What I Do In Town On A Thru-hike (Lodging, Resupply, Laundry, Post Office, Vlogging, etc)

hey y'all Dixie here I've been asked several times what my typical routine is when I'm in town during a zero or a Nero day and how I generally go about doing my chores like laundry resupplying etcetera so today I'm going to cover those questions and just kind of give you a rundown of what a typical zero or Nero day looks like [Music] for those of you all who are not familiar with what a zero-day or nero day is a zero-day is a term used in the thru-hiking community and long-distance backpacking in general where no+ miles are gained on trail so it's generally a day where you go into town and just take a complete day of rest a nero is nearly a zero so it's a day where a hiker might do three or four miles and then go in town and enjoy a break for the rest of the day the first thing I do when I get to town is start scoping out when everything closes I want to know when the restaurants closed the post offices if I have to go by their laundromats etc then I try to map out the most logical route to get everything accomplished most efficiently if I'm not really pressed for time though and I have my choice I'm gonna beeline to the first restaurant that sounds good and sit down take a load off drink a lot of water some coffee a good meal with some vegetables to get some nutrients that I'm not getting on trail and then I start checking out the motels and other lodging options in the area on the three sir facts I've done on the Appalachian Trail Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail the gut hook app was a great resource for finding places in town to eat for lodging and resupplying hikers can leave comments in the app about places they stayed or ate that way kind of know what you're getting into and you probably will have some pretty up-to-date pricing for the different locations when I'm looking for a place to stay for the night of course I'm considering the price but I also look at the location because a lot of times you're not hitchhiking while you're in town you can spend a lot of time trying to get a hitch when you could have just walked somewhere in less time so I look for places that are close to restaurants where I want to resupply and the post office I say that but there are some towns where I've run into people just that are true gyms or maybe there even an own trail angel on the trail but they realize that you're having to walk around everywhere and so they say hey here's my number if you need a ride across town just hit me up and let me know so it just kind of depends on the trail you're on and really the town you're in and just happenstance of meeting the right people who are willing to help you out I try to find a place that has laundry avail that's probably the next biggest thing that I look at because being able to do laundry on-site is a lot more convenient than having to go to a laundromat and sit there and wait for it to get done because I'm more or less work while I'm through hiking blogging and vlogging and other things online then I really like to find a place that has decent Wi-Fi sometimes in smaller towns this really isn't an option but if there is a motel that has good Wi-Fi and one that does not then I'm probably gonna stay at the one with the better Wi-Fi and then of course a hot tub and continental breakfast are also great perks once I get checked in I go up to the room put my stuff down get my electronics out that need charging that way I know they have ample time to charge especially if I'm not going to take a zero and I'll be leaving the next day I go to the bathroom and check to see if there's any shampoo and conditioner if not then I'll see if there's a hacker box down in the lobby and if you're not familiar with a hacker box it's basically a box where hikers can put unused things in them so if a motel or hostel does not have these items a lot of times hikers will go purchase them and they realize they're not going to pack out the shampoo and conditioner so instead of throwing it in the garbage they put it in the hiker box for other folks to use if there isn't shampoo and conditioner then I'll just go to the nearest store pick some up and go back and take a shower and watch all of the filth from the week or so before go down the drain now I do want to say not all hackers are necessarily going to get a room in town for the night some just go into town shop get what they need maybe shower and do laundry and then hit the trail again but because of what I do and me generally needing to charge more battery power than other folks I do typically have to get a room in town for the night so I can recharge everything and do some of the other tasks online that I need to take care of I just don't want you to think if you're planning a thru-hike that it's unreasonable to go into town get what you need and then get back out because a lot of folks do that after I've eaten and showered if laundry is still available then I start laundry it is nice to be able to split a room with somebody one because you save money but two y'all can kind of split the chores so maybe one person goes ahead and showers first while the other one gets the laundry started and then the person who's showered first can switch out the laundry while the second person gets in the shower again a lot of this depends on when I get to town and where everything is located if laundry isn't available where I'm staying or I'm pushed for time then sometimes I just wear what I use to sleep in on trail because it's cleaner than the clothes I hike in and then I'll wait and do laundry the next day whether it's where I'm staying if it closes at a certain time or at a laundromat while I'm doing laundry I usually wear my rain gear and then once a month or so I usually rinse out my rain gear in the shower and hang it to dry that way it kind of takes some of the stink out there have been towns that I've been to where there really is no option at all for laundry not at a place I'm staying or a laundromat so in that instance I just do by hand and hang it up I'll wear the clothes that I usually sleep in do my laundry and then once that dries I'll put those clothes on and do the laundry that I usually sleep in and then hang that up to dry once I get those initial chores taken care of the eating showering and laundry at that point I usually try to get some work done on the Continental Divide Trail when Aaron was with me I could just pass him my footage but on the Pacific Crest Trail and on the Appalachian Trail I had to upload the footage so usually started that pretty much as soon as I got kind of settled in that way the videos would have time to upload throughout the night while asleep in I also have to do a lot of correspondence through emails and with my patrons on patreon I do live Q&A for dinner if there's something close by then I'll walk over to the restaurant depending on how much work I've gotten done otherwise I might just order something delivery like pizza or wings or just whatever they have locally that will deliver some other chores that I take care of either the first or second night depending on whether I'm zeroing or narrowing or washing my pot and cup back flushing my water filter cleaning out my pack and reorganizing everything spreading everything out to dry out if I was just in a stretch where I got rained on I do some foot care like soaking my feet in Epsom salts taking care of blisters trimming my toenails I try to prop my feet up as much as I can and ask my knees or feet if they need it and in general I try to just rest and make sure I'm getting a lot of calories while I'm in town whether I'm zeroing or narrowing I prefer to go shopping for my resupply so all my food and toiletries that I'll need for the next stretch on the second day in the morning and again it's always a good idea to check the hiker boxes before going shopping for a resupply because it just might happen that my favorite snack is in the hiker box and somebody else has gotten sick of it and I can throw something that I'm sick of and didn't eat in the last stretch in the hiker box I've had folks ask me if I happen to have my pack with me when I'm resupplying so say I check out of the motel and I am leaving towns that next day and I have my pack with me where do I put my pack while I'm resupplying if I'm with somebody else or I notice that a particular store says no packs allowed sit them in the foyer area here then I'll do that and hopefully I have another hiker around that I can ask to watch my stuff and we can kind of take turns watching each other's packs while the other one shops if not and I don't see any signs up that say I cannot have my pack with me then I just throw it in the buggy and push it around with me while I'm shopping this is what makes it convenient about getting a room if you are going 2-0 though because you can just keep all of your stuff in your room while you're running your errands after I shop from my resupply I go through everything and try to minimize all the packaging that throw away the boxes I might repackage things to make them fit better in my food bag it just depends on what I have I generally just eat things that you could sit on a shelf and they wouldn't rot but sometimes I try to add spinach and other vegetables to my foods to try to make them a little bit healthier and if I know I'm going into a shorter stretch like a three-day stretch instead of a five to seven day stretch then I might pack out some fresh fruits and vegetables now obviously if I had a food resupply at the post office then I would hit up the post office before I went shopping going to the post office to me is one of the most pain in the butt things about a thru-hike because they have different hours and if you don't get to town in time on the weekend if they have Saturday hours then you're stuck there until Monday or you have to bounce ahead your package and I'll explain what bouncing a box is in just a minute another reason I don't like to mail myself food is because it's usually stuff that I can buy in town anyway along the three major Triple Crown trails the ATP CT and CDT a lot of stores and different businesses have popped up to service hikers because I saw an opportunity and they built a business around it even when I've had to resupply at a gas station they tend to carry things that hikers want because I'm sure enough people have come through there and said hey do you carry Iranian noodles or it'd be great if you could start carrying peanut butter there are a few stops along those trails where it's kind of slim pickins and for the 80 and PCT i've done a video on the areas that I would recommend sending yourself a resupply package if you're going to I think it's also difficult to predict what you'll want to eat for a whole six month period so I like to allow myself the flexibility of picking what I want to eat when I'm craving it when I'm in a certain town I know for folks with more restrictive diets it makes more sense to send themselves packages along the way so it really just depends on the individual if I do hear of a certain area that I know is going to have slim pickins in the way of food and I want to pick out something ahead of time and mail it to myself down the line then I usually hear about it by word of mouth several hundred miles before or I start checking ahead and gut hook and just look at the resupply options and then if I'm in a bigger town that has a Walmart or some other bigger grocery store I can put together some packages and mail them to myself ahead on trail there are times though where I'll have to have gear sent to myself if I order some new trail runners on Amazon or if I have my mom send me in my ice axe and my grouse backs or for whatever reason if I have to go to the post office and I have packages sent to me in that town general delivery when I mail a package to myself or have one set I have it sent general delivery so it would have my name Jessica mills and care of general delivery the address of the post office and then somewhere on the package it should say please hold for hiker and then some kind of ETA to give them a timeframe of when you'll be there it doesn't have to be exact but just as close as possible and it's the package is sent Priority Mail to the post office if you go in and you don't need what's in the box then you bounce it ahead and I've done that with several things I thought in a certain area I might want my ice axe and micro spikes but I realized it needs them too later so I had them bounce a head from that town to the next place that I thought I might need them and as long as you don't open the package you don't get charged for bouncing it ahead to the next area again if it's sent Priority Mail into a post-office if I take a full zero and I'm caught up on all the chores I need to do then I try to learn something about the town or the area or try to enjoy some sort of entertainment while I'm there I might go see a movie in Creede Colorado I went and saw a play one time on the Appalachian Trail I got to see a cannon demonstration I just try to find something unique going on in the town or something unique about it to check out and enjoy while I'm there and finally when it's time to leave town I try to do so either in the evening so late afternoon evening or in the morning that way it's cooler getting out on the trail with a full pack after you've resupplied and you've got your belly full it's just really comfortable to not do that in the heat of the day all right yeah well that is all I have for you today on town stops and what I do on neros and zeros while I'm through Hyken if y'all have any questions about the things I talked about today feel free to leave those questions in the comments below for any of y'all who are watching today who have done Nero days or zero days while on backpacking trips I'd love to hear what y'all's routines are if you found a way to be more efficient because I've kind of found that on Nero days and zero days where I end up walking a whole lot and not resting as much because I haven't been as efficient it's kind of aggravating you know you get back to the trail and you feel like you finally get to rest now that you're back on the trail thank y'all again for watching don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy the content of this channel and we will see y'all next time

Channel: undefined

Views: 142,222

Rating: 4.9631739 out of 5

Keywords: thru-hiking, backpacking, hiking, thru-hike, pack, town, zero day, resupply, lodging, hotels, motels, travel, pacific crest trail, appalachian trail, pct, cdt, Continental Divide Trail

Id: iazyq3raA8c

Length: 13min 24sec (804 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2019