my supply drops, good, bad ,what do u think

[joshua29]

start at springer with 9 days food.
mail drop in franklin 9 days food.
re-supply in town in fontana 5 days food.
mail drop standing bear hostel 9 days food.
re-supply in town mtn harbor hostel 5 days food.
mail drop in damascus 9 days food.
re-supply in town in atkins 5 days food.
mail drop in pearisburug 9 days food.
re-supply in gasow 8 days food.
re-supply in luray 5 days food.
mail drop in harpers ferry 9 days food.
re-supply in fayetteville 8 days food.
mail drop in port clinton 9 days food.
mail drop in fort montgomery 9 days food.
This is designed to keep me on the trail as often as possible, and to get me to mass by aug first . this is the biggest thing i have ever planned. i hope to reach my goal safe and sound, if i do than i will continue. i have made up alot of the wait of my food by leaving out all the non essential survival tools. i would love to hear any thoughts on this .

[Blissful]

I would never carry 9 days of food. You may want to make time but this isn't the way by carrying a bunch of extra weight and risking injury and /or disillusionment from too heavy a pack or not having the other gear oyu need to make an enjoyable experience.
I mean, shoot, you pass right through Walasi Yi center, why not resupply at Neel Gap???? Same with NOC which has a (albeit tiny) store right on the trail. ??
Atkins is a pain to buy food, you need a mail drop there at the Barn restaurant.
You're skipping Waynesboro? DUncannon? DWG? Unionville? All near the trail.
Port Clinton has no food, you have to get a bus to Hamburg or drop.
You'll hitch to Luray but not buy at the waysides trailside in SNP?

I'd rethink this whole plan personally. Makes little sense.

[Jedeye]

Yeah, you will make better time if you just take a few days of food. Resupply is pretty easy along the AT. The only reason I would do mail drop for every stop is if I had a very specific diet that required specialty items. Plus if you change your mind about what you want to eat on the trail you can change it on the fly... not with mail drops.

Either way, it sounds like your putting a lot of thought into it and thats good!

[max patch]

I don't have time to analyze your schedule, but you can certainly tweak it to make it easier on yourself.

You are going to hike right thru Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap, the NOC, and Hot Springs. No detours needed. Crazy not to have those as resupply points.

I'm going to repeat what I recommended to you yesterday; read Baltimore Jacks resupply article for some great advice.

I understand why you are planning to carry so much food at a time. But 9 days of food is a lot of weight, and I'll think you'll be happier in the long run if you can reduce it to 5-6 days.

[max patch]

I just read Blissful's post. I suggested you "tweak" your plan. She suggested you "rethink the whole plan." I think Blissful's suggestion is better than mine. Now read Jacks article and get back to us.

[TheChop]

9 days is at minimum 18 pounds. That's insane. I like carrying big and have humped 7 days worth during a Smokies trip but anything past 5 days is unnecessary. I mean Neel's Gap/Mountain Crossings is RIGHT on the trail.

Neel's -> NOC -> Fontana -> Standing Bear -> Hot Springs -> Damascus etc. should all be towns or hostels you walk damn near right through and keep you from ever going over 5 days of food.

[joshua29]

nine days food is 19 pounds and all together my pack ways forty one pounds and that is only the first day there are several other places that i plan on resuplying or treating myself to an ice cream.thank you for pointing out atkins , much appreceated. i have planned this hike on under one thousand dollars making resupply at convince stores not so convienent. i am trying to not rely on to many other people like hostels and hitching rides i have read his resupply article and it just seems to me like its recomended for people with unlimeted funds. which is not me.

[10-K]

nine days food is 19 pounds and all together my pack ways forty one pounds and that is only the first day there are several other places that i plan on resuplying or treating myself to an ice cream.thank you for pointing out atkins , much appreceated. i have planned this hike on under one thousand dollars making resupply at convince stores not so convienent. i am trying to not rely on to many other people like hostels and hitching rides i have read his resupply article and it just seems to me like its recomended for people with unlimeted funds. which is not me.

Go for it then. If it doesn't work you can back up and punt.

(For the record, I like Blissful's suggestion but that's just me)

[max patch]

nine days food is 19 pounds and all together my pack ways forty one pounds and that is only the first day

Well alrighty then, if I can carry 45 pounds with 6 days of food then you should have no problems carrying 41 pounds with 9 days of food. (But you'll be happier with less...)

Weathercarrot has an article somewhere on the site with tips on how to do a cheap under a thousand dollar hike. Might be worth a read.

[Iceaxe]

Nothing against maildrops but you realise that everytime you send a box it's 10 bucks postage that you could be spending on food. My last two thru hikes on other trails $10 turned out to buy enough food for a day on trail easy, even in expensive tourist towns in Colorado.
Also very few hikers carry 9 days of food. Even the most "town-shy" hiker I met on the PCT was there in town gobbling up fresh food and buying for the next section.
There is genrally a jar of peanut butter, crackers, and snickers bars at even the most remote outposts of the PCT and CDT.
It is natural to over-do the maildrops on the first thru hike i think. I had about 16 on the PCT. For the CDT the next year i had only 5 and they were for shoes, socks and maps. I used four small food drops sent to myself from the trail to break up the bigger sections.
From everything i have read and been told by my AT veteran buddies this trail has very good resupply options everywhere except the 100 mile wilderness.
Anyways, HYOH and all that. I just think if you have not already bought all this mail drop food you might be happier saving the money to do more "buy as you go" in towns.
By the way, on the other trails a great source of free resupply food was found in hiker boxes. Even the remote CDT had an occasional hiker box in a town. If you like oatmeal and noodles you'll love the hiker boxes. I have to believe the AT has hiker boxes too.
I would not suggest counting on them but it is certainly alright to use what you find to stretch your food budget.
Anyways, It's nice to think we can resist town food but after a few weeks on the trail I and many of my hiker friends could not.
I guess what i am trying to say is that you might find it easier and cheaper to have a more flexible plan, and those dollars in you account, rather than be locked in to massive pre-bought resupply parcels. YMMV.

[BrianLe]

Replies have focused so far on time between resupply, but this is something you can (and I expect you will) adjust along the way. What I note is that you have 7 resupply boxes, which sounds pretty reasonable to me. I had 5, and that worked great.

Key IMO is picking the right places for resupply boxes. I spaced mine out so I got new shoes in every box, along with prescription medication. Two of the boxes were sited to allow for gear swaps (Pearisburg VA and Glencliff NH). With that as the underlying basis, then I biased the other three boxes towards places that I (a) didn't have much in the way of good food selection nearby, and (b) were either close to the trail or otherwise places I reckoned I would be going in to --- so Harper's Ferry was one of my five, for instance.

Worked great for me, but of course your priorities might be different.

[RevLee]

Leaving town with 20 extra pounds of food will not be comfortable. The towns are at lower elevations, so you always have your biggest climbs with the heaviest weight.

[fiddlehead]

Way too heavy.
The only time i have carried 9 days food was my first hike of the JMT.
That is a 220 mile trail with only 2 supply points.
The last time, i did it with 4 days food to start.

Do your body a big favor and send a box to Neels Gap (mt crossings)

[Thrasher]

If you think it will work, go for it.
9 days is a lot of food as others have said. Eventually I tried to only carry 2-3 days of food because it was so easy to resupply in town and get back on the trail.

Make sure you find a good location to send your packages.

Send a package to mtn. crossings at neels gap.
Franklin has an ingles grocery store, just an option. I liked eating at the fish fry there too.
Fontana may have some food. I'd do a mail drop there.
Atkins had some gas stations, if you don't mind hitching a ride, you can get to the store. I guess you could walk too.

[Front Royal Mike]

The town of Luray is about 8 miles from the trail(all downhill !). You could eat at the waysides in SNP and resupply in Front Royal,the Food Lion or Martins grocery stores are about 3 miles from the trail with a gradual grade

[moldy]

Josh, Listen to all these people. The more weight you carry, the more pooped you are at the end of the day, the more pooped you are, the more rest days you will need. my advice, start out any way you want. but make a more flexable plan B.
1. Get someone to mail these boxes to you.
2. Give them all the address for all the places on the trail it's possible to mail to.
3. Don't tape up any boxes now.
4. Have some extra boxes.
5. You call them up from the trail and arrange the next drop.
good luck and don't overfill the hiker box at Neels Gap

[Turtle Feet]

I couldn't even fit 9 days worth of food in my pack.

I'm sending medium flat rate drop boxes (that hold a 4 day resupply at most) and I believe the rate is around $10.85 or something. You couldn't even fit 9 days worth in a large flatrate (which is around $14). That's an extra $14 you could be spending on food wherever it is you buy it.

I'm using a few drops because I need meds mailed to me - but they're definitely not a money saver IMHO...

tf

[ARambler]

This post is why everyone recommends minimizing mail drops. Even the original poster will have a better plan by the time he starts, but it is easy to have a bias and several mistakes in your plan.

If you are on the budget, it will be hard to mail extra food home (or just leave it behind).

If, like me, you need to do a maildrop schedule at least buy a calculator, if you cannot do 3rd grade math. How can anyone carry 9 days food from Harper Ferry to Fayetteville? 9 days Franklin to Fontanna???

[stranger]

9 days of food leaving Springer Mountain? Why would you do this?

If you think by carrying huge maildrops you will stay in the bush longer, you are probably mistaken unless you have done this before. If you 'think' this is a strategy, you are probably wrong. All that will end up happening is that you will collect your maildrop, put half of it in the hiker box, buy food you actually want to eat, and end up going into town anyway.

From Springer to NY, I can only think of a handful of places where you might need a maildrop:
1. Fontana Dam, NC - grocery store is too inconsistent for a major resupply before going into the Smokies
2. Atkins, VA - send food to the Relax Inn right off the trail
3. Glasgow or Big Island - maybe, depends on the year
4. Port Clinton, PA - nothing there years ago
5. Delaware Water Gap, PA - unless you go to Hamburg

That's is really all you need to do in order to get to NY, and you don't have to package ANY of them beforehand. When you get to Hiawassee or Franklin, pack up a box and send to Fontana Dam, when you get to Damascus, pack up a box to send to Atkins, etc...

Also, maildrops DO NOT save you money, if anything...they will cost you money. Buying as you go is the most accurate and economical way to resupply (along the AT).

I've hiked the AT from Springer to southwest Virginia twice, and done 500+ mile sections in the mid-atlantic as well. I've never carried more than 4 days of food, ever. There is nothing wrong with going into town, eating, resuppling and getting back on the trail, a skilled, disciplined hiker can get in and out of town in 90 mins, sometimes less.

Good luck.

[myotheralt]

How about Sobo? How much should I have when I arrive in Baxter Park? I mean from the day I get there, day 0, set up camp, then climb the mountain on day 1, then day 2 leaving south. How much food should I have on day 0 to make it to a resupply?