Food and Ressuply on the trail

Planning how we are going to eat on the trail has been a big thorn in our side while planning for the trail. We constantly are asking ourselves the following questions:

* Where do we resupply at? * Do we send ourselves food or buy while we are in town?

* How do we ensure we are eating to replace the 3k+ calories we burn a day?

* How do we ensure we do not get sick of what we are eating (who wants to eat mashed potatoes for half a year)? Using a popular resupply point site in combination with Half Way Anywhere we narrowed down all the popular resupply locations. https://planyourhike.com/planning/resupply-points/

https://www.halfwayanywhere.com/trails/pacific-crest-trail/pct-resupply-guide-2018/ We then printed off the full list of locations (90+) with notes about where was popular, our expected arrival date and what the town had to offer. Using this information in combination on our estimated arrival date to the area we were able to narrow down the list to 26 resupply spots. Here is the list of our resupply points and our estimations (** You may have to navigate to the sheet/tab is is named "Resupply Points"): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LiJpVf4JkbuB_6VelRg8Ciy7MPjkBk1BwDhWRI0T3rs/edit?usp=sharing

We researched each town and kept notes on what they had to offer, post office times and other information. Using our researched information we tagged each location in 1 of 3 ways.

Some Food and Snacks we sent ourselves

1. Resupply in town - This town has a good enough grocery store for us to buy food for the next few days on the trail and potentially other areas of the trail.

2. Bounce Box - A bounce box is a box of food that was sent from somewhere else on the trail to a location. Bounce boxes are cheaper than resupplying in town. However, they also allow us to have more control of our diets while on trail. Ensuring we are not eating oatmeal for every breakfast.

3. Sending a package from home - This means that ahead of time we send a package full of food to ourselves while on the trail.

There are benefits and cons to all 3 methods. Resupplying while on trail allows you to have variety in your diet and make nutritional changes while on the trail. However, it is more expensive than any other option. Sending a package from home is cheaper than the other 2 options. However, it requires more time and effort, it also makes it harder to provide variety while on trail.

As a result of all the pro's and cons we decided to send ourselves packages from home only when it is highly inconvenient to resupply in town, or there is a gear item from home we need. We settled on 7 of the 26 stops being from home. The remaining meals we are trying to resupply while on the trail or using a bounce box to send food ahead. It will cost us a little more in the long run. However, it will provide a moral boost to be able to control our diets and not get sick of the same food.

Our seven boxes plus our initial starting food came out to be roughly ~45 (25%) of our ~180 meals. With these boxes we included hygiene items such as baby wipes, q-tips, shampoo, lotion, bandanas, and other trivial supplies to boost moral while on the trail.

To ensure we go the nutrition we needed we packed as many dehydrated vegetables as we could. Using my family's dehydrator to dehydrate things such as: corn, peas, meat and fruit. This helped us ensure we had a nutritious meal while ensuring we had some variety. With every day's meal we included electrolyte drink mixes, coffee, sugar, flavoring packets and 3 granola/protein bars to ensure we get the needed calories for the day.

After all said and done we packed 90+ breakfasts and dinners. Over 270 snacks/granola bars. in a total of 16 packages. This will cover 25% of our trail.

If you would like to send us a package while we are on the trail please coordinate with us ahead of time. There are some restrictions about where and how you can send packages.