Has anyone heard of, or used, Sonora Pass Resupply?

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CameraMarty
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Has anyone heard of, or used, Sonora Pass Resupply?

Post by CameraMarty »

Have you heard of them? Thoughts?

http://www.sonorapassresupply.com/

We're thinking of using them for a drop at Sonora Pass rather than hitching down to Kennedy Pack Station.
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MountainMinstrel
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Re: Has anyone heard of, or used, Sonora Pass Resupply?

Post by MountainMinstrel »

It may be to late for this, but I met the guys who run it this week, they are stand up guys with very fair prices.
Just an old musician who loves the Mountains.
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cloudlesssky
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Re: Has anyone heard of, or used, Sonora Pass Resupply?

Post by cloudlesssky »

I just exited Sonora Pass SOBO from Lake Tahoe and Casey, the guy who runs the resupply was onsite with his well-stocked truck. I'd spoken to some NOBO PCT hikers along the way and they claimed he had the best resupply operation they'd encountered from the border north to Sonora.

It was later in the day so Casey was in the process of tearing down so that he could go home, but he showed me around his goods a bit and described his service. Apparently he only commits to being at the summit on the days he's gotten orders for delivery (you can order goods from his website) or has received packages for delivery. He lives about 100 miles away, so if there are back-to-back delivery days then he stays at a local campground rather than drive home. He said he spent most days at the campground this PCT season since he got up and operational.

His truck appeared well stocked: large array of dehydrated foods (entrees are largely Mountain House), lots of goodies (e.g. Hostess-like products), fuel canisters, replacement parts for some things (e.g. trekking pole tips, etc), perishables (eggs, sausage), and heavy stuff like sodas. He let me look through an on-truck list of available items that was 8+ pages long. The selection and prices were good/excellent (relative to other resupply locations I've used - Echo Lake, Tuolumne, Reds Meadow, Muir Trail Ranch). For example an 8oz fuel canister was $5.99 (I paid 3.99 for the smaller 4oz/100gm canister just before this trip). He said he's an official reseller for Mountain House, Primus, Nemo and some others. He said he was working to become a reseller for some other popular brands. Being a reseller means he gets the stuff at wholesale prices so he can keep his selling price reasonable.

He also provides some valuable and free of charge services: water and trash service; and maybe more importantly these days, he also has chargers and usb cables for recharging electronic devices. Most of the PCTrs and section hikers I encountered were using smart phones as their GPS/map although they nearly all said they had Halfmile's maps as well. He said one of the popular things he does is set up a grill so that people can cook the eggs and sausage they purchase from him.

I told him that I'd been looking into resupply at Sonora Pass and seen his website but hadn't heard anything positive or negative so sent my stuff to Kennedy Meadows instead - the known quantity. He said he'd gotten his Forest Service permit very late and so hadn't been able to advertise well. Apparently the Forest Service was concerned that having a licensed resupply at a picnic area would create something that appears to the general public like an officially recognized homeless camp. He joked that a couple of the questions he'd answered were "Will you have a Frisbee?" and "What color is your truck?"

If Casey can keep it going into the future this resupply service seems like it will be a good option. Clearly it was working out for this years PCTrs.
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