Guide to Backpacking Resupply and Trail Nutrition

Join Erin, a Registered Dietitian, break down the essential macronutrients—carbohydrates, protein, and fat—for fueling your body on a thru hike. This video explores how to balance energy needs with pack weight, optimize recovery, and avoid common nutrition pitfalls on trail.

In this video, we break down the key factors that influence energy needs on trail so you can better estimate how many calories your body will require each day.

When planning resupplies for a thru-hike, choosing the right meals can make a huge difference in energy, morale, and pack weight. This video walks through a full day of trail nutrition and explains the reasoning behind including different foods throughout the day. Whether you’re planning your first thru-hike or refining your food strategy, this video will give you the tools to build a resupply plan that actually works on trail.

This lesson will talk about the benefits of a grocery list and how to maximize it during a resupply.

It is common misconception that being in the backcountry means you cannot eat enjoyable foods. This is a flat out lie. Eating food you enjoy will increase your happiness on trail and leave you bolstered for the day(s) ahead. This lesson will highlight the  different meal options backpackers have in the outdoors. A downloadable PDF shares easy meal ideas using items purchased at any grocery store.

Snacks are a dime a dozen, but being selective in your snack choices will have a large impact on how you feel during the day.

Instead of giving you a long running list of snacks ranked best to worst, this lesson will highlight the pros and cons of different snack choices.

Repackaging a resupply is not only to save weight, but to also help prepare your meals to be eaten.

In this lesson we will give tips for organizing food in your pack.

Watch a real life example, as Maggie packages a 3-day resupply for trail.

In this lesson we will discuss the basics of resupply boxes. Answering weather you should send a resupply box to what goes in a resupply box. 

This video breaks down the key differences between sending resupply boxes to USPS locations vs trail towns during a thru-hike.

This video explains how to properly address resupply boxes for both USPS locations and trail town businesses during a thru-hike. It covers the key differences in formatting—such as including “General Delivery” versus naming the hostel or outfitter and confirming their package. Clear labeling ensures your gear arrives safely and is waiting when you need it most.

In this lesson, we review how to receive mail (besides resupply boxes) on trail. Learn how you can obtain orders from a manufacture's website or from Amazon, directly to trail.