[pct-l] Bounce Bucket

[Rick Ostheimer]

To answer Randy's original question, Yes, a bounce box or bounce bucket 
is a good place to put the battery charger.  However, I'd carry an extra 
battery and only pick up the bounce box about every two weeks.  I never 
had any problem getting a charge in towns---usually because I was at a 
hostel or motel.  I also found restaurants usually OK with using the 
charger (but you have to remember to retrieve your camera/cellphone, etc.)

Since there was no one at home to support my hike (my wife was helping 
our daughter out at the end of her pregnancy and with our 2nd grandson), 
I  used an orange Home Depot 5 gallon bucket and drilled holes through 
the lid and rim through which I inserted zip ties to seal the bucket.  
It had a distinctive band of blue duct tape around it for easy 
identification at the P.O.  I left the handle on it and sealed it down 
with packaging tape.  The lid of the bucket was broken when I checked it 
for the plane ride to San Diego, but the zip ties held it in place and 
nothing was lost.  There was never any damage all the times I sent the 
bucket via the Postal Service.

Inside were all my maps and guidebook pages packaged in zip locks as per 
Yogi's excellent recommendation, priority mail labels for all the 
locations the bounce bucket was stopping along with labels for all the 
stops in OR and WA where I sent food ahead to myself.  It also had 
repair kits for my thermarest and water filter, spare water filter 
element, all the "you never know when you'll needs" that toward the end 
of the hike got sent home, nail clippers, and my prescriptions and 
vitamins in daily doses tied up in glad wrap and sorted in two week 
supplies in zip locks.  Also, there was packaging tape and a Sharpie 
marker.  The same blue duct tape from inside the bounce bucket decorated 
my packages to make them distinct and easy to find.

I found it was often cheaper to send the bucket priority mail than it 
was to send a priority mail flat rate box.  Occasionally, I forward the 
bounce bucket ahead to the next stop.  It did keep getting lighter and 
cheaper to send as I progressed north as I sent used maps and guidebook 
pages home when I sent the bounce bucket on to the next point.

My resupply strategy was a combination of buy-as-you-go combined with 
buying along the trail and mailing packages ahead---I sent 4 packages 
from Ashland ahead to stops in OR and 4 packages ahead at Cascade Locks 
to stops in WA.  For resupply, it was definitely cheaper to go with the 
flat rate boxes as food is heavy!  I also had a  resupply box at Kennedy 
Meadows.  Otherwise I resupplied at stops along the way.

I had only two foul ups with mailed packages.  The mail service in 
Ashland that I entrusted to dispatch my package to Shelter Cove via UPS 
actually wound up sending it via Priority Mail.  It wasn't there, but 
the kind folks at Shelter Cove did eventually send it ahead to me at 
Cascade Locks.  I probably should have taken that package to the UPS 
Store on the outskirts of Ashland near the interstate.  Also, a friend 
mailed a care package to me at Crater Lake that the staff had no record 
of receiving.  It turned out they had logged the package under my 
friend's name from the return address rather than mine.  I might not 
have gotten those great cookies and other goodies had I not been 
persistent about them looking for it.  It took about an hour, but they 
finally did find it.

I didn't pay for tracking, but a friend of mine did.  That was the only 
other priority mail foul up I heard of.  His package tracked as arriving 
at the Stehekin PO, but the postmistress searched high and low twice and 
it was not there.  My passport and Canadian Entry Permit stayed with me 
the whole way.  I didn't trust those items to the mail.

I wore heavy, leather hiking boots through all of California---the same 
as I had on the AT.  By Ashland I decided to try my trail runners which 
were in my bounce bucket.  For me the experiment was something of a 
disaster.  I got horrible blisters, then, after callouses formed in the 
appropriate places, I found my feet ached after 25 miles over lava in 
OR.  I wound up calling ahead to Cascade Locks P.O. where my boots 
resided in the bounce bucket I'd sent there, and the folks were kind 
enough to forward it back to Sisters where I switched back to the 
boots.  I don't know if that's necessarily "according to post office 
regulations", but I've found that being nice to postal employees pays 
dividends.  A couple of times I was able to call P.O.'s and get my 
package before the window opened as well.

Overall, I was happy with the way the bounce bucket worked for me.  I 
plan to use one next year on the CDT.

Handlebar
GA-ME 06, PCT 08