The Battle of Resupply Boxing

There are two schools of thought when it comes to food on the PCT: buy-as-you-go and mail drops. For the sake of reduced stress while I'm on the trail, and since I have to mail maps to myself anyway, I decided to make mail drops. These boxes include maps, fuel, toilet paper, food, sunscreen, insect repellant, vitamins and other things I'll need in small(er than available in the store) quantities. I've made a calendar with my itinerary and assigned a ship date for each town, and Jonathan will be sending them to the post office at each town to be held for me to pick up when I arrive.

I've done pretty well at going to Winco and Walmart at least once a week on my day off and buying a big old cart full of food for the trip. Winco has excellent bulk bins. So excellent in fact, that their bulk bins are legendary among backpackers. They even have dog food, bird seed, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt, tapioca flour, peanut butter, and honey in bulk, not to mention the normal nuts, seeds, granolas and dried fruits!

I've been making big batches of my favorite spaghetti sauce and vegetarian chili, running them through the dehydrator and vacuum sealing them into meal-sized portions with noodles and couscous (again, love those bulk bins).

I ordered flat-rate boxes from the post office for my "normal" 3-4 day drops and I've started collecting larger boxes from work for my larger 7-8 day drops. Gradually the pile has grown larger and larger.

But all of this acquisition has been easy compared to putting the stuff INTO the boxes. I'm starting to refer to it internally as The Battle of Resupply Boxing. At T minus 50 days shit is starting to get real, and it feels the most real when I'm in the heat of the battle.

Recognizing my "holy crap" moment a few days ago, Jonathan jumped in to take some of the decision making off my shoulders. I gave him some rules like "two snacks and three meals per day" and "these packages count as two meals for the first three weeks, but one meal thereafter" while I pondered over how much fuel and toilet paper I'll be consuming for each box of meals he packed. Finally we made it through the first five boxes! Phew, what a relief.

Now just 25 more to go.