About every 5-7 days I leave the trail, get to a nearby town, buy food etc., and get back on the trail. Today in Tehachapi I shopped at an Albertsons for the next 7 days on the trail. This should supply me until Kennedy Meadows, the gateway town to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Now I have to unbox all this stuff, arrange it in daily bunches, and pack it in a stuff sack.

Anything that is unneeded or overflow goes in the communal PCT hiker box. The hiker box is typically located in a common central location (in this case the lobby of this hotel) and contains anything that one hiker couldn’t or wouldn’t need or wants which is freely given to any other “less fortunate” hiker. For example, I’ve had to buy 10 hot chocolate packets, but only need 7 so the rest go in the hiker box.