At first look, a small store may appear to not have much to resupply with. You need to look at everything. Just keep circling the shelves and look at every single thing in the store. Soon you will find plenty to resupply with. The smaller the selection, the more times you may need to circle the shelves. Know that a good resupply is there, but you need to discover it. Be creative and flexible.
I didn’t send myself any food for the entire Pacific Crest Trail and I didn’t meet anyone who had a better food bag than me.
Related Post: My PCT resupply schedule
That is good to know that a good resupply can be discovered. I worry about having small stores ravaged by previous hikers. I’m leaving only a few days after the kick-off.
I was behind the herd until Mojave and I didn’t have any trouble finding food. After that I was ahead of it.
My plan was if there really wasn’t anything to just hitch into a bigger town.
It’s easy to hitch on the PCT for a woman alone–at least that is my experience. Almost always the first car will pull over. Just smile stick out your thumb and think, “Hey, there’s my ride”. Men, especially men over 40, have a much harder time.
This is the blog post I wrote on hitchhiking http://asthecrowflies.org/2006/12/21/how-to-hitch-hike/