hey all. i understand the PCT to be less “commercialized” if-you-will than say the AT. with that said, how easy/difficult is it to re-sup with natural/organic foods and such? or is it simply advised to purchase as much in advnace on your own and do the maildrop gig?
thanks.
Leslie
Mail drop will be the way to go. There are very few OG stores on the PCT. The little towns (many are smaller than the AT towns) out there hardly have enough economy to support 1 store. In fact, Ashland, OR, is the only one that comes to mind (a VERY good store) that’s very close to the trail. I’m sure there’s others, but not many.
If you decide to hike the Oregon Coast Trail, you can practically eat OG the entire way with no maildrops. You could almost eat raw OG in fact.
Tha Wookie
Not to change the topic from the PCT, but are the organic stores on the Oregon Coast Trail (beach walk) listed anywhere, or do you just see them on Main Street in every town?
Salt Water
We didn’t have a lot of advanced information on that during our walk, and mostly just asked around town where the “health food” store was. This backfired several times, as we overshot the store (Like in Bandon). However, we discovered that the stores ususally have listings of the coastal markets. I think it would be a good move to research the first town, and then contact that store and ask them about the next towns. Also you might find something on the internet, but why pass up an opportunity to talk to a real person?
The above approach might work with the PCT also!
This trend continues through Northern California, with less frequency of towns. Humboldt and Mendocino have many OG markets.
A hiker named “SQUID” is assembling a DATA BOOK on the American West Coast Trail (see www.thawookie.com for update on his progress), and since he seems to prefer health food stores, I bet his guide will include that info.
Tha Wookie
Wookie – Has Squid hiked the West Coast Trail (recently)? Seems that you and Island Mama are the foremost authorities right now, having just done the whole thing. Will you be helping him with info?
steve hiker
Unless you want to do long hitches to towns well off the trail, you will have to do maildrops. The PCTA website has a good article on how to avoid doing maildrops that will give some ideas for towns that are off trail (like Sisters or Bend in Oregon) but for the most part the towns that the trail passes through/near are very small. We did some of our shopping in the larger towns (Ashland in Oregon and Cascade Locks in Washington) to mail to the small campground resorts that the trail passed through. You might be able to do that (i.e. go to Palm Springs and mail ahead from there.)
Spirit Walker
From my research, traveling: Quincy has a food co-op (Nor-cal), Mt.Shasta City has a really good food co-op, and Ashland has a food co-op. Probably have good luck in Bishop as well. Maybe out of Cascade Locks hitch east to Hood River (15 or so miles). Unless you drop into bigger towns Portland, Sacramento, etc. Thanks about all. Lots of boxes. Also check of Big Bear City or Lake, from Yogi’s book everyone buys there.
good luck
Jason
Jason Jimenez
Squid is actually hiking the WCT right now and plans to finish on his 50th b-day on Jan 10th. After that he says he will update, with our input as well, his data base and then publish it on the web. I will provide links to it from www.thawookie.com.
Sorry to distract from the current thread, but there are now two ways to walk the tri-fecta for the coastal states.
Good reply Jason.
Tha Wookie