Thru-Hike Resupply Planner
Turn resupply points into legs, days and food weight — and see which carries are too long before you are standing in the shop.
Legs
| Leg | From | To | Miles | Days | Food |
|---|
Planning notes
Days round up, always. You cannot carry four fifths of a day of food, so every leg costs a whole day's worth. Across thirty resupplies that rounding adds up to real weight, and it is a reason to prefer resupply points that land near a whole number of days.
Six days is about the ceiling. Beyond that the pack stops being pleasant and you walk more slowly, which makes the carry longer, which makes it heavier. Where a stretch genuinely has no town, that is what mail drops and caches are for.
Plan zero days, and then plan more. Roughly one full rest day a week is the usual figure, and almost every long-trail plan underestimates it. They come from weather, injuries, and the simple fact that towns are hard to leave.
The daily mileage is not constant. Nobody walks their eventual average in the first fortnight. Plan the opening legs short, and expect the number to climb by several miles a day once your body catches up — which it does, reliably, and later than you want.
How to use
- List your resupply points with their trail miles.
- Set your expected daily mileage.
- Read the days and food weight for each leg.
- Split any carry that comes out unreasonably heavy.
Frequently asked questions
How long a carry is reasonable?
Four to five days is comfortable for most people; beyond about a week the food weight becomes genuinely punishing and slows you enough to partly defeat the purpose. Since food is roughly a kilogram a day, a ten-day carry is ten kilograms before anything else goes in.
Should I mail boxes or buy as I go?
Both have real costs. Buying locally is flexible and lets you follow your appetite, but small trail towns have limited and expensive selections. Mailed boxes guarantee what you get and suit dietary requirements, at the cost of planning months ahead and being tied to post office hours.
Why does my planned mileage matter so much?
Because it multiplies through everything. Overestimating your daily distance by even a couple of miles compounds across a leg into arriving a day late and hungry. Early legs should assume conservative mileage, since almost everyone starts slower than they finish.
What is hiker hunger?
The sharp increase in appetite that develops after a few weeks of sustained effort, as the body adjusts to the deficit. Food that seemed ample in week one is noticeably insufficient by week four, and planners built entirely in advance frequently underestimate the later legs.
Should I plan the whole trip up front?
Only loosely. Plans change with injury, weather, trail conditions and pace, and a rigid schedule built in advance rarely survives contact with the trail. Planning the first few legs carefully and the rest approximately is the common approach.
What is the commonest planning error?
Carrying too much food, by a wide margin. Most hikers arrive at their first few resupplies with days of surplus, having packed for the appetite they imagined rather than the one they had. Weighing what you actually ate on the first leg is the best calibration available.
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