Resupply points on the JMT with distance from trailhead?

There are a ton of older threads on this you can search, but here's what I did.

August 2012 SOBO. All resupply on trail. 1) Tuolume Meadows Store, 2) Red's Meadows Store. (You could also take the shuttle into Mammoth Lakes if you'd like a night in town.) 3) MTR. I sent a resupply bucket here and I easily fit 10 days worth of food into a BV450 to get me to the end – Whitney Portal. I really compacted my food and took off all packaging. I ended up only taking 8 days til the end, so I had a bit of food left.

With food choice and packing creativity, you can really get a lot in a smaller bear can. Plus no need to go "all out," you'll be done soon enouhg. Also at MTR, late in teh season, there is a TON of food in the hiker buckets you can take from or have a feast before you leave there.

I work at MTR every summer, and we recommend that people don't plan on relying on our donation resupply buckets for their own resupplies. Every now and then, we have very little donations, or get cleaned out. Then people come in who were planning on using our buckets for a total resupply. They ended up having to cancel the rest of their trips and hike out to Florence Lake because they had no food for the rest of their trip. The hiker buckets are a great way to get a few extra things you forgot or weren't expecting to need, or to trade some of the stuff you sent yourself to get a little variety.

I've seen videos with people claiming to find great stuff in the MTR donation buckets – but then most of them seemed to have not brought sufficient food and had been starving when they arrived. It would be interesting to have an actual list of the kind of things typically in there since they were all things people decided not to bring with them. Probably the best scores would be stuff that doesn't pack well but are good for your stay there – Oreo cookies come to mind :-).

But if you are SB it seem like a big risk, even depending on the store, that you will find 100+ miles worth of food you can use and really satisfy you.

I think I can +1 on Susan's comment now. When I dehydrated large meals and store them in I few big bags I am amazed at how small 10 days worth of dinners becomes – like less than 1/3 of my Berikade weekender. This was a bigger backpacking surprise than I would have expected at this point, but I had never done my own food before. on the other hand YMMV.

"I'm not sure this is enough, but it depends on where the resupply points fall on the trail."

… and how fast you walk.

MTR to Whitney Portal is about 100 miles. If you can't make that you are looking at a Long resupply day to Onion Valley.

More details on your probable itinerary would help.

I did the JMT last year and found the JMT Yahoo Groups spreadsheet to be invaluable. It has all the distance and numbers you're looking for :-)

When I went through there, this what was available. It was the first week of September in 2010, and there were about six or seven buckets full of food, and one or two with toiletries and various other items.

Tons of oatmeal packets and zip lock bags of homemade oatmeal mixes
Tons of zip lock bags of nuts
About 10 packages of Mountain House Meals
A full bucket of internationally labeled snacks (couldn't tell exactly what was in them, but looked like cookies and crackers, etc.)
A couple buckets of home built FBC meals
A bucket full of regular snacks, candy, chips (but nothing that great)

I originally made up a supply form the buckets to take the next day, but the bucket I sent showed up later that day and we put everything back. It wouldn't have been fun to finish up the trail with what was there, but along with what we had left from the prior leg, we would have been fine. I definitely wouldn't plan on it, though, I can't say there was much there that I really wanted.

I intend on going about 14 or 15 miles per day. I start July 27 and am meeting friends in Glacier NP August 16, so I'm looking to be done with the trail by August 13 at the latest.

Sorry Marco! I didn't mean to offend anyone at MTR.

I was only reporting my experience. As I was there in August, it was well past when the PCT herd passes through.

I saw 24-30 five-gallon buckets filed with food, toiletries and clothing. The staff was more than happy to have other hikers trade /take items because it meant less for them to deal with getting out to dispose or donate what's left at the end of the season.