Resupply!

It's the final days before my hike on the Arizona Trail and I have finished packing my resupply boxes. 8 times over the 800 miles I will get close enough to walk or hitchhike into town and pick up a resupply box. The first two I'll mail before I leave and Eva will mail the remaining six. This is the contents of the first box: food and supplies for five days including fuel for my stove and toilet paper. 

All this was shipped in the box below weighing 10 pounds and 14 ounces. Two pounds a day is what I estimate for food and supplies so if the box weighs 14 ounces, this box is spot on! The ORM-D stickers tell the post office there is stove fuel in the box and therefore it must travel by ground. Most of my boxes are delivered to post offices and held for general delivery. This means I show up at the post office, show my ID and they hand me my box. If I am staying in town, I carry the box to my motel room, dump it out on the bed, and get busy packing my backpack. If I am not spending the night, I find the closest gas station, store, restaurant, or business that is hiker-friendly and park myself in the shade for a few hours. And what does hiker-friendly mean? It means they allow the use of their outlets to charge my phone and other electronics, they have public bathrooms, a water spigot, and a trashcan! And if they have Wi-Fi and some gluten-free snacks and ice cream, even better! 

 

Most of my resupply boxes get mailed two weeks in advance of my scheduled arrival date and the post office will hold them for up to 30 days. I've had pretty good luck with my resupply boxes. Only once did a box mailed to a motel go missing and I had to beg the manager to look for it. It was eventually found...in a janitor's closet. 

Thanks for following along!

Loren