how to plan but not plan?

[Tin Man]

Go here for suggestions on what you will need for maildrops.... and hit next a couple of times

http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=398148

[neighbor dave]

that's enough aqua mira to complete the triple crown! probably enough of everything else to do the same

[fiddlehead]

YOur question is a wise one because people do fall behind or get ahead of schedule and usually for good reason.
I usually advise to plan your trip and the burn the schedule when it's time to start.
You will have more fun that way.

And like many have said, you don't eat good on a vegan diet buying along the way (especially in the south)
You are doing it right. Just have your husband mail out about 3 at a time and then call him when to mail the next batch.

Have a great hike. I hiked with vegans on the PCT and they did it both ways but CA is a lot different from GA,TN, NC etc.

[Knees]

I'm a vegetarian, and I had no trouble resupplying along the way. With that said, many vegans like to do the mail drop thing, at least for the "short term resupply" areas (gas stations and small country stores).

I'd plan on priority mail going out ~2 weeks in advance. This way, you're assured of things being where they need to on time. On the PCT in OR and WA, most hikers would mail out a batch to take care of the entire state at once. You can do something similar.

Don't buy the entire trips food at once. Tastes change along with how much food you want to eat.

An average of about 10-11mi/day for the first month (about Amicalola to Erwin, TN) is reasonable. With that in mind, I'd plan the drops for the small resupplies and buy from the grocery stores. After a month on the trail, you'll have your system down and can fine tune things and go from there.

I'd send a small drop to Neels to get me to Hiawassee (good store)
I'd buy from Hiawassee to get to Franklin (good store)
I'd buy in Franklin either to get to Fontana or to NOC (send small resupply to NOC then to get to Fontana)
Drop to Fontana to get to Gatlinburg (good store in Gatlinburg)
Buy in Gatlinburg either to get to Standing Bear or a little bit extra to get to Hot Springs (send small resupply if only to Standing Bear).
Buy in Hot Springs to get to Erwin or maybe drop. This one is a toss up, but you should be able to do a resupply out of Erwin as a vegan between the store, the outfitter, and the dollar store.

A lot of this really depends on your diet and exactly what you like to eat as a vegan. You don't have to resign yourself to always doing mail drops. While you may not find the same foods you'd find in a co-op, there are plenty of vegan options in the grocery stores along the way.

Good luck!

[fiddlehead]

best thing for me is always to make a tentative plan, then burn it when i start.

I never send more than 3 packages (3 weeks?) ahead.
That way i'm flexible. I like it like that.

[JAK]

from what i understand, itineraries fall the way of best laid plans...so my question is, how do you plan mail drops (or resupplies) if you can't really plan when you will be arriving at a certain location? do you just include a ton of stuff that you bounce to yourself up the trail?

i don't see a lot of posting about this, so either i missed the thread, most folks are winging it, or are way more organized than myself.

I would suggest a better term for those wanting or needing alot of flexibility might be 'to prepare', rather than 'to plan'. Anything involving mail drops, reservations, and prepaid tickets would require a plan. Anything without those things would require preparation, but not neccessarily a plan. That said, you could have a plan with windows for arrival dates, and contingency plans for what you would happen when you miss certain windows. So there is a grey area between rigid plans, flexible plans, and fuzzy preparations.