Hey everyone. I have 2 weeks till i hit the trail and im still working on figuring out my mail drops. At first, i planned alot of maildrops, then decided "screw mail drops, im j/ gonna hike" then i wanted to have some places where people can mail me stuff. Now i dont know what to do. Ive started to plan a mail drop once a week, but i feel like that may be too many.

Any suggestions?

Wing it....

gather up your wings and fly

Good, succinct advice from those above. don't be a slave to a schedule. the trail is about freedom Baby. . . yeah!:)

Wing it man, most plans turn 2 poo w/ the first step ne way

I never did a maildrop for food, just maps , clothing, etc. No bounce box either. Wing it.

It is good to have a support person to send you stuff if you need it. I had a spreadsheet but that went by the wayside pretty quickly...

I planned the first 40 days and then realized it was all for nothing since I have no idea how fast I will hike or what the weather will be. I had the same approach to mail drops as well. I leave in 4 weeks and have not planned a single one but will probably do a few in the begining. If you are like me you have already read so much you have probably already planned a million different scenarios in your head. So now just sit back and let the hike happen.

Go with the flow Sargent Sadanko.

Plan it first, then wing it. Itineraries are a waste of time. Mail drops thoroughly optional.

I always plan vacations and hiking trips to the hilt..just cause it is fun to plan..gets one thinking about it!

However.. you are just as well of winging it. As others have said... your carefully planned schedule will very quickly become irrelevant. One hikes longer or shorter distances daily based on all sorts of factors.

Also...mail drops.. while very useful in places are totally optional. One can get through all most all the trail buying along the way.

I will say though having a contact person at home whom you can mail unnecessary stuff to and get stuff back from (ie sent warm bag hom, get summer sleeping bag, and reverse process in fall) can be very usefull!


DavidNH

there are a couple of places where drops can be usefull. Id just find someone to mail them to you when you call for them.

Wing it. If you can call ahead a week in advance and have your maps sent, then you're golden. Maybe go ahead and plan one maildrop for Fontana and possibly Neel's Gap, but forget messing with the rest until you figure out if you even want to deal with it.

Worst case is to go ahead and tell your people's a a few towns that you pretty much can plan on taking a zero in during the first month or two (Damascus? Hot Springs?)

i just wrote down a list of 10 POs that i'd stop and check and gave the list to my parents and other relatives incase they wanted to send me anything and then I would just approximate the first couple maybe and then send them the ETA for the others on the phone or by email. some times i got something, sometimes i didn't. sometimes it got there after i did. sometimes i wrote the wrong zip code on the sheet and it ended up in milliknocket, and not monson.

other than that, I wung it?

Fly fly fly.....fly fly fly (in the words of Hannibal Lecter) :D

Hey everyone. I have 2 weeks till i hit the trail and im still working on figuring out my mail drops. At first, i planned alot of maildrops, then decided "screw mail drops, im j/ gonna hike" then i wanted to have some places where people can mail me stuff. Now i dont know what to do. Ive started to plan a mail drop once a week, but i feel like that may be too many.

Any suggestions?

=========================================

I'd go with a little of both ...but definitely do the planning AHEAD of time and not on the trail. Once you're hiking just take it as it comes.

'Slogger

You can pretty much get away from food drops, but if you're carrying maps (recommended) you'll need to 1- have a drift box or 2- have someone sent them to you. This also goes for cold/warm weather gear.

I am planning some... but planning on winging it more

There are really very few places on the Trail where it's a good idea to send yourself food. Unless you're on some sort of special or restricted diet, you'll be able to get just about everything you need while en route.

If you look in the Articles section of this website, you'll find all sorts of information on good places to Re-Supply.

You'll obviously be getting stuff from home periodically, like clothes, replacement gear, maps, and so on, but actual food maildrops are unnecessary for most folks these days.

I wrestled with this too....Ive ALWAYS traveled and winged it and have always had good luck in doing so, so Im letting the good times roll.

- Ian

Be free. You can hike the entire trail without a food drop or bounce box.

The hardest part of the AT for me was getting to the trail and going home when it was over. The data book and thru hiker companion gave me all the information I needed. I tried to get a special dog food for Winter in the early part of the AT but the post office just didn't work for me. Winter didn't have a problem switching dog foods as I anticipated that she would. Pat from Maine does more planning for us when we hike other trails. Resupply and town stops are often not as easy as on the AT. Just let your hike unfold for you...don't try to pre-write what will happen. In the beginning you may question your choice to hike the AT but that will fade as you adjust to the AT. Seasons will change and by NH or Maine you may start feeling like you've been out there forever. Don't worry about it... that will morph into a combination of excitement of approaching Katahdin and a weird sadness that the end is near. When you come down from Katahdin you will begin a strange decompression. As you recall your hike you will smile at so many things that you could not possibly have anticipated. It takes a while to get your mind around what you have experienced and you will know why so many go back again and again to enjoy "the hike."
Plan...."you don't need no sticken plan."

A little planning won't hurt. Especialy for the first few weeks. What I did was look at the Data Book, figure out what kind of miles I thought I'd be doing and figure out where and when I would resupply. I did this just so I thought I was leaving home with a plan and I could let others, at home, know where I would be.
I soon learned that much planning wasn't necessary. I would resupply and using the Data Book figure where and when I'd be doing it again. I would than buy enough to get me to that resupply point. That method worked well for my whole hike.
As far as food drops and bounce boxes are conserned. My feeling is, the less you depend on the off trail world, the more you will enjoy the freedom of an AT thru-hike. Most hikers get sick of eating the same stuff after a while. If you purchased food and are sending it out as food drops you probably will give most of it away or leave it in a hiker box. Most of the stuff, hikers put in a bounce box and keep shipping ahead are things you can buy or get for free along the trail.:)

I have my hike TOTALLY planned, down to what to eat at each rest stop for the first 4 days, and where to have my rest stops.

Also in that plan is the "plan" to burn the above mentioned plan at the first fire pit I come to & then wing it the rest of the way. (WOW, the word "plan" 3 times in the same sentence.)

I too started with the idea to have ALOT of mail drops. I have cut that to 6, and each one is about 1/2 of the stuff that I originally planned for each. The article Jack mentioned would at least be a good read, & printing it out isn't a bad idea either.


Doctari.

Asside from the pros and cons of plans or lack of them, it seems to me that hikers should do their best to support the communities along the trail. The AT is an important part of their economy. They do much to support the hikers so reciprocity seems to be in order.

wing it wingador. planning is for the flightless birds. fly man!

Family needs to have some idea of when you expect to be where. So, do some planning. As Jack posted, there is plenty of information available.

Coupled with this, bear in mind that any schedule needs to be kept flexible. Some times, you will want to hike along. Other times, you will want to linger. So, don't be a slave to your schedule.

I planned my thru-hike. The schedule was conservative, but family was able to track my progress and knew when I expected to be where.

In planning, I did this way-too-complex analysis of distance and resupply that resulted in interlinked Excel spreadsheets and nifty graphs. Put in a few variables and it spits out all sorts of idealized schedules. The simulation shows only a couple spots where some extra effort is required to keep decent resupply intervals down to no more than four days. With that in hand (and my experience of carrying super-heavy packs for desert trekking) I was delighted to realize that all these drops are nothing but a logistic headache that invites error and frustration.

I vote "wing it" and shall definately do so on my stroll. It'll save some postal worker a hernia and let me focus more on not focusing on anything.

AW

haha awesome. thanks everyone. i think winging it sounds more fun anyways.. its like.. spontanious haha

The article Jack mentioned would at least be a good read, & printing it out isn't a bad idea either.


Doctari.


Just a note on what I did. I downloaded the printable version of Jack's resupply notes and cut the parts I wanted to reference or remember as I progressed up the trail, and pasted them into an email. I emailed all the information to myself at my pocketmail. Now, I have his info w/me all the time for the first leg of the trip to VA. Just an idea I thought I'd share.

I'm doing only 1 maildrop...at Fontana Dam, and I don't have it pre-made or anything. I'll probalby just mail myself one from an earlier town and/or have a few things sent from home. Other than that...no mail drops, no bounce box. This trail and the wonderful community that has formed around it have made it possible for all of us to hike w/out a ton of planning, so THANKS!!!!