H20 which lowered consumable water wt.
One way I daily food ration is by aiming not to unwisely expend energy or calories. I vary pace according to conditions. I don't go out gung ho balls to the wall all the time.
Other factors are drinking plenty of water, high fiber whole food that long term keeps me satiated, eliminating or limiting food additives/food that interfere with satiation, and night hiking under warmer weather when I eat and drink less.
Were the miles at the beginning, with a heavy pack or at the end, when you were tired and hungry harder to make?
No. As said the TPW was still UL. This is why I so often harp on more folks even so called advanced ULers paying more attention to reducing consumable wt which is often significant to UL which ULers should factor into TPW NOT JUST GEAR wt and bulk!
Most importantly, would you do it again?
Sure but prefer to haul no more than 7 days when thru hiking at 20+ MPD avgs. I will go out and do much fewer overall miles and MPD avgs and carry many days, up to 3 wks of food, like Tipi does although this is not how I typically approach LD hikes.
Started off hiking with 4 to 5 days of food and roughly 80 to 100 miles planned per resupply. By the end of my thru I was getting much better at carrying less food and doing more frequent resupplies. Food is heavy. Other hikers had varying ideas on resupply frequency. Budget often drives the decision since town stops consume money. I was getting a thrill out of the bigger and bigger daily miles my body could do on a thru. Traveling light facilitated this. Most people would at least give the appearance of not caring about their daily mileage. It all comes down to the experience you want. Being disconnected from The Matrix 5 days at a stretch is also a neat experience well worth having, regardless of mileage. The 100 Mile Wilderness was particularly memorable.
All this....
Being able to go further with less resupply on one resupply factors into why some like Skurka can do his hikes. JPD I think did a LT record by not resupplying or only doing one resupply. I think Flyin Brian, Trauma, and Swami factor this ability into their hike organization. I know "German Tourist" Christine did it on some of her hikes.
fastfoxengineering
12-12-2019, 19:53
Being able to go further with less resupply on one resupply factors into why some like Skurka can do his hikes. JPD I think did a LT record by not resupplying or only doing one resupply. I think Flyin Brian, Trauma, and Swami factor this ability into their hike organization. I know "German Tourist" Christine did it on some of her hikes.I talked to Swami because I was very interested in how he managed resupply on his 12 long walks.
He told me he was very fortunate to have friends in california (if i remember correctly) mail him a large majority of boxes.
He was able to plan his mail drops from the trail. Friends back home would organize a box and ship it out on the fly.
Someone on Whiteblaze was probably a part of that. Didn't Malto hike alot with Swami?
Anyways. Having this support would greatly help ones ability to stay on trail. I love the idea of mail drops. I hate that I have noone to help me with it.
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160 miles Rockfish Gap to Harpers Ferry (but I knew the SNP Waysides and stores were there if I needed to supplement any, which was good since I did this section with one hiking pole and the other arm is a sling).
Usually 5-7 days which is 50-120 miles depending on where (NC-PA a lot different than NH-ME). Convenience of hostel/cheap motel drives more where and thus how far/long.
I just finalized my CDT plan and I try to keep resupplies under 150, 5 days. Seems pretty doable other than the sections that Garlic highlighted which will require choices. the most food I carried was KM to VVR over 8.5 very snowy days. my little Burn was howling during the load up those first couple of days.
I plan on 3-5 days depending on my milage and resupply points. I go by where the resupply is... Most I have gone is 7 days, but I don't like that...
I talked to Swami because I was very interested in how he managed resupply on his 12 long walks.
He told me he was very fortunate to have friends in california (if i remember correctly) mail him a large majority of boxes.
He was able to plan his mail drops from the trail. Friends back home would organize a box and ship it out on the fly.
Someone on Whiteblaze was probably a part of that. Didn't Malto hike alot with Swami?
Anyways. Having this support would greatly help ones ability to stay on trail. I love the idea of mail drops. I hate that I have noone to help me with it.
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Swami did some pretty long carries on the 12 long hikes, a mix of town resupplies and mailed packages as you indicated. I know that he had someone carry a good supply of Little Debbies and Spam on a certain section of his AT hike. (Little Debbies true, Spam is slightly embellished.)
I talked to Swami because I was very interested in how he managed resupply on his 12 long walks.
He told me he was very fortunate to have friends in california (if i remember correctly) mail him a large majority of boxes.
He was able to plan his mail drops from the trail. Friends back home would organize a box and ship it out on the fly.
Someone on Whiteblaze was probably a part of that. Didn't Malto hike alot with Swami?
Anyways. Having this support would greatly help ones ability to stay on trail. I love the idea of mail drops. I hate that I have noone to help me with it.
Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk
not an endorsement (never used them) but these guys do hiker resupply
https://www.trailsupplyco.com/
Tipi Walter
12-19-2019, 17:32
This subject is most interesting to me since I do long trips with one food load and no resupply. My longest trips have been 24 days with about a 50-60 lb food load including stove fuel.
Mileage is hard to figure but on one trip into Pisgah NF in the Wilson Creek area I did this route---my route marked in red---with several trails done in repetition to link up other trails etc. I started the trip at the big red blob. Worked my way north to Timber Ridge and Gragg Prong and Lost Cove Creek and then southeast to the Pine Ridge area and went south over Hiway 181 to Steels Creek---and eventually back to my entrance point.
Alot of options for an uninterrupted trip---like continuing away from Steels Creek on the MST into Linville Gorge. Why more backpackers don't do these kind of trips amazes me---as generally they have huge blocks of time to devote to a trip. Initial back weight with 24 days worth of food probably/most certainly/of course deters them.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpack-2016-Trips-171/24-Days-in-the-Pisgah-Holyland/i-qWr4XR4/0/6818142c/X2/Pisgah%20Trip%20-%20Copy-X2.jpg
imscotty
12-19-2019, 18:08
I won't answer in miles because they were pretty meager, but I went from Muir Trail Ranch to Whitney portal over 10 days on my last resupply. I was in no rush, enjoying the scenery.
Truthfully, I could only fit 8 days worth of food in my bear canister, so the last two days of the hike I went hungry. This turned out to be a benefit because I never needed to use my 'Wag Bag' while I was in the Whitney zone. :)
If I had the chance I would do it exactly the same again.
I can fit 7 days of food in my 12" Bearikade plus one day outside of it for the first day, so 8 days is the longest I've ever gone. If I recall correctly, this was from Horseshoe Meadows to MTR back in 2015.
My preference is 5 days or less, but have done as many as 9.