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Fw: [at-l] Question about Mail Drops

DaRedhead wrote:
> Okay - I have the lists, many of them, of where to send mail drops.  But I am
> still kind of confused (and haven't been able to afford to go buy a book)
> about mail drops.  Do you put them together at one time (I mean, do you have
> them all ready before you begin your hike?)  Do you have someone else send
> them?  do you pack up stuff when you hit town and send it on??  What exactly
> do you do to take care of mail drops????  <snip>  Surely you don't
> mail them out when you leave - what post office would hold them for that long?

The manner in which you organize your mail drops depends on what kind of a "support
team" you have helping you out. When i hiked last year, i was originally going to
try to have each maildrop boxed and addressed, but not sealed. My wonderful mother
was my mail drop support, and she had a "tentative" (and boy did it end up being
tentative!) schedule which showed when i'd be passing through each town. I ended up
not having the time to get them boxed up, and it ended up being a good thing. If you
can call your support person when you go into a town and set up your next two
maildrops from there, it gives you much more flexibility. Your tastes will change,
you'll find new foods you might enjoy, you're going to be mailing/receiving gear,
you might need things you didn't think of before you started, you might decide you
HATE maildrops and would rather resupply in town whenever possible, etc. This method
also gives you the flexibility to change where the maildrop is going. You might get
500 miles into the trip and find out that you're hiking at a much stronger pace than
you thought you would be, and that you can get by with one maildrop and a small
resupply instead of 2 full maildrops. This method gives you flexibility, and the
more flexibility you have while thru-hiking (i.e. no schedule), the easier and more
enjoyable it is (IMHO). 

HOWEVER, not everyone has the luxury of having a support team who is able to package
and send your maildrops along the way. If this is the case, then you can package and
send out your maildrops before you leave. I met more than one person last year who
had to send all of their maildrops out beforehand. _Most_ post offices will hold
maildrops sent to thru-hikers for a long time, especially if you put an estimated
arrival date on it. If you have to use this method, i would recommend calling each
P.O. beforehand to make sure they will hold packages for an extended period of time
(i.e. DO NOT do this to the Mt. Washington P.O.....it is the size of a walk-in
closet and they like for any maildrops to be picked up in a timely manner after
their arrival). The ALDHA Thru-Hikers Companion should have the phone numbers for
all of the P.O.'s along the way. 

Address your maildrops like this: 
Your Name
General Delivery
Address
PLEASE HOLD FOR AT THRU-HIKER (write this a couple of times on the box)
ETA: mo/day/yr

Feel free to email me if you have any more questions. 

-Rambleon-
rambleon@email.unc.edu


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