Good/Favorite Foods for maildrops

imported
#1

Hola All,

In my typical procastinatory stile I’m preparing/planning my maildrops for my March 2005 thru-hike. I’d like to know what some successful thru hikers have put in their maildrops as far as food, and what was successful and what was … not so successful.

So far I’ve got:
Pasta
Ramen
Powerbars (got a great deal at my local supermarket < $.50/bar)
Peanut Butter
Crackers
Instant Oatmeal
GORP
Lipton Noodles

Ideas and suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Wyatt (as yet trailnameless)

Wyatt (as yet trailnameless)

#2

try to mix up it a little. you are bound to get sick of something if it comes to you in every single maildrop. if you can find a diversity of foods to send to yourself then you are more likely to not get bored with the food.

Nightfever

#3

It is a little more expensive than some alternatives, but I love the Mountain House Turkey Tetrazinni (I am sure I spelled this incorrectly.)

Ambler

#4

Forget Powerbars in March. When it’s cold outside Powerbars are near impossible to chew.

jEFF

#5

god they suck…

successful food:

Cheese Fondue in shelf stable packs
Beef Stew in shelf stable packs
Chili in shelf stable packs

Cheddarwursts in non shelf stable packs

forget pre-buying food. You will find all the free oatmeal and ramens you could ever want in hiker boxes. That’s where they usually end up. I would say forget maildrops and buy stuff in towns… Towns are never more than 3-5 days apart and you can buy what you crave when you crave it. I am still lugging sround crap I did not eat from last year.

Aswah

#6

god they suck…

successful food:

Cheese Fondue in shelf stable packs
Beef Stew in shelf stable packs
Chili in shelf stable packs

Cheddarwursts in non shelf stable packs

forget pre-buying food. You will find all the free oatmeal and ramens you could ever want in hiker boxes. That’s where they usually end up. I would say forget maildrops and buy stuff in towns… Towns are never more than 3-5 days apart and you can buy what you crave when you crave it. I am still lugging sround crap I did not eat from last year.

Aswah

#7

If there is something in your locality that you can’t possibly buy anywhere else, have it sent.

Not the common stuff, though. Once you’ve mailed the Pasta, Ramen and half-price Power bars, you will have spent far more than the price you’d pay for them on the Trail.

USPS Money Orders can be cashed right at the post office and can be sent with a nice letter from home with much less cost and hassle.

(wishing I thought of all this before I made up that nice little care package that cost $8 to send
:wink: )

Wild Hare

#8

As Wild Hare stated shipping can wipe out savings. When I went last year I had 3 maildrops. When I go in '05 and I will have at least 8 maildrops. My reasons for adding the maildrops are:

  1. I was able to find many “buy one get one free” deals on what I ate as trail food.

  2. I was able to get my hands on many “free” dinners from a local supply (lucky here).

  3. I will have my maildrops packed, weighed, and paid for before I leave. Call it sixes, but I consider it better to have it paid for before I have no real income coming in.

  4. There were 3 or 4 places I ran into last year where I wished I had a maildrop because the selection was poor or more expensive. I don’t mind paying the price but it did bother me that the price were 1/3 or higher than the last time I saw the item.

  5. If you have a good “home base” person you can have the packages sent regular mail instead of priority and that alone will save you a lot of money.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Cuppa Joe

#9

If I were to do it again, the only thing I would send in Mail Drops are maps and Travelers Checks. You won’t save much, if any, money sending food…and you WILL GET SICK OF GORP. I don’t know why I didn’t just believe those who told me that while I was planning.
There are a few towns, however, that I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND SENDING FOOD TO.
SEND FOOD TO FONTANA DAM!!! Especially if you are there in the first 3 weeks of March or so. The store isn’t even open until the end of March, so you WILL BE SCREWED. The nearest supermarket is …i don’t even remember, but i think it took us almost an hour to get there. Even after the store opens, i hear the selection is bad with there still being a big crowd of hikers around to suck the supply dry.
Also send food to Port Clinton and Bear Mountain. I couldn’t tell you much about New England cause I was able to get rides from friends alot of the time to resupply whereever. GOOD LUCK CLASS OF '05!!

Leki-Less

#10

I concur with some of the above. If possible, don’t buy all your food ahead of time because you might get very sick of it. I think the best arrangement is to have a person who is willing to arrange and send your food drops to you. Myself, I bought much of my food along the trail, such as ramen and Lipton,cheese, peanut butter, etc. So my food drops from home were things I couldn’t find easily on the trail: homemade granola, TVP (textured vegetable protein), soy protein bars, protein drink, olive oil, vitamins, glucosamine, etc. I had a coding system for my resupply person indicating which mail drops needed what: short term resupply, long term resupply, and total resupply. Port Clinton and Bear Mountain were both total resupply, some of the rare occasions when there was no food available locally. Although there is a convenience store in Fort Montgomery (next to Bear Mountain) with scanty provisions. Think flexibility. And have a great hike! Rainbow

Rainbow

#11

what they say is true. buy it along the way, with only a few maildrops. the ones lekiless mentioned and the NOC can be a handy one, you can just skip it but why not cut the wieght down? and glencliff, nh. maybe monson, me. but you are gonna be in the supermarket anyway buying bread so just get your noodles while youre at it. then you can figure out whats good as you go, get sick of it and find something else.

milo

#12

Thanks for all of the advice guys, I think I’ll trim my maildrops down quite a bit now, I’m glad I asked before I bought TOO much stuff.

So suggested maildrop (total resupply) locations are Fontana Dam, Port Clinton, Bear Mountain, and the NOC. If anyone else has any suggestions please let me know.

And thanks everyone for all of your help.

Wyatt (as yet trailnameless)

#13

Just personally, I would also drop at:
Inn at Long Trail (Killington) I think this was a difficult hitch
Andover, only a couple of mini-marts if you wanted to skim it
Catawba, there is a small store here, but I didn’t think it had much variety
Walasi-yi, I was astounded by the $1.50 Liptons so far south
Delaware Water Gap, unless you take the shuttle or hitch to Stroudsburg
Bastian/Bland, another mini-mart type place
I had a total of 11 drops, but I can’t remember the others. However, I was less willing to hitch when I first started planning and so planned my maildrops to minimize having to hitchhike.

zero

#14

Selections in Andover were limited, but sufficed. Also, I didn’t have any trouble with Catawba Grocery Store. Plus they had the best hot ham & cheese sandwich i’ve ever had. Plus the girl behind the counter was hott.

Leki-Less

#15

The pizza in Andover was pretty hot, too :wink:

By the way, have any of you ever tried getting Cream of Wheat in trail towns? This is an awesome alternative to oatmeal. I know of only one trailjournal-ist who ever used this. Nor have I heard of anyone eating it in any book (say, for example, On The Beaten Path or As Far As The Eye Can See).

Is it simply not available in the South (or south of Maine)? I would definitely put some in a maildrop - it’s awesome w/Raisins on a cold morning.:smiley:

Kineo Kid

#16

used them in Y2K…they were a pain…you only need to miss a saturday p.o. closing once…hiked a while in '01, canoed a long nong way in '01,canoed a few weeks in '02, hiked a while in '04 and didn’t miss them one bit… loved having the variety that even an under-supplied, over-priced wayside provided…i’ll never forget the place that only had 4 lb. beefsticks and no cheese, crackers or bread…2 of them lasted me 3 days…:lol :cheers :x

fausa