Are bounce boxes necessary to eliminate food waste?

[jingle jangle]

Are bounce boxes necessary if I don't want to waste the xtra food I find myself with on resupply days?

I imagine it is especially true on bulk items i.e. Olive oil , peanut butter , jelly, spices ... that I have to buy every now and then in town...but I mean even day-to-day meals like dehydrated mashed potatoes come in such huge boxes. If I transfer the stuff into smaller containers the only options I can think of right now are 1) forward it to myself 2) throw it out (or give to hiker/free box)

I was hoping not to have to use bounce boxes ...it just seems to put an added stress on getting into towns at a specific hour to get to the PO...but thinking about it, bounce boxes seem almost necessary sometimes.

Would love to hear from people that figured out ways AROUND using them as well as people that used them!

THANKS for your help
Cheers

[Wise Old Owl]

Uh add some more detail as to what you are trying to accomplish. Bounce boxes are well,,,, beginning to disappear. These items don't spoil "Olive oil , peanut butter , jelly, spices" and dehydrated weighs nothing...

[jingle jangle]

These items dont spoil, and dehyrdated weighs nada. True. But am I supposed to carry all that extra stuff around if I don't need it? i.e. the olive oil. I could buy a small plastic bottle of it in the store and that could probably last me weeks. Do you suggest I just suck it up & carry the big guy around and deal with the extra weight in the beginning?

No bounce box is cool with me....I'm just wondering how people deal with the bulk items.

Thanks WiseOwl & others.

[illabelle]

Just a section hiker here, trying to help, no experience with bounce box. Disregard if it doesn't fit.

I carry no oil - liquids tend to leak. I carry margarine, typically a stick or two depending on the length of our hike. Margarine is available is smaller packages than olive oil.
Spices don't weigh anything.
We've seen thru-hikers carrying jars of peanut butter. From what I've heard, thru's need so many calories per day that I would think the jar wouldn't last long.
Jellies - maybe get several of the little packets from restaurants?

[moytoy]

I plan to buy supplies as I go. No bounce boxes and no mail drops. My pill doctor will give me enough prescriptions to last the trip. Hiker wasting food is an oxymoron I think:)

[Chaco Taco]

we used bounces to shed gear and send it ahead, esp as it gets hotter. We also kept getting maildrops from friends and family. We would divy up some of the goodies and send them along. Our bounce box was out own little hiker box. Folks we were hiking with could throw stuff in if need be, and we would just kick it down the trail

[moldy]

To the OP. You are thinking that you can use up all the food you are forced to buy in large containers after loading your pack with 4 or 5 days suppy then bouncing the remainder forward to your next stop. Some people do that, although with the new postal rates it becoming less of a good option. It's both a money issue and a "I hate to waste food" issue. I started out attempting to bounce it forward but ended up just giving it away or tossing it in a hiker box. It was too much effort and money. So in the end I gave up my "Sams Club" thinking and just bought smaller containers even if that ment changing the menu.

[Stir Fry]

I usualy just give it away or put in hiker box. There are alot of younger hikers that can use it and most do not have the finances of the older hikers.

[Odd Man Out]

Suppose you are stopping every 5 days to buy food. You decide you need 8 oz of olive oil to get to the next town, but the store only has 16 oz bottles. You could:

Pour half into an 8 oz bottle you carry with you. Then go to the post office and retrieve your bounce box. Put in the half empty bottle of oil and mail it to yourself further up the trail. Except that it won't get to the next town in time, so you will need to mail it even further up the trail and so you need second bounce box at the next town to ship your next 1/2 empty bottle of oil. By the end of the hike, you have spent many hours and dollars to ship half empty oil bottles.

Or as suggested, put the half empty bottle in a hiker box. If there is no hiker box, give it to someone at the grocery store who could use it. Not a waste. In fact it builds good relationships with the local residents on whom you depend for your support. Maybe you'll get a ride back to the trail head in exchange?

Or you could just carry the whole bottle. Remember that packaging weight does not scale linearly with product weight, so smaller containers are proportionally heavier, just as they are proportionally more expensive. You won't have to buy oil at every resupply stop, saving you time and money. Not everything will run out at the same time so each stop you will get different staples. In exchange for carrying a couple extra pounds of food, you have more options at dinner time, since you didn't feel compelled to buy exactly 5 days of food for 5 days of hiking at the last resupply stop.

[coheterojo]

Screw bounce boxes. Too much trouble for me. I did a few maildrops to places along the trail where options are limited. The only place I encountered bounce boxes was in the literature I read prior to my 1st hike. I never met one in real life.

As mentioned above buy smaller portions and/or donate the rest to fellow hikers or to a hiker box. Maybe somewhere down the trail you can recoup your donation at another hiker box. It always seemed to work out for me. For example, I'd buy a box of ziploc qt bags but only need 5 or 6 so I'd put the rest of the box in a hiker box. Lo and behold, when it was time to replenish my ziploc supply a month or so later, what did I find in the nearest hiker box? That's correct! More ziplocs (or a reasonable facsimile).

[Blissful]

Bounce boxes end up being junk boxes that you waste money on. Don't bother with them. If you have extra food, give out to hikers, leave in hiker boxes or throw it away.

[Alligator]

You might also get to know the folks hiking around you and trade/split items on a mutual resupply stop.

[Razor]

The practical side to the boxes is that the postage will eat up any $ saving you could gain by saving the food and then the timing on the new PO days and hours is near to impossible and having to wait 1 day will kill any savings for a long time!

[BillyGr]

Just a couple notes:

You mentioned mashed potatoes - many places you may be able to find those now sold in pouches, making about 4 (normal sized) servings each and the pouches are similar in size to the popular Knorr sides. Additionally, these are often designed to be made with just boiling water (rather than water, milk and butter as most of the boxed ones are) which makes it easier to prepare.

In relation to the Ziploc bags mentioned above - if there is a dollar type store where you are resupplying, check there. I know Dollar Tree (which is fairly widespread overall) has Hefty branded ones - the sandwich size are 13 count, and the number goes down from there for the larger sized bags. Actually, they (or any other dollar only type store) tend to carry fairly small sizes of lots of things (in order to be able to sell them for $1), so it might not be a bad spot to check first if there is one in an area you stop in.

[Monkeywrench]

I had a bounce box on my thru-hike, mostly because I kept a small netbook computer in there and bounced it up the trail to myself at town stops. Since I had it anyway I kept things like chargers for camera and phone batteries in there, occasionally extra warm clothes, and extra food like granola bars that come in boxes of multiples.

If bits if extra food were the only things to be bounced it wouldn't make economic sense. Just giving the extra food away and buying it again at the next town stop would probably be cheaper than the cost of postage.

But note that I never had "extra" peanut butter or Nutella or anything like that. Indeed, I would have to force myself to stop eating in order to save some for the next day's lunch. After a month or two on the trail, a jar of Nutella becomes a single serving.

[prain4u]

Many good options have already been listed. I would add two more.

1) You could always use "a lot" of that item for a few days. Let's say that all I could find was the big box of dehydrated mashed potatoes. You might simply eat A LOT of mashed potatoes for a few days--and eat less of some other items for a few days.

2) I know that this next idea isn't a popular answer on WhiteBlaze....but, I will share it any way: You could always carry a little more weight for a couple weeks. Probably won't kill you or make you feel super uncomfortable---or slow you down very much.

[garlic08]

What will probably happen is you will adjust your shopping and eating habits to solve this issue. If you're having a chronic problem with olive oil that's really bothering you, for example, stop buying it and try something else. One of the great things about a thru hike is simplifying your life.

[maybe clem]

I always use a bounce box on long hikes but not for extra food. I usually share that with whoever else was around or leave it in a hiker box. If there's no other option, I throw it away although I hate doing that.

[Cyngbaeld]

Remember that fat has more than double the calories per unit of weight as do carbs and protein. So carrying extra oil or PB along gives you more bang per pound. I never find it hard to use more fat when I am working hard. I normally use butter, ghee or lard from grass fed animals.

[Rolls Kanardly]

How much did it cost for an average bounce box to send to the next point? Rolls

[Just Bill]

To the OP- bounce boxes have fallen out of favor on the AT as services have grown to be sure. That said, for non mail droppers; they do have their uses. Food storage isn't really a good one, but a nice bonus. Electronics (no more payphones in town), gear repair or maintenance items, spare water filter(if using), and other expendables that could fail are all good things to include. Spare socks, batteries, quarters for laundry, laundry soap, nicer shampoo/conditioner for washing your pig-tails, Hair brush, razor, a nice towel from home and other items you tend to get dinged on/can't find/comforts if you'd like them in town. Most hikers are spending a zero during resupply, so catching the P.O. isn't that big a deal really. A bounce box used as a comfort station and town aide often pays for itself if you find yourself paying $2 each or more for soaps etc. If a bounce box fits your style of hike, then using it for food makes sense too. As mentioned though, there are lots of ways around the food issues.

[Hill Ape]

no, maildrops and bouncing are no longer necessary, but there was a time. old traditions die hard. for me the logistics aren't worth it, mailing around smash taters that every grocery in town sells. all it does is drive the overall cost up. in the places along the trail where they are still useful, you'll know long before you get there. i think people that package up six months of food and micro plan maildrops and bounces are making a huge mistake with their money, and money is a big thing out there.

[max patch]

Bounce boxes aren't necessary for food (I've always wondered what locals think when they see a hiker pick up a box that has the same food thats at the local grocery). Next year I'm using a bounce box which I'll catch up every 3 weeks or so for maps and meds, and since I already have the box, I'll add some things that you buy in quantity but don't need all at once like q-tips and zip locks.

[Blissful]

I did blog on my take on maildrops (http://blissfulhiking.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-goes-in-maildrops.html). I personally love them. As a ridgerunner I had a hiker have to give me his extra roll of TP at the store this weekend because he couldn't carry it and there was no hiker box.

I did use a bounce box for a while in '07 then it became a junk box and did away with it.

[yellowsirocco]

I try to top off my olive oil at restaurants. I only carry a couple of ounces so I don't need much. I just ask the person serving me and haven't been turned down yet. And I make sure to leave a little extra on the tip.

[Different Socks]

In my day(1992) bounce boxes were used for anything else other than food. Bounce boxes had many things in them you only needed every other town or so.

[Grampie]

I did my thru without useing a bounce box. I brought all my food along the way with the execption of a couple times when family insisted on sending me stuff. I found it quite easy to purchase food along the way and not waste or not use any items. It just took a little planing. When I stopped in a town for resupply I would figure out what my next stop would be, decide how many days worth of food I would need and purchase accordinaly. I might of had to eat the same cold ceral every morning for a week but that's OK.

[Sly]

Next year I'm using a bounce box which I'll catch up every 3 weeks or so for maps

Maps!? You're carrying maps? You'll probably be the most popular person on the trail.

Don't forget to use AT Mailing Labels.

[max patch]

Don't forget to use AT Mailing Labels.

I've looked at those and I certainly will. You deserve a lot of credit for putting that together.

[RED-DOG]

Why don't you just put the extra items in a Hiker box if one is available or just simply give the extra food to a fellow hiker, Bounce boxes are becomming exstinct every once in blue moon i meet some one useing one.

[Sly]

I've looked at those and I certainly will. You deserve a lot of credit for putting that together.

Thanks. It doesn't cover ever conceivable drop but close. Let me know if you think any others should be added.

[Sly]

They'll never become extinct. There will always be some use for some people. Maps, guides, meds, dehydrated foods, extra batteries, socks, journals, gear, etc.