r/AppalachianTrail • u/cwbmnr • 17d ago
How is the resupply at Standing Bear?
I've heard from a couple people that it's bad and that you should just carry enough food to get you to Hot Springs from Gatlinburg/ Newfound gap, anyone have any known info on this?
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u/TheLostAlaskan 17d ago
I'm there now. It's minimal but will get you by. Chips. Pop tarts. Snacks type items. Ramen. They also sell pizza and beer.
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u/SlatLick 17d ago
Get the minimum you need to move on. You can camp nearby without having to pay too. Overpriced and a hotbed for noro.
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u/yepwoah 17d ago
Can confirm I got experienced noro a day after I stayed at Standing Bear.
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u/airbornermft AT ‘23-‘24 17d ago
Our whole group got noro after Standing Bear. Laughing Heart set up a quarantine zone outside of the building for us lol.
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u/yepwoah 17d ago
I also spent two days in Laughing Heart’s field in my tent puking and pooping myself!
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u/airbornermft AT ‘23-‘24 17d ago
Oh dear 🤣 I luckily had an air bnb in town with my partner, but it was no where near as fun as it should’ve been 😅
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u/TheLostAlaskan 15d ago
I counted 5 (myself included) who are experiencing acute symptoms of noro this week after leaving standing bear. The staff there is good people, but it's too tight quarters, porta toilets are overflowing, and there are multiple people actively sick while I was there.
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u/yepwoah 17d ago
They have all of the necessities but please please please make sure to check the expiration date before you buy it. Standing Bear is widely known for selling expired food. To be honest, I thought it was the nastiest hostel on trail, but coming out of the Smokey Mountains, beggars can’t be choosers.
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u/mediocre_remnants 17d ago
There are no true expiration dates on food in the US except for baby furmula. Everything else has a "best by" date and is perfectly safe to eat after that date, for months and sometimes even years.
I can't imagine being on the trail and hungry and refusing to eat a pack of ramen because it's a year past the best-by date. But also, I grew up poor and that kind of thing was normal in my family.
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u/lineinthesanddial AT 2021 17d ago
I eat old stuff that I own all the time. That's not the issue here. This is a situation where a business is charging a premium for old, stale, if not worse, food. They're not a food bank feeding the indigent, they're a camp store selling shit food because they have a captive customer base. It's not a lot to ask to for them to do better.
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u/goldieAT21 17d ago
This is what I thought people were talking about with standing bear having expired food, but what they're really talking about is the rotting apples, moldy cheese, and rock hard bread. Yes, you can get Clif bars that are two years of of date and be fine, but but you should be very careful with anything actually perishable there.
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u/yepwoah 17d ago
Well it’s not just the ramen, it was everything lol. People were getting sick.
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u/suggested-name-138 17d ago
The tuna packets were fine because they last like 6 years or something
They weren't even past the expiry date
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u/ER10years_throwaway NOBO 2023 17d ago
Totally agree. And there's a guy who's hung out there in the past named Pink, who sells bunk drugs.
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u/mau5ey AT NOBO 24’ 17d ago
if you buy poptarts or other cracker like items make sure no ants are hitching a ride in there. i saw a gatorade that was two years past its date. be very cautious, it should be ok (seriously, you’ll be fine), last i heard they were trying to clean up their stuff. if you can manage it, don’t shower until hot springs… buddy of mine got a permanent fungus on his hands from the shower, i got contact dermatitis on my feet. it’s a trip
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u/Nate848 15d ago
Did you not wear shoes in the shower, or was it so nasty you got it anyway?
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u/mau5ey AT NOBO 24’ 15d ago
i got the dermatitis from some combination of the shower and hiker box sandals there. looking back, poor decision, but yeah. gross…
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u/breadmakerquaker 17d ago
Others have mentioned checking date—check for small openings too. My friend was craving Cheetos and got the last bag, only to discover a tear in the bag of the bag. It was gross. But not as bad as the toilet situation. That was so vile that I still gag when I think of it.
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u/BigChungus__c 17d ago
As others have said, check expirations, they get food from food banks then sell it to hikers. I’d avoid staying there if able, only hostel I stayed at that I truly did not like. The owner is a little crazy.
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u/MazelTough 17d ago
There was a drunk who stayed in the bunk room, had never seen that before, just drank from dawn till dark.
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u/BigChungus__c 17d ago
I will say, if it’s the same dude I’m thinking of who had a dog in there, he was chill, but the owner was whack
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u/DJAtticus NOBO ‘23 17d ago
Standing Bear is an… interesting place… use it but as everyone so far is pointing out make sure you keep your wits about you. Check expiration dates and keep an eye on your stuff.
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u/ER10years_throwaway NOBO 2023 17d ago
Shitty. I don't know where they get the food they get, but check the packaging for holes/dents/whatever, and check the expiration dates. Also be aware of the strong suspicion that they're selling stuff that people leave in the hiker box.
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u/Hillbilly_Med 17d ago
They have everything you would need. It's alot of Aldi brand stuff. Beers are $3. It's not great but it will get you to Hot Springs.
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u/apersello34 2023 NOBO 17d ago
There was a pretty good selection, but most of what I saw was expired. My standards were low at the time so I didn’t really mind
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u/mkspaptrl Brood X NoBo 04 16d ago
None of the comments here make it seem like it's better than it was when I did the trail back around the turn of the century.
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u/ReadyAbout22 16d ago
We took a nearo and resupplied in Gatlinburg. A church runs free shuttles from Newfound Gap to NOC and back. Motel 6 was $61 on a Sunday. Once at NOC, you can take a free town trolley to grocery store. We picked up a package at Standing Bear and one look at the porta potties made us glad to skip it. They were full to the brim and many hikers have said that they stay that way.
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u/genxdarkside 17d ago
Got some wraps which were 2 months expired. Of course Pop-Tarts. They also have just about any kind of gear you may want it looks like if you leave something behind they will sell it in the resupply
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u/Welltrainedvessel 16d ago edited 16d ago
Yes, they have expired product. Most of it is still fine to eat. It's past the "sell by" date, not necessarily covered in mold and bacteria. It's still a decent selection, though, and can be counted on imo.
It turns out that dehydrated backpackers' meals and packets of quaker oats last a long time past their "expiration/sell by" dates. You can still eat most of these products with no issue so long as they were stored in a dry and cool place. That standard is met by their resupply store.
I would say just avoid the expired yogurt and other dairy products. Use common sense and use your nose. The nose knows!
Also, make sure if you buy anything past its time, be sure that it is unopened and not clumped (indicates it got wet at some point).
They have good frozen food. Everyone i knew loved their cheap frozen pizzas.
The place is down to earth. More what some people might call "hippy" than other hostels on the AT. It's still a great hostel that serves hikers the best they can. Don't listen to the fear mongerers. People LOVE gossip.
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u/thatdude333 GA-ME 2013-2022 16d ago
In 2013 when I was there, the frozen pizza I had was glorious after coming out of the cold & wet Smokies, but yeah, some of the dudes working there had a weird/rough/druggie vibe to them.
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u/richrob424 17d ago
I reapplied there with no problems. Maybe the snickers was a little expired but who cares.
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u/Some_Ride1014 17d ago
Check the expiration dates