[pct-l] MAIL DROPS :

[Matthew Edwards]

I had 14 mail drops on the PCT in 2009. I also sent a box from Sisters, OR to Timberline Lodge.
If i had it to do all over again I would only have 4 mail drops sent from home and they would contain shoes and
trekking pole tips(and of course any snacks or stuff meant as a treat!)
The most important mail drop in California would be kennedy meadows south. (snow gear, new shoes, bear canister, ice axe(naturally).
Kennedy Meadows does have trail food but the selection sells out pretty quickly during the "convergence" of the thru hikers.
If you read in Yogi's book someone mentions buying as you go until Ashland Oregon and sending boxes for 
White Pass,  Snowqualmie, Skykomish(Dinsmores), and Stehekin.
What i found was White pass has a rather large C'store and i could have resupplied there easily.
Snoqualmie has a gigantinourmous C'store and could resupply every thru hiker even if they all showed up at once.
Skykomish has a grocery, c' store, frsh Blueberry icecream (MMMM..) and the Baring store near the dinsmores has plenty of food as well.
Stehekin has a small.. make that tiny C'store. BUT you could easily resupply with pies and cinnamin rolls on your way
back to the trail for the final 88 miles to Canada.
On a personal note while i was eating my last ramen (at the Border Monument 78) from my mail drop at stehekin, Spec and Maggie showed up carrying a Whole Pie.
They had brought one per day from Stehekin(3 Pies!)... Then Birdman showed up eating one of the last cinamon roles he had packed out of Stehekin.
In summary the only places on the whole PCT I would send a maildrop with food would be Kennedy Meadows South, CA
Everything else you can take care of yourself from the trail, such as sending boxes from Ashland for Washington locales.
The other 3 maildrops would be for shoes since I wear a 10.5 4E and I am picky as heck about my brand.
Let me end this post with a HUGE YMMV (Your mileage may vary)
Cheers-Iceaxe