[pct-l] Resupply strategies

[jeff.singewald at comcast.net]

I think Diane's last paragraph is the most appropriate....  Sure with enough flexibility everyone will be able to survive on the food that is available in the smallest of resupply stops.  Heck, I watched a half dozen hikers resupply on big bags of double stuffed oreos, cans of sardines, candy bars and bags of potato chips at the store in Beldon (Caribou).   It all depends on what you want from your hike!  Wanna survive on candy bars and what is available or do you want to do a bit more planning and prep and know that you have something waiting in a resupply. 



If you are from out of state and want to minimize shipping, one thought is to come out  to San Diego a couple of days earlier than your start date and do your shopping and ship your resupply packages from San Diego for the first 400-500 miles.  Since most folks zero at the Saufleys and almost everyone heads into LA for shopping, you could resupply at that stop for the next big chunk (say through Lake Tahoe since that is a common zero day with good shopping and postal services nearby).  From Lake Tahoe you could resupply through Ashland and so on. 



Elevator 




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com" <diane at santabarbarahikes.com> 
To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:52:01 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Resupply strategies 


On Dec 23, 2009, at 4:04 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote: 

> I really like the suggestion of buying food in large resupply towns   
> and then 
> mailing a series of resupplies forward to the smaller stops. 

I did this by suggestion of one of the Yogi books, buying my food in   
Ashland for Oregon and buying in Cascade Locks for Washington. It   
worked well, but I think the food availability in Oregon is a little   
better than Yogi's book said it would be. For example, it is very   
easy to get to Government Camp from the Timberline Lodge and they   
have a decent store there. Elk lake has hardly any food, but there's   
a man who will drive you into Bend where they have nice grocery   
stores. I actually got a ride from a young woman trolling for trail   
angel work. 

I also did this in California, buying in Chester for the way forward   
to Ashland. Turned out the stores in Etna and even Seiad Valley had   
ample food, so this was not necessary. 


> I also like 
> freezer bag cooking. Do those of you who use this purchace strategy 
> repackage your meals to reduce weight and size? If you do freezer bag 
> cooking, do you go so far as to package down to the individual meal   
> level? 

I do not do freezer bag cooking, but I do go so far as to package   
down to the individual meal level. That is how I measure what I need. 


> I 
> could see sending a bounce box to the major town post office and do   
> all of 
> the work there after shopping. That way I could have my freezer   
> bags, labels 
> and packing supplies right there with me, buy the prepaid boxes,   
> repackage 
> my meals, box them up with any thing else out of my bounce going to   
> the 
> smaller towns and mail out the resupplies and send my bounce to the   
> next 
> major town ( King of the run-on sentence.) 

Yes, this is what I have done. However, since I didn't do freezer bag   
cooking, I was able to save my ziplocs and reuse them. 

> Does anyone see a problem with this? If so, what was your strategy? 

Just make sure the only things you pack and ship are things you can't   
buy in a convenience store. There is ample candy, cookies and   
crackers all along the trail. Don't waste the money shipping candy   
bars. Also, I found that I was happy to snack all day on whatever was   
available, but dinner was the meal I made sure to ship because I was   
more particular about that. 

Really, I think with flexibility I could have eaten the food at every   
place I stopped, even Elk Lake. Might have eaten a lot of granola   
bars, but I think I could have survived. 

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