POW #9: Moving twinkies

A camel is sitting next to a pile of 3000 twinkies. He needs to take as many twinkies as possible across a desert that is 1000 miles wide. He can only carry 1000 twinkies at a time, and to stay alive during the trip he must eat one twinkie for every mile he walks in the desert. How many twinkies is the camel able to get to the other side of the desert?

Return solutions ON PAPER to Laura Taalman, Burruss 127, by 11/23/04.
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