Water on Kachina or Weatherford Trails

[Hiking_Fool]

I would like to do a one day backpack around Kachina Trail up Weatherford Trail and then back down Humphreys Summit trail to Snow Bowl. Can any one tell me if there are any springs that are running where I can filter water?

[chumley]

There are no reliable sources of water on either trail (except Schultz Tank at the bottom of Weatherford). But recent photos posted here (including last week) show that there are still some good patches of snow at the higher elevations, especially in the wooded areas just below the treeline. Is that enough for you to count on for water? That's for you to decide. Fires aren't allowed, so you'll need to use a stove to melt, or be very patient after moving snow to a sunny area. It might be easier to just carry what you need!

Note: you still need to boil or filter water from snowmelt, especially this late in the season. All kinds of cool things grow/live on that snow in warm springtime temperatures.

[SpiderLegs]

Just ran past Schultz Tank on Saturday. There's water, but it was pretty murky.

[big_load]

Yeah, if you're thinking of taking water from Schultz Tank, you might as well carry town water.

[hikeaz]

I have done this backpack (counter-clockwise) over the summer solstice the last 2 years, camping @ Doyle Saddle. The trees in that area hold snow for quite a while, but melting snow is tedious - to me, more tedious that just carrying another 5# (and my base pack weight is <12#). On these trips I have just carried regular (not dehydrated) food (Why carry water and a dehydrated meal - never made sense to me) and enough hydration water to get by - after all - you'll be down @ SnowBowl pretty early on the second day. If you cut it a little short on drinking water you then can melt snow.

[Hiking_Fool]

I appreciate everyones response. I am going to take my own water.