mexicowalk,

I've read credible research that shows it takes less energy to walk with a 20-30 pound pack than it does to walk without a pack. The reason is that without a pack our legs are about 65% efficient. With a pack, our legs are about 85% efficient. It has to do with the mechanical advantage due to the repositioning of our center of gravity. The best place to carry weight is on top of the head like the Kenyan women do. However, I'm not likely to try that method. You should be able to put together a pack including food and water that weighs less than 25 pounds on most days. You will likely find a least one segment along the way where it will be 50 miles between water availability. I'd want to be capable of walking 50 miles in a day before starting on that trip.

I'd suggest reading some journals about the American Discovery trail on www.trailjournals.com. People seem to average fewer miles a day than I would expect. They even seem to average fewer miles than people on the Appalachian Trail. This seems to indicate that averaging 20 miles a day may be harder than it looks. I suspect it has to do with the location of towns being less than optimum for walking. I think stealth camping sounds like a great idea until a person starts to do it. Then, for some, it might not be so attractive.

I'm an early riser, and prefer to get in a good part of the walking before sunrise. I like to start at least an hour after the bars close at 2:00 so the crazies have had a chance to get home. A person should be capable of at least 90 minutes of exercise before breakfast if they did not go to sleep hungry. There is still enough food left in the small intestine to make this possible. You may as well use it before eating breakfast. If you eat before walking, it will stimulate the remaining nourishment in the small intestine to move to the large intestine where it is not available for nourishment. In other words, you can reduce the amount of food you carry if you use your food efficiently.

You haven't mentioned starting training walks yet. It can take many months for all the physiological changes to take place. Sure, many people do things like this without training, but I also read of many people who quit early into a hike like this because of injuries or they just find it too hard for them. Getting up to 10 miles a day can be done in a few months, but getting to 20 miles a day takes much longer. The cumulative effects of walking every day are more than it seems until a person does it.

Although I'm passionate about the Danner boots, I see people on treks with all types of footwear. My only concern about trail runners or other similar shoes is you will have to buy several pairs along the way. If your feet are in shape, you could make do with what's available.

Lori made a good point when she said that people who complete this type of trek don't outsource for information. A big character attribute for completing this trek will be self-reliance. There are many ways to solve the problems of completing the trek, and the sooner you get out and start practicing, the sooner you will learn your personal methods.