Supplies and support on a long-distance walk

bash_bob

I've travelled long distances, but I've always had my backpack and used transport, and can get by that way fairly easily in general. I've been reading about long-distance walkers - people who walk across America in 87 days, for example. I'm assuming they can't carry a 15kg pack on their backs this whole way, or food and drink - do they usually have support? Put it this way, if I (or you) were to do it, what would one need to achieve a...

Originally asked by Mark Mayo on Stack Exchange (travel) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

From my experience it is practically infeasible to carry food supplies for more than half a week and water supplies for more than a day. Unless you have porters or mules. Freeze-dried food can furthermore reduce the weight you have to carry. There are a lot of people walking the Way of st. James which takes about one month. The best prepared have less than 5kg backpacks. Everything around 10kg or more is going to spoil your walk. All you carry is a small sleeping bag (100-300g in summer), one change of clothes, flip-flops, toothbrush, raincoat, snack for one day and water. Everything else you either do not need or buy on the way. You can find a lot of gear left somewhere on the way :)

Full answer by crenate: https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/7111 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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