[pct-l] Grid, Graph, Spreadsheet in Preparation and During Hike

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

...And before the hyper-planning police get on my case, let me  
clarify what I mean by shopping when the food is low:

- You consult the guide book. Looks like about 6 days to the next town.
- You consult your resources (Yogi book or whatever) for the next  
town, see that its grocery store options are good.
- You go to the store. Buy 6 days worth of food.
- Hike.
- Arrive at the next town.
- You consult the guide book. Looks like about 5 days to the next town.
- You consult your resources (Yogi book or whatever) for the next  
town, see that its grocery store options suck and the town after that  
is another 6 days.
- You buy 5 days of food for your next leg plus an extra 6 days worth  
of food, put it in a box and mail it to the next town.
- Hike.
- Discover you're going to take longer than 5 days, or that you  
simply cannot swallow peanut butter on dry tortillas anymore. Consult  
your guide book. See there is a place to grab a burger on the trail.  
That's an extra meal or two in your pack. There may be a convenience  
store you could detour to. Or you might see some poor kids on the JMT  
with their father laboring under 200lbs of snacks. He'll beg you to  
take some food. Take some anyway, even if you don't need it. You can  
always eat more food! Or, in the worst scenario, see that you'll have  
to make a really arduous detour off the trail, go into a town you  
didn't expect to, find out it's a great town full of hikers, enjoy an  
impromptu fun break from the trail, and head back with your spirits  
lifted.

Seriously, it all works out.

Lather, rinse, repeat for 6 months. Look ahead a little more, a  
little less. Consult your resources which you may have in abundance  
or might have to look up on the Internet from time-to-time. It's just  
like regular life.