To Mail Drop or not to Mail Drop?

[ecohen]

It seems very possible to thru-hike without a single mail drop, however, I feel irresponsible and like a poor planner if I go that route. Also, I am a vegetarian and I'm concerned if I will find enough dried veggies along the way. What do you guys recommend?

[Lone Wolf]

It seems very possible to thru-hike without a single mail drop, however, I feel irresponsible and like a poor planner if I go that route. Also, I am a vegetarian and I'm concerned if I will find enough dried veggies along the way. What do you guys recommend?

i never did mail drops for food. but i ain't a vegetarian either

[Snoring Sarge]

Considering the postage cost of shipping food could that money cover the additional cost of buying food on the "trail"?

[garlic08]

I am a vegetarian and did not make any food drops on the AT.

I also did not cook, and carried as much raw veg as I could, along with raw and dried fruit and grain products that did not need cooking--rolled oats, breads, crackers, cookies, ramen. Cheese, nuts, and peanut butter provided the fat. Instant potatoes were a good easy meal, too.

[Luddite]

There are a couple of places where mail drops will help, Fontana Dam for instance. Do you need dried veggies? I'm a vegetarian myself and occasionally bring freeze dried veggies with me, but I usually just buy fresh veggies and eat them the first night out. A bounce box is another option. You could buy freeze dried food in advance and just keep mailing ahead to the next town.

Check out this site...http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Bac...es_p_1866.html

[Sly]

If you're able to buy in bulk you should be able to cover the costs in postage by your savings.

Of course, it's best to use places that are open 24/7 like hostels and motels for your drop if able but, if you take the PO's schedule into consideration, you won't have much of a problem there. Just be aware you may need to stick around waiting for the mail or the PO to open.

One big advantage of doing mail drops is being assured food later in your hike. It may be a good idea to put a $20 PO money order in the box too so you'll have cash when others are broke or running out.

[Jack Tarlin]

This subject has been discussed here before on many occasions; try a Search using the terms "Re-Supply" or 'Maildrops", etc.

Even when one is on a specialized diet (veggie, vegan, kosher, etc.) in most cases, people seem to do OK on their hikes while buying food en route.

There really aren't that mnay places on the A.T. where one needs to (or perhaps should) think about sending a box of food ahead of time.

In the "Articles" section of this website, there's lots of information that may prove useful to your planning, especially as telling you where many re-supply places are located, how much food is required for each stretch of the Trail, etc.

[garbanz]

At first I was against mail drops---didnt want to be on a schedule of picking them up. But since I like to eat healthy I started dehydrating my own veggies and adding to couscous and other bulk lightweight rehydrateable high energy foods. Dehydrated food will be a small part of what I vacuum pack in bulk. Now Im thinking Im gonna do mail drops not only for the nutrition aspect but more importantly the food I mail will be considerably LIGHTER than any combination of foods I can buy in trailtowns. Not everybodys gonna like what I eat but it will be save pack weight and AYCE places will provide variety inbetween.

[Blissful]

At first I was against mail drops---didnt want to be on a schedule of picking them up. But since I like to eat healthy I started dehydrating my own veggies and adding to couscous and other bulk lightweight rehydrateable high energy foods. Dehydrated food will be a small part of what I vacuum pack in bulk. Now Im thinking Im gonna do mail drops not only for the nutrition aspect but more importantly the food I mail will be considerably LIGHTER than any combination of foods I can buy in trailtowns. Not everybodys gonna like what I eat but it will be save pack weight and AYCE places will provide variety inbetween.

That's the way I looked at it. I supplemented in towns for cheese, flat bread etc, but found my own choice of food much healthier for me. And I had good energy and recovery on my recent hike and able to put in pretty good miles.

[FatherTime09]

Granted, I was only on the trail for 6 weeks or so, but I felt I over did it with the maildrops. It got too expensive, which was part of the reason I couldn't hike longer. I was also concerned about getting quality food (also vegetarian) so I bought a bunch of stuff in bulk before I left (nuts, seeds, dried fruits, brown rice & sprouted grain pastas, sprouted brown rice protein powder, sprouted barley carb powder, greens powder...) I spent like $900 on food before I left, not realizing how much it would cost to send. (Still had a bunch of food left when I got home though thankfully!)
Anyways, I don't think it's realistic to hold too high of a standard for food when you're hiking a trail for 5-6 months in places you've never been before. You're not going to get everything you want, but you'll manage. I started buying in stores the last few weeks, carrying fresh food out for the first couple days like others said. You can definitely get your typical GORP stuff in almost any town.
If I were to do it again (hopefully I will), I'd probably just get the powders maildropped so I knew I was getting good nutrition, but leave the bulk food to buy in town.
So, my suggestions if anyone's interested in the powders:
Sprouted Brown Rice Protein & Sprouted Barley from www.sunwarrior.com
and my greens powder of choice is www.bokusuperfood.com
My routine was barley in the AM for carbs/energy, greens+barley mid-day for nutrition/energy, and protein in the PM for muscle recovery.
Good luck!

[Ron Haven]

If anyone is intrested in how to say vegetarian in the Indian language???

the answer is ::::bad hunter

[IronGutsTommy]

if i was a vegan i guess id mail drop. I started off not doing mail drops, then bounce boxed a couple times and found it more cost/trouble than it was worth. between having to try to arrive into towns early enough to hit up the post office and finding my cravings not fitting what was all the rage weeks let alone months ago made me decide not to ever mail drop

[Sonno]

If anyone is intrested in how to say vegetarian in the Indian language???

the answer is ::::bad hunter

Made me lol

[mweinstone]

carry freash whole foods
never eat "backpacking food"
never change your diet to suit hiking
change your hike to suit your diet.
take time to hitch to the good stores
carry the weight and bulk of freash foods
cook without regaurd to time and fuel
carry the food and fuel needed to eat as you do most any day at home.
this includes allways haveing:
cheese, meats,veggies, fruits, breads, cake, cookies, candy, beans, pasta, butter,pancakes,spices,fish,milk, eggs,salads , nuts.
heres how. lets start with the most commonly feared hiking situation.the smokeys for a vegatarian with only freash foods obtained without mail drop .i could do a kosher vegetarian , but a plain vegatarian will work for this demonstration.
squish together two bags of bagels under your foot untill its the thickness of about 3 bagles. strap this on the outside of your pack.take an exlarge jar of peanut butter and a jar of nuttella and put them in your pack.into your foodbag, put 4 boxes of spagettie or 8 boxes of coosecoose, or 3 lbs of rice or beans.tortillas. bring your spice kit. add freash garlic and coffie and oats.now your haveing garlic and peanut sauce spaggetti or beans or rice burritos and oats with nutella and peanutbutter nuttella bagels and coffie and nuttella. this is a simple diet that simply avoids mac and cheese dinners and instant coffie and a no bread diet and is good and light and fun. carry enough fuel.a meat eater can add pancakes and bacon and eggs and milk and cheese and canned fish all without useing dryed . this is how i allways hike. i call other hikers, envelope people. weight, fuel and time are not to be feared. speedy, conveinent, lightweight, hiker specific diets are a matter of perspective.

[mweinstone]

a vegan can simply hike with heads of cabbage, raisins and oil and viniger and nuts and apples and carrots and squash and brewers yeast and spirullina. and make salads till the end of time. nothing is harder or easyer to pack in and eat. eating , being a nessesity, cannot be put on a scale of hard or easy. only good or bad. for a dedicated person loveing stuff like spirulina and brewers yeast, these things can be gotten from home in drops only very few, very conveinent times since they are light powders used spareingly.same with malts and any weird crap you need. a salad three times a day, when made to containe complete proteens, need only be suplemented by snacks and drinks.maby some yeba mate ?lol.

[mweinstone]

on the other hand, putting together the lightest diet that contains the daily requirments of nutrition rules out enjoyment. but lets look at what can be done in the exstreem.

ramman and gorp can carry a fit hiker to towns where resturant foods can augment a complete diet. there is no simpler lighter combination than these three.

but some arent so willing or fit for that tourure. the delux ramman diet only adds hard salami and coffie singles and packets of oats.

[Fog Horn]

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?

[Bubble Toes]

On our next hike I am considering mail drops. This is ironic because after my hike I swore I'd never do a maildrop again, on the AT it is just not needed. I wasn't an official veg then, but might as well have been. I think it actually might be harder to always have meat on the trail. Three things changed my mind...
1) Boston and Cubby's CDT and PCT journals - the end of each journal tells why they loved mail drops
2) I've become more selective about my food - I still cringe at the thought of having to eat Sunbelt granola bars again.
3) I've done a hike - I already know exactly what I eat on the trail, when we had to do a maildrop to Monson, it only took a few minutes to come up with a list. I had a bounce box, so we were going to every other PO anyways.

It will cost more to do maildrops then to buy along the way. The biggest mistake I saw was people with maildrops for too many days. You will resent carrying 8 days of food when all of the town buyers are only carrying 4. Do more drops or take 1/2 out and bounce it ahead. And don't pack oatmeal.

[maybe clem]

I'm a vegetarian. I bought about half of my food at resupply points but they don't always have much of a variety that's suitable for vegetarians. Keep in mind you can hit a resupply after a crowd of thrus have been there and the only things left will be a box of saltines and a couple of Slim Jims. Will that keep you going for the next 70 miles?

One of the things I included my maildrops was protein powder. Vegetarian sources of protein can be a real challenge to find and that's not something you want to skimp on while you're thruhiking.

If your concern is having a variety of healthy vegetarian food for your hike it's best to select it ahead of time and mail it to yourself.

[RockDoc]

The common reality is that a lot of hikers eat poorly and meagerly while on the trail, and then gorge in towns. Yes you can do the whole AT this way. The restaurants and lodges are "loaded for bear" for you to eat there.

In fact I saw very few exceptions.

It wasn't like this years ago. You were much more on your own then.