Resupply question

[BirdBrain]

I have read Baltimore Jack's articles on this subject. Absolutely incredible by the way. Whiteblaze at its finest. Ellie Luggah and I are planning a hike from Katahdin to Grafton Notch in July.

One thing still escapes me though on a thru hike: How does one keep to the plan concerning food options?

We have gathered tons of ideas for food (recipes, caloric density, etc.) It strikes me that all our plans would be for naught if we can't find the ingredients.

Example one: I hope to take calorie dense foods. Macadamia nuts and Brazil nuts are 2 of the most calorie dense foods on the planet. I doubt one would find these in Monson and Stratton. Maybe they would.

Example two: I want to make a drink made of Nido, Carnation instant breakfast, instant espresso, raw honey, a couple of spices, and water. Nido and raw honey would be rare too.

The easy answer is to be flexible. But what is the purpose of all these recipes and advice if they are not available? Do people just grab whatever is available? Are these complex recipes ever really made?

This is not an issue on our hike. My sister is going to resupply us in Monson and Stratton. But if I plan the real hike it seems to me my diet would be vastly different. Any thoughts?

[bigcranky]

Yeah, I guess the "be flexible" thing works the best. For me anyway. Also, I recall reading something about Brazil nuts in the last couple of years that suggested not eating very many of them. You might check on that.

On a thru or a long hike you can either send yourself your own food (to the post office or hostels or outfitters), or you can buy it along the way. Mail drops are enough of a PITA that I would only recommend them if someone has a serious food/health issue. Otherwise just buying locally is vastly easier and less expensive overall. But yeah, you're at the mercy of the local selection, which is often not great. That said, many of the small mountain towns along the AT have grown enough in the last 20 years that they have full service grocery stores, organic food shops, etc.

But maybe maildrops would be the best option for you to control what you get for ingredients.

[kidchill]

There really is no "plan" to resupplying. You get what you can, where you can. I've resupplied at great places like Super Walmart and also lowly gas stations. You're not eating gourmet food so you can usually find enough sustenance wherever you go. My basic diet included poptarts, honey buns, power bars, cliff bars, pretzels, cheese, jack's link meats, spam singles, tortillas/bagels/pitas, ramen, mac n cheese, snickers, payday, combos, and whatever candy I could find. I guess I was concerned about food before I left, but you figure out that you just need a butt-load of calories and you'll eat whatever you can find. I wouldn't stress yourself too much over this...

[Spirit Walker]

You will probably simplify your food choices, simply because you'll be too tired to do anything that takes much time or effort to prepare. There are always a few gourmet hikers who do take the time to prepare meals beyond the simplest. They are rare though. If you really want to stick to the choices you have made, then you will need to do maildrops. Most hikers cook only the most basic meals. I felt like I was getting fancy when I started adding protein or dehydrated veggies. If you do resupply as you go, you'll need to be flexible. You'll soon figure out what basics you need to get; anything beyond that is lagniappe.

[TJ aka Teej]

BB, send your 'specials' ahead in mail drops. There are 4-5 options for food drops in the 100 mile, and all they'll pack what ever you send or want.
Monson has much more than people think, Shaws stocks a wicked good hiker store, the General is reopening, and Rebecca's Lake Shore House has some really thoughtful portioned out foodstuffs. And, not for nothing, there's a large supermarket right up the road in Greenville. Add to that to-go food from an awesome BBQ joint, a hipster food truck, and some surprisingly good gas station pizza & calzones few hikers will leave town hungry or with empty food bags.

[Sue_Bird]

I think a short answer is that yes, most hikers eat what is available along the way. But yes, you will probably feel better if you plan and send maildrops.

On my AT thru I did zero planning and did alright. I ate TERRIBLY (which is pretty typical of thru-hikers). Tons and tons of processed crap. But, it got the job done, which at the end of the day is simply to meet your monstrous caloric needs. Yes, if I had planned and sent myself drops with things like raw honey, whole grains, freeze-dried meats and vegetables, etc, then I probably would have had more energy day-to-day (I lost 30 lb on that hike and generally felt like a truck had hit me by the end.) But the thing is, it's hard to know how much energy you'll need before you go, if you don't have a lot of long-distance hiking experience. my PCT partner meticulously planned all of his drops prior to leaving--and a month in, realized that all of the organic, healthy food that he had home-dehydrated and carefully bagged was far short of his needs. He lost weight at an ALARMING rate and ended up spending even more money because he had to buy extra food on top of what he had planned.

It also depends on how much support you have at home. Is there someone at home who is willing to do all the legwork of titrating what food goes into which boxes, and then sending them out, consistently? Do you have a space to put 20-30 boxes and 6 months' worth of food? If you have these resources, it's not a bad way to go, at least for part of your needs. It really does get pretty minimal up in Maine especially, and it really isn't very fun to live off of SlimJims and Poptarts for a week.

Another option is to send yourself a couple of boxes from the trail, for areas you know will be tough. For instance, in Gorham, which is a pretty big town, you could take a day off and send all of your Maine boxes. A lot of western long-distance hikers do this (yogi suggests it), where good resupplies are MUCH farther apart than on the AT.

[BirdBrain]

I think my problem (okay, okay, one of my problems) is that I over think things. For our jaunt across Maine we are going to have 2 resupplies (Monson and Stratton). This means we will carry all our food in 3 segments. This allows for special diet and requires a bit of planning. Also, our segments will take longer than the average hiker. We are doing all the spur trails and fishing along the way. As an example we plan for 10 days through the 100 mile wilderness. I know this can be done faster if the goal is to get there (which most are thinking by that point I am sure).

If I ever do a thru hike I will employ the old adage that everyone is inferring here: Keep it simple stupid (KISS). I like the list that kidchild posted. Thanks for the answers.