Tentative Plan is to thru hike NPT starting 7/29 ending 8/6.  
Anyone else every section'd or thru hiked NPT?  Going with couple who has section'd it but wanted to thru hike it.  Planning two caches to keep pack weight down.  North to South.  Will be my longest hike by about 100 miles .  First real thru hike so I am excited.  I will post gear and food plans if anyone is interested.  I am a budget dude so it won't be fancy.


Edit to not have a 300 plus day journey

I'd like to see your food plans.

Assume you mean 7/29 to 8/6?  9 days sounds about right, not 374 days  Still that's 133 miles in 9 days; about 14-15 miles a day...very doable if you're in decent shape.  I'm not familiar with the terrain, so that impacts distance/time as well.  

I am curious as to your food planning.  I can carry up to 9-10 days of food in my lightest pack, but we typically try and limit carried food to about 3-6 days, so we would have at least one or two resupplies on a 133 mile hike.  Having two caches will really help to keep the food weight down and allow you move much quicker for much longer.  

Water weight is always significant, but it sounds like you can travel "water-light" with the available water sources.

I would be interested in your gear choices as I haven't hiked that part of the country before. I'm really quite shocked that we really don't have much of mosquitos, biting flies or nostril-inhaling gnats to make trail life miserable down here in the SE (mostly in the Appalachian Mountains).  Swampy areas are different, but most hiking locations are pretty free from the pesky arthropods. I know up north (especially in WA and BC where I grew up backpacking), seasonal insects can be a serious PITA...hopefully they're not too bad for you.

Enjoy the trip and it's a great experience to assess your planning with a after-action-report when completed...and make sure to share it with us!

ROCK6

Goal is 16 a day.  There is about 8 miles of road walk which are fast miles.  The trail mostly skirts elevation gains and losses.  Water plan is one and one.  1 being treated and 1 being used.  I like plain old water bottles from the store. Lots of water in the daks so not too worried about that.

Food planning isn't going to be all that exciting.  I made up some venison jerky for lunches to go along with a granola bar.  Then dinners will be either couscous or flake potatoes with a miso soup pouch added and salmon pouch for protein. B-fast is normally granola with dried milk and home dehydrated fruits with 2 packets of starbucks via or target brand rip off version (only thing I don't go cheap on, love my coffee)
For snacks I have sams club fruit trail mix (priced well and heavy on the fruits and stuff) and cliff bars I scammed at a brewery festival I worked.

Plan is pack 4 days plus 1(spare day of food) at trail head.  Hike 4 hit cache #1.  Cache #1 has 3 days meals which gives 3 plus 1.  Hike 3 hit cache #2. Cache 2 has 2 days which gives me 2 plus 1.  Hike 1.5 or 2 days depending on rate of travel. Trails end, burgers in Northville.

The burgers at the end is the most important!

Yeah, this last section hike my wife and I did, we just planned for one hot meal (dinner) and the rest was snacks/lunch.  We didn't do breakfast, just hit the trail with a snack and mostly peanut butter (my preference was the chocolate hazelnut butter) and a tortilla.  Most of our dinners (either homemade-dehydrated or store-bought freeze dried meals) where often eaten with a tortilla as well.  I used the tortilla as a plate and when I ate it down far enough...it became a dinner burrito!  The heaviest snacks were squeeze pouch fruit sauces and pudding.  We may go back to our dehydrated pudding, which was just instant pudding mixed with powdered milk...add water, mash up and let sit for about 10 minutes while you're eating your dinner entrée.

The challenge is to really find out your consumption rate.  You don't want to run short and you really don't want to carry extra food...a tough balance that can only be figured out on the trail.  We always erred on the side of "it's better to have more than not enough", and quickly found ourselves offering food to younger hikers

Your choices sound good but after your first three or four days that burger at the end really starts motivating you!  I think your logistics plan is pretty solid and will help keep the weight down.  16 miles a day a pretty good clip, but if the terrain isn't too severe that's very doable to sustain.  To be honest, we always try and start our longer hikes by forcing an 8 or 10 mile hump for the first couple days just to get your body adjusted.  If you're in decent shape and your pack weight isn't bad, you should be fine.

If you can do a pre-trip layout, that would be cool to see, but more importantly I get a lot out of other's trip reports and lessons learned...

ROCK6

First day will be 12ish second day 15 ish.  Not worried about mileage per day.  It will be a challege to hold back the other guy who is part of the group. He is a sun up to sun down kinda dude.  Fitness is unlikey to be too much of issue as long as we don't get amped up and over do it. The couple's normal pace is like 18-20 mpd.  My buddy is our 4th, he is a little slower but he hikes his own hike and has no issues doing 18 sustain for 3-5 days.  I have been training up for Marine Corps Marathon in fall so my long runs are pushing 16 to 18 miles at a sub 9 minute pace.
 I learned lesson on Cranberry 50 feeling my oats day two and hammering out 20 miles in the rain.  Rest of trip was miserable because I failed to treat hot spot cause of wetness.

I have my food almost done, just waiting on my jerky to finish marinating. First batch got too salty so I am going again. I wanted to get some lavash (think armenian tortilla) but the only place that carries it was closed by the time I got out so I am going with wheat tortilla. I like the size of the lavash a little better and it doesn't get as brittle as tortillas tend to. I like to smear mustard pack on them and eat it with jerky.

I am in the warm breakfast camp.  It's an extra boil a day but for me its worth it.  I mean I am boiling for coffee anyway.  

You should be fine and hopefully the weather holds out for you guys for the whole trip.  Although we're both morning coffee drinkers, we skip our morning brew.  My wife does stock up on the "Sports Beans".  Sort of an odd flavored (various) jelly bean with caffeine and electrolytes...an odd coffee substitute, but it works well for us. I've actually augment much of my coffee with instant packs of "Dandy Blend"; some sort of dandelion root instant mix.  There's no caffeine in it, but it's my evening meal drink and I'll sometimes do a quick brew in the morning if I'm up before my wife.  

As much as we love distance backpacking, I hate hiking to sundown if we can avoid it.  Our max mileage is 15-17 miles a day (terrain dependent) and we often are on the trail really early, like 0630 or just a little past sunrise.  This gives us the best part of day to hike before it heats up and down here, afternoon thundershowers are very common...I much prefer finishing in the mid afternoon to avoid trekking in the showers or dodging lightening  I've spent to many nights in the Army setting up camp and just hate it...I like a couple hours of light every night for my "relaxation".  But, as you said, you "hike your own hike" and that works well for us.

Your jerky is a good idea.  Its it a thick or thin cut?  

ROCK6

First batch was thin but it failed.  I went thicker ( over 1/8th ball park) on batch 2 so hopefully that will turn out better.  I have had issues with over drying in the past so i am watching this batch like a hawk.  

Gear

Yellow bag is OQ UQ.  buddy and I will be sharing stove.




Food

Bag with sugar packets is a dessert for all four of us.  dehydrated angel food cake, instant pudding and dehydrated berries.  Planning on making trail trifle








Example of 1 day of food.  
Breakfast is either granola and powdered milk with dehydrated fruit bits or potato flakes and powdered milk with adders
Lunch is jerky and everything bagel with mustard.
Snacks are jerky, trail mix, and granola/fitness bar
Dinner is Couscous and adders with salmon packet or mountain houses I got on discount/free with whole wheat tortilla
Dessert is mini banana moon pie (110 calories an ounce and 12 for two bucks) total weight for food is just under twenty but it will be spread to caches.  Starting weight is 8.45 on food

Pack complete except for phone and keys weighs 24.5 lbs without water.  Figure 29 pounds all in once I am watered up.


Still have a few days to rethink and reconfigure.  Hopefully it will involve removing stuff rather than adding

Lost 1.5 lbs after reeval

1.3-Dropped a spare meal. Initially packed full meal plan for Friday. After looking at the logistical of shuttle run we will be eating from convenience store the night before, camping on a back road, hitting store in AM for breakfast and grabbing a sub to trail lunch on.  That allows enough spare food I think out of Friday's meal to justify leaving my 10th meal out.
.2- Ditched stuff sacks for OQ/UQ clothing and stove.  Got a contractor bag and just lined pack with it.  Jam everything in that stays dry.  Rain Fly/Food/Stove rest on top of that.

I love Salomon's, but would think you'd want something more than just those low tops for a 130+ mile trek. I almost killed myself more than once in my techamphibians, obviously techamphibians aren't meant as hiking shoes and have less support than the ones you have pictured though.

I would also think using ziplock bags for daily clothing sets would be a better way to go than just lining my pack with a contractor bag. Although I never tried the contractor bag method, I assume it would work just as well, but in my head the ziplock bag method keeps you more organized.

I see a map, but no compass? or are you just relying on GPS and have the map for reference?

just my thoughts, as I am far from a seasoned stud like Rock, haha...sounds like a great time, looking forward to your AAR...now you have me wanting to do the same run, unfortunately a thru hike is out of the question with a 2 year old at home, so I'll be sticking to the ADK day hikes

I have had good results with salomons on harder albeit shorter backpacks. I have about 300 miles on them so far with no complaints.  Previously had Keen Logans and they tore me the eff up. I have moved away from WP and go for mesh and fast drying.  
GPS is primary map is really for distance/reference. Within group there will be two compasses and another map.

We did a 7 day back country canoe trip in Algonquin Provincial park and used contractor bag method.  Tons of in and out of boat from carrys and one instance where I ended up in chest deep peat bog with no leaks or wetness so I am fan of that. Also gives me a back up rain coat/ground cloth/emergency shelter.  I am only packing one spare set of baselayer plus socks and snivel gear for sleeping. No real organizing

nicely done...god speed!

My normal stuff is short overnights and weekend loops and sections of FLT. Wife and children are away at girlscout camp for like 3 weeks so this a rare chance to hit trail for extended length.

Awaiting your successful trip and return!  My wife has logged several hundred miles in low top Salomon's and converted me.  Of course, they're best on trails, not off-trail or scree; packs over 30 pounds and if there is any off-trail trekking, I'll get the ankle high boots.

We both use a trash compactor bag as a pack liner and have never had a wet sleeping bag, hammock or clothes.  

ROCK6

Day three and we at are long lake.  Hiking partner fucked up his foot with new hiking shoes (I didn't know he was going to start hike with out the box shoes) so we are at Hoss's trying to get him sorted.  Frustrated with this situation.  Two miles off trail for fuck around.  I am good.  We did 14 day one and 17 day two.  We will will be lucky to get 16 trail miles today.  Upside is I got some bananas and a nectarine.

Sorry to hear about the delay...that is frustrating.  New hiking shoes on a long trek isn't too smart but it's even worse when you're the reason everyone else is held up.  Keep an eye on the weather forecasts!

ROCK6

Great trip.  On trail 9 am 7-29 off trail 8-5 at 1611.

I was in good shape most of the trip .  Had real bad rain Tuesday hiked thru it hit on a hard 20 day.  Fortunate to get a leanto that was open so we all set up inside.  Shoes failed the last day or so.  Gonna talk to salomon and see about credit or replacement.  Less than 300 trail miles on them bought in January.  feet are in pretty good shape.  Couple small blisters picked up the last day boogieing to car.  Saw a small probably 2 or 3 year old black bear in the trail in the last two miles.  
Last register in Northville

Trail sundae

Last pic on trail

Big ford on west sandy?

Old girls camp



Suspension bridge



Rainy Day in the leanto hang



Shoe fail



Hang and fire



Another hang shot


Headed out to drop caches and hit the north trail head in placid



I'll post more when my brain settles.  

How do you cache supplies? Is there a lockup you can use? I wouldn't think you could leave it laying about.

Guerilla caches hung at points that trail crossed roads.  Buckets with lids camo'd up and hid in trees.  We retrieve the buckets on the drive back to shuttle.  It also let me ditch some stuff I ended up not needing.

Went way too heavy on fuel so dumped a can.  Also left my sticks at the first cache.  Ended up not using them as trail was relatively flat. We talked to some folks on the trail that did mail drops but I wasn't into relying on post office if we came in late.  Also let us skip off trail miles getting into towns.

I'm stealing this idea.

How'd the hammock system work out for you?  

Hammock is my normal setup, it's a Yukon outfitters I got from woot and then modified to use some harbor freight straps that I sewed into suspension system. It worked great on trail.  We had solid rain one night and I was business as usual.  Only issue I had was Friday night when we drove up to get shuttle car.  It was late so we bivouacked just off trailhead.  It was late and I was tired so I did a shit job on my hang.  Also misread weather and didn't set up fly.  So right on schedule it rained at 11 pm.  Which led to me being wet and then trying to set fly in rain in the dark because I lost my headlamp.  Then it rained again at 3am hard as hell and because I did a shit job with my hang and with the fly I had a river in my hammock.  Gave up and packed everything and slept in car. I deserved it for being lazy.

Pissed about the headlamp it was a nice little ozark that I don't think they make anymore.  Old style 3 led runs on watch battery.  Great for close in stuff and weighs nothing. Looked for about an hour in the am and gave up.  I have a spare around here someplace.

Sounds like a great trip!  How was your food calculations.  We've gotten much better with this over the years and we have some staple trail foods.  This is one area you don't want too much excess and it's a balance between enough calories, weight and maybe a little extra as a cushion.

I think I have those same Salomon shoes...hopefully they replace them as that's not typical wear and tear.

Setting up camp late sucks as much as in the rain! This is why we've decided to limit our hiking to time vice distance, although we plan our distances which work well for us. I've done way too many years of field exercise where everything is done in the dark and outside of training, I avoid it like the plague as it sucks much of the enjoyment out o my soul  I actually do the reverse, I typically get up before sunrise, but I almost always have enough light and time in the evening to get everything taken care of and laid out for a quick pack-up in the morning.  My headlamp is vital so I know how much it sucks losing yours.  

My wife's trip with three other ladies had the same occurrence when they didn't put a lot of effort in their setup and rain fly...as they found out about 0300 when they got showered on.  They tried to put two hammocks under one fly which didn't work so well  Nothing sucks so much as fumbling to get your fly up after being woken up by rain.  I've found to always put the fly up...period.  I typically fold it back, but I just make it part of the routine and put it up.  I can then at least cover up quickly even if drowsy.

I love your guerilla caches idea.  It really helps for shorter stretches without wasting time running into town or having to wait until the Post Office or outfitter store is opened.  

ROCK6

Food was spot on with regard to like feeling hungry and having energy.  Each hiker did 1 night's trail dessert which was cool to break monotony.  1st night was shortcake and cherry pie filling. (She carried two cans of it, so heavy) Her husband did blueberry cobbler, which was dehydrated berries with sugar and cornstarch in a bowl with toasted marshmallows and crushed nilla waifers.  Super yummy but a little too sweet maybe. I did what I call trail trifle.  Its dehydrated angel food cake, dehydrated blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries with sugar made into compote, then filling is instant pudding with dehydrated milk mixed in a bag and left to chill in water source.  It came ok for first try more work to be done on the angel food cake and how its rehydrated.  i thought it would suck up moisture from pudding but it was still crunchy.  Pudding worked boss though.  It was the night after our 2 cache so I didnt have to worry about trail water for pudding mix.  Just grabbed an extra liter at the store.  Other guy did smore's the last night which while simple is a tried and true trail dessert and good.

Because we ended up crunching miles we finished Friday afternoon instead of Saturday so I was like 2.5 meals heavy.  No way to plan around that really. I gained about 2 pounds on the trail somehow so my calories must have been on point

The bagels were great, the tortillas were awesome as well, did fire roasting of them most nights and that caught on with the rest of the crew.  
Need to get better about measuring water for meals.  Just dumping water led to some soups that should have been solid and vice versa.
Lack of food bowl led me to doing less boils which was cool.  Doing dishes consisted of licking my spoon really well.





Update

Contacted Salmon CS yesterday around 1 pm.  Had to send it pictures of tear and some other items (sole, tongue tag, proof of purchase)  Sent that around 6 pm yesterday.


Got response and approval of warranty claim before noon today.  And the cherry on top.  I purchased them via Amazon at 85 dollars.  Salamon, despite having proof of purchase that clearly showed I paid 85 gave me full value of 130 dollars in store credit. Ended up going with Ultra Mid 2 with GTX.  Extra 35 bucks got me a nice new pair of boots.  Shipping today.  

Very impressed with their Customer Service folks.

Desserts sound good.  We got lazy last trip and just did pudding squeeze pouches,  I think for longer trips, we will go back to a small Ziploc and instant pudding plus powdered milk...that's my favorite and simple easy to make with little cleanup.  We simply love tortillas...either with our favorite "butter" (my wife likes the almond butter, I prefer the chocolate hazelnut butter), or as a dinner plate/burrito.  Any of the non-soupy meals can be eaten off a tortilla like a plate and when you eat down far enough, you just roll the tortilla up like a burrito to finish the dishes  Having that one cool meal or dessert helps keep the motivation up...that was as great idea you guys did.



I love my Salomons; not sure which model, but they were not the GTX versions.  The ventilated mesh over the front part of the foot is really ventilated as I got a lot of very fine dust in my toes which was surprising.  I like the faster drying non-vapor barrier shoes/boots, but I may try the GTX version next.  It's good to hear they're taking care of you.  My wife has pimped them repeatedly; probably sold a dozen pair for Salomon.  

ROCK6

awesome trip and glad to hear Salomon took such good care of you

Nice write up.  

I'm glad the shoe damage wasn't a catastrophic blowout.   I never had one on a hike other than uncle sam time with reheeled black cadillacs losing the heel on a drill weekend in the field.