Before my hike, I sat down and carefully planned my stages. I calculated how many kilometers I could cover per day and where the supply points were located. This gave me an overview of how fast I needed to walk to complete my tour, as well as a rough idea of where it would be worth sending supply packs. It’s important to note that shopping is available on Sundays, but post offices are closed and have limited opening hours on Saturdays.
Although you never know what will happen when you’re on the road, it can’t hurt to have a rough plan. However, there are also people who tackle the trail without planning ahead
If you are on an American long trail, there is almost no way around FarOut. Here you can find the most important waypoints, water sources and even information from other hikers via a comment function for all available hiking trails. The option to plan stages in FarOut and display the total altitude and kilometers along the route is also very helpful. FarOut is available in the web browser and for Android and iPhone devices.
![Exceltabelle mit Etappen Planung für den Arizona Trail](https://walking-away.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/etappen-planung.png)
To give you an impression of how easy it is to plan your stages with FarOut, I have recorded a short clip for you.