Tyger:
Except for the first week or so, and then for a few days in New Hampshire and Maine where the terrain will force most folks to cut their mileage back, I think you’ll be doing lots better than 10 miles per day well before you get to Damascus.
And as far as maildrops are concerned, unless you’re on some sort of specialized diet (kosher, no salt, vegan, etc.) there are very few places where it’s necessary or advisable to actually send yourself food parcels (off the top of my head, I’d suggest Fontana Dam, Harpers Ferry, Port Clinton, and Bear Mountain). Otherwise, you’ll find it easier to re-supply en route, unless you’re planning to prepare/dehydrate mist of your food in advance. On this Forum and on Whiteblaze.net, you’ll find all sorts of threads on resupply, shopping, diet, food suggestions, cooking/recipe tips, etc.
The important thing is don’t get roped into a rigid schedule…it’s great to have a rough guideline/schedule, especially if folks are planning to join you en route, or if you have to be at a certain place for a special event (family gathering, wedding, etc), but you can’t know on day 27 where you’re going to be on day 83. There are too many unforseen factors that can affect your “schedule” so don’t expect to follow your “guideline” exactly. You can certainly have a rough idea of where you’re going to be and when, but don’t try to over-plan it. Stay flexible, let things work out on their own, and you’ll be just fine.
Most folks seem to do 14-18 miles per day when they’re hiking all day, and some days you’ll do even better.
If you do the trip in 180 days (like most folks seem to), this works out to twlve miles a day, but then there will be zero-mileage days (as you will certainly take some days off), and many short days, usually the ones when you’re arriving in a town, or leaving after re-supplying.
However, in most cases, you’ll be hiking much more than 12 per day, depending on such factors as terrain, pack weight, your conditioning, health, the eweather, etc.
B. Jack
