Date Tags hiking / pct

Lots of people spend a lot of time meticulously planning their resupply strategy for their five month walk on the PCT. I'm not one of them.

My plan is to figure it out as I go along. I don't really know how much I'll eat, for one: I tend not to eat much when I'm hiking, which makes it more difficult because I know I will get hungry after a few days and have no idea how much I'll want to eat. Now, I could prepare and buy a lot of food for that eventuality and mail out 27 different boxes of food that I may or may not eat (or even like).

Or I can just see how it goes--it's fairly easy to get to well stocked stores for the first month, and put some more concrete plans for a few difficult spots where there aren't a lot of resupply points.

Here's what my plan looks like, with mile markers and dates. C-Store means "convenience store", often a gas station or small grocery. Later dates are fuzzier.

Southern California resupply plans

Date Mile Method Location Notes
Mar 17 0 Start Campo Start with 6 days food
Mar 23 109 USPS Warner Springs PO 4 days food
Mar 26 183 Buy Idyllwild 6 days food (and decide if Palm Springs is a rest day)
Mar 28 201 Buy Palm Springs Possible resupply at Palm Springs, 4 days food
Apr 1 266 Buy Big Bear City Vons, 6 days. Plus a rest day
Apr 5 341 Buy I-15 El Cajon Pass Small resupply as needed at c-store
Apr 7 369 Buy Wrightwood 4 to 6 days food
Apr 13 465 Buy Agua Dulce 5 days food
Apr 16? 566 Buy Tehachapi Albertsons, 7-8 days food
Apr 23? 702 USPS Kennedy Meadows Ice ax, crampons, bear canister, warmer clothing, with 7 days food
May 1? 789 Buy Bishop/ Independence 10 days food crammed into bear canister (or maybe a day's worth of bulky food in a sack for a bear box storage at night). Might need a USPS package sent from home.
May 11? 902 Exit Mammoth Get off trail at Horeshoe Lake

Post-Mammoth resupply plans

After a short break, I get back on the trail, staying overnight in Mammoth the night before..

Date Mile Method Location Notes
May 25 902 Buy Mammoth Vons, food for 12 days (that's really too much to carry)
May 28 940 Buy Tuolumne Meadows Food top up, if store is open
Jun 2? ??? USPS? Central Sierra? Need a resupply. It's 12 days walking from Mammoth to South Lake Tahoe. It's early season as well; Tuolumne Meadows Store may not be open, and TM is only 2/3 days from Mammoth anyways. Plus bears, so food has to be compact.
Jun 8 1092 Buy S Lake Tahoe Raleys. Food for 5 days, ship ice ax, crampons home.
Jun 13 1192 Buy Sierra City Grocery, food for 7 days
Jun 17 1265 Buy Bucks Lake C-Store top-up as needed
Jun 18 1290 Buy Belden Grocery, food for six days
Jun 24 1415 Buy Burney Safeway, 7 days. Perhaps USPS, and motel?
Jun 29 1506 Buy Dunsmuir Grocery top-up to 7 days
Jul 4 1607 Buy Etna Grocery top-up as needed. Maybe a rest day
Jul 7 1661 Buy Seiad Valley Groceries
Jul 11 1726 Buy Ashland, OR Groceries in-town and a rest day. Mail resupply package ahead to Crater Lake
Jul 17 1829 USPS Mazama Village Crater Lake NP
Jul ?? 1989 Buy Sisters Groceries and a rest day
Aug 1 2154 Buy Cascade Locks Stevenson, WA has bigger grocery stores if needed
Aug 9 2302 Buy Packwood, WA Probably overnight from Whites Pass and pack USPS supplies for Snoq Pass and Stehekin
Aug 14 2402 Buy Snoqualmie Pass Limited options for food; might USPS
Aug 19 2476 Buy Skykomish
Aug 26 2580 USPS Stehekin
Sep 1 2668 Exit Manning Park, BC Done!