longest time spent living out of a pack?

[Man of Tanith]

Curious as to how long folk have spent living out of their packs?
i've only managed a week at a time and this was either on a scout camp many years ago or on week long courses. just interested as to others experiences
put it here because i am hoping to hear some stories as to why you were doing so

 

[Imagedude]

Did 6 weeks living on the banks of Loch Arkaig in 1982. A friend and I had just finished our A levels. We caught a train up to Spean Bridge from Liverpool then walked the rest of the way. Our parents drove out to pick us up at the end of the holidays but we'd run out of food well before then. We quite literally ambushed the postman one morning and arranged for him to bring us some food on his next visit. As there was only one occupied house at the end of 18 miles of singletrack this was not a regular occurance. However he was a good ol' boy and returned 2 days later with our shopping, he even refused to take any money off us! Happy days.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Sounds like a great experience, very lucky he did a food run for you, even luckier he didn't want payment
1982? i was just learning to crawl

 

[tomongoose]

I did it for 6 months while in south america it was a 75 +25 and it got heavier by the day, its surprising that even after 6 months I didn't use everything I packed and never managed to work out a perfect packing system and always ended up having to squeeze everything in only to need something buried deep inside

 

[sandbender]

Curious as to how long folk have spent living out of their packs?..."

Years. However I changed the pack a couple of times.

 

[crosslandkelly]

I did two months back packing around the north island, and three months on the south island of New Zealand way back in "89". Have been living out of a pack occaisionally ever since.

 

[tiger stacker]

3 weeks or so, washing socks taught me the importance of staying dry + fresh.

 

[salad]

6 months backpacking around India, but if you mean living out of a pack with no where to buy food so all must be carried in to a location then 8 days is my max .

It is easy to back pack around a country where you pick up food and sleep in a mix between tents and hostels. But going somewhere remote with just a pack is a whole different ball game. The main reason is that food weighs a lot , so you either have to be very strong to carry lots of food or you need to ship food supplies into your intended location before hand or you need to have top notch hunting and foraging skills

 

[John Fenna]

I have often gone a month on exped (we were resupplied with food ) and I spent 9 months wandering around Britain but had a cache of seasonal clothing that I raided when needed.

 

[hobbes]

Yeah, if we're talking without resupply, a week. Anything longer doesn't appeal due to pack weight. The longest I've been hiking was four weeks (about 340 miles), resupplying in towns, but general equipment at the minimum. Backpacker-travel stylee (one bag, don't have to carry it far): four months.

I don't find it difficult living out of a bag, even one small and empty enough to carry all day. In fact I love it. Reducing material possessions seems to equally reduce material cares. I really like being able to get my head around my entire material world, because here it is, in this bag. And I'm still amazed every time I rock up at some lonely bit of bog or mountainside late in the evening, darkness pressing in all round, my world very small, and I open that bag and pull out a few things, tiny things really, and set them up, and slowly the camp expands and presses back against the darkness, and keeps it at bay for the night.

I can fret for weeks over what to put in the bag, but once I hit the trail all the complexity of stuff is gone. That's one reason why I hit the trail in the first place, and why I worry about people focussing so much on gear, as though it were an end itself, rather than a means to much higher things.

Anybody know what I mean?

 

[Broomstickize]

Longest without any resupply was 10 days trekking. Part of 10 weeks in the jungle so even the 'static' camp was resupplied by a carry in by the trusty Lowe Alpine... The day carrying the slab of beers and dozen bottles Tuak for a party was great (by the time we were drinkning it).

 

[Corfe]

Two and a half months in Mexico. Best time of my life.

 

[HillBill]

Almost 4 months, in french guiana .

Was homeless for a couple of years too.

 

[Bushwhacker]

10 months. No real hardship at all, you soon get a system in place.