[pct-l] Cal/ ounce, nutritionu

[DayLate07 .]

First decide how long you would like to go between resupplies.  Your choice
is basically one of three options.  1) Resupply as often as possible to
keep weight down, 2) resupply as far apart as possible to give you more
trail time and less town time, or 3) pick a mileage (or number of days) at
which you would ideally like to resupply like every 5 days or every 100
miles etc .

Next using Yogi's guide, pick out the towns that closely meet your desires
above starting from the beginning (Campo or Washington).  Then look at each
town, if it has a full grocery store then don't ship anything there.  If it
has a small convenient store or nothing ship most of what you will need for
the next segment of your trip.  If it is a medium sized store then ship
just some meals and pick up the rest locally.

For me, I usually try to go about 6-8 days between resupply, at 2.5 pounds
per day that is about 15 to 20 pounds of food - leaving town.  I usually
just put the mileage between towns into a spreadsheet and it works out
pretty easily, just work the data from town to town.  Once in a while you
will find you have to go a day or two longer (Sierra's) or shorter (So
Cal).  On the PCT you shouldn't need more than 8- 10 resupplies max unless
you have some strict dietary requirements, and you could do it with only a
couple if you aren't too picky about what you eat.   For me, I like a wide
variety of food and things I can't find in many small towns so I had about
10 packages for the PCT.  I could have done it with only a few packages if
needed but I like to eat better than the average thru hiker.

Note: the average thru hiker is about 23 years old and eats a lot of
prepackaged junk (Just my observation).

 Not to say I don't eat prepackaged junk occasionally too, just not as much
as many thru hikers.  I can remember eating boxed  mac and cheese and
thinking how good it is but I suspect that is mostly hiker hunger kicking
in.  Do what works for you.

But if you are going to ship yourself food try to up the variety so it is a
better option then the prepackaged junk you will be forced into at some
resupplies.  I never shipped myself any raman, liptons, instant mashed, etc
as these are ubiquitous on the trail.

Enjoy the great adventure

Day-Late