Resupply Details

Now that I'm a month away, I've got a lot more details about my resupply strategy. This will cover an up-to-date plan of where I'm sending boxes vs buying in town and how I'm preparing my boxes .

First, here's where I've decided to resupply. This took a while to figure out - mostly deciding what distances I was comfortable carrying food, which depends on my hiking pace and overall backpack weight. A huge thank you to Yogi and her advice and graphics, which really helped me piece together the best plan. This is all from my master spreadsheet, and includes the town, mileage to next, days to next, and info about the town/post office. I'm buying 13 resupplies in town (in green) and shipping 13 (in blue). The days of food I'm carrying is based on my estimates for hiking pace. I plan to start slow, going about 10 miles a day, before kicking up to 15 and eventually 20. When I hit the Sierras, I anticipate dropping down to 15, then bumping back up to 20 when I'm done. This is of course very subject to change. I'm grateful to have my mom back home, who's able to make some adjustments to food decisions if necessary.

The ETAs are likewise very likely to change - that's assuming I maintain perfect pace, take no zero days, and take most of the day to resupply.

Southern California

In summary, I'll be starting at the monument, buying food in Julian, then meeting my mom in Warner Springs where she'll drop off my first package (and my snow gear!). Then I'll buy food in Idyllwild, Big Bear Lake, and Wrightwood, ship to Agua Dulce, and buy again in Tehachapi, where my dad might meet me on trail.

Sierra

The plan here is to resupply as little as possible in the Sierras - it's not as simple to get off the trail here. This year, everyone has to go into Bishop to navigate around the washed out bridge at S. Fork San Joaquin River, so that more or less determined the other towns I'd stop at. I plan to send all of my snow gear to Kennedy Meadows North, then buy food at Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, and Kennedy Meadows South Resort.

Northern California

In Northern California, I'll buy food at South Lake Tahoe, meet my mom at Soda Springs, where she'll collect my snow gear, and ship to Quincy and Burney Falls. Then I'll buy again in Dunsmuir and Etna.

Oregon

Here, I'll buy in Ashland and ship packages to Crater Lake, Shelter Cove, and Sisters.

Washington

Finally, in Washington I'll buy at Cascade Locks and ship to the last four resupplies at White Pass, Snoqualmie Pass, Skykomish, and Stehekin.

Food Preparation

Now that I know where I'm sending everything, I still need to make up the boxes. This is a lengthy process that includes buying all the food (mostly from Costco, Grocery Outlet, and Safeway), packaging the food into servings, and filling each box with the correct number of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, drinks, and gear replacements. The gear replacements mostly consists of toiletries like extra toothpaste, chapstick, sunscreen, bandaids, tissue packets, and ibuprofen. I'm also sending individual packets of laundry detergent and mini shampoos for any laundry/showers I take in town. In a couple boxes I'm including some treats like face masks and candy.

The final steps deal with choosing the right size box - either a Medium/Large Flat Rate box, or one of USPS' Cubic Rate boxes. If I can fit it, Cubic Rate is typically cheaper, but I'll likely be using the Large Flat Rate boxes for most of them. Finally, I'll label all the boxes using stickers so my mom can change the address if needed, include a piece of paper with the address inside in case the outside gets damaged, and stick some easily identifiable duct tape on the outside. I'll keep in contact with my mom in case anything needs to be changed or added, and she'll tape up and mail out each box about three weeks before I'm set to arrive at its destination. Hopefully the resupplies go out smoothly - with these almost done, its feeling very real.