Maildrops on the PCT

imported
#1

Conventional wisdom seems to be to maildrop as seldom as possible (changing appetite/tastes/pace, what if you don’t finish the trail, etc). But this is gleaned from a few very opinionated people.

I’d like to ask a survey to get a bit more fact based information, if you have a minute can you add your thoughts?

  1. approximately how many full food maildrops did you use?
  2. approximately how many partial maildrops did you use (ie sent yourself the basics, then bought fresh food in town)?
  3. were you satisfied? If no, what would you change?
  4. did your method provide you with tasty, nutritious, varied meals (ie not ramen and pop tarts every night)?
  5. are there any meals/snacks that you especially liked and didn’t get tired of?

Thank you!
Sophie

Sophie

#2

Sophie - to answer your questions - on 2 PCT thru hikes ('97&'05)

  1. Zero
    (2) Zero
    (3) Yes
    (4) Yes
    (5) Various Liptons & i was satisfied with Snickers :slight_smile: amoung other snacks.
    Although I didn’t have any food maildrops (except Warner Springs in '97), I had about 6 or 7 small equipment/guidebook section maildrops. The guidebooks are quite large and heavy for the PCT, so I split them into convenient sections and had my mom mail them to me using flat rate Priority Mail envelopes. In these drops I included batteries for my headlamp (much cheaper bought in bulk ahead of time), a couple kitchen trash bags (for sleeping bag & clothes), a disposable razor, and any other important small items or letters that I had received while away. I had my ice-axe shipped to Kennedy Meadows in '97. (in '05 I flip-flopped)

I am not picky about food, & I found plenty of items to buy or find in hiker boxes all the way up the trail. Places like Warner Springs have become much more hiker oriented, in terms of food, over the years, so it is very easy now to hike without any food drops unless you have specific food needs.

Have a great hike!

freebird

#3

Its easier then you are lead to believe.

I sent only map sections to various places, but overall there are plenty of places to resupply. A lot of great towns aren’t even listed in any of the books, some are closer then some of them listed.

If you box out Special stuff you want to various places fine, but if you bulk buy and ship you will spend a great deal of money that you don’t have to

lion king

#4

I think the Buy as you go and mail ahead method is very satisfactory for the PCT. I’m probably a lot pickier about my food than freebird is, but I can still only think of a few places where a maildrop would be necessary or convenient- belden, Burney falls state park, mazama village (crater lake), white pass, and it is 100% more convenient to mail ahead to these places than to mail to them from home, for all of the reasons you mentioned and more.
I think if I did the PCT again, the answers to your questions would be: 1) 0 2) 4-5 (mailed ahead, not from home) 3)yes 4)yes 5) there’s no such thing as trailfood I don’t get tired of :wink:

Remy

#5

We did a few maildrops in southern California. There were really limited supplies at the stores and they were pretty much out when we got there. If you leave at the time of the ADZPCTKO don’t count on there being much there unless you are at the head of the hordes. Mt. Laguna, Warner Springs, Agua Dulce, and Kennedy Meadows all got maildrops. The rest of the way through California we resupplied as we went. In Washington and Oregon we bought in the towns (Ashland and Cascade Locks) and mailed ahead to the resorts. Supplies there were very limited and very expensive (i.e. $1.50 for a candy bar).

At this point I know what I will and won’t eat. I’m not picky, but several of the Liptons are no longer on my backpacking menu. Ramen never were. I don’t think I’ve eaten oatmeal on the trail for at least six years. My husband is actually much more picky than I am.

One advantage of maildrops is you can get more variety if you are shopping at a good big supermarket, with some co-op purchases and big store bulk items thrown in. At some of the little places you may have three kinds of pasta or rice - not 20. You may have packaged tuna, but not chicken, salmon, etc. The groceries in Ashland and Cascade Locks were big enough to give you enough variety. You aren’t stuck with mac n cheese every night.

Ginny

#6

Ginny mentioned Agua Dulce as a maildrop location. There is a full service supermarket there now (and access to cars at the Saufley’s).

Yogi’s PCT Handbook has pretty accurate information on the type of resupply available at most of the PCT towns. I recommend it to all PCT hikers.

Radar

#7

This info is probebly in Yogi’s handbook, but I’m way too cheap to buy it.
Would a resupply in warner springs be possible, if im hiking north in the main pack? I walked via warner springs twice in 2003, sending myslef a package there the second time (one of only 3 maildorps I had on the whole PCT). At the time I would probebly have had a real hard time resupplying there in a cost affective way all the way to Idlewild. Are there any better grocery store there now? Though I’m normaly very much against maildrops, as they hurt the flexibilty, warner springs might be the exeption, especialy if one can buy and send the food from a cheap supermarket in San Diego. What do You think. Would there be any other good maildrops which would be signifecently cheaper than a buying in a town? (The pink motel - to which I sent my second maildrop no longer exists).

roni

#8

I hiked in 2003, so things change. But the idea remains the same. Flexibility is key, as is not letting unknown things put you off.

  1. I did food drops at Warner Springs (sent from home), Kennedy Meadows (from Agua Dulce), VVR (from AD), and Burney Falls State Park (from Sierra City).

  2. I sent no partial food drops.

  3. I was quite satisfied with this. If I were to hike again, I wouldn’t send the drops to VVR (buy there, only a couple of days to Reds Meadow) or Burney Falls State Park (buy at the park or go into the town of Burney).

  4. I’m not sure how nutritious the meals were, but I got enough calories to maintain a faster than normal pace (finished in 3.5 months) without feeling gassed. I had enough variety that I never really got sick of anything. I ate poptarts only a couple of times, though. I got a bit tired of Mac and Cheese and didn’t eat much of it for about 1000 miles. Overall, no problems here. I took a multi vitamin every day and made sure I had plenty of fat in my diet (bottle of olive oil).

  5. Carry a soda bottle of olive oil. It makes instant potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing, pasta and packet sauce, and Liptons a whole lot better. Lots of calories for low weight. I even put it in ramen. I never tired of nutella and peanut butter on tortillas. I ate between 2 and 6 candy bars (regular and king sized) per day and never tired of them.

Suge