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View Full Version : Home brewed dehydrated meals vs. just buying food as you go



Lewis Clark
01-08-2019, 02:46
Do a lot of people make their own meals, pack them up and mail them to various points along the trail for pick up, or do you prefer to just buy supplies every week as you go along? I'm trying to figure out what would be most cost effective. I've been playing with making dehydrated meals, and am fairly sure I could do this, but postage has got to be a bear! Also, How often do you stop to resupply, or how many days of food do you tend to carry.I'm trying to figure out how I should space my stops for mail drops, or resupply. I will be finding out some of this through experience this summer as I go on a couple 2 week hikes, but getting an idea from experienced hikers is even bettter!

peakbagger
01-08-2019, 07:45
Take a look at this active thread

https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/131739-Frugal-Thruhiking

Slumgum
01-08-2019, 07:56
Take a look at the current thread titled "Frugal Thruhiking". It covers many of the questions you ask. IMHO, mail drops are much more logistically difficult,(limited hours of rural POs) but I do it anyway since I prefer the food I dehydrate or buy locally to what I can usually buy on the trail. The cost of shipping boxes seems to be more than offset by the temptations to spend more money than planned when in town. Except for certain stretches, (Hundred Mile Wilderness for example) most hikers try to resupply no more than every 5 days. A week long supply would make for a heavy pack. Most hikers resupply by purchasing in towns. I'd say your plan to do a couple of prep hikes will be the best route to discover what works best for you.

bigcranky
01-08-2019, 08:03
The logistics of maildrops are sufficiently challenging that we stopped doing them years ago. (Not to mention the cost of postage.) Unless one has specific dietary requirements that can't be met in a standard grocery store, buying along the way is, for us anyway, easier.

Gambit McCrae
01-08-2019, 09:01
I have learned a lot fromt he frugal thru hiking thread. Some of which is this correlation. If you are a social hiker, get food as you go. If you have previously done thru hikes, and know that you will be solo and consciously can make it a habit to make it into town during a weekday, and you know you will not get tired of the menu you have prepared, then do some mail drops.

If I were to personally do a thru hike, I would get a ride to Springer with 4 days of food, know my gear very well, know my ability and never look back with no other planning. By planning I mean food logistics.

Sara
01-08-2019, 09:55
Hi Lewis,

If you main concern is cost, it is much cheaper to buy as you go -- rather than send maildrops. If you are okay with budget hiker staples like ramen and instant mashed potatoes this will be no problem. Sometimes it is fun to pack out different food items like fast food burgers from town.

Another huge benefit is that you can switch up your menu to suit your taste as you hike. I know many former thruhikers who say they will never eat a Clif bar again! ;)

Crushed Grapes
01-08-2019, 10:21
If I were to personally do a thru hike, I would get a ride to Springer with 4 days of food, know my gear very well, know my ability and never look back with no other planning. By planning I mean food logistics.
This is my thinking going into my attempt this year

MuddyWaters
01-08-2019, 10:56
Works great for me up to hikes of a month, most of time.
I hate shopping, repackaging etc.
I wouldnt do it for 6 mo.

You also dont know whats going to happen to packages.

On CT, the molas lake campground store kept them in attic space of a portable building or a trailer. Talk about hot. Everything melted that could melt. I was floored they stored peoples food up there. So don't think anyone holding packages cares about them either. Ive gotten them wet, ripped open, crushed. Yet to have one totally gone though. Some places control access and retrieve for you, other throw them in a bin, room, closet and let people dig thru them and find theirs (or one they like better?)

I wasnt planning on going into town there at Molas, but did for a night anyway. Barbecue and a milkshake and dry motel bed in the rain are strong magnet. So mailing food to campground was a waste, and actually required more time to retrieve. This is why people say maildrops can be hassle.

A favorite home dehydrated meal is dried blue runner redbeans, and minute rice. Add a packet of tabasco and some bacon jerky . Blows away any freeze dried meal, for fraction of price.

Slo-go'en
01-08-2019, 11:03
If you do make your own dehydrated meals, be sure to label each package as to what it is and how much water to add. Then when you start leaving them in hiker boxes, other people know what it is :) A popular guessing game at hostels is "what the heck is in here?", especially the ones which contain a lot of white powder.

Seriously, a lot of those homemade meals do end up in hiker boxes. (hiker boxes are a place people leave things they no longer want and think someone else might. Usually located in Hostels or motels popular with hikers. Post Offices used to have them too, but most have stopped allowing them for various reasons.)

A few people do their own dehydrated meals and are successful with it, but isn't real popular. It's a lot of work if your going to make a 5 month supply and then there is the question of if they will still be any good after sitting around for months. Better get a good vacuum bag sealer.

The other question is will you actually stay on the trail to the end? Most don't and then what do you do with all those left over meals? If you have someone who can make up meals a week or two in advance as you go along, that would eliminate a lot of potential waste. You'll need someone to manage the packing and mailing of the boxes anyway. And you need to make sure that person is reliable.

Most people resupply every 3 to 5 days. 5 days is my limit for the amount of food weight and volume I can carry leaving town. It all depends on the spacing of towns, how hard it is to get in and out of the town and how far you hike everyday. A slow hiker will have to carry more food since it takes longer to get between towns then a fast hiker takes. So, usually the how much to carry determination is made on the fly. How far to the next town and how long will it take to get there, given the current weather, the level of trail difficulty and your hiking pace?

RangerZ
01-10-2019, 19:53
There is good information both here and in the other thread.

FOR ME, a combination system worked well – mail drops and buying on the trail. I had a couple of criteria:

1. Monthly mail drops for meds
2. No mail drops to POs because of the limited hours of operation
3. Mail drops to hostels that I wanted to visit (ToG, Kincora, 4 Pines, etc)
4. No mail drops (or town buying) more than a mile from the trail (except at hostels that I shuttled to from a trailhead)
5. Buy in town in obvious locations (Hot Springs, Damascus, etc)

My 2018 attempted thru has turned into 2018 and 2019 LASHs. I have boxes set up for the entire trail, my wife mailed them when I was about a week from a location. My boxes contained a variety of meals that I had dehydrated and vacuum sealed. After three months (the southern half of the AT) there wasn’t anything that I was sick of.

My mail drops were intentionally a little scant, so I could do some local supplementing (I got to wanting raisins and dried fruit) where it was available. I could easily get four days into a small priority mail box, six days was tight. The only time I gave food away was when friends from work sent me a package at the same location as one of my mail drops, I shared the wealth around the bunkhouse.

The meals that I bought in town provided variety from the mail drop meals; but I had more variety in the mail drops than the food that I bought in town – Knorr’s, Spam, tuna, honey buns, tortillas, etc –> that got repetitive. They were heavier on a daily basis than my dehydrated meals; my planning weight for dehydrated meals was 1.6 lbs/day.

I did have food left over in unsent boxes but they went for the local hikes that I did after I left the trail and the odd meal when my wife wasn’t around. I’m currently dehydrating meals for 2019.

I’m revising my 2019 plan some – before I had planned some six day carries, I’m breaking them into three day carries to reduce pack weight.

Baltimore Jack’s article on resupply is a little dated but is still a good reference for planning purposes. Cross check it with the AT Guide or Guthook’s guide.

Dogwood
01-11-2019, 03:43
First two words I read were Home brewed and stopped reading so excited to hear what was going to be said next.

There's a lot of good info on Whiteblaze about AT resupply and some I find individually problematic if rigidly followed without consideration to personal applicability.

On a LD hike of the AT's length and duration as your first 2200 mile hike I think it difficult to frugally judge resupply pre hike from start to finish. You could go with some food, work your way into your hike(as Gambit said), and then YOUR LD backpacking routine, and THEN decide if mailing boxes ahead at some pt into the thru hike is your frugal cup of tea. Stop at a large town with a hostel or if sharing a room with others(to cut costs) and nearby large grocery store(maybe two or three), frugally shop especially for less commonly available items, not forgetting non food on trail wants, and make up some resupply boxes, maybe two or three. They don't need to be the next two consecutive resupplies. Mail from there yourself. Repeat if acceptable. The best way for YOU to do it with efficiency and frugality is through personal experience based on YOUR hike and YOUR needs and YOUR frugality aims not as others entirely do or advise it. There is financially little at risk compared to mailing all your resupply pre hike as a NB LD backpacker. Another option to consider is sending a few Flat Rate Priority Med Size boxes with about 5 days food and other non- food personal items most AT thus commonly buy along the way(mailing non-food items can be where the biggest financial costs 'in the box' savings can be realized) or YOU personally anticipate requiring pre hike to get some experience and if it's frugally and logistically acceptable and adaptable to your Thru hiking style and needs. You can consider continuing that approach. *You may not need to mail all resupply the entire thru hike duration to meet financial frugality goals. You can mail some resupply boxes to key places and buy some resupply at key places and supplement as well to round out resupply needs all while doing so with a financial frugality mindset. Again, IMO less financial risk. Resupplying with financial frugality in mind does not solely have to rely on mailed resupply unless for some specific other reasons you're already going to mail stuff. YOU MAY NOT find it cheaper to solely buy as you go either! IMHO no one can tell YOU what's resupply frugal BEST for YOU!

Most don't mail boxes on AT thrus. That's fine. BUT THAT IS THEIR HIKE. You need to know about YOUR hike. I find it potentially highly problematic in telling someone else what's resupply right for THEIR hike without intimately knowing them. This is YOUR hike and you need to decide what's best on resupplying. I can't tell you what's 'right' for YOU but I can offer options and perspectives.

And, if you're taking a flight to the AT from MN for your hike you can mail ahead food, the really yummy hard to find stuff, and TSA no no's that ease your traveling experience with less baggage wt and volume and ease of going through AP security. It might even result in a backpack wt and size that can be carried on rather than checked which can have advantages. Personally, I always like having my pack(an UL kit) in my personal possession. It's an option.


I find many advantages in using USPS Flat Rate Med boxes using the two dimensionally different med sized box types:
1) free boxes at USPO and other locations like Kinkos, Shipping Post, Mail Boxes Etc, etc. This eliminates finding or the cost of buying boxes. The USPS also provide free labels you can fill out and attach to your box. that eliminates more cost.
2) flat rate of currently $13.65 so no postage fluctuation based on box size, distance traveled, where mailed from(inside the US), where it's going(inside the US)
3) expedited delivery(1-3 days biz days) and handling(relatives had long careers with the USPO and related such)
4) ability to forward once with no additional postage
5) up to 70 lb wt so no weighing to determine postage rate which translates into attaching accurate postage yourself pre mailing which lessens hassles should you want to have another say from MN to mail boxes
6) USPO employees typically will allow using packing tape at the PO window when mailing. If mailing First Class they don't always give out free tape. They make you buy it in the PO. This is increasingly happening with the USPO budget concerns.
7) includes tracking which otherwise is an added cost in some lower priced USPO mailing postage options. *I find this to be a highly useful tool during thru hiking in determining package availability! It eases planning logistics and lessens the potential risks associated with delayed stays awaiting package availability!
8) insured to $50

I do not recommend you mail any fuel should you use it for cooking. You could buy that along the way whether alchy stove or iso(impressed gas) canisters which are the two main stove types and fuels thrus utilize. There is little cost savings and greater hassles and potential delay mailing fuel. Additionally, it's' another consumable item that has wt and cost and usage rates that has to be accounted for with a frugal thru hiking style. The larger cans and 8-12 fl oz alchy fuel additionally consume too much Priority Flat Rate Med box volume IMO. And since it's the AT, fuel availability is generally widely available and uber documented. Plus, its generally a consistently forested trail so there's ample opportunity for a small controlled cooking/warming fire.