Starting SOBO, Food question...
How easy is it to get the Millinocket? Do most people start big K with enough food to make it through the 100 Mile wilderness or is their a resupply I should know about?
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When I started last yeah I summited Katahdin with a full pack and enough food to get me to Monson. Although there is a small resupply at White House Landing, I chose to avoid it and just carry the extra weight. Given, carrying enough food to get through the Wilderness is easier when you start out doing twenty-mile days as I did.
Depending on your concerns with weight, money, and time, it may be worth buying food and carrying less right off the bat. Also, look into borrowing a day pack from the ranger's station so as to avoid carrying the whole weight up and down Katahdin. When push comes to shove, hike your own hike and don't let anyone tell you what you did was wrong.
Unless you already have your trail legs, closer to ten miles a day is more like it for the 100 mile wilderness, i.e., 10 days.
You can resupply at White House Landing ... Knorr Sides, Ramen Noodles, candy bars, energy mars, etc. It is not a wide selection, but it is adequate. It does cost more than you will find at other locations, but not outrageously so as some posters here might claim.
I carried ten days of food into the 100 mile wilderness last year. If I had it to do over, I would carry six or seven days of food and then top off with a three day resupply at WHL.
Yeah, about those 20 mile day trail legs.......
Okay I'll have to look in to WHL. So you still need 7-10 days of food when you start at big K? Awesome.
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Maine's 100 miles
Take Pennsylvania, subtract bridges, add water, bumps and substitute vistas of forests for fields.
Originally Posted by slugger
Ten days without resupply, Seven days with three day resupply from WHL. Four days with six day resupply from WHL.
I stayed at WHL last year ... enjoyed the pound burger and the pizza. I didn't resupply there because I took ten days food into the 100 mile wilderness.
there is also the store at abol bridge
As vonfrick and others have mentioned about resupply options
1. store at abol bridge
2. whitehouse landing - &/or
3. campground at mary-jo road (it's a bit down the road & I'm not sure what they have)
+
4. can hitch out on Katahdin Ironworks road to the Brownsville Jct. area - small grocery store on side road near town or smallish gas station type stores on the main road. Ask the locals for more info - they were super helpful last year when I ran short.
Good luck and enjoy your hike!
I carried 4 days of food for Mt K to Monson and stopped at WHL for a burger and a night in the bunkhouse.
Yes, but you don't count. You hike about a million miles a day.
I was twice the age of the OP when I got up off the couch to hike SOBO. We made it from Abol to Monson in 8 days, with no stops. My brother in law, 10 years older, was with me.
One other thing about food planning the start of a hike. My appetite is very light the first few days of a hike, but maybe that's just me.
We are resupplying at WHL and then we are getting resupplied by a friend in the wilderness before the Chairback range. We are also staying near Abol Bridge on night #2.
And we are not going to knock ourselves dead. 10-12 mile days to start and we want to see the ponds. I also want a chance to do this thing and southern ME and NH are too tough to get hurt early. And there are mtns to climb in the 100 mile wilderness, surprise, surprise. WIth our resupply, we may try for Gulf Hagas (I missed it in '07)
The campground on the river across from Abol's store is great.
I had the same food questions at the beginning of my SOBO hike. This was roughly my schedule:
1st day, ~10 miles: Katahdin Stream Campground to Katahdin back to KSC. There are no supplies at KSC. I slacked it and left most of my stuff at KSC.
2nd day, ~10 miles: KSC to Abol bridge campground. Some supplies here but not a lot. Fun place to camp and roast hot dogs with other SOBO's.
Days 3-12: THIS is the start of the 100 mile wilderness. 10 mi/day for 10 days would be a nice pace. Whitehouse landing is about 30 miles in?
For some reason, I thought the 100 mile wilderness started at KSC and planned accordingly. Lucky I was able to pick up more food at WHL. I think sending a resupply box to WHL is a great idea, then you would only have to carry 4 days of food out of KSC.
Have fun!
WHL does not accept mail drops. You have to buy from their stock to resupply. It costs a bit more than the grocery store, but not unreasonably so.
Smart move. There were a few SOBOs who started around the same day I did last year who quit their hike in the 100 mile Wilderness because of injuries they received by doing too many miles too soon, right from the start.
I'd say ten days' food to hike Katahdin and get south to Monson. If by WHL you realize you might not have enough supplies, get one or two things to tide you over for slightly longer. I would not under any circumstances resupply fully at WHL; it's really not that hard to hike the 100MW all at once without resupply, and a pre-hike grocery store will be cheaper. (Take it from someone whose ending pack weight at Monson was probably higher than some people's starting pack weights at KSC!)
Don't let cost scare you away from WHL completely. I get the impression where you really lose there is if you stay overnight. One or two things won't hurt -- my midday stop for a burger and a pop and some batteries only put me out $13.60. And hey, it's part of the trail culture, live a little. :-)
Daily mileage in the 100MW can be variable due to relative flatness at the start and mountains at the end, but I'd say you can do 11-12 miles/day average without pushing much -- and if your pack's not as bad as mine was it may be easy. I had two days over fifteen miles even with an excessively heavy pack, and this was after little more prep than maybe a couple miles of flat walking every day.
i don't think $39 is unreasonable for a bed with clean sheets, a hot shower and AYCE breakfast in one of the most beautiful settings on the trail. that's less expensive than 99% of the crappy motels along any interstate. definitely shouldn't be considered "losing"!
Ten days seems pretty extreme to get to Monson. Seven or eight days is a slack schedule, given how flat a lot of the terrain is. And even if you don't buy food to carry away from WHL, if you stop there and eat, it will extend the food you've got with you. I agree with VF that WHL is not unreasonably expensive and I found it a very pleasant place to stay.
If not NOW, then WHEN?
ME>GA 2006
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Is WHL a place you need to let know your coming or can you just kind of show up?
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