Can anybody share their strategies for resupplying at stores along the way for a “week” of food?
I sent myself food every several days last summer, so I really don’t know how to shop locally or stay on the trail a week at a time.
Linguini
The Food thing - Appalachian Trail
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#2
That’s a problem, sort of. Some marts have everything while some have nothing more than a gas station would. When you’re looking at a shelf full of crap it’s hard to put together anything but a stick of pepperoni, some cheese and a loaf of blunder bread. Canned meats like chicken or crab. Find anything with rice or plain starches and some kind of spice…hot sauce, soy. If you carry a spice package, salt pepper, garlic, hot sauce or flakes you can doctor up about anything. Bagels and cheese w/pepperoni slices is tasty. Breakfasts can be cerial bars. Bloat meal. ooh, having last years mail drop for breakfast now! Ick. Just try to hit all the food groups and don’t mind eating dinner for breakfast and lunch at midnight. Some sort of fresh fruit, an apple or two. Just try to stay away from all the chemicals in the store bought food. If you luck out and hit a place with a deli you’re in. Get some subs. Or the rolls and get some lunch meat out of the case in the ziploc packages. On a cool trip it will make several meal before the chance of getting funky. Nuts, some little stores have gorp bags in the snack isle. You won’t need a thru hiker’s load since it’s only a week trip some don’t over due the quantity. Where do you plan to go? We’re all familiar with what stores are where I think.
Bushwhack
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#4
Cool, wanted to do that after last year. I weren’t thru yet. :>) Check out Spur’s East Coast trip from '99 I think? He had a lot of good info on what was were. He had fine luck getting food at the local stores. Some weird food but when you’re hungry who cares. The IAT web site and it’s support chapter are the best. Very helpfull.
Bushwhack
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#5
Linguini sir, from a hiker friend that has a relative that knows a person on the IAT Board, mail drops are interesting from a Priority point of view…they don’t do that in Canada. You can mail some kibbles to yourself but they can’t forward anything. Our friend needed drugs and had to mail them since out of country Rx’s wouldn’t fill them. If he missed a drop he was either dead or in a world of hurt. On the plus side the locals were great about hitching and even some let you camp in the yard, eat dinner with them whatever. Sound like the AT but different. Speaking french is a plus. And since the finished trail is rather new the locals will be interested in what you’re doing. It should be easy, you won’t starve.
B+B, the CMC
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#8
What do y’all think about this: After doing ski and running marathons and reading lots of sports nutrition books I have come to the conclusion that good nutrition on the trail is much more important than we all have realized. Maybe I am wrong, but this year I have experimented and am trying to get as much complex carbos protein and fat as I can. In the past it was Lipton dinners, candy, etc. for the most part. Those simple carbos just cause your sugar levels to yo-yo and don’t fill you up. The result (very unscientific since there are only 2 of us and no control) seems to be that we have much more stamina and are not starving whenever we hit a town. So, we carry lots of tvp type products, fruit, nuts, expensive nutrition bars, etc. Hint: watch out for the Adkins bars ==> they make you fart for miles. Has anyone else tried messing with their diet?
Old Man
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#9
the nuts and seeds and whole milk is real good for ya, and you don’t have to heat it. good for breakfast.
burning fat and sugar is good, (until you stop exercisin’ at the end of the thru-hike), but brutal on an empty stomach. the snickers thing works good for immediate energy transfer if you ate well at breakfast.
at the end of my hike, my sweat had no odor. so maybe I overlooked the salts, spices, and electrolytes.
my most satisfying trail dinner was whole rice and beans - real easy cookin’… stays warm, tasty, and good texture a long time. I had dehydrated my own, haven’t tried uncle bens.
Linguini
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#10
Addressing your initial question, my strategy was to look in Wingfoot and figure out if a Post Office was much closer to the Trail than a store. If it was a toss up, I went to the store rather than mail-drop.
Mail drops have the food and the quantity you thought you were going to want. Generally stores let me buy what I wanted at that time. For me, that was preferable.
For example, Glencliff is an obvious place for a mail drop. Unless the hostel sells something, can’t even buy a soda in that village. On the other hand, in Troutville, there is a new Krogers supermarket about 1/4 mile off the trail. In Hanover and Gorham, both the markets and Post Office are equally convienent. So, I favored the markets.
Works for me
Peaks