Bounce box timing?

imported
#1

Planning on doing a through-hike of the CT with my daughter, leaving end of June from Waterton Canyon. We plan on scheduling roadside meetups for a few resupply points, but I would also like to use a “bounce box.” Does anyone know about how long it takes the USPS to deliver packages between the smaller mountain towns?

I’m tentatively thinking a box bounced from Frisco-Buena Vista or Salida-Gunnison-Lake City-Silverton-Durango, with potentially as little as 4 days between some of the towns. Is this realistic? Thanks in advance.

Jenny

#2

No, probably not, unless you send it Priority Mail, which is three day service nationwide. If that is a problem, use more than one box and mail them accordingly.

bearcreek

#3

Jenny,

Just out of curiosity, what are you planning to bounce forward in your bounce box?

The way I think about the CT is that it’s 24 days of hiking 20 miles per day. Or, it’s 36 days of hiking 15 miles per day. It strikes me that most people can carry 36 days of prescription medicine. Over the course of 36 days, you shouldn’t need more than 2 rolls of TP. You’ll probably only clip your fingernails one time during a 36 day hike. Most electronics use lightweight USB charges that you can just carry with you.

So, I’m really busting to know what you are bringing that is so unique that you are bouncing it forward rather than just hitting the WalMart in Salida to replace it?

Loup

#4

I think you may find a bounce box more of a hindrance than a help; I find it easier to buy food and supplies, and even thought I will do a mail drop, I always look for a business that is open 7 days a week. I hate having to wait for a Post Office to open. Ditto what Loup said; not sure what you really need to bounce.

YO

#5

As I give more thought to this, yeah it seems like a bounce box might be more trouble than it’s worth. Someone with more experience than I on longer hikes said they used one, but certainly most items could be gotten as a roadside gas station market or even small grocery store. Thanks for prompting more thought.

Jenny

#6

As I give more thought to this, yeah it seems like a bounce box might be more trouble than it’s worth. Someone with more experience than I on longer hikes said they used one, but certainly most items could be gotten as a roadside gas station market or even small grocery store. Thanks for prompting more thought.

Jenny

#7

Jenny,

Upon further reflection, maybe you really meant that you intend to use a mail-drop rather than a bounce-box? If so, you really should look at Mags’ re-supply document at http://www.pmags.com/colorado-trail-end-to-end-guide-2

There are several places where mailing yourself supplies can be quite convenient. In particular, it’s nice to re-supply at the grocery store in Breckenridge and then send a re-supply box to Twin Lakes, which is only 1-mile off the trail and is about 4 days of hiking from Breck. Similarly, some people mail another re-supply box to Princeton Hot Springs, and there are also other destinations close to the trail too.

The advantage of doing this is that you can carry less weight in your pack, which makes for a more enjoyable hike. You should be planning on carrying between 2 and 2.5 pounds of food per day, so a 4-day haul is probably 8 or 10 pounds which isn’t bad. In contrast, an 8-day haul is 16 or 20 pounds which is dang heavy and makes an unpleasant hike for a few days until you can eat down the weight.

The disadvantage of using mail-drops is the cost. I like to use the pre-paid Priority Mail boxes which you can purchase at pretty much every post office (see: https://store.usps.com/store/browse/subcategory.jsp?categoryId=prepaid-priority-mail&categoryNavIds=catGetMailingShippingSupplies%3Aprepaid-priority-mail ) These boxes are fixed-rate, and you just put in as much stuff as you can. I used a medium box between Breck and Twin, which costs about $12 for the privilege of not hauling a bunch of extra weight for four days…seemed like a bargain to me! The fact that they are Priority Boxes means that you pretty much can’t walk any faster than the box will go. As Bearcreek suggested, priority mail is 3-day service, which is perfect.

Anyway, if you’ve not already done so, take a careful read of Mags’ re-supply document. It’s really well researched and can help you a great deal. Breck and Buena/Salida are the most full-service re-supply options on the trail, and you just need to fill in the gaps using mail-drops and smaller stores.

Enjoy the hike!

Loup

#8

Not sure what you’re eating, but I’ve done at least 6500 miles of long distance hiking on about 1-1/8 pounds of food per day.

bearcreek

#9

I’m eating lightweight backpacking food. I question what you are eating. 1+1/8 pounds is 18 ounces, correct?

One ounce of olive oil only has 251 calories (see http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/olive-oil?portionid=42185&portionamount=1.000 ). If you did nothing but drink olive oil, your maximum daily calories would only be 18*250=4,500, which would barely be enough to hike 15 miles.

If you ate only peanut butter, which is an excellent hiking food, you’d only get 94 calories per ounce, which would 18*94=~1,800. That would barely be enough to sit at a desk all day.

If you just at Snickers bars, it would be 140 calories per ounce (see http://calorielab.com/foods/candy-bars/108 ). 18*140=~2,500 which might be enough to hike 5 or 6 miles.

Personally, I aim to get a mixture of food that averages 100 to 120 calories per ounce. I aim to eat between 32 and 40 ounces of food per day. That gives me between 3,200 and 4,800 calories.

Backpacking costs me 572 calories per hour (see http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburnedwalking.htm ), which means that a 15 mile haul at 2.5 miles per hour burns about 3,500 calories. Plus, for the other 18 hours that I’m not backpacking, I’d need probably another 1,400 calories just being idle. That makes a total daily burn of nearly 5,000 calories for a 15 mile haul. I lose weight when I eat my 2 to 2.5 pounds of food which only gives me 3,200 to 4,800 calories.

So, I must ask you, what is it that you eat when you only carry 18 ounces of food? Just olive oil? Otherwise, you must be incurring a daily calorie deficit of at least 2,000 calories which means you’d lose nearly a half-pound per day!

Loup

#10

When shooting for 32 to 40 ounces of food at 100 to 120 calories per ounce, the following are examples of what I like to eat:

Muesli and Nido for breakfast (where available in stores)
Bagel and cheese or peanut butter for second-breakfast
Fritos or cajun mix for late morning snack
Salami and cheese on tortilla for late lunch, plus a Snickers
Afternoon snack of salty nuts, cajun mix, or Fritos
Supper of dehydrated potatoes or Lipton sides, plus tuna packet plus cheese plus a snickers

That’s just an example. I also like other hi-cal foods like yoghurt covered raisins, peanut butter crackers, Chex mix, pre-cooked bacon, and whatever else I can find!

Loup

#11

When I did the trail in 2012 I resupplied in Breck, Twin Lakes, Salida, Lake City, & Silverton.

I bounced a box from Breck to Salida; (it took me 8days to get from Breck to Salida); and from Salida to Silverton (another 8 trail days). Then I sent the bounce box from Silverton to Durango (it took me 4 days to get to Durango from Silverton). My box was always waiting for me at the post offices.

Stuff I put in the bounce box: SUNSCREEN, DUCT TAPE, OLIVE OIL, SOAP, PHONE CHARGER, SALT/PEPPER, LIQUID HAND SANITIZER, TP, MAPS- THAT I DON’T WANT TO TAKE ON ALL THE LEGS OF THE TRIP.

I know you can get this stuff at the grocery stores in the trail towns- but this way I could just take exactly what I needed for each leg of the trip. For example- I didnt want to have to buy a big bottle of sunscreen at the grocery store when all I needed was a little bit.

Regarding the weight of food per day- I think everyone is different- how much you weigh, how much weight you are carrying has got to be a factor.

For me 1.6 lbs of food per day was just about right.
But I ate mostly dehydrated food that I sent ahead in resupply boxes- if I had resupplied extensively at the supermarkets with boxes of mac & cheese and the like, my daily food weight would have been more.

By the end of the trip I lost ~10% of my body weight- but I never felt like I was starving and I always had a bit of food left over when I got to the next resupply point.

Danl

#12

I flew in from the UK and used my Bounce Box for items like those noted above.

Now that I have switched to a USB chargeable camera I’m not certain I’d bother again, although it was nice to have clothes changes for zero days.

Bounced to Jefferson, Leadville, Salida, Silverton.

edh

#13

I’ve bounced Esbit, maps, sunscreen, soap, TP, duct tape, toothpaste, feminine stuff, some food… in a kind of combo BB/mail drop manner. I think that bounce boxes do have their place, especially if you’re inexperienced at thru-hiking and don’t have a good idea of how much fuel, food, soap, etc. you’ll be consuming - if you do resupply by mail drops, you could end up wasting things that you don’t want to carry. On the other hand, if your mail drops are supported, i.e. people actually bringing stuff to you, they can also take stuff away, so maybe that isn’t a huge consideration.

Either way, enjoy your hike. :slight_smile:

Pockets

#14

When I said ‘supported mail drops’ above, I guess it then wouldn’t be a mail drop, haha. I’ll replace that with ‘supported resupply’.

Pockets

#15

In the mountain communities you are looking at UPS is definitely the fastest delivery method. However, unless you are sending to a business with good hours, the post office has longer hours than most of the UPS services. We do not have UPS stores up here. From most mountain communities east of the continental divide both the post office and UPS route to Denver, then back up to the mountain towns. I am also planning on leaving from Waterton Canyon the end of June, look forward to meeting you and you daughter on the trail.

Chris

#16

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Seems easy enough to just resupply in towns along most of the trail and not be tied to a bounce box, now that I’ve lived with the maps and route for awhile.

On another note, all of this snow is great for water but DANG it needs to quit already!

Jenny