Crossing Oregon on one packful of food

By Mike Stahlberg | The Eugene Register-guard • Published September 20, 2008

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Hundreds of backpackers attempt to hike the length of Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail. Few, if any, have ever tried to do it the way Aaron Nicholson did last month.

The 23-year-old Eugene man set out to walk the entire 460-mile route along the spine of the Cascade Mountains while carrying all the food he would need on the month-long journey on his back.

That's a significant departure from the standard logistical plan for long-distance Pacific Crest Trail hikes. Most hikers resupply their food stores every week or so via packages mailed to themselves in care of resorts along the route, or during side trips to nearby towns.

Nicholson, a recent Oregon State graduate, said he decided to attempt the "one-pack" trip simply for the personal challenge it presented.

"I wanted to see if I could do it just because it's difficult to do," he said.

And the logistics were definitely daunting.

To have room in his pack for the 50 pounds of food he figured he'd need, Nicholson decided to forgo such niceties as a camp stove, cooking utensils, backpacker's tent and plenty of extra clothing. His non-edible provisions consisted mainly of a down sleeping bag, a thin foam pad, a plastic "tube tent," a plastic rain poncho, a water filter, a 3-liter hydration bag, two plastic water bottles, compass, maps, cell phone, emergency beacon and a couple of extra articles of clothing.

Though traveling light from an equipment standpoint, Nicholson said his Kelty pack still weighed close to 80 pounds when a friend dropped him off near the Oregon-California border on Aug. 9.

He was looking ahead to nearly four weeks of eating cold, dry food and a menu that varied little from one day to the next.

Nicholson's diet on the trip consisted entirely of foods with a high calorie-to-weight ratio — peanut butter, cashews, macadamia nuts, raisins, marshmallows, maple syrup, energy bars, flaxseed cookies, cheese curls and summer sausage. He also took a bottle of multi-vitamins.

"I didn't bring any 'hiking food' — I didn't do any freeze-dried or anything like that," said Nicholson, who stocked his portable pantry at the local equivalent of Top Foods.