To Mail Drop or not to Mail Drop?

[freemarie]

We are doing mostly mail drops on our thru for the amount of variety it offers. If you have access to a dehydrator the possibilities are endless. If you don't have a dehydrator, there are great hiking recipes out there that can be very easy to make/prepare to package to send. www.trailcooking.com has great recipes that you can have ready to throw on a camp stove (once prepped at home-and by prep it can mean throwing ingredients into a ziploc) This can provide a lot of nutrition and variety. Buying in bulk may cover the cost of shopping.

[freemarie]

shipping****

[samwise]

I thru-hiked vegan in 2009 and bought most of my food along the way. I had a handful of boxes in the south and a few more in new england. In my boxes i mostly packed some good packaged dinner-type things like indian meals, and "supplement" type foods. Not all actual vitamin supplements but things i liked such as raw food bars, nutritional yeast, emergen'c packets, gorp, and sometimes my mom baked me vegan cookies...

I had two friends who bought lots of dehydrated or freezedried veggies beforehand and then packaged and mailed it all to themselves. One of them literally bought #10 cans of veggies on amazon.com.

Personally, while I was planning for my hike I decided that I liked the idea of living on mostly what I could find along the way rather than relying on the post office. In hindsight I was happy with that decision, but was also happy to have boxes cause I knew I would like what was in them and didn't have to worry if the grocery store-brand semi-sweet chocolate chips were vegan or not...

[jersey joe]

If you have someone at home who can send food boxes, it makes a lot more sense to go this route. Buying in bulk can pretty much offset shipping costs.

[takethisbread]

are Snickers vegan? just eat those,

[Jack Tarlin]

Like a lot of similar candy cars, Snickers contain things like milk, milkfat, eggs, and other stuff. Sorry, they're not remotely vegan.

[AmyJanette]

I'd like to do maildrops, but I'm not so sure about mailing food across the border...Anyone had any experience with this? I know that if the products are originally from the USA and it is obvious (still in original packaging with USA on it, etc), they are usually let back across, but what about bulk dehydrated foods?

[Luddite]

are Snickers vegan? just eat those,

are Snickers vegan? just eat those,

Snickers have dairy ingredients for sure and I think they have egg whites too, so they are definitely not vegan.

[Suttree]

I'd like to do maildrops, but I'm not so sure about mailing food across the border...Anyone had any experience with this? I know that if the products are originally from the USA and it is obvious (still in original packaging with USA on it, etc), they are usually let back across, but what about bulk dehydrated foods?

I very much discourage maildrops if you are mailing across the border. It is impossible to predict how long it will take for your package to arrive and the probability of a lost package increases significantly. I've been held up in trail towns waiting for gear to arrive, and have had packages held for weeks at the border mailing gear home. It is very easy to resupply as you go on the AT; if you have a special diet, it is no trouble to prepare maildrops in the larger trail towns

Enjoy your hike and minimize the frustration involved in complicated logistics.

It is

[Jack Tarlin]

Suttree made sense. The other good reasons to put your drops together once you're here and while en route is you'll have a much better idea of your daily needs, how much you'll need, and what you'll actually want to eat. There'll be much less overpacking and waste. Also, you may well get food ideas from observing what other hikers are eating. And if you put drops together at major trail towns/supermarkets and then send a few of them ahead of you, the short-distance postage costs may well be cheaper than mailing everything from home, too.

[Ron Haven]

Jack Tarlin had a great resupply and mail drop list. If you are sending mail drops, keep in mind post offices are closed half day Saturday and all day Sunday and holidays. Motels, hostels, and most outfitters are open 7 days a week. My addresses are listed for Hiawassee Budget Inn and our motels in Franklin. You can send mail drops to my places free of charge. You can get your drops from 7am to 11pm 7 days a week.

[AUhiker90]

ate alot of honey buns, snickers,pop tarts on the AT. My next hike i will try to do maildrops of good healthy foods now that i know whats the good stuff and everyone is jealous of the hiker that has the legit dehydrated stuff their support team is sending them.

[the_iceman]

Once you clear Standing Bear there is no need to mail drop until Glencliff to get your cold weather gear back.

[mweinstone]

the finest maildrops on earth are the prestigius line of sofisticated maildrops by matthewski. MATDROPS come in beef,hippie and vegan and offer the most discriminating snacker delecacys from the inner city.

THE FUDGE PACKER simply fudge and beef jerkey from the finest sources
THE GREEN HORNET spirulina,green magma, wheat grass,bee pollon and ginsing
THE SILVER BULLET licorice, peppermint,ginger snaps,mini doughnuts and chocolate
for the complete list of over 1000 matdrops send a dollar to matdrops.mat

[Maple_Sky]

Peanut butter and Nutella bagels sound delicious.

Am I the only one looking forward to the thru hike diet because I can eat all the things that I love that I deny myself normally?

I definitely am with you on that one! I watch what I eat pretty carefully, so I really relish my Spamcaroni and cheese on backpacking trips! There is no way I could eat on a regular basis all the fat and carbs I allow myself while backpacking!