[pct-l] Grid, Graph, Spreadsheet in Preparation and During Hike

[GARY HEBERT]

I love your desciption of buy when food gets low. hike. repeat. That was me
on the AT, The LT and other shorter trips. I was beginning to worry the PCT
towns were too far apart and offered so much less flexibility than the AT
buy on the fly method I so loved for the adventure and simplicity. Glad to
hear it worked for you. And I now learned a great variation on the bounce
box....the buy FOOD NOW and ship to the crappy small resupply town ahead vs.
carrying all the weight for 10-11 days or what I might have done...carry the
5 days & maybe a little more and suck it up with whatever crap I could find
at the crappy resupply to get me to the next town. You made my day with your
description though.
I'm not against planning but it just sucks the fun outta goin with the flow
for me. (though I look ahead enough not to get burned.) Obviously I spend
more $$$ and can't be as picky buying on the fly with no maildrops. I may
vary that a bit on the PCT.

Just my thoughts.

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

> ...And before the hyper-planning police get on my case, let me
> clarify what I mean by shopping when the food is low:
>
> - You consult the guide book. Looks like about 6 days to the next town.
> - You consult your resources (Yogi book or whatever) for the next
> town, see that its grocery store options are good.
> - You go to the store. Buy 6 days worth of food.
> - Hike.
> - Arrive at the next town.
> - You consult the guide book. Looks like about 5 days to the next town.
> - You consult your resources (Yogi book or whatever) for the next
> town, see that its grocery store options suck and the town after that
> is another 6 days.
> - You buy 5 days of food for your next leg plus an extra 6 days worth
> of food, put it in a box and mail it to the next town.
> - Hike.
> - Discover you're going to take longer than 5 days, or that you
> simply cannot swallow peanut butter on dry tortillas anymore. Consult
> your guide book. See there is a place to grab a burger on the trail.
> That's an extra meal or two in your pack. There may be a convenience
> store you could detour to. Or you might see some poor kids on the JMT
> with their father laboring under 200lbs of snacks. He'll beg you to
> take some food. Take some anyway, even if you don't need it. You can
> always eat more food! Or, in the worst scenario, see that you'll have
> to make a really arduous detour off the trail, go into a town you
> didn't expect to, find out it's a great town full of hikers, enjoy an
> impromptu fun break from the trail, and head back with your spirits
> lifted.
>
> Seriously, it all works out.
>
> Lather, rinse, repeat for 6 months. Look ahead a little more, a
> little less. Consult your resources which you may have in abundance
> or might have to look up on the Internet from time-to-time. It's just
> like regular life.
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