♪ ♫ Mail drops in boxes and whiskers on kittens... ♫ ♪

Shopping was a success! Saturday we went to Sam's Club to collect bulk goods for our mail drops. We came home with an obscene amount of food, which we then had to lug up to our 3rd floor apartment. Oh

So this is what 6 months of food looks like...

well, at least we got some good training out of it! At Sam's, we were the envy of every child in the checkout line with our massive boxes of Snickers, Twix and Pop Tarts. We did our best to purchase healthier options, but I'm not ashamed to say that candy bars and chocolate made their way into the mix -- but sugar is just instant energy, right?

This food will provide us with the majority of our calories on the trail. We are only planning about 14 mail drops along the way, which means we will be buying fresh foods such as fruit, vegetables, bread and cheese in towns whenever possible. One benefit of being stuck with dried food for days on end is that when we do reach town and get to enjoy a cheeseburger, pizza or salad (seriously, I'm going to miss fresh greens), we'll savor every bite as a rare treat.

The length of time between mail drops varies, but here is an example of what goes into a mail drop meant to sustain us for 5 days. We decided to pack each day's supply into a gallon bag in order to help us ration the food. We bought a variety of items for each meal category so hopefully we don't get too bored of eating the same exact thing every day.

This is one of our 5 day mail drops, each gallon bag
has 1 day's supply of food

Sample Day:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Chocolate breakfast shake
Lunch: Canned Tuna, Crackers
Snacks: Whole Almonds, Peanut butter filled Pretzels, Raisins
Dinner: Quinoa, Dehydrated Vegetables
Dessert: Cocoa almonds, Snickers bars
Beverages (other than water): Tea, Coffee, Gatorade

Our mail drops will include essential non-food supplies as well, e.g. batteries for headlamps, water purification tablets, and toilet paper. When we receive our mail drops, we'll also have the opportunity to mail items home or forward them to another address further down the trail. For instance, by the time we reach Virginia, the weather will be quite warm and we'll likely forward our cold weather gear to Massachusetts, where we'll need it again for the rest of the hike.

Ophelia trying to stowaway in one of our mail drop boxes.
Nice try, Kitty...

This week Robb and I will be writing inventory lists for each our backpacks and preparing to mail our gear to Florida. We're visiting both of our families before we hit the trail so after a pit-stop in Springfield, MO and Naples, FL we'll grab our gear and hit the trail.

Well that's about it for now, more exciting updates to come --
we purchased our Spot GPS Messenger which should arrive by the end of this week. As soon as we register our device, you'll be able to track our progress on the "In-Tents Map" tab. The map will show all active and participating AT hikers along the trail. When Robb and I click a button to check in each day, our icon will appear on the map to show where we are. The map will offer a variety of features including a satellite view option and current weather, radar and snow depths. Super cool, right?

~

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