The Remaking of a Hiker's Body

An earlier post talked about getting hiking legs.  After 1,300 miles, the body evolves further.  It focuses development on what is absolutely required for the task and little else.  This means shrinking from the waist up and growing from the waist down.  As before, the challenge is to feed enough fuel to the body to enable it to perform as needed.  Recent daily distances hiked include many over 20 miles and up to 26.6 miles.  My estimate is that 4,000 to 5,000 calories are needed - far more than can be carried.  Visits to town  become very important as they offer an opportunity to eat high fat and high calorie foods not easily carried on the trail.  Pizza and Milkshakes, here I come!