First time AT thru hike

I would like to thru hike AT
this summer im a avid hiker in wahington state and live close to mt rainier. Im shere im good on gear im just a bit fuzzy on how i should do my food. I could resuply at towns or have it mailed to to me. Also fuel is somthing i have to buy i was thinking i would go with alcohol stove because it mite be easyer to get and liter. I would love some constructive criticism if you guys and gals can spare it lol

I went with just five resupply boxes mailed out on the AT, and just bought food along the way everywhere else. Two of the boxes sent were to places where I didn't really need the food (one in particular) but I wanted to do gear swaps at those locations. If you push it just a little I think a person could get by with no resupply boxes mailed at all.

My boxes were mailed to
Fontana Dam, NC
Pearisburg, VA (for gear, easy to buy food there)
Harpers Ferry, WV
Kent, CT (not hard to buy food there either I don't think)
Glencliff, MN (food obtainable if hostel shuttles you to town)

Fuel: alcohol fuel is not hard to get on hiking trails in general, certainly not on the AT. A canister stove would be easier on the AT than on the other long trails. I used alcohol; you could also consider just going stoveless; there are a lot more opportunities to eat meals in towns along the way on the AT than on the PCT or CDT.

I am guessing you mean Glencliff, NH. Minnesota seems a bit out of the way for a resupply.

What I meant to write was Glencliff, ME (got the postal code muddled). What I should have meant was Glencliff, NH. The town that comes basically just before the Whites for a northbounder. Thanks for catching that!

How quickly we forget such details. OTOH, being from the west coast I was confused more than once at which tiny little state was coming next. There are just three states to walk through on the PCT, ~four on the CDT. The AT is shorter than either of those, but passes through fourteen states.

Well thank you guys for the info i will keep it all in mind.

Brian dont mean to sound like a nutcase but it seams we are located in the same state one county away. I fined it strang that i never meet any one in person who injoys the out doors but on the internet i meet some one only afew miles away. Lol

you might want to also check out the whiteblaze.net community for AT information.

Yup, a kind of a small world. What I'm wondering is --- given where you live --- why you're thinking of hiking the AT rather than the PCT? I did the PCT first, and I'm glad I did it that way. It's my favorite long distance trail.

In general, wherever folks live, I figure that you can't know if you'll ever do more than one long distance trip, so unless you're already sold on a particular trail, do the best one first. IMO that's the PCT.

I realy dont have much of a reason why im doing the at over the pct. I lived in florida up till 3 years ago and im just going with what i know more about and im a little standoffish about how little towns the trail crosses.

Of course you don't have to justify your decision to anyone (!), just curious. I'm not completely clear on your latter point above, but postulate that you prefer to have more frequent opportunities to go into towns along the way. Such opportunities are indeed more frequent along the AT.

I ment only that being from the east coast i herd more about the AT then any other trail.

Gregp,

First of all, I defer to BrianLe I think he has more miles on the AT than I do, and he hiked it in more difficult ways. I've done it twice, both times south to north, and fairly slowly compared to Brian.

On the first hike, I ran a slip box and my daughter sent me resupply packages with mostly fresh guidebook pages and maps (and usually some dried goodies as well) about every three weeks or so. The rest of my food I bought along the way, using the slip box to avoid carrying extras (as where a package of something was more than I needed at the time).

On that first trip, I cooked with gasoline and found that "Coleman fuel" was available by the ounce at every hostel and hardware store along the way. I used a Borde "bomb" which is very light and powerful, but not efficient, yet I rarely carried more than 6 or eight ounces of fuel total at any one time.

On the second trip, I dispensed with the slip box as I became more adept at finding things I could repackage without waste. I also had only a couple of supply packages after the first three weeks (when I was using home packaged "boil and dump" meals.

On the second trip I cooked with Esbit, except when one of those couple of supply packages went ary. Was unable to locate Esbit, so bought a small alchy stove that I used for a couple of weeks and then dropped in a hiker box. I found the alcohol very easy to buy, put in a plastic soft drink bottle, and rarely carried more than a few ounces at a time (also, if using alchy, and you're in town, you can often find another thru hiker who would be delighted to split a bottle with you. Incidentally, I absolutely loved working with that alcohol stove (Trangia), but my Esbit arrangement was lighter, and by that time, I had my tabs.

Remember, there are a couple of thousand thru hikers starting every year, all within a fairly limited period of time, so arrangements for getting into town for food, showers, laundry, fuel, etc. are pretty well established. In most areas of the trail, I think you could resupply every three or four days if you were willing to take the time.

Au contraire, if you've hiked the AT twice I definitely defer to you. I think that anyone who has done some hiking on the AT can likely offer good insights here, we really don't need to establish any sort of pecking order!

I had not heard the term "slip box", but I'm sure you mean what I've heard called a "bounce box" or "drift box", and it likely has other names.

The number of hostels along the AT does offer more opportunities for getting multiple types of fuel. I have to admit that I paid no attention to what was available other than what I used (denatured alcohol or yellow HEET) --- so I don't really know what's available.

I agree also with the "didn't carry much fuel" comment. On other trails I've had a couple of times of carrying quite a bit of fuel, but I think that throughout an 8-oz or even 6-oz plastic bottle of some sort was fine (caveat: I only heated water for a dinner meal, so 1 oz or a bit less per day used). Whichever AT guidebook you end up with will likely make this clear.