View Full Version : Need Sample Schedule to plan mail drops
PorkChop
03-01-2008, 23:07
I know I have seen them here on this site before, but I can't find them anymore...
Where is the sample schedule/mileage chart as if you were doing a NOBO?
If you are talking about the resupply articles here is the link (http://www.whiteblaze.net/index.php?page=resupplypart1). If you are talking about an actual schedule to hike by then you really need to make that yourself. It all depends on the speed you hike and what points that you want to spend more time at.
Pedaling Fool
03-02-2008, 00:06
Maybe this is what you're looking for:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=170578#post170578
I hope you don't mean by schedule that you expect to know, on the day you leave Springer, the exact day you expect to get to Katahdin. Any schedule you make like that is going to go out the window before you get out of Georgia. Besides the fact that you may want to actually experience what's going on around you, Murphy's Law is in full effect, and the unexpected will wreck any schedule like that.
That said, there are reasons to have something approaching a schedule. I have to get off the trail in mid-June for an event in New Hampshire. The easiest place to do this is at Harpers Ferry, and that's approximately where I expect to be. But in reality I could be 100 miles north or south of there when the time comes. So it's going to come down to being flexible. I could get off at Carlisle, PA, Waynesboro, PA, Front Royal, VA, or somewhere in Shenandoah National Park if I'm way behind where I expected to be.
That's just to illustrate that, instead of planning exactly where you'll be each day of your hike, it's better to toss the fixed schedule (Murphy will toss it for you if you don't), enjoy your hike, and prepare to deal with the unexpected.
PorkChop
03-02-2008, 03:55
Just so everyone knows... I am not trying to plan my hike out to the day, hour, and minute. I just simply looking for a "template" to base mileage, times, and dates on for mail drops, meeting friends and family, and re-supplies. Since I've never stepped foot on the AT before, I wanted to determine some basic times especially for the first month. After that, I don't plan on having any plans. The only plans I have are to make it to the end by October.
I just simply was asking for a "guideline" and it would serve no more than that but as a guide...
Pedaling Fool
03-02-2008, 10:34
Maybe this is what you're looking for:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=170578#post170578
Just so everyone knows... I am not trying to plan my hike out to the day, hour, and minute. I just simply looking for a "template" to base mileage, times, and dates on for mail drops, meeting friends and family, and re-supplies. Since I've never stepped foot on the AT before, I wanted to determine some basic times especially for the first month. After that, I don't plan on having any plans. The only plans I have are to make it to the end by October.
I just simply was asking for a "guideline" and it would serve no more than that but as a guide...
The above link is a good for this since map man compiled the data from numerous Trail Journals.
jersey joe
03-02-2008, 10:40
Here is the mail drop schedule I used...might help, might not.
http://geocities.com/joegamehike/mail.html
Just so everyone knows... I am not trying to plan my hike out to the day, hour, and minute. I just simply looking for a "template" to base mileage, times, and dates on for mail drops, meeting friends and family, and re-supplies. Since I've never stepped foot on the AT before, I wanted to determine some basic times especially for the first month. After that, I don't plan on having any plans. The only plans I have are to make it to the end by October.
I just simply was asking for a "guideline" and it would serve no more than that but as a guide...
That of course depends on how fast you hike! And unless you've been hiking all winter, that will probably be slower than you think for the first month. The data posted above (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=170578#post170578) is your best bet for generally estimating whether it's going to take you four months or seven months.
Regardless, it's probably not a good idea to send out all the maildrops at once. And it also depends on how much food is in them that you'll have to carry around. You may find it best to send out the first maildrop to someplace like Mountain Crossings and then call home and tell them where to send the next maildrop, 30 or 50 or 100 miles up the Trail depending on how fast you're moving and how much you're eating, and repeating this process all the way.
All that sounds like too much work to me, which is why I'm not really using maildrops. :eek:
See also this thread (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33850) about maildrops.
ATC have a book you call the Appalachian Trail Thur-Hiker Planer Guide for 8.95 the for the book is #203 here is the link for it.
https://www.atctrailstore.org/catalog/itemlist.cfm?atcmem=0&catid=42&pcatid=0&compid=1&page=6