When I go to a restaurant, I am usually satisfied with a 10-oz steak. I might go for the 16-oz one if my dad is buying. But I can’t imagine eating much more than one pound of beef. Not so with the 31 men on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as described by Stephen Ambrose in Undaunted Courage:
“Moving the keelboat and pirogues upriver required a tremendous effort from each man; consequently, they ate prodigiously. In comparison with beef, the venison and elk were lean, even at this season [September]. Each soldier consumed up to nine pounds of meat per day, along with whatever fruit the area afforded and some cornmeal, and still felt hungry” (165).
Ambrose addresses the matter a little later in the journey:
“Working as hard as they did in such extreme cold weather, the men ate prodigiously, six thousand calories or even more per day. A modern athlete seldom consumes more than five thousand, but the calories the men were getting in 1805 contained very little, if any, fat. Consequently, no matter how much they ate, the men were always hungry” (200).
I cannot relate.
One footnote I marked as a potential family vacation spot.
“It is today as Lewis saw it. The White Cliffs can be seen only from small boat or canoe. Put in at Fort Benton and take out three or four days later at Judith Landing. Missouri River Outfitters at Fort Benton, Montana, rents canoes or provides a guided tour by pontoon boat. Of all the historic and/or scenic sights we have visited in the world, this is number one. We have made the trip ten times” (228).
That sounds like a good family trip!