Running Out of Water and Running to Town

This morning I woke up by the water cache around 6:30am and began packing up. No one else was moving around at all, but I knew that we had to get going. We have to do about 30 miles today and are still planning on heading into town tonight. In order to make this last stretch of miles easier we decided to pop into enchantment to resupply. That breaks our resupply up in half basically. So we have to carry half as much food. But in order to get into Encampment, we have to hitch. I didn’t want to start too late in the day because we have to get to the trailhead before dark so that we can get a ride. 

It was so amazing to drink a strawberry ensure for breakfast this morning!

Once I got up and packed up the others to do the same. Then we hydrated a bit by the cooler before we continued on. I only thought that we had about 15 miles to go before the next water source. So I packed out a good bit of water and one soda. I had drank a lot last night so I felt nice and hydrated. Then we began the 10 mile road walk. 

The cooler by the water cache. We camped by here last night.

Even starting early on in the day, the road was still pretty brutal. Once the sun came up it was already so hot along the road, even in the early morning. We walked for a couple miles and then went past a privy. So of course everyone had to stop there and use the bathroom. Then we continued walking after that. We were on asphalt for another hour or so. Then we stopped by a fence to take a quick break. And around this time we were able to get off of the asphalt and onto some connecting dirt roads. apparently it saved us a little bit of time and was more direct.

Front Loader caught up to us around this time and joined us for the road walk along dirt roads. It was so nice to be off of the asphalt even if we were still road walking. We walked along dirt road for about an hour then we came to our big patch of trees that we passed in days. We could not resist getting under the natural shade of the trees and enjoying a break there. It was one of the first time that I’ve enjoyed a comfortable break in the last two days.

I packed out a coke and got to enjoy it on the road walk.

From there, we were only a mile or so from the actual red line. So we did a little bit of bush whacking and then got back onto the trail. It felt good to be back on trail, but around this time we checked and noticed that there was not going to be water for a while. We thought that the next source was about 5 miles into the redline. Apparently though that source was dry so we had to go even further than that. In the end, it was going to be about a 20 mile water carry from where we woke up this morning. That was just brutal because no one was planning on it.

Once we got back on the redline wound up doing a pretty steep climb. Then we stopped for a break up at the top. Everyone was eager to take lunch at this point. But we checked and realized that all of the upcoming water sources were dry. And all of us had less than a liter of water left. We still had to walk for another two hours or so until we came to the next water source. That was not ideal considering I had a 23 ounce bottle of water left.

A sign on a fence alongside the road walk.

Even still, we enjoyed lunch at the top of that climb. Then after we finished eating, we began descending for a while. The trail was very hilly with lots of little ups and downs. We would go up one large hill and then drop right back down. Then we go right back up another big hill. That’s basically how the day went.

By the time we were getting closer to this next water source, everyone was very eager. It was super hot out. We were all so thirsty. Everybody got there last water first thing this morning. Now here we were around 4pm and we hadn’t passed a water source since. That’s a really long time to go between sources unexpectedly.

We got to this next creek just after 4pm, which was such a relief. Everybody dropped their packs there and proceeded to drink a ton of water. Then we took a break there so we could drink even more.

At this point in the day, we were somewhere between 11-12 miles from the trailhead where we could get a ride into encampment. That meant we were not going to be getting to the trailhead before dark. Because Syrup was ahead of us on the trail, we decided to call him and ask what his plans were. He got into encampment a couple hours ago. Apparently the road was pretty tough to hitch on. So that’s awesome. But he did successfully get in for the night and had a room. By the time we get in town tonight everything is going to be closed, which is delightful. So we asked him if he could get a couple pizzas for us. Just so that we could have something to eat when we did get into town.

While we sat there we had service. So we decided to try to find a ride from the trailhead for tonight. We called one woman Patty and she was the sweetest lady. She immediately said that she could pick us up anytime that we needed. We asked if she could come around 9pm and she had no problem with that at all. That was such a relief because our biggest obstacle for this evening is going to be getting a ride to town. Now we know that we’re all ready to go and situated. And we just have to hike those last 12 miles to the road.

The views as we began climbing this afternoon were beautiful.

When we left there everybody had their heads down and was pushing for town. I knew we could make it to the trailhead by 9pm if we didn’t take any more breaks. But of course we had a really long climb coming up. I was just hoping that it wasn’t too difficult and we were able to push through.

The climb started right away as we left out water source. To start it was fairly gradual so I didn’t mind it too much. Then we got off of a trail and got onto dirt roads for the rest of the day. Some of the segments along the dirt road were ridiculously steep. I was definitely struggling around this time. A bunch of ATVs were driving by as well, which made things even more annoying. When you’re huffing and puffing doing a climb, it’s not ideal to have to get out of the way of an ATV. Obviously, though I understand that we have to share these roads and trails with other vehicles.

We were hiking along dirt roads/ATV track for most of the afternoon, but there were still killer views!

At one point an ATV drove by and the driver said “it looks like you guys could use a beer”. But he didn’t offer us a beer. That was the rudest thing that has ever been said to me. It’s one thing to make a comment like that to someone, but at least follow through.

After we did that steepest portion of the road the rest was cake. We made ridiculously good time getting to the top of the climb. We did over 6 miles in less than two hours, which is really good. Then we got up to the top of this climb, which had amazing views. And we arrived just in time for the sunset.

We got up to the top of the climb just as the sun began to set.

We were tight on time so we didn’t stay long. But we stayed long enough to enjoy the beautiful sunset. From there, we continued along dirt roads which were mostly downhill for the remainder of the day. We wound up walking right through a giant field of sheep shortly after that. There were more sheep than I’ve ever seen in my life and we walked right up to them. Some of the babies had little bells on collars, which were so cute. And there were a bunch of sheep dogs running around. Two of them in particular were super super friendly. One ran up to me immediately and started whining, begging for pets. The other one would walk up to you and jump up on you and so you cut it. They were so stinking cute and I pet them for a long time.

Never in my life had I seen a whole herd of sheep grouped together like this. And at sunset, no less.

I could stay there forever, but we’re on the time crunch. Not long after that the sun fully set and we needed headlamps. We are going downhill basically the entire rest of the way. But the road we were on was super rocky and bumpy so it was slow going. No one wanted to roll an ankle or anything towards the end of the day.

We wound up getting down to the road around 8:40pm which was incredible timing. We got there quicker than I had expected we would. That was a relief. And I shit you not, as we walked up to the road a car pulled over immediately and it was our ride Patty! She was the nicest coolest lady ever. It was a really awesome car ride talking with her.

She drove us into encampment and showed us where she lived. Then she drove us over to the cabin motel where we would be staying for the night tonight. Apparently the rooms are only $70 which is a steal. We said goodbye to Patty and she offered to take us back to trail tomorrow at some point, which is awesome. Then we headed into our room.

The place was perfect and had everything we needed. Syrup had gotten two pizzas as well which was incredible. Then we walked across the street to the bar to try to buy some sodas. That was the only remaining piece of the puzzle that was missing.

The bar had just closed sadly. But the ladies inside opened and let us buy some soda in cash. We told them we were just thirsty hikers and they felt bad for us. The whole situation was pretty hilarious. Especially because all we wanted sodas.

The plugs in the room were super loose, so we had to get creative.

Once we got the soda we headed back to the room to relax. Everybody took turns showering. I ate a bunch of pizza and drank so much soda. Then I just laid in bed doing some work on my phone before falling asleep.