Date: 2009-01-03
To: The Pros and Cons of Mail Drops
Miles today: 0.0

One aspect of thru hiking that Tag-along and I have considered at length is whether or not to organize mail drops. This seems to be a topic that many long distance hikers have varied opinions about.Some not in favor of mail drops maintain that it can be difficult picking up a package during normal hours of Post Office operation. Imagine arriving in town on Saturday afternoon and having to wait until Monday morning when the Post Office reopens. Others point out that it is easy enough to buy hiker food at towns and small stores along the way. Having someone willing and able back home to package and ship mail drops can pose a challenge. Mail drops can add to the cost of thru hiking. A common rationale favoring mail drops is that special dietary needs can be better addressed. Store resupply in some sections of the trail can be expensive with limited selection. Responding to a Backpacking Magazine article in his 2009 Trail Journal, MinnesotaSmith states¢¦.¢You are completely wrong on discouraging use of mail drops. I used them extensively in 2006, never losing one. For healthy food, it's essential to use mail drops on much of the AT. When you're resupplying at Joe Bob's Convenience Store in Deliverance, Maine, the healthy, trail-practical food options are relatively few¢.Having regular access to a variety of healthy food choices is important to Tag-along and I. Throughout the past months, we have devoted considerable time to testing a variety of trail dinner recipes, striving to find main courses that we really like. Examples of dinners that have made ¢our list¢ include: Loaded Baked Potato Burritos, Lemon Pepper Chicken Wraps, Turkey Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza Pockets, Mary Jane¢s Farm Pinto or Black Bean Burritos, Beef or Chicken Soft Wrap Tacos, Mary Jane¢s Farm Kettle Chili, Swiss Broccoli Mac and Cheese, Mary Jane¢s Farm Cheesy BNT, and Mary Jane's Farm Alfredo Pasta. We are vacuum packing these, and other dinner main entrees, using a Seal-a-Meal. Typically, we put dehydrated meal ingredients into a quart Seal-a-Meal bag and vacuum pack them with an oxygen absorber packet. We often include a small note with preparation instructions and a list of additional ingredients needed to complete the meal (see picture). The ingredients highlighted in yellow are items we need to secure in town - for example, burrito wraps, Taco Bell sauce packets, cheese, etc. When ready to eat, the meal is easily prepared (just add boiling water) and can eaten out of the bag. Mealtime becomes fast and cleanup is very easy. Vacuum packed meals, when stored in the freezer, can be stored safely for long periods of time. Some ingredients, such as the Mary Jane's Farm products and Mountain House dehydrated hamburger and diced chicken, can be purchased in bulk, making them quite cost effective.With all of this in mind, Tag-along and I have arrived at a middle of the road approach to mail drops. We plan to mail vacuum-packed dinners and protein powder (Muscle Milk) to various hostels and outfitters conveniently located along the trail. All of our other food supplies will be purchased along the way. For the most part, we don¢t plan to use Post Offices except in one or two instances or for our bounce box. For those who don¢t know, a bounce box is a mail-drop box containing seldom used necessities that are ¢bounced'¢ by mail ahead to a town where you think you might need the contents. Using both Baltimore Jack¢s ¢2008 Resupply Article¢ (posted in the articles section on Whiteblaze) and last year¢s Appalachian Pages trail guide, we have estimated the number of dinners that should be needed for various stretches of the trail and identified convenient shipping locations. You can click our ¢Mail Drops¢ link on the left for specific info about planned mail drop locations. (UPDATE: We are packaging 113 dinners and will be using 18 mail drops)We are fortunate to have a very responsible house sitter, Walt Hodges, a 1999 AT thru hiker. We know we can count on him to coordinate our meal and gear exchange shipments. In the unfortunate event that both of us have to leave the trail due to injury or some emergency, then our prepared meals will be used as emergency preparedness provisions. Perhaps it goes without saying that flexibility is a needed characteristic of successful thru hiking. If we find that this approach to mail drops isn¢t working for us, we¢ll adjust accordingly.