To maximize your time here, familiarize yourself with average, median M , and standard deviation σ. For stats requiring the length of the PCT for a calculation e. If you would like to be notified of new surveys, click here. Colors differentiating hiker segments:. Skip the town entirely and crush miles to your next resupply.

Resupply Boxes Buying your food and prepping boxes before your hike can be tempting for the first-time thru-hiker — even the experienced but uncertain thru-hiker.

Resupply Strategy Resupply 1. Number of Resupply Boxes This chart shows the number of resupply boxes sent by thru-hikers 1. Resupply Boxes Prepared Pre-Trail As part of PCT resupply planning, many hikers prepare resupply boxes ahead of time.

Where to Mail PCT Resupply Boxes As part of the PCT Survey , I asked hikers where they recommend sending a resupply box. Changes to PCT Resupply Strategy To help future Pacific Crest Trail hikers figure out a successful PCT resupply strategy, I ask hikers what they would have changed regarding resupply.

Here are the responses of those who said they would like to change something. Favorite Backpacking Meals Peak Refuel Meals Northbound Hike Breakdown 48 — Average days hiking the Desert 38 — Average days hiking the Sierra 30 — Average days hiking Northern California 23 — Average days hiking Oregon 27 — Average days hiking Washington northbound 1 — Average days to complete the PCT.

Southbound Hike Breakdown 34 — Average days hiking Washington 23 — Average days hiking Oregon 25 — Average days hiking Northern California 25 — Average days hiking the Sierra 35 — Average days hiking the Desert southbound 1 — Average days to complete the PCT.

Average Resupplies per Section 9. Favorite Resupply Stops Desert : Idyllwild Least Favorite Resupply Stops Desert : Hikertown Hitchhiking to Town What about hitchhiking to resupply stops?

Difficult Hitches Etna Northern California 7. Dietary Restrictions Not all hikers can subsist on gas station beef jerky and trail mix. Dietary Restrictions Specific Dietary Restrictions Note: These percentages are of hikers with dietary restrictions.

Resupply Advice Enough with the numbers, colors, graphs, labels, and bulleted lists of places you may or may not have ever heard of. Always check the next two to three towns ahead. Send packages to stores or hotels rather than US Post Offices where you can; many post offices have short opening hours.

Bring things you like! You can get good enough resupplies along the way. Do not depend on hiker boxes. Think of them as bonus food. Despite a lack of a notable dietary restriction, I made my food and sent resupply boxes for every resupply. This also added the benefit of allowing friends and family to easily send treats or cards to include in my next resupply.

Also, I liked my food way more than what was available to others at stores. We all have different experiences. Not having the same dinner meal for at least 21 nights in the field, trusting the post office over businesses.

I scratched them. When you see the pile of boxes tossed on the floor, it would be easy to lose a box by accident or on purpose. You will save the most by doing this ahead of time, but you can still save some by doing it in a bigger city on the trail but you will not want to.

If you have celiac, be prepared for repetitive meals if you are not sending boxes. That being said, I would recommend sending boxes to the smaller towns. Tuna packets, instant mashed potatoes, and ramen can be found almost anywhere.

Support the Survey I get a lot of people asking every year how to support the surveys, and beyond sharing them with your close-knit bubble of weird hiker friends, the best way to support the survey is to contribute via Patreon.

You'll Like These Too:. Share this post: Share on Facebook Share on X Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on WhatsApp Share on Email. Moreover, Payson, Arizona also has a running store called Rim Runners and a Big 5 Sporting Goods.

Finally, a chance to replace some gear! Places to Stay: Beeline Guest House, Sometimes That Brewery, or questionable 2 night minimum at Pine Creek Cabins — Full List Here. Pine is a cute little town.

You can also walk in and walk out of it. Or, you could walk to That Brewery, have a meal, and yogi a ride down to the store. Mile: Red Line mile Places to Stay: Many motels and hotels , Airbnb.

However, it does help if you have a friend with a car who conveniently has a place to let you crash. The choices may even overwhelm you.

However, after a lot of small towns without options, it will feel great! This is the last good Arizona Trail resupply for the rest of the trail northbound. To buy as you go, you can buy a little heavier here and add snacks at both the North Rim General Store and Jacob Lake Inn.

If not, this will be a big carry. Grocery: North Rim General Store At North Rim , North Rim Country Store Outside of National Park. In contrast with the South Rim, the North Rim has a more chill vibe. It lacks the sheer number of tourists and likewise supplies.

It has some, but not the volume of supplies that the South Rim has. This allows you to enjoy the view on the deck at the North Rim and not have to hike all the way out of the park.

IF YOU ARE EARLY SEASON: Check to make sure the North Rim General Store is open! Sometimes a day or two before the end of a hike, you could use a solid meal to get you through. Unfortunately, the rooms are a little pricy for what you actually get.

On my first morning on the trail I stared down into my pot at my mushy porridge, willing myself to eat it. For the next 79 days I had to force feed it to myself every other morning I had two breakfast choices.

I began to dread breakfast time. If I had only thought about my resupply strategy on Te Araroa a little more carefully I might have avoided this. Or can you make do with resupplying along the way? This will depend largely on what your diet is, and what kind of food you prefer to carry. Even in our larger towns, it can be difficult to find the kind of variety you might be used to where you come from.

So if there are specific things that you like to have in your resupplies, you might want to think about including them in your resupply strategy on Te Araroa and post them ahead to yourself.

Well, it all comes down to planning your resupply strategy on Te Araroa around the way the trail is routed and the facilities that are available. Generally I think this is a great thing.

As a New Zealander, I enjoyed being able to connect with kiwis in regions I probably would never have visited. But I soon noticed that it often cost a lot more money for that bag of grated cheese, block of chocolate or box of crackers to add to my supply. I can also understand how it might cause some thru hikers to skip the North Island section in favour of the slightly less commercialised and more remote South.

Back in the day, the excuse used to be that we had to import a lot of our food from overseas, which meant added taxes and import fees. But in the modern day and age, I think this is a much less convincing argument.

Sorting from most to least expensive: Dairies, Superettes and Four Square, Countdown, New World, Pak n Save. Because Paihia is a tourist town. And for our sins we as New Zealanders just accept it as one of the costs of living in such a beautiful country.

This will help you to stretch your budget just that little bit further. Although I was very glad to have them, the Trail Notes are confusing and muddled at best. It can be really difficult to pull out the key information you need.

I could easily pick out places to resupply and accommodation options, as well as look at the upcoming section of trail and find out where water and hazards might be. This will depend on your hiking speed and how far you can comfortably hike in a day.

I aimed to target 4 — 6 days between resupply points. This was so I was always carrying the minimum food possible, without having to send lots of resupply boxes.

If your resupply strategy on Te Araroa is to resupply along the trail as you go, there will generally be somewhere to resupply every day, or every days. Check out the full list of locations I resupplied at on Te Araroa North here. I read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos before I hit the trail which suggested that if I planned all of my food every single day before I left, my appetite would change within the first week or two.

I was very conscious of the spoil factor.

I would start with one type of meal dinner and divide my days accordingly. Prepare the boxes by taking one bag per day from different categories by the number of days needed. This way you get a different dinner every day and a variety of breakfast and lunch meals. After test trying a box we found out that the gallon sized packets take up a lot of air space and make the packing difficult.

We decided once meals were chosen, we took out the meals from the big bag and lay the food in the box as is in the sandwich bags. I then added gallon sized bags to every box for me to divide my food daily on trail. This way we gain space in the box and use less plastic bags in the process Yay!

Count the number of meals and snacks and shop accordingly. Prepare meals in individual sandwich bags and make daily packets with all 3 meals and 4 snacks. Divide prepared bags by category same dinner etc.

Prepare your boxes — take one bag per day from different categories by the number of days needed without gallon sized bag. Add empty gallon sized bags to every box for use on trail. You can always mix your meals and snacks on the trail according to your cravings.

Buy fresh produce and sides bread, tortillas, crackers, snacks in town. Preparation was challenging but fun. Enjoy the process and remember — the hike is what counts in the end, the food is just a means of doing it 🙂. You could also check out my blog post about resupplying 🙂 Due to my Vegan lifestyle, I plan to resupply most of my food.

Preparing and Packing the meals Preparing food — A messy and enjoyable process start by making individual meals and snacks in sandwich bags and divide them in boxes. Daily meal packets in gallon sized bags After test trying a box we found out that the gallon sized packets take up a lot of air space and make the packing difficult.

more questions? landsberger gmail. com You can always mix your meals and snacks on the trail according to your cravings. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like Loading Leave a comment Cancel reply. While the water was heating up, I dumped the contents of the beans and rice mixture into a Ziploc bag.

When the water was boiling, I turned off the heat and dumped the boiling water into the Ziploc bag containing the beans and rice. Zipped up the bag and placed it in a pot cozy to soak. While the beans and rice mixture was soaking up water, I started chopping the fresh ingredients.

To the frying pan I added the avocado oil, white ends of the green onion and some red peppers, and sauteed them on medium heat for minutes. Once cooked I added them to the beans and rice mixture.

My beans and rice mixture was still watery after 10 minutes so I may need to adjust how much water is used the next time remember I said this was a TEST kitchen. I ended up tossing it on heat again to evaporate more water.

When the mixture was a nice fluffy consistency I put it in a bowl and added the fresh ingredients on top. Optional additions that you might like to add are grated cheese, a tuna packet, and your favorite hot sauce packet.

Additionally, you could wrap this mixture in a tortilla and eat it on the go. Bring two cups of water to a rolling boil. While waiting for the water, divide the soup mix in half and add half the mixture to a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag.

Add boiling water and chopped red pepper to the Ziploc bag with mixture and stir well. Garnish the top with cheddar cheese, chopped green onions, and cilantro. Optional additions: fresh chives, kale, or bacon bits Serve it up! I am not a chef, and I am a LAZY cook!

These were really easy ways to amp up a basic meal. Got tips or tricks to cooking rice and beans? Please share them!

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I grew up in the PNW camping and appreciating the outdoors. I have always felt connected to nature. Unfortunately, for many years I was disconnected from it and suffered physically and emotionally as a result.