Here is our extremely tentative resupply and mail drop schedule. The ETA is likely going to change a lot as it does not take into account any zero days. We plan on 10 mail drops along the way, spread out about every 1 to 3 weeks.
In addition to including dehydrated meals (recipes from The Appalachian Trail Food Planner), we plan to resupply meds and some food additives: advil, tylenol, aspirin, allergy medicine, olive oil, peanut butter, squeeze margarine, powdered milk, carnation instant breakfast, oatmeal, toilet paper, soap, batteries, upcoming map sections.
Most our drops will be at hostels or outfitters, only one of our drops has to be at a post office. In recent years this has become a trend among thru-hikers. Post offices have very limited hours and some hikers have been force to take several zero days because they arrive on a saturday after it was closed or holiday weekend. Most outfitters and hostels are open seven days a week along the way. This will be especially important because starting August 2013 the Post Office will no longer be open on Saturdays. If we get into town on Friday night this could result in 2 unscheduled zero days.
You’ll also notice that our mail drops are less frequent at the beginning and don’t pick up until after Virginia. This is because most of our connections are in North Carolina and Virginia area. We are anticipating not needing mail drops those times because we’ll get lots of nice good meals with friends and family.
“Not all who wander are lost” -JRR Tolkien
ETA | Pick-up/Purchase Point | Resupply Method | Miles to Next Stop | Days to Next Stop | Comments |
10-Mar | Springer Mountain | Pack | 30.70 | 3 | |
12-Mar | Neels Gap | Buy | 36.80 | 4 | |
16-Mar | Hiawasseee, GA | Buy | 40.20 | 5 | |
22-Mar | Franklin, NC | Buy | 25.10 | 4 | |
26-Mar | Natahala Outdoor Center | Buy | 27.60 | 3 | |
29-Mar | Fontana Dam, NC | Buy | 65.40 | 7 | |
5-Apr | Standing Bear Hostel | Mail Drop | 33.40 | 3 | |
11-Apr | Hot Springs, NC | Buy | 68.10 | 5 | |
14-Apr | Erwin, TN | Buy | 33.30 | 3 | |
17-Apr | Mtn Harbor Hostel (Roan Mtn) | Mail Drop | 75.10 | 6 | *Alt: Hampton, TN before Damascus |
23-Apr | Damascus, VA | Buy | 75.30 | 6 | |
29-Apr | Atkins, VA | Buy | 53.00 | 3 | |
2-May | VA606 Trent’s Grocery | Buy | 54.60 | 3 | |
5-May | Pearisburg, VA | Buy | 92.70 | 6 | *town before Blacksburg |
11-May | Daleville or Troutville, VA | Buy | 56.80 | 3 | *pass Roanoke |
14-May | Glasgow, VA | Buy | 77.20 | 4 | |
18-May | Waynesboro, VA | Buy | varies | 1 | *enter SNP eat |
21-May | Harrisonburg,VA | Mail Drop | varies | 1 | *mail back winter clothes |
23-May | Lurray, VA | Buy | 81.60 | 5 | *Damascus to Trail Days |
31-May | Harper’s Ferry, WV | Buy | 61.50 | 4 | *Pass Front Royal |
4-Jun | Fayetteville, PA | Buy | 62.20 | 2 | *eat at Pine Grove Furnace & Boiling Spring Furnace |
8-Jun | Duncannon, PA | Buy | 70.40 | 4 | |
12-Jun | Port Clinton, PA | Mail Drop | 40.30 | 3 | |
15-Jun | Palmerton, PA | Buy | 20.40 | 1 | |
16-Jun | Wind Gap, PA | Buy | 15.60 | 1 | |
17-Jun | Delaware Water Gap, PA | Mail Drop | 63.30 | 3 | |
21-Jun | Vernon, NJ | Buy | 45.50 | 3 | |
24-Jun | Fort Montgomery, NY | Buy | 63.20 | 4 | |
28-Jun | Kent, CT | Mail Drop | 33.00 | 2 | |
30-Jun | Salisbury, CT | Buy | 33.60 | 2 | |
2-Jul | Great Barrington, MA | Buy | 48.10 | 3 | |
6-Jul | Cheshire, MA | Mail Drop | 23.1 | 1 | |
6-Jul | Williamstown or North Adams, MA | Buy | 58.50 | 4 | |
11-Jul | Manchester Center, VT | Buy | 49.80 | 3 | |
13-Jul | Rutland, VT | Buy | 45.80 | 3 | |
16-Jul | Hanover, NH | Mail Drop | 43.30 | 3 | |
19-Jul | Glencliff, NH | Buy | 9.50 | 1 | |
20-Jul | North Woodstock, NH | Buy | 70.00 | 5 | |
25-Jul | Gorham, NH | Mail Drop | 62.50 | 5 | *food at huts, resupply options at Crawford and Mt Washington |
30-Jul | Andover, ME | Buy | 58.60 | 4 | |
4-Aug | Stratton, ME | Buy | 73.30 | 5 | *Pass Rangley, ME |
9-Aug | Monson, ME | Mail Drop | 99.10 | 8 | *last stop before 100 Mile Wilderness |
18-Aug | Abdol Bridge, ME | Buy | varies | 2 | *sign up for Birches |
19-Aug | Mount Katahdin, ME |
**all the mileage and days between resupply might not be entire accurate. I have made changes and did not go through every city and adjust mileage.
This is so organized of you! Im very impressed! Also, where the hell did you find squeezable butter? I scoured the whole grocery store for it! Our best food drop find was powdered eggs… they might be awful but I think we will appreciate them anyway! Keep on trekking!
Parkay is one of the brands that has squeeze margarine. I’m from California and I know I’ve seen it in my grocery store at home but I haven’t looked around here yet. http://www.parkay.com/our-spreads.jsp Country crock and I can’t believe it’t not butter also have squeeze margarine options. We also plan to have powdered eggs for breakfast and add powdered milk to lots of things to increase protein and calorie intake. As of right now I’m pretty organized but this whole schedule might get completely rearranged once we’re out there. So we’ll just see how it goes.
yeah, im a big planner so I wanted to make some kind of a mail drop flow chart but kyle convinced me to just let it be flexible and spontaneous. so see how it goes is exactly what we will be doing!
I had to convince my boyfriend to do mail drop boxes. We compromised by only having 10 and not all our resupply. We tried to choose places we knew we were gonna stop because of hostel or outfitter reputations from other hikers. I expect our resupply schedule will change a lot and be flexible but have those 10 locations to give us a guideline of the kind of time we’re making.
when do you guys hit the trail?
april 6th we think! flexible but some time around then, we start our drive across the country on the 1st or 2nd!