Bounce box...how does it work exactly.

[flatfeet]

I get the general idea. You mail your heavy/seasonal gear ahead of you. I've read that in general people swap out their cold gear in Damascus and or Mt. Rodgers. And mail it to themselves in say Mass. But if you need it earlier or it gets colder sooner, are you stuck without it? i.e you mailed it too far and have no choice but to wait for it? What if you have spare parts/emergency gear and can't get to it?

Or is the general idea to mail it just a few towns ahead of you, instead of whole states?

Asside from maybe 3-4 maildrops I don't plan on going to the P.O very often.

Thanks much.

FF

[mweinstone]

unwrap the bounce box. depending on weather you purchased a type one or type two bounce box, their may be two wrappings to peel off. inside you will find approximatly 3 peices of cloth and a rubber band. put the cloth in your sox drawer and the rubber band on your shoelace end that is on your leftmost. if their is an extra,fourth peice of cloth , save it in a seperate location like the underware drawer. first place your left foot on the plaque on springer and then reach for your cell. with mom dad or friend on the line , and with your foot firm on the plaque, say these words,"yo, go in my sox drawer and see if theirs a few peices of cloth in their" hold the phone at a 57 degree angle and cough. now you are ready to hike. and you have a basic understandig of boxes.

[mweinstone]

never put anything in a box that can be bought on the trail. only put crap in like pomegranet seeds dryed. or acie juice bits in dark chocolate. or your girlfriends smell. but m&ms or silly gummys dont cut it. rare fudges, illegal chocolates smuggled on the backs of children across chocolateless barin voids, yesthe combo to lwolfs positronic brain so you can reprogram him and have some fun in damaskis.crap like that.

[flatfeet]

this is supposed to be an attempt at humor right?

fail.

[DBRIGGS9]

this is supposed to be an attempt at humor right?

fail.

Most of this guys posts are incoherent and childish. It seems as though most people tend to ignore him, which I'd agree is the best solution as well.

But I'm curious to hear the answers to the question you pose as well.

[Iron Will]

i find his messages humorous in an odd sense and he seems to include a bit of wisdom shrouded in between the at times hard to understand humor

like he said in his second message, gummy bears and m&ms are worth the money or space in you box to ship them cause they are easily found and bought throughout the towns and stores, but your favorite hard to find fudge, or other fancy food, or even a tiny little keepsake to remind you of your girl back home are all good things to put in the box and ship ahead so you have it for the next leg of the trip

im more curious about alcohol fuel

how easily is it found? can i find some everytime i come to a town and be able to buy it in a quantity that i would need

or should i bounce some forward which through my research seems to be a liter in a metal container with screw lid is the amount i can ship at a time


PS THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVICE YOU GUYS GIVE US THAT ARE PREPARING FOR OUR FIRST THRU
^_^

[Storm]

Things you might bounce:

Extra medication
Section Maps
Your razor

[mweinstone]

oh boy.

unopened boxes sent priority may be forwarded endlessly untill needed at no additional costs. furthermore the postal system is a wonderful thing and provides the long distance hiker with much more than simple cookies from home. our offices along the trail are staffed by postal employees who know hikers. our needs, wants and hopes. they cater to our whims by such measures as, picknic tables to repack on located outside many trailside posts. patient helpful folks who lend tape and string and do all sorts of nice extras we could have a thread about. we have some pose office employees who have been around helping hikers for decades,as in lwolfs little town. and the very conciderate commonly reported blessing of the postal worker who goes the extra mile and may give you their number to call in the morning to save you a walk if they know your waiting in town for a package. not to mention the ones who , like in hot springs and damascus and many other towns, who deliver packages to a place a hiker can pick it up when they dont have to. like leaving them at outfitters saveing hikers an extra trip. all in all. the post is at our service and can give a hiker security in both equiptment resupply as well as moral resupplys from home. in the form of food or food.

[mweinstone]

gas and alcohol fuels are as available as batteries on the trail if not much more. everyone sells it. hostels have it. gas stations and all manner of minimart stock it in the form of "heet" brand. it is a non isue for anyone carrying 6 to 12 ozs. this is enough to get you to the next fuel. fuel is never mailed ahead and never worried about. even me, i carry a quart in the smokeys and have plenty to waste.. but can do them on a pint.

[StormBird]

I agree, Don't put anything in your drop boxes that you can acquire in town. Furthermore, you could do two drop boxes. One you bounce way ahead with winter gear after you get past Mt. Rogers to Glencliff, NH. And maybe send another box with things you may or may not need to a closer post office. If you decide you do not need anything in the box, just call the post office and they will forwarded it for you free of charge (use priority boxes only) to the next post office. That way you have the things you will potentially need at hand and the things you will not need until the white mountains up trail. Or you could just send all this stuff home and have your trail support at home mail you things when you need them. Whatever you think might work best for you.

Hope this helps.

Good luck and happy trails!

[leaftye]

I don't agree with not putting stuff in a bounce box that you can buy in town. The cost of some items cost more than the cost of shipping, which justifies sending it ahead.

I call a bounce box a box that I'd ship to nearly every town with stuff I'd want in town. This could be nail clippers, razor, a battery charger, certain consumables, town clothes, computer... It gets bounced repeatedly, thus I call this a bounce box.

A box is bounced ahead only once I wouldn't call a bounce box.

[mweinstone]

i never have sent myself a drop. but i get drops from friends and that makes the trip way the greater. my drops have been from folks like: jesters mom.the dude, whitecrow,traila angel mary and mothers finest. i love getting weirdo foods and letters. their more important than needed stuff.

[SullyJoe]

I have been curious as to what type of container is best for a bounce box. A tupperware is the first thing that comes to mind, but i thought the weight of one would add too much cost of repeated shipping.
On a second note, i have been trying to understand mwienstone's posts for some time now. As stated earlier, most people seem to ignore them, and figured it's because he has so many qnd by the time i started following this website, everyone else has just gotten used to them.
I am someone who appreciates odd humor, but i just dont't get his. Any insights?... especially from the man himself?

[leaftye]

If you're mailing from town to town, you really should be using priority mail. In that case you might as well use the free flat rate boxes. No additional container is required.

[restless]

I tend to steer clear of bounce boxes, but some things you might want to consider for a bounce box:
-charger for cell phone
-batteries for camera if something other than AA or AAA
-razor (electric)
-maps, future portions of guidebook or data book
-anything that you might need access to on a weekly or bi-weekly basis but not daily

So far as winter gear goes, at some point, you are not going to need the cold weather gear you have carried since Springer. This usually occurs by the time you arrive in Damascus in May. Times could vary depending on when you start and your speed, but typically by the first part of May you are safe getting rid of most of your cold weather gear. Keep a fleece or down sweater with you for the entire trip, and I recommed a set of silkweight polypro or Capilene. Rather than forwarding your gear to Mass or so, I would try to have someone back home that you could ship that stuff to and than have them ship it back to you a couple of weeks before you expect to need it. This saves on hassles if you wind up having to get off the trail or if you quit. Keep in mind that, while generally uncommon, bounce boxes do get lost. this is one of the riskes entailed in using BB's.
Ultimately, only you can decide what you want to put in a bounce box. If you are only planning on going to a PO 3-4 times during your hike, I would question if you really need a BB or if there isn't someone back home that is dependable enough to send stuff to you when you need it.

[Jester2000]

Most of this guys posts are incoherent and childish. It seems as though most people tend to ignore him, which I'd agree is the best solution as well.

But I'm curious to hear the answers to the question you pose as well.

Adults who think that the word "childish" is a pejorative make me sad. And perhaps ignoring him is something one might choose to do, although thinking that "most people" do that probably isn't correct; regardless, it begs the question, to what is that the best solution?

As for bounce boxes, a few thoughts:

Out west people actually used to use 5 gallon paint buckets, but that doesn't seem to be much in vogue anymore. As mentioned by others, the Priority boxes are the way to go, as they can be forwarded for free if you don't open them.

I, too, think of bounce boxes as places to keep things used most often in town -- chargers for electronics, nail clippers, etc. It's also a nice place to keep things you think you might not want to carry any more on the trail. You can put a piece of gear in the bounce box, and if it turns out that you're perfectly happy for a week or two without that extra pair of underwear, you can then send it home. But if you made a mistake and you actually want it, it's there at the next town.

As for winter clothes, I wouldn't put them in a bounce box. Maybe you put them in the bounce box the first time you think you don't need them, and then after that send them home. Some people will tell you to mail them home from Damascus. Don't listen to those people. Mail them home after Mt. Rogers. Get them back in Hanover.

Tons of people hike the trail without bounce boxes. Maybe you'll decide to use one, and maybe not. But do keep in mind that if you're bouncing boxes through USPS, you'll be tied to the (sometimes) odd hours of small town post offices. In any case, using a bounce box is something you can decide to do once you're on the trail.

[DBRIGGS9]

Adults who think that the word "childish" is a pejorative make me sad. And perhaps ignoring him is something one might choose to do, although thinking that "most people" do that probably isn't correct; regardless, it begs the question, to what is that the best solution

Perhaps you're right, I probably did cross the line by calling most of his post childish and assuming that most people ignore him, as I've only stumbled across a handful of his thousands of posts. I apologize. But I can say many of his posts I have come across are pretty hard to read or make sense of what he's saying or why he's saying it.

But it seems as though most people try to keep the bounce boxes to a minimum, if using them at all, and that it's fairly easy to plan to have them sent further up the trail, without sending them too far. Good info, glad someone asked.

[Moose2001]

Bounce boxes are a pain. If you are bouncing items you can buy in town, you end up paying a lot more for those items than you would have. Besides....why bounce? Do you have someone at home that is going to mail things to you? Then why not have them do it for you? Send your winter gear home. Have them send it back to you at the start of the Whites.

Bounce boxes have been known to disappear. Not commom but it does happen. I wouldn't put anything in a bounce box that I couldn't get along without.

[mweinstone]

i may have been bounced as a child. all i can recall is a long bumpy dark trip in a small box smelling of esbit tablets. then a bright light and a lady mailman handing me over to a guy chewing tabbaco . later i found out i was lonewolfs kid and that he only sent TOW to pick me up cause he was busy. growing up in lwolfs shed in back of his house i would ride his harly for hundreds of miles each night after him and gypsy passed out. by day lwolf brought me hiker packages sent to hikers who had quit. they kept me fat and healthy untill i was old enough to become baltimore jacks ward and traveled with him learning the ways of a master yogi.

[Spokes]

........... they can be forwarded for free if you don't open them.
.........

They can be forwarded for free as long as you don't "take custody" of the package. Most postal clerks I met were really laid back about that.

I only had one postal clerk challenge me when she put the bounce box on the her counter top and I picked it up to look at the label she said I "took custody" of it. Of course she then proceeded to charge me to send it on.

I'm pretty sure she must have worked as a carney in a prior life.....

From then on I would always announce "I'm not taking custody of this package, I want to forward it!" to avoid the hassle.