Resupply Planning

In case you were wondering how one walks from Mexico to Canada without carrying an unbearable amount of weight or starving along the way, the answer is resupply stops. These are planned, or maybe unplanned, stops along the way to pick-up food, get rid of unneeded gear, pickup gear needed for specific stretches (I’m looking at you bear cans and microspikes), replace shoes, and, if we’re lucky, maybe even take a shower, do laundry, and sleep in a real bed.

When it comes to resupply strategies there are options ranging from preparing everything you’ll need in advance to buying what you need as you go. We’ve decided to split the difference and prepare roughly half of our resupplies in advance. This means we have to figure out where we think we’ll need to resupply, what we’ll need at different locations, and how much food we’ll need. Once that’s sorted out it’s a matter of filling boxes for each stop which a couple of awesome friends will ship to us as we go. Pick-up locations are typically Post Offices or local hotels and outfitters that have provide services to thru hikers for years.

We’re at the point now that we more or less know where resupply boxes are going and what needs to be in them. The real work now is getting everything organized and packed which has been the focus for the last couple weeks.