Resupplies

It is impossible to carry enough food for 6 months on the trail, so it is necessary to employ resupply spots along the trail.  There are several ways to do this.  The trail comes close to some trail towns with post offices where food and supplies can be mailed.  It also crosses roads, some of them major such as Interstate 10 which is interesting to me because I have driven over the PCT tunnel many times.  Most hikers will occasionally hitchhike on these roads to nearby towns.  Many of these trail towns are very aware of thru-hikers during hiker season and some are even home to Trail Angels who give their time, home, food, transportation, etc to help aspiring thru-hikers on their journey.

Some hikers choose to gather food and resupplies in these trail towns in order to make it from one town to the next, sometimes sending some to themselves further up the trail.  Others choose to send all their resupplies to post offices, trail angels, or businesses who have agreed to hold packages.  I will be using this method.  I have chosen it for two reasons.  First, I think home-prepared meals will be healthier than those put together from potentially picked-over small grocery and convenience stores.  Second, when I get to towns, I want to be able to rest, relax, eat and shower without worrying about going grocery shopping!  Not necessarily in that order :)

My Mom will be handling my resupplies in addition to dehydrating and preparing my meals.  Wow.  She has already begun testing recipes and drying foods.  This week she is working on soups--grean bean and ham, chicken noodle, taco...  I can't imagine something tasting better than soup on a cold evening after hiking all day.  Variety is important, so the search for new/different meals goes on.

Shoes!  It is estimated that the trail will require replacement of hiking shoes 4-5 times along the route.  These will be shipped along with food in resupply packages as will toilet paper, new map sections, batteries, and any other things that become necessary along the way.  In the Sierra, most hikers carry an ice ax and microspikes for their shoes due to the snow.  These and warmer clothes are sent to Kennedy Meadows, the gateway to the Sierra.  A bear can is also necessary in this section to protect food and hikers from bears (and to keep bears from being killed because they have come to associate hikers with food).

A quick shout out to my sister who makes the best dried apples and apple leather in the world!  She will be keeping me supplied with apples along the hike.  She mentioned something about $500/hour for her time, but I'm pretty sure she's joking :)

I have prepared a preliminary schedule for resupplies along the route.  Of course it is not set in stone, because hiking is not about keeping a schedule other than getting to Canada before it snows.  However, it is necessary to have some sort of schedule to know when and where to send supplies.