I am working on planning resupplies for the PCT in the summer and am considering the advantages of a bump box to hold items like extra shoes, extra food, medical supplies, etc. Does anyone have experience with these? Do you recomend them? What to you put in it?

kevin,

if you want a copy of my resupply plan i used in 2004 for the pct, i'd be happy to email you a copy. i thought alot about it, so you could check it out and see if you can use some of it for your planning.

Edited by DaveT on 05/13/2010 10:50:05 MDT.

I would recommend a 5 gallon pail for your bump box. It was a lot easier to carry around in town and didn't get damaged.

I would put stuff that you can't commonly find in the small towns in there. Some medical stuff, water treatment, vitamins, food you like and can't find in towns (dried vegetables and seasonings for me), specific drink mixes, guidebooks, small pieces of gear.

It is very easy to fill up a bounce box however. Don't put stuff like granola bars, pasta, pop-tarts, and other easy to find food in there. Most PO's have a general store/gas station that you can find these types of food at. Yogi's book has the specifics.

Unless you really think you need some shoes leave them out. Instead mail them to a specific resupply point that you expect to need them at.

Don't put all of your guidebooks in your bounce box. Preferably you can have someone send them to you 2-3 times (like 700 mile intervals) while you are on the trail. Put the extra sections in your bounce box. Bounce boxes have been lost in the past (to a friend of mine last year). And it would be a bummer to lose all of your guidebooks at once (like my friend). It's preferable to hike with the info, but wouldn't be impossible to hike a small portion of the trail (especially if you there are other people you're hiking with).

I'm just starting to ramble.

Kirk/Abacus

Do not confuse Bump Boxes (the more common name = Bounce Box) with a re-supply box.

Bounce boxes are for those items that you will or may need at some indeterminate point on the trail AND which you CAN NOT reasonably expect to be able to purchase locally. INCLUDE such things as prescription refills, spare eye glasses or prescription sunglasses, memory cards for your camera, unique spare batteries, a spare platypus bladder or a platy repair kit, orthotics or special footbeds, a pair of new socks, blank mailing labels, tape, etc.

DO NOT INCLUDE such things as food, snacks, fuel, TP, soap, toothpaste, baby wipes, chewing gum, etc. Those items, and guidebook pages for the up-coming sections (until your next re-supply box) go into your re-supply boxes, or to the extent possible, purchase your supplies locally and support the trail town economies.

I suggest you use the post office's Fixed Cost Priority Mail boxes - there are 2 sizes - for your bounce box rather than the much larger and clumsier 5 gallon pail. Save that for your re-supply package to Muir Trail Ranch (that's the only packaging they will accept).

REMEMBER - TO SHIP A BOUNCE BOX TO A PLACE WITH NO OUTGOING MAIL SERVICE IS TO BE STUCK WITH IT. Plan ahead - carefully!

Wandering Bob

Edited by wandering_bob on 01/10/2008 20:28:24 MST.

I used a pail with a ratcheting lid on it when I hiked the PCT. Never needed tape, it doubled as a stool when sitting outside the PO with gear spread out and sorting through it. It was good but some PO's would tack on a non-machinable charge since it wasn't rectuangular. I didn't aruge but not every PO did it. Just an FYI since it cost me extra to have a pail...sometimes.
NITRO