handle no more than 25 pounds for any extended period.  On the first extended leg I carried 35 pounds in the backpack and 5 pounds of camera stuff in the chest bag and Jerry had 30 pounds in his backpack.  That supplied us for two nights camping and parts of three days walking.  I found I had to carry more on the next (longer) leg and Jerry was trying to carry less.  We carried dehydrated dinners, oatmeal for breakfast, and "trail mix" for lunch.  I added Gatorade powder to the pack to mix with water filtered along the way.  With a water filter I never carried more than 3 liters of water and Jerry carried only two.  We had the luxury of two cars, which we leapfrogged from trailhead to trailhead.  We never had to carry supplies for more than three nights and were able to do one 15.5-mile leg as a day trip with only light daypacks.  How then, I wonder, could I ever carry enough for seven or eight days?  How did early trekkers manage to stay out for months with heavy wool clothes, bulky bedrolls, and canvas tents? In the past I had carried 60 or 70 pound loads - but not for more than a day.  On one canoe trip I carried a 60-pound pack and a 78-pound canoe across a quarter mile portage so I have an idea what those massive loads feel like, I know I would not last a week under such conditions. Think of the literal tons of supplies used by Byrd - and it wasn't enough to keep him alive. Think of the 70 to 100-pound loads Sherpas carry to more than 25 thousand feet up the side of Mount Everest. To truly fathom those stupefying efforts one needs to try something that challenges his own abilities, and this hike did.  No, this wasn't a polar or Himalayan expedition - but - people have died on this trail by taking it too lightly, by overestimating their own abilities.