Monday, May 7, 2018

Day 21 - Dry Camp to Water Tank

5/5/2018. About 20 miles. 

It was cold this morning with some ice in the water. But nothing like the previous numbing cold. 

The plan has us getting water from a yucky pond in about 3.7 miles then a tank about 16 after that. Yesterday’s ‘detour’ was going to make this a long day. 

And it started with some big hills up to 9,200 ft. 

On the way, the pond was disgusting. Shallow, muddy milky looking. Not clear or even algae. Just a disgusting, somewhat scary soup. We each took a liter. And hit it with bleach or AquaMira and the UV Steripen. We ended up having to drink some later. We both used some flavoring (drink mixed) to hide the taste. 

After the mountains were steep downhills with poor footing. The trails are seldom of a quality to compare with the AT. Just tough rocks and dangerous footing most places with a few breaks of nice trail. 

We wanted to hit the good water at 16 miles later to camp and then get into Reserve via shuttle early the next morning. But that would stress our hiking speed. 

Landstar has difficulty going uphill. I am having knee pain on the downhills. And today we couldn’t take it easy. At one point on the downhills I got a pain in my left foot and was limping pretty badly. I took three sets of Ibuprofen today but it only helped some. 

We saw a UK couple speeding to a shuttle pickup to Reserve and asked them to request a shuttle for 0800 tomorrow for us. 

As I was limping with my foot pain, a group came up behind and surprised me. They wanted to talk. I wasn’t my usual sociable self (ha) and felt bad about it. 10 people passed us today. 

At about 7:45 pm (sunset is 08:00) we went through a gate and found trail magic of several gallons of water. The previous group was there and said the good tank water was about a mile ahead. 

We sped down the trail and across a road following the CDT signs. Turns out we had to go back down to the road and walk it. We got to the tank while we could still see to walk. Then walked a little ways and cowboy camped. We both had water, but no food, and hit the sack. 

We hoped to have cell signal but didn’t. 
















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