Signed, Sealed, Delivered

One of the most frequent questions we got from friends and family before setting out on our Appalachian Trail hike was how they could send things to us along the way. Turns out, it's actually pretty easy--and there are lots of post offices close to the trail. And though I'm focusing on the AT (since that's the only place I've done this), similar strategies can also be applied to other trails that cross through or near towns.

How to Fill Out the Address:

A couple pointers for filling in those bold, italicized parts:

1. Name: Make sure this matches your ID... i.e. don't use your trail name!
2. City/State/Zip: Get a guidebook (we used Awol's The AT Guide)--it'll list this info for you (but be sure of which post offices you'll be visiting before passing addresses along to family/friends).
3. ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival): This made us nervous at first... what if we were way off on our date? But after way too much time spent in post offices (and on the phone with postal workers), I can tell you why there's no point in worrying:
• As long as your ETA is within a couple of weeks of your arrival, you're ok (when talking to a postal worker near the Whites of New Hampshire, he said his post office will hold packages for about a year)
• If your hike is off schedule (or maybe you change your mind about going into town or accidentally get into town Saturday afternoon and don't want to wait around until Monday...) and you need a box re-shipped to a different PO, they'll do this at no extra charge as long as you ship priority mail.

You may also be wondering why I have the ETA written off in the corner. Our guidebook said to write the ETA underneath 'hold for AT hiker', but a postal worker told us that sometimes the machines that read addresses and send them on various routes interpret the ETA as the zip code (both are often written as 5 digit numbers). Yikes! All of our labels were written with the ETA at the bottom up to that point with no problems, but if she mentioned it I'm guessing it's happened before.

Also, post offices will not hold any mail shipped by FedEx, UPS, etc... it has to be USPS.

Post Office Closures:

Many towns along the trail are so small that if you were just driving through it would probably be surprising that they had their own post office--but for a hiker, traveling a few more miles to pick up mail in a neighboring town can cause all kinds of logistical, time-consuming, frustrating trouble. Luckily for us, there was such an outcry that many of these closure decisions were postponed. But no matter what POs are included in the guidebook, be sure to check for closure updates! You can find them here (USPS link--probably the best to use before starting your hike) or here (AT Conservancy link--probably best to use during your hike, and includes other types of trail updates).

Mail from an awesome blog reader!

Receiving Mail:

It feels pretty awesome to get to a post office and find a box of treats (as in, the kind of awesome that can only come from continuous physical exertion and camp food), so definitely establish some way to keep in touch with people back home so they know where to send things (and if you make a public blog, you may even get some mail from a reader/trail angel you've never even met!). And don't be afraid to tell them what you do and don't want (i.e. A pound of homemade cookies? Heck Yes! A pound of raisins? I don't know, all I can think about is the bag of soft, chocolate chip-packed, homemade cookies my grandma sent us a couple weeks into our hike...yum!).

As for picking up mail, it's really easy! You just need to make sure you have an ID (a minor thing, considering the piece of mind that comes from knowing no one else will be able to pick up your stuff). Heads up--in our experience, this was not the case when sending mail to hostels. There it's more of a trust deal since often mail was just piled in one area, waiting to be picked up (whether you're concerned about this or not, call a hostel first to make sure they're willing to accept mail drops!).

More Info:

We'll be creating another post specifically about food drops (pre-arranging boxes of food to be mailed to you along the trail)--spoiler, we won't be doing them next time we hike the AT!--and bounce boxes. In the meantime, here are some other posts/sites about mail drops and the sending food vs. shopping along the way debate:

• Blissful Hiking: "Postal Advice on Mail Drops for Long Distance Hiking" (This is just a great hiking blog in general, and she's hike the AT twice--if you're planning an AT hike, be ready to get sucked in.)
• White Blaze Archive: Mail Drops  (White Blaze is the source of all hiking--and especially AT--info you could ever want to know. Just be ready for a lot of debating in the comments section.)
• The Good Badger/Zach Davis: "What You Need to Know About Sending Mail Drops" (This guy also has a site called zrdavis.com. If you like his writing, this is another site that includes practically everything about the AT, but with an extra infusion of humor.)
• And, in the interest of having some pages to quickly reference if (when?) we attempt the Pacific Crest Trail: Pacific Crest Trail Association: "Resupply Strategy" and PMags: "A Quick and Dirty Guide to the Pacific Crest Trail" (you'll have to scroll down a ways to get to the mail section)