[pct-l] I'm wondering what is the most reasonable amount of days between resupplies?

[Scott Williams]

Ditto Brick.  If you can carry less, you can go much faster, thus
shortening the days between the resupplies and you'll have much more fun.
It is really pleasant to carry a day pack's weight versus the drudgery of
slogging up the hills with 40 to 50 lbs.  Although some people love that
too.  Yoshihiro's trail name is "Low Gear" for just that reason.  You can
hear those piston legs of his pushing his 65lb pack up every pass!

On trails that are new to me I plan for more food in my food boxes being
more conservative in my estimate of what I'm capable of initially.  Trail
conditions can really slow you down.  On the CDT I had no idea how fast I
could go cross country over long stretches of it and planned for more.
Turned out it wasn't so bad.  In the High Sierra in deep snow we carried
double the calories and several extra days.  It was really slow.  Once I'd
get a sense of just how fast I could go over specific terrain however,
(you'll hear what's up ahead from others when you're on trail) I'd just
start filling the hiker boxes with the extra food I had in my boxes and
pairing it down as much as I could.  The difference between the first day
after a food drop with a full week's weight of food and the last when
you're down to nothing is phenomenal.   And some parts of the trail are
much faster than others.  By the time you get to Oregon, you're strong and
the trail is relatively easy, and you just fly.  The hiker boxes fill with
some really good stuff up there.

Your needs will change over the course of your hike, but I'd say carrying 9
days of food is an unnecessary burden, short of deep snow situations.

Have a wonderful hike!

Shroomer

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Mel Tungate <mel at tungate.com> wrote:

> Brick for the win.
>
> Mel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pct-L [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Brick
> Robbins
> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:51 PM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] I'm wondering what is the most reasonable amount of
> days between resupplies?
>
> 2015-07-22 13:31 GMT-07:00  <richarrant at gmail.com>:
> > It seems that most hikers are going 5 days between food resupplies, I
> > was thinking of going 7 days carrying 9 days of meals in my pack. The
> > bulk and weight are drawbacks, what else am I missing?<
>
> For most of the trail, distance between convenient re-supplies are going
> control how much is carried.
>
> I never skipped a convenient resupply. If I could carry 2 days of food
> instead of 5, I did the extra resupply.
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