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Hit 500 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail and realized I was packing way too much food
I keep a little log of my miles and last weekend I crossed 500 total on the Superior Hiking Trail up in Minnesota. The weird thing is the number that surprised me was not the 500, it was that I had been carrying about 2 extra pounds of food on every single trip without knowing it. I started weighing my food bag before each trip and tracking what I actually ate, and on a 3 day stretch from Finland to Silver Bay I came home with almost a full day of snacks left over. Turns out I was packing for hunger that never showed up, just fear of being hungry. Dropping that weight made the climbs out of the Baptism River valley feel way easier and my knees thanked me. Now I plan about 1.5 pounds of food per day instead of 2 and I have not run out yet. Curious if anyone else has a magic number for food weight per day, or do you just pack what feels right and eat the extra at the car?
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lane.angela28d ago
Man, two pounds over 500 miles is a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. I get the knee relief part on those Baptism climbs, but packing a little extra food is cheap insurance when a trip runs long or the weather turns and you're stuck an extra night. Your 1.5 pounds a day works until the day it doesn't, and then you're the guy begging trail mix off strangers at a campsite.
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