Food bags should be emptied after your hike.

Everlasting cheese

My son came to visit me. He brought a lot of my gear back to me that he had stored. I emptied out the pack he used last summer, when he joined me for a week on the Pacific Crest Trail; inside was his nonempty food bag–7 month old food bag! I threw it all away, pretty much just on principal but –look– that string cheese looks fine. The red bag in the upper left hand corner is very gooey and has an odor– but nothing recognizable.

Resupplying from small stores

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