Help!! can anyone think of something important which i may have missed? 30 days left till departure day. Im also stressing hard about drop boxes! Help any suggestions any ideas? Im really feeling overwealmed trying to put together 27 + boxes… anyone?
debi
You just made me realize that I only have 16 days till I am on the trail!!! Even less (13) till I leave. Thanks for freaking me out!
-toaster
toaster
Put a tube of athletes foot ointment or a film canister with Gold Bond powder in your first aid kit to help sooth your feet. I would have murdered someone for something like this as I neared Kennedy Meadows.
Don’t stress. It seems like a big deal, but after about the first two hours on the trail, everything will seem much simpler. After a few days, you’ll find a rhythm and there won’t be any causes for worry. You’ll see that there is no reason to worry about what might happen to you in a month or a week, or some place called the Sierra. The present will be the only thing of any importance and problems are best put off until they actually come up. If you’ve done your homework about gear and getting in shape, there will be no problems.
Also, you forgot to forget about resupply boxes and to just buy as you go. But, it is too late for that now.
Suge
Signing out. I fly out tomorrow and will be starting Friday. See you all on the trail…:smokin
Tribes aka Brett Treible
UGH! If it’s possible, stop the madness!! 27 boxes is too many. You’ll learn to hate your maildrop food within about one month. Put together a box for Warner Springs CA. That’s all. Then buy as you go. There are other places on the trail where you need maildrops, but you can easily make them at trail towns.
For example, after Warner Springs, you can buy in every town until Kennedy Meadows. You can create and send your KM box from Agua Dulce. If you use this resupply method all up the trail, you will usually have food in your box which appeals to you TODAY rather than what appealed to you 4 months before.
yogi
yogi
27 drops really is too much, unless you have special dietary needs. The post offices on the PCT often have limited hours (i.e. one or two hours on Saturday, closing at 4:00, etc.) and having a lot of maildrops means often racing to meet the post office schedule.
On the PCTA page there is a link to how to do the PCT without any maildrops (e.g. nearby towns you can hitch to where you can shop, if necessary) or you can buy in the larger towns, while you are on the trail, and ship to the small resorts along the way - we did that in Ashland for all of Oregon and Cascade Locks for most of Washington.
If you’ve never done a long hike, you probably won’t know in advance which foods will utterly disgust you after a month or so and which you’ll learn to like along the way. Some folks can eat oatmeal for six months - others don’t last two weeks with it. We found that we needed much larger amounts as time went on - so a box of cereal that was supposed to serve 12 would only last the two of us 3 days, at best. I soon discovered that poptarts, while tasty, didn’t keep me satisfied for more than an hour or two. Other hikers have a poptart for breakfast and are good until noon. So, by not shopping for the whole trip now, you avoid buying food you won’t eat and not having the food you do want to eat.
Ginny
Hummm i guess im going to have to nix the idea of eating mostly fresh fruit and veggies every day as has been my regualar dietery fare. I had thought that i would at least deydrate everyting in advance - raw crackers, raw cookies, gorp - ect - but its becomging to be a much bigger chore than anticipated. I guess there is always plan “B”…No worries - thanks everyone for helping out! Great info! 
debi
I got sick of my sent food boxes. I would buy Yogi’s guide and follow her advice of buying at key towns and sending food ahead to the right places via the right carrier. This allows for changes in your plans and daily mileages. I ate healthier when I bought food along the way. I would also reccomend having a bounce box.
Pika
Pika
I loved my food boxes, but I think most ordinary grocery stores carry alot of $hit. And since you sound like a raw fooder you might agree that most of the produce is sprayed with $hit also. I was able to eat four wholesome cooked meals a day on less than a pound of food per day. Dehydrated food is the key to big meals and a really light pack through reduction of food weight and fuel weight! People talk about the big three (sleeping bag, tent, pack) in cutting weight, but I cut just as much weight in proper meal organization through dehyrdration and pre packaging meals.
Maybe just send a few out and have someone back home send the other ones for you if you decide to keep it up.
gruel
and the idea of eating out of the stores makes my stomach turn. I want to try to merge my over zealous 27 box plan with Yogi’s and the others approach and try to find a middle way here, both with eating and with mailing food… I’ve been deydrating like a crazy woman - but doing 5.5 months of dehydrating even w/ 3 9 tray deydrators - is prooving a herculian task. So stressed about it - that i just want to give up and free myself!! fly birdie… :O)debi
debi