Trail mix. The fuel of many hikers. M&Ms with obstacles. One of the more calorie dense options for trail food that you can snack on all day to keep that forward momentum. Now you could be boring and just buy 20 lbs of premixed trail mix. Or you could make your own by visiting your grocery store that has bulk bins. Making your own obviously lets you include whatever you want in that delicious salty goodness.
Planning a resupply strategy is extremely tedious, time consuming, and incredibly important unless you’ve found a way to survive via photosynthesis. Since it is physically impossible to carry all the food necessary for a 5 month thru-hike resupplying periodically is necessary. There are a few ways to go about doing a resupply. Mail food to yourself ahead of time, buy as you come across towns, or a combination of the two.
There are a lot of terms and slang that hikers use on the trail and I’m sure I’ll be one of them. Below is a list of some of the more common ones that are used.
Base Pack Weight: The weight of your pack excluding food, water, and other consumables.
Cache: A supply of food or water left on the trail for hikers.
Cat hole: A hole you dig to poop in. Classy.
Cowboy Camp: Camping or sleeping with your tent. Only the starry sky above you while you look like a burrito to hungry bears.
Dry Camp: Camping without a nearby water source.
Flip Flop: Skipping a section with the intention of completing the section but in the opposite direction.
Gorp: Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or just trail mix. Continue reading
Planning a 2,600 mile thru-hike, where do you even start? For most it may seem overwhelming due to the sheer amount of information you need to research. Luckily for me, I’m a weirdo and I absolutely love it. I have no problem spending hours upon hours researching gear, resupply strategies, trail food and reading other’s blogs. That’s my idea of a fun day. So here is how I went about planning my thru-hike.
TL;DR: Read trail journals and PCT related websites, patiently research gear using past hiker’s gear list as a template, and plan your resupply using Craig’s PCT planner. Continue reading
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