Someone suggested I pack as light as possible for the first 30 miles, and send a mail drop to Walasi-Yi. Basically a way to keep your pack as light as possible while getting started on your trek. This got me thinking. What if i also sent my stove and pot there? Just went without hot food for 3 days. Bad idea for a March 1st start? Or not unheard of?
C-Giddy
I started 3/1 last year. I’d say bad idea. I agree with the first part. Pack light for food to get you to Neels Gap and have a nice maildrop waiting for you, or resupply from their decent selection there (a tad pricey). I did not eat a lot the first 3 1/2 days and most didn’t either. That is why so much food gets dumped at mountain crossings. People think they will never return to civilization, but the reality is it’ll take you 4 days max. 5 for the very slowest. And most don’t have an appetite so you can expect to bring about 1-1.5 lbs a day. I got my appetite the 5th night out at Low Gap Shelter.
However I wouldn’t go without a stove. it is march and it is the mountains and you don’t wanna be stuck without even hot water in case of a very possible snow, freezing temps or freezing rain. Even to have a nice hot cup of tea or cocoa is great. And a hot meal at the end of the day is very satisfying. Stove also allows you to boil water and put it in your nalgene in your sleeping bag allowing you to stay warm and sleep during a freakish cold snap.
Basically there will be tons of time to figure out and experiment with what you can do without and what you want to do without but I don’t suggest starting your trip that way. Don’t take chances until you’re comfortable doing so
A-Train
There is no problem with carrying fresh food for 3 days, Just beware a lot of fresh food is heavy so the weight savings gets offset. Many hikers send home there stove and whan I hike again I will start without one. Bagels salami and cheese was my mainstay supplimented with snickers and oreo cookies. The hardest part is breaking society’s pressure to have a hot meal everyday. I became free when I stopped trying to make the woods like home and became at home in the woods. I really enjoyed the convienence of not having to cook, clean dishes, camp near water, or find fuel.
Peace as always
Dutch
Dutch
A-Train’s right on. Stoves are pretty handy and it can be really cold and nasty down here in March. Take it easy mileage wise in the beginning and you’ll be fine. Have fun!
Skittles
Dutch, its got nothing to do with societies pressure to have a hot meal. Its about being warm enough to get to sleep and ultimately, HIKE. If you were shivering after a cold wet day, fresh food would do you little good.
A-Train
Giddy, if any place on the AT is cold, wet and nasty its Georgia in March. Hot food is good for the mood…but you can pick light stuff. Some hot soups, okay Ramen (not food), a bagel or three. Some freeze dried dinners. Mighty light thirty miles.
BW
Its good to get something hot on those cold Ga. mornings or evenings. Keep the stove
Virginian
I think it’s a decent idea. I know I could certainly do it. But then again, my can stove weighs nothing. Actually, I don’t even need a stove at all. I’ve met plenty of people who don’t ever cook on the trail. They don’t seem to care. You could probably get by with a cooking cup, or something similar, to heat up a drink over a fire. But don’t count on having anything hot if that’s your plan.
A-train might have overstated the deficiency of “fresh food” above. While a hot cup of noodles will warm you for a while, the lack of nutrition will be apparent when you wake up shivering (with a cold bottle of water by your side). Fresh food can provide more sustained energy than a hot rehydrated bowl of carbs. It really depends what you’re eating. I don’t classify processed and packaged meat or cookies as fresh food (although I love the latter anyhow). I’ve packed sub-sandwiches, tuna, bread, and other fresh stuff out of town. I felt bad for everyone drooling over their noodles. John Muir used to go winter mountaineering with nothing but hard bread and tea in his pockets. You never heard him complain.
I say go for it, learn from the experience, and don’t end your decent idea in an internet talk forum.
Tha Wookie
C-Giddy. DO NOT leave Springer Mtn. without a way to boil water. These one-time “thru-hikers” say it’s cool but it’s plain f**kin stupid.
Wolf
I don’t know about stupid. Virginian you remember Okie? He didn’t carry a stove the entire trip. There were several thru-hikers in '02 with out stoves. I would carry a tuna can “cat stove” with about 4 oz of fuel to Neels Gap. On both my trips through GA I didn’t eat much and had to almost force feed Flame in '02. Go light!!! Your knees will thank you.
Papa Smurf
… Me, personally… I like hot food. I like the fact that when I hit low gap almost hypothermic in 2000 that I could count on a hot meal to warm me up. I also like my coffee hot morning noon and night. This is exactly why I really hate giving advice to people concerning hiking. You have to do with what makes you copmfortable. If you are a green hiker than take everything and by Damascus you will shed what you don’t use and buy what you never knew you would use. For me, respect to all others, I was a novice. I spent years hiking but nothing very serious. LDH is different. I am thankful I started at Springer with too much crap. I am thankful that thru trial and experience I personally learned what worked for me and what did not work for me. I hiked with some super hikers and I hiked with complete novices. In 2001, when I started at Springer, I knew what I needed to make me happy. I was slightly shocked to see a lot of novice hikers starting out with far less than they should of because of information they recieved. No one can tell you your comfort levels. Only Aswah knows what makes Aswah comfortable. And time will tell… so in my opinion, carry the stove. It really does not weigh a lot. For the small amount of weight you could just about save your life or someone else’s…
Peace and Love to ALL
Aswah the Ignorant
Aswah
didn’t you say the same thing about carrying a gun on another post? You should do your homework better about other people’s hiking experience next time:lol
Tha Wookie
I do section hikes these days with no stove. When I did my long (over 100 miles) section hikes in spring or fall I normally took a small stove like a nesbit and was glad of it. Maybe later on when long stretches are getting you down and you want to lose wait you can send it back. Virginia for example has enough re-supply places that you can get by without one in warmer weather.
Doc Holiday
It really isn’t a bad idea. I ditched my stove after the first weeks of my PCT thru-hike, I was too lazy to cook and now I didn’t have to worry about getting extra water for dinner anymore. I don’t know if it really made a lot of difference in my pack weight though, those ramen are pretty light.
And if you don’t like going without it, it’s only three days till you can pick it up again.
Apple Pie
A stove is a creature comfort…it also doubles as water purification if something happens to your current filtration (i.e. you lose it). A cup of hot tea or cocoa on the trail is so over-rated, too. Of course, I knew a couple of people who went without a stove, but they mainly ended up trying to cook over a campfire, or bumming off others. As far as a hot meal being a society pressure - - that’s just horseshit. I usually ate cereal or leftovers back in “society,” and I will guarantee you that the trail was the only time in my life that I consistently started and ended a day with a hot meal.
Anyway, I would think there are more things to get rid of, other than a stove, when you start out…but, learning what you need and don’t along the way can be a very funny adventure in itself.
nobody
I agree with Wolf on the stove thing. You won’t catch me w/out a stove. Use a white gas stove until the weather turns hot. Then maybe switch to a soda can stove(alcohol). Alcohol stoves are very inefficient and unreliable below 40 degrees.
If weight is a big concern get a msr simmerlite as they weigh in at only 8 oz and you can simmer w/ them. A stove can be literal life saver in situations involving hypothermia! I’m betting that Wolf is actually LoneWolf and if he is then he doesn’t really need to do much homework because he’s put in more trail miles than most of you combined. :boy
BooBoo
I got my trailname because I almost always cook something, three times a day. The folks who named me were surprised I was cooking lunch all the time.:smokin
Chef