The-Atlantic-thefemalesurvivalist

This 2009 movie is incredibly depressing. I imagine it's supposed to be. We get survival lessons all along the way, namely know who is your guide and that they can actually pull off what they promise.

The rich dude, Mr. Foster, is about useless, and I guess we're not supposed to like him. The women are the survivors, and we do carry a lot more body fat then men, a reason, plus we need fewer calories to maintain our energy. Just nature's way of keeping the species going.

The movie shows them drawing sticks, the short end got murdered, and eaten. I thought they ate the ones that died of starvation. Reports vary. I looked it up in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

Now, I'd never fault a person for eating another if they had already died. Shooting someone to eat them is a whole nother thing.

I went through Donner Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail. It would be a very difficult place if a person was snowed in. Seriously cold and rugged.

There were days hiking in the Northern Cascades when the weather turned bad. We hiked over the pass and into the valley with the admonition: Remember the Donner Party.

Do I recommend the movie, humm. Not unless its sunny and cheery. I'm depressed now.

All this talk about sleeping bags brings to mind a couple of stories.

Preparing to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, I bought a Junior, or youth synthetic bag, rated 20 degrees. It fit, a snug fit. I would get in it, bend my knees, zip it up and stretch out. Tight. It fit my newly divorced-budget at the time, and I determined not to let that stop me.

The first season, 825 miles from Sonora Pass to Crater Lake, the bag did wonderful. Wonderful enough to take this bag, weighing just two pounds out in the spring to finish up the Pacific Crest Trail. I would be out for 5 months, and it never occurred to me that it was fairly trashed, and had lost most of its loft already.
While hiking through the desert I didn't notice any issues. But once into the High Sierras, I was freezing every night. This was early June, there was still snow banks at 10,000 feet.
I was using my Packless system, so determined to buy something at the next trail town, Kennedy Meadows, and strap it to the pack.
Within a few days we arrived at Kennedy Meadows, and I bought an old army blanket from the owner of the store there. I cut it down with my razor (5 gram) knife, sewed it into a mummy bag liner and carried it along with the sleeping bag.
The moral of the story? One way or another you will get a good sleeping bag.
My hiking partner sent me my fleece liner so that I could ditch the heavy, over 2 pound army blanket. With this combination, I finished in Canada on September 17th.
You can read my trail journals which are linked on my home page at:
http://www.trailquest.net/BRindex.html

I have all my gear lists for the trails as well, too numerous to list here.

Happy shopping.

It is good to journey towards an end, but in the end it's all about the food.

The original saying is "It is good to journey towards an end, but in the end its all about the journey".

I think the food is more accurate. Hikers get so bored with their food they start doing drastic things.
Some thru hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail told me their last resupply in Stehican, for 89 miles (about 4-5 days) was 50 candy bars and one package of ramen noodles.

I've seen guys ditch the stove and go cold food. This meant hiking out of town with a 3 pound sausage, several pounds of cheese, some bagels, some dried fruit and nuts. Lots of snickers. Very heavy, very bulky.
Then there's the guy that bought 3 cans of chunk pineapple for an evening treat. He didn't care about the weight, it was so worth it.
I've carried out a can of black olives, a birthday treat for my hiking partner. Sodas, a few beers, pressed upon us by trail angels. Then carried the crushed cans to the next town to recycle.
I've cooked my granola, eaten ramen raw like pretzels, added wild onions to the rice. Never get instant rice, or pop tarts without frosting. Just not worth the weight. A trail mix of pretzels, box of raisins and 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips in a gallon zip lock bag wasn't too shabby. When the chocolate chips melted it was more like eating chunks. It worked.

Then there's the hiker-box, trail-mix find. An assortment of unlikely stuff and god knows how many bacteria, it can be eaten while hiking, and has enough distraction for miles of guessing games (was that a dried cranberry??) I've seen gorp bags containing goldfish crackers, captain crunch, dried strawberries, m&ms, dried peas, pretzels, raisins, coconut, Cheerios, jelly beans and even taco chips.
Just throw it all into one bag, it ends up in the same place anyways.

One of my strangest resupplies was the last one the Colorado Trail by Silverton. Assured that the camp store had supplies, we were determined to not go into town, just buy some food and head out.
All they had was snacks.
So, 5 grandma cookies equaled breakfast.
Cashews, candy, chips, jerky, for lunches. A previous hiker had abandoned a drop box, so tortillas and instant black beans from said box were offered by store keeper. That became supper. Memorable.

I've learned the hard way not to have all sweets, or all salty, or all spicy. I make sure to mix it up, especially if its going to be a week before getting to town again for a resupply.

There are hikers who carry a good assortment of spices along. My favorite is cinnamon for oatmeal, garlic for suppers. Salt is not even optional. Unless all your food is already salted, you're going to need and want it. A little salt goes a long ways in making a big difference.

No matter what food you decide to survive on for a week, don't forget the water. All this has to be washed down some way.