Thanks for your reply.

Some background:

When Ryan Jordan at backpackinglight.com and crew started talking about the "Arctic 1000 - as in meters" and the planning was beginning I looked at that idea for an AT hike. I had not thought about just a few re-supply stops but more as a longer time between resupply.

As a result of throat cancer I am on a different kind of diet than most. I have been on an almost 100% liquid diet for about 2 years. At home I use liquid Ensure Plus for my daily food needs. I do add just a bit of fiber in the form of black bean soup or cereal each day. For hiking I get the "Dry" version of Ensure and also use some dry mix Hammer Perpetuem in all the water I drink. The plus side of all this is that the Dry Ensure is packed in a can and has 1750 calories per can at 14.35 ounces in weight. The Hammer Perpetuem is 260 calories per 2.43 ounces. The combination of Dry Ensure and the Perpetuem give me a lot of calories per ounce and I can drink it.
For me to do an AT Thru-Hike or even a series of long section hikes I need to have a lot of mail drops for my food. This is when I started to think about longer periods between resupply. Going into a town to eat normal food is out so why do I want to spend much time in town, I don't. It isn't much fun sitting and watching a bunch of other hikers eating all the different kinds of food that I can't have.

Last November Ron Bell started a thread called "Unsupported/Unresupplied/Thru-Hikes" at backpackinglight.com

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/..._thread_id=4623

This was a very interesting thread and got really deep into the subject of calories necessary and other technical things.

My first real thought about a really long un-supplied AT hike was for maybe 3 to 5 resupplies. I have a fitness trainer and one day I asked him what he thought I would need to do for a long high daily milage hike like this. He asked just what I had in mind and I went with three resupplies.

I did divide the 2175 miles into three segments. The direction could be NOBO or SOBO or some combination.
1. Springer Mt, GA to Daleville, VA. 714.3 miles
2. Daleville, VA to Pawling, NY 716.8
3. Pawling, NY to Mt Katahdin, ME 743.9

My trainer asked when and I said mid to late summer when the days would be the longest and warm enough for a lighter pack weight for my gear. I would try and walk long days and try for an average of 25 to 28 miles plus per day.

A few days later he had a plan. I am on that plan at this time. It is not a fast fix but a slow build up over the next couple months. I plan to go up to Georgia in June and try a fast 6 day (un-supplied) 163 miles on the AT (Springer to Fontana Dam). This would give me an idea of what hiking really long hours for 6 days is like and where I am in my fitness program.

Even if I decide I am not up to a long un-resupplied hike I will still be in much better shape for how ever I decide to re-supply my hike.

PACK TIME:
I am about at the point where I need to firm up my Pack requirement. I will be Super Ultra Light on my gear list. My rough estimate for the volume necessary for just my food is between 2860 cu inches and 2960 cu inches and between 52 and 57 pounds at the start of 33 days.


I think because of the weight of my food per calories I can stay close to a 60 to 70 pound starting pack weight and that is with water. I would like to try for a hike length of 33 days and the milage would be what ever it turns out to be.