"You should not see the desert as simply a faraway place of little rain..."

"...There are many forms of thirst." -William Langewiesche

August 18, 2001

Very dry.  Fortunately Trail Angels are leaving water at roadsides.

It is finally too dry.  A lot of springs are not flowing now, making it hard to keep hydrated.

I thought for sure that Fitzgerald Falls between Mombasha High Point and Lakes Road in New York would be at least trickling:

from here

It was dry.

Thanks to New Yorkers all was not lost though.  I came to Lakes Road and someone had set up a sign saying to walk to their nearby house and use their hose.

I filled up my bottles and drank a gallon.

As I got ready to make the 1.5 mile jaunt to the Wildcat Shelter for the night some weekend hikers were coming the other way from that direction.  I asked if they knew if the shelter's spring was dry or not, to which they replied that it was dry.

However, when I arrived there was a decent mud puddle.  Those weekend hikers...don't they know how to filter water out of mud!?

Hah, there was plenty to make supper and add another quart to my stash.