Day -10:

Date: Sunday, March 22

Location: 2464 mi ENE of the PCT

To me, the most intimidating part of the planning process for my trip has been the food. There are a lot of bases to cover. How to I acquire food when I'm hundreds of miles into my hike? How much food do I need? What food will taste good during and after a long day of hiking? Will I get sick of it (almost definitely)?

Just the beginning...

These are the steps I took to figure out my resupply plan outlined very generally:

     1.  Where am I resupplying? This could mean picking up a mail drop box or stopping in a town and buying food at a grocery store. I made these choices with the help of Yogi's PCT guidebook and it's excellent town guides. The criteria was generally how easy it would be to get there from the PCT. Is the post office right on the trail or do I have to hitchhike 18 miles to get to it?

     2.  Decide where I am going to send myself a food box and where I am going to purchase food on the trail. I had to make these decisions based on what I expect to find for grocery options and also how expensive or inexpensive the food stores are in each trail town. Is there only a gas station and a grocery store in the town? Or is there a full grocery store where I can get fresh vegetables, hummus, and other delicious perishables (that I can't send to myself)?

     3.  Look at the milage in between each resupply stop and make a (very, very approximate) estimation about how many days of food I will need to make it to the next one. This is the tough one. Estimate too little and you'll end up hungry and hiking without enough fuel in your body. Estimate too much and you'll be slowing yourself down with the extra weight of unneeded food, or eventually end up tossing the extra food, wasting it.

Yesterday, with the help my fearless friends Lizzy and Sam, I went to BJ's (like Costco) and picked out breakfast and lunches for approximately 64 days on the trail. Today, Lizzy and I made little piles of food on the floor of my basement that each correspond to a resupply box and a section of the trail.