Nick's Long Walk || Pacific Crest Trail 2001

Food

On the trail food is a very big deal!

There are a couple different options when it comes to resupplying on the PCT, or any long trail for that matter. The first approach is to pack a bunch of food boxes ahead of time and then have someone mail them to you at towns along the route. The second approach is to purchase food in these towns as you hike.

In '99 Whitney and I packed a couple dozen boxes of food and probably spent as much time preparing these boxes as we spent actually walking the trail - months of dehydrating fruit and vegetables, sampling various pastas, weighing and repackaging food in plastic bags, etc. Once on the trail we often found ourselves walking past a large grocery store on the way to the post office to pick up our food box. This seemed kind of dumb - especially as the trip wore on and we grew tired of the food we had packed in boxes the previous winter.

This summer I plan to purchase the majority of my food as I hike. However I do intend to the supplement that food by mailing certain specialty items that otherwise would not be available (dried onions, garlic, and mushrooms, bavarian sausage, etc). An additional benefit to this approach is that it enables the hiker to give something back to the communities near the trail - specifically it contributes in a small way to the local economy and hopefully makes the town more receptive to the dirty hikers who stumble out of the woods and into the stores.

Click here to read an article on the shop-as-you-go resupply strategy

"At times there seem to be as many ways to resupply your hike as there are hikers. 1998 thru-hiker Chris Baily discusses the option of resupplying your hike from the towns along the trail. This can save days of prep time and the expense of shipping large quantities of food you may decide you don't like."