[pct-l] Extra oil that you carry

[Jennifer Zimmerman]

I agree with Marmot and prefer to carry nuts or other fat sources over
oil.  Like you, I planned to carry oil from some point on in our thru this
year but never ended up doing it.  Our lean homemade meals seemed much
heartier than the standard potato/ramen/noodle sides and I never felt the
need for the additional calories. I never got the classic insatiable hiker
hunger, but I'm a small person and exertion tends to dull my appetite. My
husband was a bottomless pit from about Tahoe on so maybe he could have
used the extra fat. Neither of us lost a drastic amount of weight along the
way which I guess means that we were eating enough.  We didn't take a
multivitamin but when we got into town we stuffed ourselves with as much
fresh fruit/veg as we could. If I were to thru again (oh, what I wouldn't
give to have that chance!) I would probably take calcium/vit. D chews, fish
oil for the omega acids and maybe glucosamine/chondroitin but still not a
multivitamin.

I never got tired of nuts as a snack - good fat, protein, and fiber and
always appetizing to eat. On the trail I always craved salt and a range of
textures.  After eating soft energy bars and boiled whatever every day the
crunch and satisfying chew-down of nuts was a real treat. Pringles, too,
but that's a different (less-healthy) story.

One other thing that might be of interest - when planning our meals I
increased our portion size by 50% starting at Kennedy Meadows, thinking
that we'd be craving the extra food by that point. From KM to Independence
our appetites were actually smaller than normal because of altitude
acclimation.  In fact, it took us until central Oregon to be able to finish
the larger meals easily in one sitting.  If I were to do it again I would
probably still increase our portions but to a lesser degree and not until
further north. However - we had a completely snow-free passage through the
Sierras this year.  If you're hiking through snow every day you'll
obviously burn more calories than we did.

Good luck with the planning!  I wish I were in your shoes right now, with
the whole journey stretching out ahead of me, instead of being stuck in a
cubicle in the frigid midwest!

JZ
On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Ann Marie <dbanmrkr at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> To PCT-L:
>
> If it's two people, how much oz (extra calories) of liquid oil should we
> carry per day/or per 7-day week?
>
> Yes, we are thru-hiking starting at Campo. So when should I add extra oil
> to our resupplies? Or should we just begin adding it when we buy (and ship
> forward) once we reach South Lake Tahoe?  Do you think we need the extra
> calories beforehand if we are focusing on buying high-calorie dinner and
> snacks up to that point?
>
> Deb
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