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  1. #1
    Nalgene Ninja flemdawg1's Avatar
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    Default Bounce box on JMT

    Anybody use a bounce box? I'm thinking of mailing ahead travel clothes and duffel bag for my trip home, if i"m doing all that I might as well put my chargers (cell and AA Li-ion charger), laundry detergent, toiletries (feminine products for DW) extra maps, etc. and send it to Red's Meadow.

  2. #2
    Saw Man tuswm's Avatar
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    "you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm

  3. #3
    Nalgene Ninja flemdawg1's Avatar
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    yep that was me.

  4. #4
    Saw Man tuswm's Avatar
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    who is DW? I took my GF with me. If you are going south. reds medows will come up so fast I dont know if any mail would get there from YNP before you get there. I think we started on a Sunday and were to reds by Tuesday. but I think reds is the best place for a resupply. easy bus in to and out of town and a full grocery store.


    we mailed food drops to reds medows and JMT ranch (food, batteries, sun screen, ....)

    at YNP we mailed a bounce box to whitney portel an hour before getting on the trail(travel clothes, charger, duffle bag, detergent and shower stuff, sandles to fit in box easier)

    at read meadows we picked up food drop (easy) and showered in a friends room, went in to town for new boots(GF would have got off trail there if she didn't find new boots) great outfitter in town footloose sports on the corner of laurel mountain rd and main street in mammoth. great store with SUPER knowledgeable staff. really knew about boots. If I had it to do over again I would have just gone in to town on the bus from red and bought food at the regularly priced grocery store. that way I could have got what ever I was in the mood for.

    then at the JMT ranch we picked up our bucket and bought a fuel canister. (turned out we never even used it) I heard there was other places near by to resupply that was much better. i was not impressed with the JMT ranch.

    Then at mt Whitney we hitched a ride to town no problem. a woman working at the store also worked at the hostel and gave us a ride. our bounce box was not at the hostel and we FREAKED. it was at the post office thank god. we did make a reservation and were able to get a room for just the two of us for a great price. it was like being in a hotel.

    there was a few places that would have been great to camp where I wish I would have spent the night but didnt do to daily mileage. 1000 island lakes and the lake right before the first big pass going south.

    Dude it was so amazing. I was only sad that we never descended to the Sequoya in kings. I have back packed in the big trees before. it was like backpacking in Jurassic park.
    "you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm

  5. #5
    Saw Man tuswm's Avatar
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    what else do you wana know. I could talk about the JMT all day long.
    "you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm

  6. #6

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    Bounce box implies you will be accessing the contents more then once. Pretty much Reds Meadows/Mammoth, and Independence (if you resupply over Keasarge Pass) are the only reasonable places for accessing a bounce box. And you can pretty much buy whatever you need there anyway. Places like VVR or Muir Trail Ranch are not good places to mail out a box and Tuolumne Meadows is too close to one end to bother.

    I'd carry your battery chargers, mail any necessities with resupply packages along the way and send your travel clothes to the end the same as you would a resupply box. No need to bounce anything. You can do laundry in town (single use detergent is usually available) while wearing your rain gear and then wear your hiking clothes to go out in. And no, your clothes don't necessarily have to be trashed by the end of a JMT hike. It depends on the person, color choices, etc. I wore my PCT hiking clothes home from Canada on a 2-day ride on the Amtrak after doing laundry. No one suspected I was a hiker unless I told them.

  7. #7
    Saw Man tuswm's Avatar
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    we didnt even bother with cell phones while we were there. or maybe you could take it and not turn it on unless you need it. that way you can mail the charger? its only 200 miles
    "you cant grow old if you never grow up" ~TUswm

  8. #8
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    What's wrong with Muir Trail Ranch for a bounce box? I am planning to go from Reds Mtn to the Whitney Portal in Sept. Three days to the ranch, re-supply, and then 6 days to the portal.
    Pain is a by-product of a good time.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by fredmugs View Post
    What's wrong with Muir Trail Ranch for a bounce box? I am planning to go from Reds Mtn to the Whitney Portal in Sept. Three days to the ranch, re-supply, and then 6 days to the portal.
    Muir Trail Ranch is a normally a place you can mail a resupply package to, not from. They do say they will mail out stuff for a handling fee, but the fee to mail the bucket there (note their very specific rules on mailing stuff to them) costs $55 above the postage costs. They only promise to go to the post office once a week, so it may take time for them to mail out your bounce box which is sent on the western side of the Sierra and all other JMT towns, other then VVR and Yosemite Valley, are on the eastern side with no nearby road crossing the mountains. So it would take alot of time for your bounce box to arrive at Lone pine so you'll have to wait around for it. Doesn't seem very practical.

  10. #10
    I Keep Forgetting I Forgot That HYOH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by flemdawg1 View Post
    Anybody use a bounce box? I'm thinking of mailing ahead travel clothes and duffel bag for my trip home, if i"m doing all that I might as well put my chargers (cell and AA Li-ion charger), laundry detergent, toiletries (feminine products for DW) extra maps, etc. and send it to Red's Meadow.
    If you're an average hiker, your bounce box would never catch up with you especially if you use Muir Ranch as one of your drop/send point.The JMT is only 211 miles long. All the resupply points will charge you the same package handling fee whether it be a resupply cache or a bounce. Muir charges $50 and I can't see how that that would be worth it for a 10 day bounce. Just send em an overstocked 5 gallon bucket and share what you don't need. There aren't a lot of trees in that section but there's a YOGI behind everyone. Just send your "back to reality" necessities to Lone Pine with an arival guesstimate date on the package.

  11. #11
    Registered User schnikel's Avatar
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    I agree with HYOH. MTR,VVR, and Red's all charge to hold any packages for you, from $35 to $55. Thats a lot of money to spend for a bounce box. Not to mention the amount of time it would take for these places to get to a P.O. to forward your box to the next spot. My wife and I resupplied at Red's and MTR. You could send some things you don't want to carry in your bucket to MTR, or send a box to the P.O. at Lone Pine. We sent one there from San Fran before our hike that had clean clothes for the flight home along with some other things we didn't need on our hike but wanted afterwards; i.e. shoes, phone charger, etc. It seemed to work well for us.
    Schnikel

  12. #12
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    If you are going to just want clothes for the ride home, why don't use see if the store at Whitney Portal will hold a package for you if you are doing a SB and if you are doing a NB then Yosemite will hold a package I am sure....

  13. #13

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    Actually, why not just buy a cotton t-shirt geared for tourists at your destination and wear that home. You know the type, "I climbed Mt. Whitney and all I got was this stupid t-shirt."

  14. #14

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    Haven't read all the posts in the two threads but you don't need a bounce box just a food drop to Vermillion Valley Resort and maybe Independence if you want to resupply there. Kearsarge Pass Trail is awesome and worth the extra miles.

    What you could also do is, if you wear travel clothes and put your pack in a duffle for the trip out, put your clothes in the duffle once you arrive and mail that to Whitney Portal Hostel for the trip home.

  15. #15
    Peachfuzz
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    I really don't think you need to worry about a bounce on the JMT.

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