Planning an itinerary

[Pajj]

Hello all,
I'm currently in the process of planning my 2015 thru hike, but I'm having trouble planning the actual hike itself. It's near impossible to plan how many miles I'll walk, where I'll resupply, where I'll camp, etc.. without actually seeing the trail and walking it. It seems irresponsible to just wing it, and I need some sort of plan so I can time my mail drops accordingly. Anyone have any advice on what they've done in the past to plan their itinerary/schedule?

[couscous]

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/content.php?221-Thru-hike-planning-spreadsheet-15-mile-plan
Be flexible. Weather will alter your schedule. Start hiking early each day to give yourself options. Eat what you plan to put in your mail drops for 2 weeks straight before you buy a 5 months supply.

[Spirit Walker]

Most people do just wing it, even those who start out with a plan. You're right, you don't know how quickly you'll get into shape, or what the weather will be like or how many days you'll want to take off along the way. Planning is good to figure out what the options are, but those who try to stick too closely to the plan often get injured because they aren't paying attention to the reality of the situation.

What I did on my hikes is start with a basic mileage idea - 12-13 mpd on the AT - and use that to figure out likely resupply options. Reality was that I often did better than that, so I'd get to my resupply town a day or two early. Not a problem. I just ate more in the day or two before reaching town. If I was going more slowly, then there were always towns where I could supplement what I was carrying. On my first hike, I did maildrops, but not that close together, so I supplemented in the towns between. On my second thru, I did mostly buy as you go, with a few exceptions, where I mailed myself food from bigger towns along the way. That worked for us on the CDT and PCT as well.

[Old Hiker]

Yep - I tried to plan, but too few miles at the beginning. Used the AT Companion A LOT !!!

Planned 10 - 14 per day - started at 8 !

Carried too much weight - have cut at least 10 - 15 pounds off so far.

Don't worry - too many places to bail, hitch, re-supply, etc. to really worry about it. Re-supply was easy - only needed mail drops a couple of times for gear. Easy to pick up food on or close to the Trail. I was wondering about that as well. I did mail food forward to Fontana from Franklin for the Smokies, though. Was told the store had limited supplies and it did. Can't remember the young man and his mom who was hiking with him, but they were correct in that.

Good luck - happy/safe hiking.

[bigcranky]

It's perfectly acceptable to wing it, seriously. Take 3-4 days of food and start hiking north from Springer. Get a good trail guide -- the ALDHA Companion or the AT Guide -- and use it to plan your resupply. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.

I think most hikers these days buy food in grocery stores in towns along the way. This frees you up from having to get to the Post Office at a certain time, and it doesn't cost much more especially when you consider the postage. Unless you have a very restricted diet, mail drops for every resupply tend to be something of a PITA, in my experience.

If you really want to send mail drops, then start with conservative mileage estimates and use Priority Mail, with which you can forward unopened packages if needed.

[Coffee]

Using Regional Rate B boxes makes mail drops much more affordable. Regional Rate B boxes have inside dimensions of 12" x 10 1/4” x 5", which is not much smaller than the Large Flat Rate boxes with inside dimensions of 12" x 12" x 5 1/2". But it is much, much cheaper. I used the regional rate box as a bounce box in Colorado this summer and paid between $7-8 each time I sent it down the trail (depending on distance). The large flat rate box is more than twice as expensive. The catch with the Regional Rate B box is that they are not readily available at post offices so you have to order them in advance. Also, you have to purchase postage online and print out a mailing label. For Colorado, I preplanned my bounces so I printed the labels at home and included them inside my bounce box. I used the same bounce box for the entire trip (four bounces) and it was pretty beat up at the end. So for a long trail thru hike, it would be important to arrange to have a fresh box available at certain points along the trail.

I plan to use a bounce box in the future to transport miscellaneous items I won't need on the trail such as medications, extra first aid supplies, chargers, etc. I also plan to include some of the items that are ridiculously expensive in trail towns such as bars. You can get Clif Bars at Wal Mart for about 90 cents each purchased in packs of 12. I've seen Clif Bars as expensive as $3 in some trail towns. If you go through 2-3 bars per day, the postage for the Regional Rate B box quickly pays for itself just on savings from energy bars alone.

Other than the egregious cases of overcharging, I'm happy to spend money in small town groceries on most things. Probably a 50% markup over a large town is reasonable but not 300%.

[Coffee]

BTW, credit for the Regional Rate box idea goes to Yogi who documented this in her Colorado Trail guidebook. I never would have known about these regional rate boxes if not for that book and I saved more than the cost of the book just on that alone.

[Lone Wolf]

Hello all,
I'm currently in the process of planning my 2015 thru hike, but I'm having trouble planning the actual hike itself. It's near impossible to plan how many miles I'll walk, where I'll resupply, where I'll camp, etc.. without actually seeing the trail and walking it. It seems irresponsible to just wing it, and I need some sort of plan so I can time my mail drops accordingly. Anyone have any advice on what they've done in the past to plan their itinerary/schedule?no itinerary and no mail drops for food. wingin' it is the way to go

[freightliner]

If you go to a wholesale club you can get food really cheap and could save a lot of money but planning every day meals is just way too hard. I don't know if this helps but just send yourself three day meals in each box and get the rest in town. The great thing about sending yourself food out on the trail is you can add catchup packets and that sort of thing where you can't buy them in town.

[jimmyjam]

Don't over think it. Start at Springer with about 3 to 4 days food. ReSupply at mountaincrossings and read your guide for how far to the next resupply point. Repeat this over and over. Be flexible.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[brian039]

Only plan you need for food is to start with 4 days worth to get you to Mountain Crossings. You really can't plan anything beyond that except for maybe a mail-drop to Fontana and Andover, ME, even that is debatable. You do need someone at home to send your cold weather gear to when it gets hot and make sure they send it back to you up North.

[hikehunter]

My plan for 2015 is simple.....I will mostly wing it. I plan to have a few boxes mailed to places like Hiawassee and other "lay over stops" ; you know "zero days". When i find my pace I can get the wife to mail out anything I might want. I even have a back-up hammock if needed.
When you mail a box mark it with "Hold for Hiker" the post offices do just that. There are other places like hostels and hotels that will take hiker boxes from the mail and hold them for you.
Relax enjoy the walk and you will find what works best for you. Good Luck

[lonehiker]

Hello all,
I'm currently in the process of planning my 2015 thru hike, but I'm having trouble planning the actual hike itself. It's near impossible to plan how many miles I'll walk, where I'll resupply, where I'll camp, etc.. without actually seeing the trail and walking it. It seems irresponsible to just wing it, and I need some sort of plan so I can time my mail drops accordingly. Anyone have any advice on what they've done in the past to plan their itinerary/schedule?

Download Mr. Tarlin's re-supply articles. It is all the itinerary planning that you will need. I copied it to a word document and deleted stuff I didn't need. I got it down to about 5 sheets of paper.