Originally Posted by
indyfabz
Heh. At the start of the third day of my Northern Tier tour with 12 other people one participant mailed home her blow dryer and Sony WatchMan TV (Remember those?). A couple of other people also mailed stuff home that morning. Smart move as we were only 4 days away from crossing the North Cascades Highway.
I had never toured before. But before the trip I had the benefit of a phone conversation with the late Bruce Gordon about racks and bags. He told me that people tend to fill all available space. Because I was going to be taking a lot of film camera equipment no matter what I really kept his statement in mind when deciding what else to take. Ended up not sending anything home except exposed film. (Periodically had fresh film mailed to me.)
I still mail stuff home. These days it might be because I am out of the mountains and the season has changed, but it might also be because I decided I really don't want to do some extra activity I thought I might do or because I am done with it. Maybe I wanted to fish in one location or do a lot of hiking somewhere like Yosemite Valley and wanted better shoes there. I might go to the trouble of having the gear only for that portion of the trip.
Also I have taken a gps or water filter and decided the trip didn't warrant carrying them. They were packed up and mailed home.
On our first TA I think we mailed stuff home 3 or 4 times and had a couple purges where we threw stuff away.