Developing a Resupply Strategy

I could easily teach a college course on thru-hiking resupply strategies.  You can only hike as far as the calories you carry.  Getting it right is critical.  Carry too much, and you are dragging through the day.  Carry too little and you are begging other thru-hikers for food.  I fretted about resupply before I left, not knowing that I would have all day to fret about it some more once I was hiking.

On the PCT, I really only screwed up twice.  Fortunately, nether mistake turned into something critical.  

I screwed up leaving Idylwild, California.  I assumed I would be able to hike about sixteen-to-twenty miles a day.  It turns out that the combination of altitude changes, long water carries, and the intense heat meant that I struggled to hike ten-to-twelve.  I wasn't the only one.  My two hiking partners were also out of food, so we ended up bailing early into Big Bear Lake.  It took us hours to hitch a ride into town off this seldom used road.

I also messed up at the end.  I misunderstood what a trail closure meant coming into Stehekin, Washington.  A simple sixteen mile hike into town turned into a 28+ mile day trudging through the rain and snow in the mountains.  By then, I was in excellent shape and simply pounded out the miles into Holden Village.

On the PCT, there were three types of towns.  Towns I resupplied in.  Towns I forwarded a box to prior to reaching there.  And, towns I shipped a box from home.  My daughter was my quartermaster for that hike, a role I hope she will fill for this hike.  On the PCT, I shipped one box to Warner Springs, California before I left.  My daughter resupplied me by shipping boxes all through Washington.

There is one caveat to my resupply strategy.  That was my shoes and contacts.  My shoes and contacts were shipped from home, even to towns with excellent resupply options and an outfitter.  My daughter shipped new shoes to me roughly every 500 miles and I would order a new set to home until I needed them.  For the AT, I will be wearing glasses, but I'll still have shoes shipped as necessary.

The nice thing about the AT is that as it is the senior national trail and much more popular, resupply is much simpler.  There seem to be a ton of resupply options right on trail!  Still, I'm going to follow the same strategy for the AT as I did for the PCT.  I will resupply as I go and forward boxes as necessary, with a couple of exceptions. This should help me avoid food boredom.  There are seven places where local resupply is not really an option, based upon my initial analysis.  They are:

1. Fontana, NC.
2. Mountain Harbor Hostel, TN
3. Troutdale, VA
4. Atkins, VA
5. Harpers Ferry, WV
6. Duncannon, PA
7. Monson, ME

Fontana is at mile #167, so I will ship a box there prior to me leaving.  I will have a box shipped from home for Monson.  Monson is at mile #2074, so I'll be in tip-top shape.  They do recommend ten days of food for the One Hundred Mile Wilderness!  We will see how things go.  One thing I know is that if you did 20 miles a day on the PCT, you'll do about 15 miles on the AT.  Looking at other peoples' hikes, I'm going to be doing roughly 10 miles a day until Tennessee.  We'll see how it goes.

To help me sort all of this out, I'm using two sources.  I have purchased the entire AT for Far Out.  That will be the tool I use on a day-to-day basis.  I also purchased the AT Guide.  I found a couple of peoples itineraries to help guide me as well.

Much work to do!