You've got mail! Everything you need to know about maildrops on the A.T.

[twistwrist]

Hey you guys. I have been asked on multiple occasions to write an article about maildrops along the A.T. Here it is! It's downloadable as a pdf you can save on your phone and lists 1-3 maildrop addresses per town including the post office information and distance from the trail. If you find it helpful, please share! Cheers!

http://appalachiantrials.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-maildrops-on-the-appalachian-trail/
(http://appalachiantrials.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-maildrops-on-the-appalachian-trail/)

[Dogwood]

Some really good info you're sharing Twistwrist. :)

In my experience sending well in excess of 300 resupply boxes via USPS Med and Large size PRIORITY FLAT RATE boxes to USPOs across the U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii forwarding ahead is FREE only with certain levels of mailing such as PRIORITY. Maybe things have changed though. I'm not going to imply I'm a PO expert. Second, not every USPO(postal employee) you get on the phone is immediately willing to forward a box to another location sight unseen not presenting I.D. in person. Sometimes, it takes some convincing that you are indeed the mailer of a box that you want forwarded. I've sometimes had to go into a USPO show my ID to an employee while they call to the PO where I want my box forwarded from before they would forward the box.

[twistwrist]

Very interesting. Either I got lucky and all of my packages were sent Priority, or trail town post office's have more relaxed rules. Every time I called for a forward on my thru-hike, the post office willingly did it. I probably only utilized the "call and have it forwarded" perk 5-6 times total.

[peakbagger]

I used to live a few blocks away from the local PO in Gorham NH years ago and would drive by the PO in the AM. On Monday mornings there usually would be line of thru hikers sitting on the porch waiting for the PO to open as they had got there during the weekend. It happened during the week to a limited extent but Mondays were usually at least a dozen folks.

[left52side]

This is A great article.
Thank you for sharing.

[Fireplug]

Great info. Thanks a million. Question- do I need to notify the hostels or lodges where I plan on staying that I'm sending food drops?

[Greenlight]

Thanks, twistwrist, this is valuable info. I plan on resupplying my food supply in trail towns, but I already know that there are several items I'll be bouncing ahead of me, including rechargeable headlamp batteries and the charger (they're 123 Lithium Ions and they cost fifteen bucks each for non-rechargeables!)

[rafe]

Great info. Thanks a million. Question- do I need to notify the hostels or lodges where I plan on staying that I'm sending food drops?

That would be a good idea. Just simple courtesy, and to make sure they're still in business. Hostels and lodging along the AT come and go.

[rafe]

I used to live a few blocks away from the local PO in Gorham NH years ago and would drive by the PO in the AM. On Monday mornings there usually would be line of thru hikers sitting on the porch waiting for the PO to open as they had got there during the weekend. It happened during the week to a limited extent but Mondays were usually at least a dozen folks.

Years ago I needed to pick up a maildrop in Manchester, VT. As luck would have it I arrived in town on Saturday PM, just a bit too late for the Post Office. OK, so I killed the next day in town. On Monday AM, I had a nice breakfast and walked to the edge of town where the PO was. Breakfast was having its usual effect and I needed to find Fort Relief in the worst way, but the PO was still closed, and it was still too near to civilization to take relief in the woods. The thin woods nearby would not provide adequate cover. Oh my, that was unpleasant.

[jjozgrunt]

Thank you for the excellent info. I was Just going to start compiling a list for next year and now that is off the agenda. Just a questions, I'm going to try to always post to a business rather than a PO. Coming from Australia and we have only one carrier.
Does it matter if I use UPS or USPS for mail to businesses?

[left52side]

Thank you for the excellent info. I was Just going to start compiling a list for next year and now that is off the agenda. Just a questions, I'm going to try to always post to a business rather than a PO. Coming from Australia and we have only one carrier.
Does it matter if I use UPS or USPS for mail to businesses?

See there shipping policies but generally I think around 90 percent of the time you will find that USPS is the preferred method.
You can use A flat rate box which is very common and how I plan to use my mail drops,although with such A great list like this it is hard to cut down my mail drops which is what I was planning on doing to begin with lol.
Looks like im stuck right around 20 mail drops.

[Bronk]

I was thinking this morning...awhile back my cell phone started acting up on me so I went to Walmart and bought one of those prepaid phones...took my Simm card out of the old phone and put it into the new phone. Switched out the phones without having to even call the phone company.

Has anybody ever used this on the trail? You could put your phone in a bounce box and carry the tiny little Simm card with you. Then if you needed to make a call you could borrow a friend's phone and just put your simm card in for the call and then take it out when you were done. Not suggesting you yogi a phone for the whole hike but if several people were hiking together they could take turns being the one to carry the phone and everyone else could just carry their Simm cards. Has anybody thought of this before? Those throwaway pre-paid phones only cost about $15 at Wally world...maybe hostels could make them available if this idea catches on?