Are Mail Drops Necessary?

[Adrian]

I'm planning on thru hiking the AT starting March 2012. I've heard alot of people recommend mail drops as a way to resupply. I'm just looking for peoples opinons/recommendations as to how helpful or necessary they truely are. With the looming post office closures and time constraints of getting to post offices during busines hours, I'm tempted to say I'd rather just restock in town. Plus I'll know what and how much supplies I'll need at that time. How hard is it to find grocery stores close to the trail? Are the prices for food so high in trail towns that it outweighs shipping costs? Thanks!

[Bearpaw]

Restock in town. You'll ultimately save money from postage, versus the somewhat higher price of town food. And you will have variety. That stuff that looked so good going into your food drop will become unbearable after a few weeks, and you'll want something different.

Resupply your maps and so forth by an infrequent package sent to a hostel or business that will hold them. Many rural post offices in the AT corridor will be shutting down withing the next year or so.

[Lone Wolf]

i never used a mail drop for food. there are plenty of places to resupply and it's cheaper in the long run. i only used mail drops for gear and maps.

[Iceaxe]

I highly recommend the Buy as you Go strategy for the AT. (Actually i recommend it for the PCT and CDT as well)
The only things i mailed to myself were shoes and socks but even those could have been replaced on trail it turned out.
There were a few times resupply was a little challenging variety wise but overall I was more than happy with this approach.
The Goodwill created by buying food from small communities can only benefit us as Long Distance hikers in the long run.
For every maildrop you send you have spent $10.95 , that is a whole day of trail food or 3 days if you are Trailbender. (Just having fun bro!)
Seriously, I just hiked the A.T. This year and with the coming post office closings I would definitely use this strategy again.
You can also buy food in bulk in larger trail towns and simply mail it ahead to yourself for a hybrid strategy.
Out west we do this in places like South pass City, Wyoming, and places in Oregon and Washington where there truly are
no viable options but a buisiness or individual will hold packages for us.

[WingedMonkey]

In these days of walk two days to the next hamburger or pizza (if you can't cell phone your order to the closest road crossing) you won't rely on mail drops as much. There is still a chance you will need to use mail service, learn how. Like Iceaxe says maybe to break up bulk items to mail ahead. Or you may need to mail things like memory cards back home. There is a chance that some piece of gear may fail and you may have to return to where you got it, sometimes with insured postage.
As to the proposed post office closings, it's still only a study and only affects a few trail P.O.'s. May or may not be decided by spring of 2012.
Go ahead and set up an account at the USPS website. It will allow you to pay for and print postage online. You can even schedule a Priority Mail pick up at places on the trail besides the post office and your account will be billed.

[Red Hat]

Pretty much what everyone else said. I used maildrops only for my maps. I resupplied in town, and bought new shoes along the way.

[WingedMonkey]

For future thru hikers: I just saw on my USPS web site that they are now selling Prepaid Forever Priority Mail Flat Rate Packaging.
So even if the price goes up between now and your 2012 0r 2013 hike your package is prepaid at today's rates.

[Blissful]

Do a search for this topic as its been talked about a lot. I also talk about resupply and what I did on my blog. I both bought and used maildrops and worked well for me both times. There are areas, imo, that a mail drop is very helpful.

[Blissful]

With the looming post office closures and time constraints of getting to post offices during busines hours,

You can always send drops to many outfitters, hostels, hotels. The companion lets you know who accepts drops. Saying it can only go to a PO and the issue of time is a misnomer that gets circulated a lot these days.

With limited foodstuffs in places like at convenience stores, etc, plus the pain of having to spend the time hitching, walking, getting on and off and trying to figure out what to buy, I find mail drops to certain areas on the AT a time saver and money saver and nutrition saver. Again, there are only a few places I would drop b/c of these issues, but I did more drops b/c of my meds and I wanted better food.

[Jack Tarlin]

As others have pointed out, the vast majority of present day thru-hikers prefer to purchase most of their food while en route. There are really only a handful of places where it makes sense to send yourself a food parcel, either because there's no nearby store, or the available store is poorly stocked, over-priced, etc. If you do a search under "Maildrops" or "Re-Supply" you'll find this subject extensively discussed here on Whiteblaze.

[Uncle Tom]

You don't need any mail drops.

[DapperD]

From what I understand it is best to just resupply at the many different towns along the way. When dealing with maildrops, the overall hassle between the cost, having to retrieve them at specific times and locations, and having to adhere to a specific "schedule" when dealing with them for most just isn't worth the bother/trouble. The ability to just resupply/obtain goods along the way appears to be the best choice as it is reported that there really isn't too much of a problem overall in being able to do so. Also to consider in regards to using maildrops for your overall food resupply, it has been reported that unless you have specific needs, such as being on a vegetarian diet or need specific food items or other supplies that will most likely be hard to obtain from the stores that are available, then you would probably be better off to limit your maildrops to certain areas where resupply may present more of a challenge than normal, or in order to ship yourself specific items and/or gear. Otherwise there may be regret involved in choosing to make repeated use of maildrops for ones food, as tastes can change once the hike is underway.

[Lone Wolf]

From what I understand it is best to just resupply at the many different towns along the way. When dealing with maildrops, the overall hassle between the cost, having to retrieve them at specific times and locations, and having to adhere to a specific "schedule" when dealing with them for most just isn't worth the bother/trouble. The ability to just resupply/obtain goods along the way appears to be the best choice as it is reported that there really isn't too much of a problem overall in being able to do so. Also to consider in regards to using maildrops for your overall food resupply, it has been reported that unless you have specific needs, such as being on a vegetarian diet or need specific food items or other supplies that will most likely be hard to obtain from the stores that are available, then you would probably be better off to limit your maildrops to certain areas where resupply may present more of a challenge than normal, or in order to ship yourself specific items and/or gear. Otherwise there may be regret involved in choosing to make repeated use of maildrops for ones food, as tastes can change once the hike is underway.

that's it in a nutshell. end the thread. next!

[WingedMonkey]

Now that we have all told you that you don't need mail drops, go on trail journals or thru hiker blogs and see all the actual thru hikers this year or last that did use them.

[Razor]

Answer: NO

[Trailbender]

Now that we have all told you that you don't need mail drops, go on trail journals or thru hiker blogs and see all the actual thru hikers this year or last that did use them.

Just because hundreds of people do something stupid, doesn't make it any less so. You are paying around $15 to ship food. That is like 3 days worth of food by itself.

[dillard]

Just because hundreds of people do something stupid, doesn't make it any less so. You are paying around $15 to ship food. That is like 3 days worth of food by itself.

+1 to that...

[Spider]

Mail drops are not necessary. It's a lot easier and less complicated to just resupply in towns. Also it's not always easy to gauge how much you're going to be eating and what you're going to want to eat. That being said, some people prefer mail drops because they don't have to worry about food along the way. Also it can be difficult to find certain specialty foods in some towns (for instance I've found clif bars to be one of the hardest things to find in town).

[kyhipo]

actually after hiking the trail for yrs,I personally like the idea of having a mail drop.I think its a mental thing like this is nice.ky

[Trailbender]

Mail drops are not necessary. It's a lot easier and less complicated to just resupply in towns. Also it's not always easy to gauge how much you're going to be eating and what you're going to want to eat. That being said, some people prefer mail drops because they don't have to worry about food along the way. Also it can be difficult to find certain specialty foods in some towns (for instance I've found clif bars to be one of the hardest things to find in town).

That's why you have alternatives you are willing to eat. I am not picky at all when it comes to food, so I had no issues with resupply anywhere. Clif bars are good, but I never found the food to price ratio worth it. I could get a pound of cookies at Dollar General for the same price as one Clif bar. Same thing with Snicker's, 2lbs Fig Newtons vs 9 oz candy bars.