generally speaking, how much do you save sending home prep foods ahead?

[ncmtns]

Im thinking I might just buy my food along the way on the hike instead of preparing and sending ahead of me. Is it worth the hassle to make and send food ahead of time, financially speaking?
thanks

[Lone Wolf]

Im thinking I might just buy my food along the way on the hike instead of preparing and sending ahead of me. Is it worth the hassle to make and send food ahead of time, financially speaking?
thanks

buy along the way. it costs much more in the long run to send food ahead.

[fiddlehead]

It's not about the money.
It's quality of life.
If you want to eat ramen, pop tarts, mac and cheese and ritz crackers all the way. Fine.
Up to you.

If you don't mind taking some time to prepare some tastier meals, like Thai hamburger curry, or bean burritos.......
Well like I said, up to you.

You're not gonna find Thai curry in Suches GA. (I've tried)
But you'll probably find Ritz and Ramen
Up to you!

If you're trying to do the trail as cheap as possible, Ramen noodles or just plain pasta with veggie oil is cheap.
Throw in a Little Debbie once in a while for variety.

[Ender]

Buy along the way. Too much hassle to do food mail drops. And most places, if you're creative, you can still come up with some decent trail meals.

[backtracker2]

If you are just considering cost, I would say that buying along the trail will be more expensive. Many resupply points will be from smaller stores with higher prices. For me, mail drops didn't work. I had trouble getting the right amount of food, to the right location, on the right day of the week, with food that I would be looking forward to eating. For those hikers that have fine tuned the mail drop process, I am pretty sure they are eating cheaper, and are eating meals more creative than ramen, cheese, and sausage. It just didn't work for me

[The Solemates]

more expensive to buy along the way, by exactly $23.17 per re-supply, or $653.23 for a thru-hike.

[Ender]

more expensive to buy along the way, by exactly $23.17 per re-supply, or $653.23 for a thru-hike.

Honestly, I found that I saved money by buying in town. Not having to pay the USPS to get my food to me really added up.

[Alligator]

Basically, you have to make up the postage in savings for every box you send. Ask yourself what is in the box and could you buy it on the trail or substitute what is in the box for food on the trail.

Personally, the meals I eat for dinner require a certain batch size that would be excessive on the trail. I'm sure I could develop a menu based on town resupply but I find that I would have to deal with missing items in meals and actually cooking so I prefer home dehydrated meals for dinners and occasionally lunches.

You also want to consider that there is an 80% chance that all the food you prep will not get eaten on your thru.

You can mix and match methods though, it does not have to be one way or the other.

[ChinMusic]

You're not gonna find Thai curry in Suches GA. (I've tried)

Maybe Blairsville now.............

[Colter]

The number one reason is about 75% of potential thru-hikers don't finish. Imagine the work and expense that goes into buying/preparing months of trail food that you end up not wanting. 1440 Powerbars, they made it 56 miles.

Mountains of relatively inexpensive food get shipped expensively and then not used by intended hikers. People very often (usually?) get sick of at least some of the stuff they thought they'd want before they hit the trail. The hiker boxes are full of often unidentifiable, often rancid home prepared meals. Also, very often people find they've shipped too much food. So they end up giving it away or carrying it which can mean significant excess weight.

Food drops work out best for those that complete the trail and who have special foods that they want.

[max patch]

The number one reason is about 75% of potential thru-hikers don't finish. Imagine the work and expense that goes into buying/preparing months of trail food that you end up not wanting. 1440 Powerbars, they made it 56 miles.

I met a young lady at rainbow Springs Campground (about mile marker 100 NOBO) who terminated her hike at that point because she wasn't having fun anymore. She had prepared mail drops with food she had already purchased -- including a Mountain House dinner every nite. She bought 180 of those things! That alone is close to $1,000 right there. Plus everything else....

[Slo-go'en]

As Colter pointed out, what are you going to do with all that bulk food you bought or all those meals you dehydrated if you don't make it very far? An occasional care package from home and a few food drops to select locations can be helpful, but don't go crazy.

[Lone Wolf]

I met a young lady at rainbow Springs Campground (about mile marker 100 NOBO) who terminated her hike at that point because she wasn't having fun anymore. She had prepared mail drops with food she had already purchased -- including a Mountain House dinner every nite. She bought 180 of those things! That alone is close to $1,000 right there. Plus everything else....

this happens more often than not. 20+ maildrops is not a bright thing to do

[Ender]

As Colter pointed out, what are you going to do with all that bulk food you bought or all those meals you dehydrated if you don't make it very far? An occasional care package from home and a few food drops to select locations can be helpful, but don't go crazy.

Or if you just get tired of the food you set up in your mail drops. I ran into plenty of people who wanted to trade out their mail dropped food with other hikers because they were sick of it.

[Lone Wolf]

Or if you just get tired of the food you set up in your mail drops. I ran into plenty of people who wanted to trade out their mail dropped food with other hikers because they were sick of it.

i used to hang out at the fontana post office when hikers got their boxes. they ALWAYS get rid of stuff they don't want

[RWheeler]

Or if you just get tired of the food you set up in your mail drops. I ran into plenty of people who wanted to trade out their mail dropped food with other hikers because they were sick of it.

Coming from the perspective of someone resupplying in town, I'd probably gladly trade my shop-food with stuff from a mail drop if I came across someone that started "getting sick" of their food. At least for a short resupply.

Change of pace for both is a very good thing.

[garlic08]

Coming from the perspective of someone resupplying in town, I'd probably gladly trade my shop-food with stuff from a mail drop if I came across someone that started "getting sick" of their food. At least for a short resupply.

Change of pace for both is a very good thing.

Balancing it out is a good thing.

And another approach is a hybrid one, to make mail drops as you hike. You get to a decent grocery every few hundred miles, buy the stuff you're eating and craving at that point, make a couple of drops with boxes from the back of the grocery store, schlep them to the PO, and you're set for a few weeks. Repeat as needed.

I agree trying to set up your dietary needs for a 2000+ mile hike from home, especially if you've never done one before, is usually futile.

[Papa D]

Plan on most of your re-supplies by just shopping - you can get pretty creative shopping too - not just ramen noodles and pasta sides. Use mail drops for specialty things like pre-measured portions of spices that will dress up your food or items that you'd really have to search for - for me, that's my seitan primal strips (vegetarian jerky) and Spike brand seasoning - might be something else for you. Also mail drop things that you can't readily get - medication, contact lenses, or other specialty items. There is no point in my opinion in shipping yourself macaroni and tuna fish. Also, regarding Lone Wolf's post above (poor lady): I don't get why so many people waste so much money on Mountain House meals. Every now and then, I eat one, but they are not a staple - I can prepare better trail food and the cost is silly. They are great fare for the weekend backpacker. I might even go so far as to say they are the training wheels of backpacking food. By and large, thru-hikers are much more tuned in to meal preparation - planning on 180 Mountain House meals for every night of a thru-hike is beyond ridiculous.

[Zipper]

You would be surprised at how much fantastic food and variety there is at Dollar General Store. And these are everywhere along the trail. Also, I still can't go into a gas station convenience store without imagining what foods I'd purchase there for a resupply. It's like a creative game! That said, I did have food mailed to me, but it was done as I went so I could adjust what I wanted. I don't think it saved money at all, but it was nice to be pampered that way. To save money, if you're not picky, I think it makes sense to buy food as you go. You'll get what you want at the time and you'll be surprised what kind of free high-quality food you can get in hiker boxes from people who are just tired of tuna or received too much food.

[The Solemates]

some have brought up excellent points about buying food and then quitting your hike and wasting all that money.

another thing to keep in mind though - when we got to town our general feel was that we wanted to be lazy - literally lay on the bed for half a day. after walking around town for a while, doing laundry, and other town chores, the last thing we wanted to do was walk some more to go get groceries. We did about half and half - half resupply on the trail and half resupply via USPS. we tried to minimize town chores - and we tended to look forward to the towns we came to that we could go get our box of food, then go crash and not have to worry about anything else.