View Full Version : buying food along the way vs mail drops
chrishowe11
11-28-2008, 00:16
i have heard a lot about doing mail drops, but i have also heard a lot about towns were people pick up the food drops, would it be reasonable to say you could just pick food up along the way, or mabey a mixture of buying food in stores and mail drops? Any knowledge is appriciated. thanks
You only need maildrops for food if you have special diet considerations. Sending yourself things like ramen noodles and oatmeal is just plain stupid. There is plenty of food in the trail towns, sometimes you have to be flexible with your menus so just be ready for it. Medicine, maps and memory cards are about all you need to send to yourself.
I've not thru hiked yet, but have over 900 miles done in sections and have done other long-distance hiking. On my first long-distance trip, I planned a modified version of today's food drops - was a royal PAIN. Will never again try that in less there is a VERY good reason for it.
Food drops are not necessary on the AT for most people. Plenty of opportunities to resupply. If you become worried about a particular stretch, just mail yourself a box from a prior town.
Folks will tell about the hassle of having to retrieve the box on weekends or having to stop at towns they otherwise would hike by, but the biggest negative in my experience is that there is no way you will know now, what you will feel like eating in four or six months. You will get sick of what you think you will want. Plus, you will see others eating things and want to try them out, but will be locked into your boring food drops.
Not necessary or desirable. Plus, it's a heck of a lot of extra work!!!
Serial 07
11-28-2008, 01:30
95% of the time, the resupply points are gonna be sufficient enough (except if you are uber picky)...there are a couple of cities i would send a package to...check out some other threads for them, but off top of dome, they would include: harpers ferry, port clinton, delaware water gap...a couple others...if i was gonna set up a maildrop, i would just do it myself from a town with a good food source and a post office..
Lone Wolf
11-28-2008, 06:28
i have heard a lot about doing mail drops, but i have also heard a lot about towns were people pick up the food drops, would it be reasonable to say you could just pick food up along the way, or mabey a mixture of buying food in stores and mail drops? Any knowledge is appriciated. thanks
i never do maildrops for food. always buy as i go
i have heard a lot about doing mail drops, but i have also heard a lot about towns were people pick up the food drops, would it be reasonable to say you could just pick food up along the way, or mabey a mixture of buying food in stores and mail drops? Any knowledge is appriciated. thanks
Forget the Post Office...visit the trail towns...take in the sights...buy the food there...you're helping out the local economy & they LOVE hikers (in most places!):D
Good Luck with your hike!
garlic08
11-28-2008, 10:12
One more vote for no mail drops. It's more fun without them.
If your diet is such that you can eat just about anything than definately buy along the way. The first thing to remember is that MOST folks who start a thru-hike don't finish it. Doing a lot of food prep before and than leaving the trail is not wise. Hiker boxes are loaded with stuff that was sent to a hiker who no longer wanted to eat the stuff that they thought they would like.
I found it quite enjoyable to go into a town and buy food for the next 4 to 5 days. Read Baltimore Jack's article on resupply for the few spots where town resupply is more difficult.
There are places where mail drops are very nice, and places where the trail goes right past the supermarket. Read the articles section, and then make a plan
nitewalker
11-28-2008, 19:18
no mail drops. eat as u go. as said above its more" fun on the run "...
Another vote for No maildrops.
slimsalmon
11-29-2008, 20:02
Do very many of the towns have health food stores? Are bulk dry food dispensers common? Or to most towns just have the small convenience store-ish groceries like the little towns around here?
Do very many of the towns have health food stores? Are bulk dry food dispensers common? Or to most towns just have the small convenience store-ish groceries like the little towns around here?
It's all over the map. In general you'll be dealing with small stores and mini-marts. In other words: not too many health-food stores.
Lone Wolf
11-29-2008, 20:34
Do very many of the towns have health food stores? Are bulk dry food dispensers common?
no and no. mountain folk don't eat that crap
no and no. mountain folk don't eat that crap
count on Wolf to dispense common knowldege... in the most offensive manner possible. :cool:
Lone Wolf
11-29-2008, 20:42
count on Wolf to dispense common knowldege... in the most offensive manner possible. :cool:
you live in mass., you hiked down here long ago. i know, you don't. hush up
Don't shush me, whippersnapper. It's not the truth of what you say, it's the tone.
You two fight nice, now...
there is no way you will know now, what you will feel like eating in four or six months. You will get sick of what you think you will want.I hear this a lot and have never understood it. The purpose of eating is nourishment. If you are dining out, fine, order what tickles your palate. You're there for your pleasure, after all.
But if you are hiking, you are eating to provide nourishment to continue to hike. Eat what you friggin have. "Oh, I can't eat THAT. I just had it yesterday." If you are hungry and need food, you'll eat it. If you aren't hungry and don't need food, why are you eating?
Blissful
11-29-2008, 22:01
You can do both. Depends on what you want to eat. I like to have more variety and I like good nutritious dinners, so I found doing up some dehydrated dinners at home with my dehydrator (using a cookbook, etc) and having my hubby pack in maildrops helped out (I was also mailing meds anyway, so adding in food that was hard to come by on the trail worked out fine). Buying breakfast and lunch were fine in towns.
Uncle Tom
11-29-2008, 22:02
I gave up on the mail drops after dealing with the US Post Office . Normally, I am a big defender of the USPO, but as far as their utility in the way we move through the countryside, I ended up being much happier just buying as I went.
Serial 07
11-30-2008, 04:31
Forget the Post Office...visit the trail towns...take in the sights...buy the food there...you're helping out the local economy & they LOVE hikers (in most places!):D
Good Luck with your hike!
agree...strongly...
Do very many of the towns have health food stores? Are bulk dry food dispensers common? Or to most towns just have the small convenience store-ish groceries like the little towns around here?
as a person who searches out health food stores, i would say there are a bunch...certainly not a lot...don't get me wrong, i'm talking about...10...maybe more, but not many...it's a nice surprise when you get into franklin and there's one...find it, and "patronage" (big ups to ron haven!) it...hey...i just remembered abingdon, VA has one...so before you have a beer at dot's (or the next day...), go there and get you some spirulina :rolleyes:;) ....
I hear this a lot and have never understood it. The purpose of eating is nourishment. If you are dining out, fine, order what tickles your palate. You're there for your pleasure, after all.
But if you are hiking, you are eating to provide nourishment to continue to hike. Eat what you friggin have. "Oh, I can't eat THAT. I just had it yesterday." If you are hungry and need food, you'll eat it. If you aren't hungry and don't need food, why are you eating?
Well, I don't understand your point of view. Why on earth would I choose to eat boring, bland meals for six months, and go through a heck of a lot of extra work to do it, if I have other options? Just because I'm hiking, doesn't mean I can't enjoy other pleasures as well, eating being one of them.
The whole concept that one must deprive themselves of comfort and enjoyment in order to backpack is totally foreign to me. To me backpacking is just a temporary change of lifestyle, not a gruelling task to be overcome. I'm out backpacking even more for my pleasure than when I go to a restaurant. So why not do what I can to increase that pleasure as much as possible, especially if it allows for reduced work and planning.
Your argument doesn't make sense to me.
The whole concept that one must deprive themselves of comfort and enjoyment in order to backpack is totally foreign to me.
I'll second that emotion.
middle to middle
11-30-2008, 12:18
Timing is everything. You will learn as you go and your needs will change as you go. Adapting as you go. I hated having to go out of my way to pick up a mail drop. I usually put too much in a mailing. Just mail basics.
Rockhound
11-30-2008, 16:10
1) Plan all you want, logistics can still easily become a nightmare. trying to rush to town or having to zero waiting for the post office to open. 2) mail drops cost money. $100- $200 for the whole trail depending on number and size of drops. 3) with 1 or 2 exceptions you are never more than a day or 2 away from a grocery store or restraunts. 4) reduces spontanaity factor. "I like this place. I think I'll zero" or "I feel good. I'm gonna bust out a few 25-30 mile days" cant do that if you're restricted to a rigid mail drop schedule. 5) mail drops increase your chances of running into a disgruntled postal worker and we all know what they can be like.
Rockhound
11-30-2008, 16:14
Well, I don't understand your point of view. Why on earth would I choose to eat boring, bland meals for six months, and go through a heck of a lot of extra work to do it, if I have other options? Just because I'm hiking, doesn't mean I can't enjoy other pleasures as well, eating being one of them.
The whole concept that one must deprive themselves of comfort and enjoyment in order to backpack is totally foreign to me. To me backpacking is just a temporary change of lifestyle, not a gruelling task to be overcome. I'm out backpacking even more for my pleasure than when I go to a restaurant. So why not do what I can to increase that pleasure as much as possible, especially if it allows for reduced work and planning.
Your argument doesn't make sense to me.
you're gonna eat ramens and plain oatmeal for 6 months and thats it! how dare you try to convince someone they can actually enjoy their meals while hiking.
you're gonna eat ramens and plain oatmeal for 6 months and thats it! how dare you try to convince someone they can actually enjoy their meals while hiking.
Maybe you do. I've made boiled dinners with fresh cabbage, carrots, potatoes, ham; ham steaks with mashed potatoes and red-eye gravey; baked coffee cake; real spaghetti; etc. There are all kinds of things you can eat on-trail. Not every night of course, or on a day when high mileage is a priority, but you are in no way limited to oatmeal and ramen. Any day that you pass near a grocery store is a day you can eat well that night.
WILLIAM HAYES
11-30-2008, 16:59
There is a good article on re-supply on whiteblaze check it out. I have tried maildrops before and found they are for the most part a pain You can use a bounce box also but I simply buy the stuff I need . Hillbilly
minnesotasmith
11-30-2008, 20:26
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AR48G20081128
"Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.
The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.
"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.
"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors ... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."
Alzheimer's disease is incurable..."
Looks like eating garbage food for the duration of a long hike isn't such a good idea...
Jack Tarlin
12-02-2008, 18:10
Just saw this thread.
Chris:
In the old days, most folks got most of their food thru the mail.
Nowadays, unless you're on some sort of specialized diet (vegan, kosher, no-salt, etc.) most folks buy the majority of their food while en route, and only have food sent to them in a few locations where available re-supply is poor, over-priced, too far from the Trail, or a combination of these.
The principal advantages of purchasing your food while en route:
*You won't get bored with your food but instead, are actually purchasing
stuff you want to eat. Most folks who buy all their stuff ahead of time end
up hating half of it before the trip is over, leaving one with two choices:
You eat stuff you hate, or you spend a lot of money replacing it.
*You save lots of money on mail. There are more places thatn you think of
where it's easy to buy food. Spending a ton of money sending food to
places that have perfectly good markets is pretty stupid, especially since
these markets are located in towns you'll be passing thru anyway.
*You don't have to worry about arriiving in town when a Post Office is closed,
nor do you have to worry about mail parcels being late ot lost.
*You'll get all sorts of ideas about food and meals from observing what other
hikers are eating.
*Most folks who use postal re-supply pack way too much food which is either
given away or thrown out, i.e. one wastes a lot of money this way.
*Buying en route is healthier as you'll be eating food that is freasher, as
opposed to stuff you bought six months previously.
*You'll have a better idea of your food needs (ammounts, etc.) after you've
been hiking awhile, as well as discovering your likes and dis-likes.
*Your pack weight will be down, as in many cases, people who get big mail-
drops will end up carrying the drop out of tiown whether they need it or not.
You'll be surprised how many times you'll arrive in a town and discover you
have plenty of food on you. If this happens and you have a big maildrop
waiting in town, you have three choices: Either carry out the whole box,
including stuff you don't really need; send un-needed stuff ahead or home,
which costs money; or dump it. If you are buying as you go, this won't
happen.
In any case, most folks these days find it easier to buy as they go. You'll find lots of information on maildrops, Re-Supply, and how to send yourself mail on your trip in the "Articles" section of this website; also, if you do a search on "Maildrops" or "Re-Supply" you'll find that this has been discussed
extensively here on Whiteblaze. Good luck to you!