Brother, Can You Spare A Lung?

I spent a good portion of Saturday evening putting together meals for the upcoming hike in the Smokies. Six days worth in all. Based on various hiking sites, I had assumed 1.5 - 2.0 pounds of food per day. Two pounds doesn't sound like alot until you begin weighing the ingredients - especially if most of what you plan to cook is dehydrated. Using a digital postage scale that I had around for eBay purposes, I put together the following menu: Breakfast Instant Breakfast, with powdered milk added Instant oatmeal, with powdered milk added Multivitamin Aspirin Lunch Powerbar Dinner Chicken noodle cup-a-soup (2 serving size), w/dehydrated vegetables added 20 oz Gatorade I'm barely scratching the 1 pound per day mark with this, so I might carry a bag of trail mix, beef jerky or both to supplement. With all of the gear, electronics, food and 2.3 litres (80 oz) of water, I'm coming in at 38 pounds pack weight. High, to be sure, but my body weight is the bigger issue at this point. Combined pack and body weight is coming in at 380 pounds! My knees will never forgive me if I don't drop more weight before February. At any rate, I decided to take a "hike" around the neighborhood to see how things felt: Distance: 2.69 miles Elevation Gain: 372 feet Elevation Loss: 374 feet Average Heart Rate: 131 BPM Max Heart Rate: 157 BPM Recovery Heart Rate (5 mins): 103 BPM My lower back was a bit sore during the walk and the abductor muscles in my hips talked to me pretty much throughout. Had to stop on most of the climbs at least a couple of times to catch a breath. It will be interesting to see how this changes after the hike next week.