How much food can you pack?

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JWreno
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Re: How much food can you pack?

Post by JWreno »

My wife and I carried 12 days of food in two large Bearikade canisters. We did a
Cottonwood Pass to North Lake (+Whitney day hike) stretch. We actually did the
trip in 10 days and had a few extra days of food. We had no problem with hunger.
We removed all the packaging from bars and put them 6 bars to a zip lock bag.
This eliminated a lot of trash and gave us trash bags for tissue. The rest of the
canister space was taking up with home dried fruits and jerky, plus almonds,
cashews, peanuts and corn nuts. The small stuff form fits easily to the can and
make for a heavy canister. We also only pack about 1.25 pounds per day.
After several previous trips we figured 1.5 pounds lead to too much left over.
We dealt with the heavy bear cans by leaving home the stove, fuel, bowl and
spoons.
Jeff
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fishmonger
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Re: How much food can you pack?

Post by fishmonger »

I can pack 25+ days using my Expedition and the two Weekenders, but if I really need a lot, I can also add the BV500... not going to be pretty with 4 canisters strapped to the pack, but it'll be enough grub for a month or more in the middle of nowhere :D
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mokelumnekid
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Re: How much food can you pack?

Post by mokelumnekid »

Man, I am just too lazy to try and pay enough attention to go "lite." I have to hand it to you folks who have made a science of this. We always take more food than we need, and a lot more gear too. I just feel naked without it. I guess since I also go to places like the North Cascades, Wind River, Alaska, Andes, etc., where the weather etc. is much more of a factor and lay-over days are expected, we always just haul all our s-t with us including extra food. But having said that I should cut back for these Sierra trips. But since I no longer carry climbing gear, my pack weight has not been a deal-breaker yet, and we still crank up say, Taboose, in good form and pass most everyone on the trail (whatever the hell that means) and don't feel too wasted. And lordy, if I didn't take the Cuervo "mood adjustment" kit, the wife might not even go with me :partyman:
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BrianF
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Re: How much food can you pack?

Post by BrianF »

OK, back in the 70s when I was twenty something, I headed out for a month solo heading south on the PCT from Rainy pass in Washington. Since I didn't own a car and had hitch-hiked there from California I couldn't easily set up resupply caches so I just carried it all in my Jansport D-3 frame pack -75lbs without water (it was worse to hitchhike with than carry). I had what I hoped would be a month's worth of food plus 2 liters of fuel for my little Svea stove, a tent, cooking gear etc all on or in my pack since I was solo, but no bear canister. My diet was brown rice and lentils for dinner, nut mix for lunch and granola for breakfast augmented by berries along the trail. I ended up bailing in two weeks after developing tendonitis in my achilles tendon. Lesson learned...don't carry over half your body weight, unless you are Norman Clyde.
Nowadays I still carry what may be considered old school loads, but I can fit up to 9 or 10 days (solo) food in my Garcia canister
The direction you are moving in is what matters, not the place you happen to be -Colin Fletcher
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