Although it's possible my opinions will change during my thru-hike, I currently plan on keeping any hitchhiking to an absolute minimum... Is it reasonably possible to do the entire trail without hitching OR using a bounce box? It seems to me that there are few (if any) places where one would have to hike more than 2.5 miles off the trail so long as they plan out their supply points and are willing to carry a max of 5-6 days of food in a very limited number of places. Any thoughts on this?
One thing I have not looked into is exactly what the elevation changes are between some of the in-town grocery supply points and the trailheads...