Food Carry Alerts
The carry pill between each resupply stop changes color based on how many days of food you need to carry. Grey means five days or fewer — a normal, comfortable carry. Amber means six to seven days — a heavy carry that will add significant pack weight; plan your food compression carefully. Red means eight or more days — an extreme carry — consider adding a resupply stop, a mail drop, or a pace adjustment. Thresholds are based on standard thru-hiker consumption rates of approximately 1.5 to 2 lbs of food per day.
The Smart Pace Engine
Not all miles are created equal. We built a custom terrain index from PCT elevation and difficulty data so your pace automatically adjusts by region — slower through the High Sierra, faster through the flatter Oregon forests — keeping your daily physical effort constant across the entire trail.
- Global Index (1.239): The baseline difficulty multiplier representing average terrain across the full 2,650-mile trail. Derived from aggregated PCT completion data accounting for elevation gain, loss, and daily variation patterns.
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Zone Difficulty Index: A per-region multiplier based on that zone's unique terrain profile. Higher numbers mean steeper, more demanding terrain relative to the trail average.
- Desert: 1.231 — slightly easier than average
- Sierra: 1.299 — hardest zone, high passes and sustained elevation
- NorCal: 1.225 — rolling terrain, most forgiving
- Oregon: 1.186 — flattest zone, fastest miles on trail
- Washington: 1.278 — technical and demanding despite shorter distances
Base Effort = Target Average × 1.239 (Global Index)
Zone Pace = Round(Base Effort ÷ Zone Difficulty Index)
The Food Carry Formula
We calculate the exact decimal days it takes to hike each section based on your active Zone Paces. Then we add a 0.25-day safety buffer and round up to the nearest whole day. This accounts for partial nero days entering and exiting towns so you never arrive at a resupply running on fumes.
Raw Days = Distance to next resupply ÷ Zone Pace
Packed Days = RoundUp(Raw Days + 0.25 Safety Buffer)
Town Day Pace (The Nero Engine)
Arriving at a town costs miles. These sliders let you model the classic Nero-in/Nero-out strategy: hiking into town, doing chores, sleeping in a bed for one night, and hiking out the next day. Do not add a Zero day unless you are taking a full day off and paying for two nights. Instead, simply lower your town day mileage here. The app automatically absorbs the lost hiking hours and pads your total trip length, keeping your future ETAs and mail drop deadlines perfectly accurate.
Town Day Miles = Selected Slider Value
Trip Days Added = Σ(Target Pace - Town Day Miles) ÷ Target Pace
Zero Day Impact
A zero day means no miles hiked. When you add zeros to a town, the app inserts those days directly into the timeline and shifts every subsequent arrival date forward by the same count. Mail drop send-by dates, carry calculations, and the estimated finish date all update instantly. Zero days do not affect carry weights — food carry is always calculated town-to-town regardless of rest days taken.
Mail Drop 'Send By' Dates
The 'Send By' date is calculated as exactly 14 days prior to your estimated arrival at that town. This is the standard trail rule-of-thumb for USPS Priority Mail to remote post offices — early enough to beat you there, not so early that the package gets returned to sender. If your pace changes significantly after sending, call ahead to confirm the package is being held.
Zone Endpoints (NOBO)
Zone boundaries determine which difficulty index applies to each mile of your plan. Zones align with PCTA published mileage data and thru-hiker community consensus. All mile markers are NOBO (northbound) from the southern terminus at Campo.
- Desert: mi. 0 – 702 (Campo to Kennedy Meadows South)
- Sierra: mi. 702 – 1091 (Kennedy Meadows South to Echo Summit)
- NorCal: mi. 1091 – 1692 (Echo Summit to Oregon Border)
- Oregon: mi. 1692 – 2147 (Oregon Border to Bridge of the Gods)
- Washington: mi. 2147 – 2650 (Bridge of the Gods to Canadian Border)