If you answered this question "yes", you've never been a hiker. Most people probably don't know about the idea of General Delivery[1], but if you're going to b

If you answered this question "yes", you've never been a hiker. Most people probably don't know about the idea of General Delivery[1], but if you're going to be without a fixed address for 6 months and passing through a bunch of tiny towns that don't have a Fedex or UPS store, you quickly learn 1) How awesome it is that most towns in the country have a post office, and 2) That USPS Priority Mail is both inexpensive and reliable. The idea of General Delivery is that instead of having an address in the second line, you write "General Delivery", and fill in the third line as usual. The main post office in the area holds the mail for 30 days after receiving it. In a small town there's only one post office, and that's the one you go to to collect it. In conjunction with Priority Mail packages, this is an awfully convenient way to get resupplied with things you can't find in small towns when you're traveling through. I've done mail drops on the Appalachian Trail using Priority Mail, and while it would be possible to do a thru-hike without mail drops, you'd have much more limited food options. If you had any kind of non-standard dietary requirements, you'd be hard pressed to meet them in most of the towns along the trail. The AT is unusual in that there are hostels and outfitters along the way that will receive and hold packages on the behalf of hikers, and they're well publicized in the guidebooks. I've also bicycle toured through the US, and being able to pick nearly any town, confirm that it had a post office, and pick something up there 3-4 days later greatly eases getting stuff to you. I couldn't get a replacement derailleur hanger before I left, and wanted a spare (because a hanger is usually specific to a manufacturer, or even a frame), and I picked it up somewhere in Montana after my local bike shop was finally able to get one in. By the end of the trip I had used up a set of bottom bracket bearings (the ones that make the pedals go around smoothly), and if I hadn't been ending the trip, I would have needed a new set. Since mine were pretty uncommon at the time (external BB in 2006), I would have had a hard time getting replacements from a random bike shop, and I would have relied on General Delivery to get a set from either the manufacturer or a higher-end bike shop. It's probably easy to underestimate the reliability, efficiency, and convenience of the Post Office. Most people will probably never be in a town of 70 people [2] that doesn't have any sort of store but does have a post office, and if they do they probably won't be there without a car. Those of us who have been know that the ability to get a box sent there from the other side of the country in a couple of days is nothing short of miraculous. [1] https://www.usps.com/manage/forward-mail.htm#3 https://www.usps.com/manage/forward-mail.htm#3 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caratunk,_Maine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caratunk,_Maine (I was through in 2010. In 2012 the Post Office was apparently still open, but Fontana Dam, which has only marginally better services, lost theirs.)