[pct-l] Resupply strategies

[Dan Welch]

<<  Cheapest is doing everything for yourself ahead of time and most expensive is buying along the way. Although you should factor in the cost of mailing if you pre package everything at home. >>

When I was looking at the cost of resupply, it struck me that for each food package I'll send, I will pay $16 on shipping.  Am I really going to make that up by finding cheaper food at home?  Hmmmm...    Not to mention the freshness factor.  I don't really trust cheeses and such for more than 2 or 3 weeks - not enough time to make them logical choices for shipping.  (Note: I am shipping from North Carolina where Flat Rate is the lowest cost.  If you live on the West Coast Regional Rate will be cheaper, but it is still a significant cost.)


<<  There is also the hassle of having someone send your boxes to you. >>

This is really a hassle for my wife - but I feel guilty having her make too many trips to the P.O.  But in addition to that hassle, I don't like to be forced to adjust my hiking schedule.  More than once I have found myself scurrying to do more miles than I want just to get to a P.O. by Friday afternoon.  On the flip side, I have found myself spending an extra day in town just to wait for the Post Office to open the next day.  For me, part of the fun of thru-hiking is not having to adhere to a strict schedule.  Post Office visits mess with that.  Sometimes (but not always) you can find a "non-Post Office option" for pick ups.  That helps with this issue.  

I have only hiked a couple months at time previous to this - but enough to experience some of these issues.  For my (planned) 2014 thru, I am intending to do the hybrid re-supply strategy.  I'll take zero days in Mammoth, Ashland and Cascade locks for re-supply to points "downstream."  This sounds like a pretty popular strategy and it sure makes sense to me.

Timberline