John Muir Trail Resupply Guide (2023 Survey)

The third installment of the John Muir Trail Thru-Hiker Survey covers the JMT’s biggest (perceived) logistical issue: resupply. After hikers get their gear sorted, questions surrounding resupply become the object of JMT hiker fascination and internet probing.

What is JMT resupply? It’s the replenishment of the food (and other consumable items) carried in a hiker’s backpack. Basically, buying more food and supplies on the trail. Can you bring all your food for the entire JMT with you from the start? Sure. However, most people will opt to resupply at some point because the alternative means either moving quickly or carrying an extremely overpacked bear canister.

I often advise hikers to avoid resupplying before beginning a thru-hike. Still, the John Muir Trail isn’t an incredibly long hike compared to something like the 2,600-mi / 4,200-km Pacific Crest Trail, so planning resupply isn’t a crazy idea – in fact, it could even be beneficial.

Using data from the 2023 John Muir Trail Hiker Survey, I’ve compiled the following picture of what resupply looks like for a John Muir Trail thru-hike. Hopefully, this helps all you would-be JMT thru-hikers rest a little easier.

Colors differentiating hiker segments:

• Thru-Hikers
• Northbound Thru-Hikers
• Southbound Thru-Hikers
• The number (1) is appended when only using data from hikers who completed the trail.
• The number (0) is appended when only using data from hikers who did not complete the trail.

If no color/label has been appended to a data point, I used all collected data (i.e., it includes section hiker data and data from hikers who did not complete the trail).

Resupply Strategy

When you reach a town or “resupply stop” along the John Muir Trail, you have the following options:

• Buy a full resupply (replenish your food stocks from zero back to a level sufficient to get you to the next resupply point)
• Buy a partial resupply (boost your current stock to get you through to the next resupply point – i.e., get more snacks)
• You can pick up a package you’ve sent ahead to yourself from a post office or hiker-friendly place along the trail (like a hotel).
• Get a large enough meal to last you until the next resupply stop.
• Skip the stop entirely and crush miles to your next resupply.

Resupply Boxes

Buying your food and prepping boxes before your hike can be tempting for the first-time thru-hiker – even the experienced but uncertain thru-hiker). A certain (false) sense of security comes from packing up resupply before the trail – a kind of “well, I’ve got all that sorted out.” Except on the trail, all that planning/sorting you did beforehand can prove more of a liability than an asset.

Plans change, post offices aren’t always open, boxes get lost, and hikes end early – a lot can happen between your start date and the resupply box you hop(ed) to retrieve.

On top of that, unless you’ve done a long-distance hike before (and based on the statistics from the JMT Survey – you probably haven’t), it can be hard to imagine what you, in a month (or two…or three…), are going to want to eat all day.

How Frequently to Resupply

Predicting (with any degree of accuracy) where you will resupply before beginning a thru-hike is something many hikers attempt to do despite my telling them it’s unnecessary. Do you know how long it will take to walk 100 mi / 160 km with three days of unscheduled rain and too much food in your pack?

The weather, your physical condition, the people you’re with, where you’ve just come from, where you’re going, and many other factors make this a (somewhat) educated guess at best.

Maybe you’ll prefer carrying more food and resupplying less often or a lighter load with more frequent stops in town. Maybe you’ll be injured or quit on the first day, and none of this will matter.

So, what’s the right balance between resupplying and hiking? It’s different for everyone. Here’s a look at this year’s hiking resupply.

Dietary Restrictions

Not all hikers can subsist on gas station beef jerky and trail mix. I asked hikers if they had dietary restrictions and what they were. Typically, I also ask hikers how much trouble they had adhering to these restrictions, but this question was omitted this year due to an error in the survey. You can see the results from last year here.

Dietary Restrictions

• 37.1% Yes
• 62.9% No

Specific Dietary Restrictions

• Vegetarian – 24.14%
• Gluten free – 18.97%
• Dairy free – 13.79%
• Vegan – 10.34%
• Allergy (peanut) – 8.62%
• Keto – 5.17%
• Allergy (tree nut) – 1.72%
• Pescatarian – 1.72%
• Other – 6.90%

Note: These percentages are of hikers with dietary restrictions.

Resupply Advice

Enough with the numbers, colors, graphs, labels, and bulleted lists of places you may or may not have ever heard of. What did thru-hikers have to say about John Muir Trail resupply? The following are advice, each from an individual hiker, regarding JMT resupply.

Remember, each is one person’s opinion; none should be taken as JMT gospel.

• Eight days of food is really heavy to carry between horseshoe meadows and Muir Trail Ranch. I would add the time to resupply in Independence

• Be flexible on potential exits to resupply (especially Onion Valley to Independence SOBO), and don’t be afraid to ask others for food on the trail – many people on shorter trips overpack and are glad to give away some food.

• Bring less food than you think you’ll need – or be prepared to donate a lot to the hiker box. There are plenty of opportunities to buy or find extra meals and snacks, especially on the first half of the trail (southbound up to Muir Trail Ranch).

• Fuel Canisters at Muir Trail Ranch are very expensive, and there is a very limited selection. Add as much variety to your meals and snacks as possible. Eating the same thing day after day gets old fast!

• You’ll want variety—and you’ll want junk food! We packed all healthy and calorie-dense food (trying to fit into that BV475!). At our last resupply, we bought Chex Mix, candy, chips, Pop–Tarts, and Rice Krispy treats because we needed more exciting food.

• You will likely not be as hungry the first couple of days you are hiking so try not to overpack food and carry extra pounds of food. If all you want is a box shipped, Muir Trail Ranch is the place to go, not to get sucked into a Nero or Zero. But if you want to be social and have an atmosphere, visit VVR. You don’t have to ship any boxes to do this hike.

• Send resupplies to VVR in a five-gallon bucket instead of a cardboard box, or mice will get into it.

• Pine Creek Pack Station/Berner’s Pack outfits are reliable, although their communication is bad.

• My impression at Muir Trail Ranch was that I was an inconvenience to the lady who was working at the store. At VVR, I felt very welcome, to the point that I was happy to stay for a second night.

• The Mount Williamson Motel will bring your resupply to the Onion Valley trailhead—you don’t need to go into Independence.

• It was easier to go into Mammoth and resupply with fresh food than send a box to Reds Meadow filled with stuff you don’t want that has been sitting around for weeks.

• I was told I would eat less on the trail, and I actually ate more. I was eating breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks, and dinner (two entrees, not servings, two full meals), and I was constantly hungry. Too much is better than not enough. You can always give food away or trade it.

John Muir Trail Survey Collection

• John Muir Trail Hiker Survey
• JMT Gear Guide
• JMT Resupply Guide

If you can think of anything that would make this resupply information more useful (or if you would like to see any more cross-referencing related to resupply), please comment and let me know.

For more on JMT Resupply, check out these posts.

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