Hey everybody, I need the advice of the old hands. I’m definately heading back to the trail this coming year. I have the backing of the university as this is for an Honors thesis in Kinesiology with a study of nutrition and body changes due to the rigors of the trail. I’m looking at a March 1st start date but am recieving some pressure to start much earlier so that we can also get a baseline for cold weather hiking. I’m not concerned with the cold, that I can handle. But I’ve never been in the App’s in the south in February. I’m concerned that some of the drop points may not be available to me that early in the season. I have to do many extra food drops as diet will be closely monitered during the hike. Re-suppling locally will have to be a last resort issue as it becomes difficult to adequately measure ingredients on foods. They would like to see how the food requirements change over the climatic spectrum (IE, dead of winter through the heat of summer). This is something I have to seriously consider doing. Does anybody have any recommendations one way or the other? Any problems you forsee? Advice on alternative drops in the early season?
Thank you in advance for your help.
BearKat