View Full Version : vegan thruhike with limited mail drops?
has anyone thru'd, vegan, and NOT used mail drops? or only a few drops at the least? i am planning my '09 attempt, and from what i am reading, frequent mail drops seem to be more of a hinderance than a help.
any advice/experience greatly appreciated!
bonnie
RedneckRye
09-08-2008, 08:23
Trying to resupply on trail with any type of food restrictions would be a challenge. Mail drops can be a pain, both the pre-trip planning / organizing and scheduling your hike around the PO hours, but at least you know that the foods you want will be there in town when you arrive.
I'd think mail drops would be far less frustrating and easier to deal with than potentially having the very limited food options that you are likely to encounter in many of the smaller stores that you will find in many trail towns
fiddlehead
09-08-2008, 08:27
I agree with redneck rye.
Some of the small stores in the south are gonna be tough unless maybe you can live on grits and mac & cheese or cook beans.
Mail drops are not so bad. Especially if you are not in a big hurry. Usually noon on Sat. is a deadline, or wait till Monday morning.
Jason of the Woods
09-08-2008, 08:32
I'd say that would be impossible, unless you are rooting with the wild boars.:D
The people who say that mail drops are a hindrance are the people who don't mind eating mac 'n cheese, Lipton's sides, or ramen for dinner every night. I'm vegetarian, and I've done all my food on the trail via mail drop. It's a lot of work, but it's really nice not having to worry about being able to find food in small stores.
rubyvermonter
09-08-2008, 12:52
I'm a vegetarian and I've section-hiked from Caratunk, ME, to Front Royal, VA over the past several years, using mail drops. When I'm in town, I buy juice, fresh fruits and vegetables, and dairy products to eat as I'm passing through. Planning out the mail drops is simply part of the trip preparation. I have always been able to make it to the post office or hiker-friendly motel or hostel to where I've sent a mail drop.
RubyVermonter
Also bear in mind that (IMHO) regardless of your dietary preff. when you get into town you seriously crave variety. For many that means lots of fresh fruits & veggies on top of the 2 "Megga Huge burgers". During my hike from Hughes gap to Atkins there were times at the smaller supply stores the produce section was so near empty that it really didn't matter. And I was in the dollar store in Damascus that had 3 jars of peanut butter, next shipment due PM the next day,, "Maybe". Plenty of dried meat products on the shelves, but if I was vegan, & that was my only soruce of supply, I'm thinkin I would have violated my diet. Maybe I could have found enough at the other stores in town, I didn't look cause it didn't matter to me, I'll eat anything.
Just a guess, but I'm betting that if the guide book lists it as "good for Short Term supply only" THEY ain't going to have what YOU need. So plan accordingly.
hobo dank
09-08-2008, 13:07
The last 3,000mls i did on the AT in 05-06 i did without maildrops, and as a strict vegetarian. now i ate cheese, wheat, and such things that vegans dont, but i found it a fairly simple thing to do. i really never thought i'd be able to pull it off, but i was on trail for 10 months, thru winter, and it never really botherd me. The worst part of it was at the homeplace in catawba, they put some sort of meat in everything.
bigcranky
09-08-2008, 14:04
I think I could pull off a vegetarian hike without maildrops, but vegan would be tough. It would take more thought and planning. Resupply would be largely limited to the bigger grocery stores, so you'd be carrying a lot more food on the trail, especially in the South.
Burger is right -- people who have given up maildrops because of the inconvenience aren't trying to maintain a specific diet. Maildrops really aren't that bad if you have a reasonable plan, some support back home, and a flexible attitude.
If you still want to consider "winging it," go do three or four complete days of food shopping down at your local gas station convenience store. Seriously. That's the kind of store you can expect to find close to the trail in many places. If you can do that, you can do the hike w/o mail drops.
Good luck.
Appalachian Tater
09-08-2008, 15:19
Not a problem at all. In fact, with the exception of freeze-dried meals like Mountain House, all of the meals I eat when hiking that include meat have meat because I added it in there. You just won't buy pouches of tuna, chicken, or bacon.
And someone mentioned wheat, vegans eat wheat.
Jack Tarlin
09-08-2008, 18:38
If you look in the "Articles" section of this website, you'll find an extended article on food Re-Supply options that you might find useful. In particular, the article tells you where major full-service supermarkets are located, as well as naming smaller ones that have selections that you might find OK.
As other folks have pointed out, it will not be easy to shop just anywhere if you're a committed vegan, and pre-purchased (or pre made or pre-dehydratd) food-drops sent to selected locations might not be a bad idea, but then again, as more and more folks embrace healthier diets, healthier foods are becoming more widely available, even along the A.T., and there may be more places on the Trail than you think where suitable vegan foodstuffs are available.
bigcranky
09-08-2008, 21:01
You just won't buy pouches of tuna, chicken, or bacon.
Or Mac and Cheese or most Liptons or many of the other standard backpacker's food.
While you may choose to add meat to any of these things, that doesn't mean *not* adding meat makes them vegan, or even vegetarian.
Farr Away
09-09-2008, 11:15
Or Mac and Cheese or most Liptons or many of the other standard backpacker's food.
While you may choose to add meat to any of these things, that doesn't mean *not* adding meat makes them vegan, or even vegetarian.
Very true. You'd be surprised what's hiding in packaged/prepared food. Some form of dairy is often included (not vegan), or something like chicken broth is used as seasoning.
I was at a potluck one time that was supposed to be vegetarian, and someone brought pea soup that had ham in it. The woman's explanation was "that's just flavoring".
Blissful
09-09-2008, 11:50
Mail drops are not a hinderance as many hostels are now accepting them. It can be a little trying if you have a drop at a regular PO and you get there Sat night. But out of 30 drops we did, that never happened. We did get there on a Sunday twice and had to wait until Monday AM to get it, but that's it. We did adjust our mileage some, but it wasn't that trying. We did lose 2 drops in Maine - so always send them Priority, not surface. If you are using canister fuel though and have to mail it, it must go surface. So send that separately.
I have a mail drop schedule we used on my hiking blog (http://www.blissfulhiking.blogspot.com). Look under food preparation.
another vote for: vegetarian easy; vegan hard
I don't eat ground up/overly processed meat (yes I'll eat a steak, no I won't eat a burger) So when I hike I eat mostly vegetarian, it doesn't allow for as much variety but it isn't hard to do w/o mail drops (but i'm also all about the occasional mail drop filled w/ my preplaned stuff, and whatever old easter candy my mom has found)
thanks for all of your responses. it sounds like a combo of mail drops and trail town resupply will be for me. in terms of planning mail drops, where can i look (in addition to blissful's link) for info on planning these? i admit the idea is a bit overwhelming--
RedneckRye
09-10-2008, 11:12
Something that I find interesting in the anti-maildrop logic is the "A couple of times we got into town on saturday and had to wait till monday to get our mail" statement.
What is wrong with having to take a zero now and then? Even an extra, unplanned one.
Blissful
09-10-2008, 13:48
Something that I find interesting in the anti-maildrop logic is the "A couple of times we got into town on saturday and had to wait till monday to get our mail" statement.
What is wrong with having to take a zero now and then? Even an extra, unplanned one.
It doesn't happen that often, honestly. And there are plenty of places to mail drops now instead of POs. But now, with a variety of stores, you don't have to send as much (I did because of food preferences and because of medicine, etc). But next time I go, I will likely use less drops.
Blissful
09-10-2008, 13:53
thanks for all of your responses. it sounds like a combo of mail drops and trail town resupply will be for me. in terms of planning mail drops, where can i look (in addition to blissful's link) for info on planning these? i admit the idea is a bit overwhelming--
It would be helpful if you have a person on the homefront to help plan and send while you're out too.
Jack Tarlin
09-10-2008, 14:44
Bonnie: All of the major hiking guides have detailed information on Post Offices, addresses, and a full listing of other places that accept hiker mail, such as motels, outfitters, hiker hostels, B&B's, etc. You can examine one of these books On-Line by going to www.aldha.org and look for The On-Line Thru-Hiker's Companion. (The 2008 edition is available on-line right now; the 2009 edition will be out in early January). And for more information on where you can buy food en route, see the Articles section of this website.
The last 3,000mls i did on the AT in 05-06 i did without maildrops, and as a strict vegetarian. now i ate cheese, wheat, and such things that vegans dont, but i found it a fairly simple thing to do. i really never thought i'd be able to pull it off, but i was on trail for 10 months, thru winter, and it never really botherd me. The worst part of it was at the homeplace in catawba, they put some sort of meat in everything.
Good to see you round these parts stranger
bonnie, curiosty-killed-the-cat kinda question for you: how would you get enough protein on a vegan diet, especially on the trail? i would think it would be hard to keep up with the muscles you'll develop. just wondering.
bigcranky
09-10-2008, 19:59
Protein is really not that hard: hummus, dehydrated beans (refritos and black beans make great burritos), dehydrated tofu, quinoa, TVP, powdered soy milk, peanut butter, other nuts, etc.
Monkey and Cocoa did the first 500 miles of our 2007 thru-hike as vegans. (Then we started eating the occasional biscuit in town. After 1,000 miles or so, we were regularly eating ice cream and pizza when we hit trail towns.) But we never ate any meat or fish, and we still ate vegan when we were not in town. Neither one of us was real big to start, but we did not get too skinny or pasty looking, the way I saw some other people get. Also, we both felt FANTASTIC at the end (by the way yesterday was our one year anniversary of Katahdin day, which will forever be a holiday in my heart).
We prepared in advance a nice variety of chilis, curries, and bean-y sauces, that we dehydrated and had sent to us in our mail drops (we had about 10 different types of meals). The cookbook Vegan Planet was a major source of inspiration. We bought instant rice and pasta in town along the way, making sure to get whole wheat or brown rice whenever possible. We also had soy milk powder in our mail drops, but would by cereal in town for breakfast. Lunch started out as dehydrated hummus, but I got so sick of it I started to gag if I even saw it, so we switched to peanut butter. We snacked on clif bars and nuts and dried fruit.
By the way, we pretty much went right back to a totally vegan diet once we got home and weren't hiking every day. We just stopped getting hungry enough to eat pizza.
I think if you want to do the whole trail as a 100% vegan you need to think about adding extra fat to your diet, cuz that's what I craved.
has anyone thru'd, vegan, and NOT used mail drops? or only a few drops at the least? i am planning my '09 attempt, and from what i am reading, frequent mail drops seem to be more of a hinderance than a help.
any advice/experience greatly appreciated!
bonnie I haven't thru-hiked yet, but I am in the planning stages. From what I have read they ARE more of a hinderance, however I think the fact of the matter is if you are a hardcore vegan, then really the best advice I can see, IMHO, is to base your food resupply on mail drops. This will probably be costlier, and you will need a "home base" person who is absolutely trustworthy, in order for it to work. Going this way you will be able to send to yourself the absolutely necessary, and critical items of food that will give you the energy you will need to hike all day, everyday if you plan to complete a thru-hike. By attempting to go to the stores for your needs, you will in all likelyhood wind up complicating your hike and possibly jeapordizing your health if you do not get the necessary nutrition and calories needed for a hike of this magnitude. You can still use the stores you come across as a supplemental backup. The majority of hikers once well into their hikes can't get enough food, and upon reaching a source are not going to be debating about wether or not there is meat ingredients included,etc... a lot of the stores are not going to carry what you want, and then what. And if you have the money, and don't know exactly what to include, you may even want to consider someone who is very knowledgeable with the vegan lifestyle, like a nutritionist, who you could enlist to advise you as to what would be the best food articles to include in your maildrops. There is no way around the fact that to be a vegan having to hike long rugged distances in the mountains everyday you are going to have to do your homework. By planning to and utilizeing the USPO you will be able to, upon being tired and hungry, and instead of trying to figure out what you need,reach your food package which will have, if you learn correctly to include before hand, nearly everything you will need to maintain optimum health and energy for your hike, and it will be in the right quantities and ratios that will make your hike easier,healthier, and more enjoyable.
thanks to everyone for your responses. my husband will be covering maildrop central at home.
cocoa, i like your approach of sending supplemental items like sauces, tvp, soymilk powder, etc. and adding that to town supplies. out of curiousity how many maildrops did you and monkey use?
As a pesce vegetarian I found it challenging to thru the AT and resupply as I went along. It wasn't just a matter of meatless dinners but avoiding crap like MSG, hydrogenated oils, high amts. of highly refined simple carbohydrates, etc. As a strict vegan I think it would be tougher. Consider a hybrid approach where U mail yourself vegan resupply boxes to places that don't have a med.-lg. grocery store and just resupply where they R along the way. The Re-Supply article mentioned already should be of help.
Kanga, U ask a good question. But, don't be mislead into believing protein only comes from animal sources. Protein can come from many non-animal sources. Bigcranky has already mentioned just a few of those sources. Consider that gorillas, giraffes, zebras, elephants, rhinoceros, etc. get their protein to provide for their huge muscles and they are all vegetarians!
Campsalot
10-06-2008, 09:06
I don’t know how many vegan meals they offer but Packit Gourmet does ship to the AT for you (http://www.packitgourmet.com/Appalachian+Trail-sp30.html). Seems like their grocery store might be a good resource for you. Even if you don’t use them, their list of towns is a pretty cool resource for planning your mail drops.
campsalot, that's an interesting idea! i wondered if there was anyone out there doing a custom AT meal shipping business...
i am cross referencing the resupply book via resource section against my thruhiker companion, to see when/where would be good mail drop locations. i just finished with lynn wheldon's how to hike the AT dvds, and video survey at the end of the major resupply points along the trail gave me a good idea of what's in "store" for me along the way. i am thinking i could prob get by with 18-20 drops, supplemented with town shopping. how easy is to bounce supplies up the the trail? i like the idea of sending myself a huge shipment, taking what i need, and then sending that up ahead of me.
I am not a vegan, but I don't see the difficulty in going vegan when thru-hiking. I think I could do without skim-milk and beef jerky and tuna. My main staples are oatmeal and currants and almonds and stuff for breakfast, and lentil and dried veggie soup and stuff for supper, and mostly tea and honey through the day. I would miss the skim milk for my tea the most, but I am not vegan so not really sure what I might substitute. I would imagine that going vegan is very tough when eating out, especially fast food places, but I don't see the problem with going vegan when hiking and resupplying out of grocery stores. If you have to resupply occassionally at a non-grocery store then you might have to miss out on some things for one leg, but make up for them on the next. Also, depending on how rigid you are about the vegan thing, whether it is just for health reasons or for ehtical reasons, you might binge on red meat now and then, like once every 2 weeks or so. That's sort of how I try to eat.
I am not a vegan, but I don't see the difficulty in going vegan when thru-hiking. I think I could do without skim-milk and beef jerky and tuna. My main staples are oatmeal and currants and almonds and stuff for breakfast, and lentil and dried veggie soup and stuff for supper, and mostly tea and honey through the day. I would miss the skim milk for my tea the most, but I am not vegan so not really sure what I might substitute. I would imagine that going vegan is very tough when eating out, especially fast food places, but I don't see the problem with going vegan when hiking and resupplying out of grocery stores. If you have to resupply occassionally at a non-grocery store then you might have to miss out on some things for one leg, but make up for them on the next. Also, depending on how rigid you are about the vegan thing, whether it is just for health reasons or for ehtical reasons, you might binge on red meat now and then, like once every 2 weeks or so. That's sort of how I try to eat.Doing a thru-hike is a very demanding physical adventure that burns tons of calories each and every day. In my opinion reaching a non-grocery store that is understocked and then having to simply "miss out" on necessary nutrition that a vegan nonetheless critically needs for vitality is , IMHO, a mistake that need not be made. Depriving oneself of nutrition, for however long during a thru-hike, is a mistake, and in my opinion doubley so for a vegan. Well thought out maildrops of quality food articles,such as protein powders, vitamin and mineral supplements,etc...,etc... would be very wise. Powerpacked snacks, dehydrated vegetables and fruits, a vegan can virtually eliminate being deprived. Also, as I understand it, a vegan is a hardcore vegetarian(the strictest). Meat ,milk,eggs,etc...animal products of any kind are not consumed. This includes porterhouse steaks!:D
Free Spirit
12-14-2008, 16:38
Hmm,
I'm a vegan! I've hiked the trail! And I have to say, unless you are vegan or have hiked and shopped extensively with someone who is, you just won't be able to answer this question, because you weren't necessarily looking out for it when you shopped. I did I think 2 mail drops. I think at the end of the trail I wished the number had been more like 5, but it is hard to know where those places are ahead of time. If you like I can go through and mark where they were for me, and let you know. One tip: instead of sending a mail drop to a post office, call a local hotel or hostel and arrange to pick it up there, as these places are always open!
Good luck!
Melissa
Hmm,
I'm a vegan! I've hiked the trail! And I have to say, unless you are vegan or have hiked and shopped extensively with someone who is, you just won't be able to answer this question, because you weren't necessarily looking out for it when you shopped. I did I think 2 mail drops. I think at the end of the trail I wished the number had been more like 5, but it is hard to know where those places are ahead of time. If you like I can go through and mark where they were for me, and let you know. One tip: instead of sending a mail drop to a post office, call a local hotel or hostel and arrange to pick it up there, as these places are always open!
Good luck!
MelissaThe OP asked for advice, and I don't believe a "true" vegan(NO animal products of ANY kind), not someone who simply purports to be, would benefit selecting their weeks supply of nurishment from the gas station. Especially someone who is 34, not 23, and states in the 2009 hiker registry that they plan to begin a thru-hike with distressed knees, but I guess on the other hand, maybe she can just wing it and be fine too.:D
Celeritas
02-03-2009, 17:09
I plan on hiking this year as a vegan also, and I can't see it being that bad. I plan on taking powdered supplements, some dehydrated meals like soups and chili and the like, quinoa, lentils, maybe some other easily cooked grains, sprouting seeds, and the rest of my food I figure will be fresh fruit and veggies from stores. So I guess my only other question to add to this would be, How hard is it to find fresh fruit and veggies on the trail?
Celeritas
02-03-2009, 17:15
Oh, and I forgot the dried fruit and nuts and seeds of course. And I plan on making some nut/seed/fruit energy bars. Oatmeal. Spices. Olive Oil. Maple Syrup. I think if you are a thrifty cook and plan ahead a bit, you should only need a few mail drops, if any.
Celeritas
02-03-2009, 17:25
rice and beans. almond and cashew butter! i know there's more.. PM if you want more ideas I guess. I'm still in planning stage myself :)
SB-AT, thank U for posting positive solutions that directly address the OP's question!
Celeritas
02-03-2009, 17:53
You can't give a vegan advice unless you're a vegan haha sorry to say
Sue_Bird
02-04-2009, 11:45
has anyone thru'd, vegan, and NOT used mail drops? or only a few drops at the least? i am planning my '09 attempt, and from what i am reading, frequent mail drops seem to be more of a hinderance than a help.
any advice/experience greatly appreciated!
bonnie
I was vegan for part of last year when my boyfriend and I were driving through the American south.
Needless to say it was an exercise in self-restraint...as most eateries/grocery stores have infinitely less in the way of vegan cheese/butter/egg replacements than we were used to in hometown Washington D.C.
At one weak point, when we decided we couldn't drive another mile without a snack, we were pleased to discover that Drake's personal-sized apple pies are, in fact, vegan. It was a lucky find though.