Dumb N00b Question about Water

[Baudelaire]

Okay, so what is the deal with the tanks? Like, assume I am an idiot who knows nothing. What does this mean? If there are tanks along the trail, are they enclosed, as in a water tower or something? Aren't they private property? Does anyone have a picture?

Thanks for your patience.

[kingsnake]

Retaining water for cattle, or sometimes wild game.

[Sredfield]

Made of dirt, basically just a dirt basin, usually quite small. When things dry up the cattle congregate in them.

[Baudelaire]

How do you know where they are? Aren't ranchers pissed off if you drink out of their cattle tanks??

Also, looking at this report http://www.fredgaudetphotography.com/az ... urrent.pdf, it looks as if there's basically not much water at all from mile 614 in passage 34 all the way up through Tusayan. That's about 77 miles with no water source. What do people do??

[kingsnake]

The amount of water you could drink out of a tank would not even be noticeable, like taking a sip out of a public pool, complete with the same amount of feces and urine. (Filter tank water! Better yet, avoid it.) You can cache water, and sometimes trail angels put out water caches ...

[big_load]

The reliability of tanks as water sources depends heavily on what feeds them and can vary a lot with the season. There are a couple well-fed or spring-fed tanks that I have some faith in. However, there aren't many more than that. When I see a tank on the map, I generally assume it will be dry.

[Baudelaire]

Depending on trail angels seems really dicey. What do people do who hike Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon?? Do they carry 77 miles worth of water with them rather than trust to the kindness of strangers, or what? What if you can't cache??

[chumley]

To answer one of your original questions, here are some examples of what tanks look like:

http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=488589
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=498213
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=454922
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=435824

[Al_HikesAZ]

Tanks? You wanna talk about Tanks?

Son - there is a drought out there and there ain't no extra water. Many tanks are depressions ranchers have excavated to hold water for their cattle. Ranchers haul water in trucks and fill tanks for their cattle. Ranchers make their living from cattle drinking from their tanks and living and getting fat so that the ranchers can sell their cattle and make enough of a living to raise their family. If I am a rancher who has spent a fortune to buy a truck and buy water and truck it across God forsaken country to a tank to fill it so that my cattle can drink and my family can live and I see you taking my PRECIOUS water, I am gonna be very upset. I'll take my 12 gauge off the rack in my pickup and came to talk to you. I don't care that you are some "THRUHIKER" stealing water from my cattle! I just want to hear some sincerity in your voice and some plea for forgiveness for stealin' my family's water.

Son - there have been nights out in the wilderness when I would have paid more for an extra liter of water than some people pay for a bottle of Cristal Champagne. Plan your hike and make sure you have water where you need it without stealing water from a hardworking Rancher. Say AMEN. But if you need water, ain't no AZ Rancher who would deny it to you. He'll say God Bless You pilgrim, get back in his truck, put the 12 gauge away, give you some jerky and help you on your way.

Baudelaire? wasn't he some weird French poet dude? Bodie - We are gonne have to butcher your Frenchy name like we did to CharleyBoy in the Supes

[Baudelaire]

To answer one of your original questions, here are some examples of what tanks look like:

http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=488589
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=498213
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=454922
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=435824

THANK YOU, Chumley -- I appreciate the realistic spectrum here, basically everything from "small pond" to "uh...was there water here once?" to "swiftly-drying puddle." I was envisioning something structural, like a water tower or whatnot. Thank you for the enormously helpful clarification.

[Baudelaire]

Tanks? You wanna talk about Tanks?

Son - there is a drought out there and there ain't no extra water. Many tanks are depressions ranchers have excavated to hold water for their cattle. Ranchers haul water in trucks and fill tanks for their cattle. Ranchers make their living from cattle drinking from their tanks and living and getting fat so that the ranchers can sell their cattle and make enough of a living to raise their family. If I am a rancher who has spent a fortune to buy a truck and buy water and truck it across God forsaken country to a tank to fill it so that my cattle can drink and my family can live and I see you taking my PRECIOUS water, I am gonna be very upset. I'll take my 12 gauge off the rack in my pickup and came to talk to you. I don't care that you are some "THRUHIKER" stealing water from my cattle! I just want to hear some sincerity in your voice and some plea for forgiveness for stealin' my family's water.

***Yeah, that was pretty much my suspicion. I'm just surprised your rancher would use just a 12-gauge; he must be a soft-hearted individual.

Son - there have been nights out in the wilderness when I would have paid more for an extra liter of water than some people pay for a bottle of Cristal Champagne. Plan your hike and make sure you have water where you need it without stealing water from a hardworking Rancher. Say AMEN. But if you need water, ain't no AZ Rancher who would deny it to you. He'll say God Bless You pilgrim, get back in his truck, put the 12 gauge away, give you some jerky and help you on your way.

Baudelaire? wasn't he some weird French poet dude? Bodie - We are gonne have to butcher your Frenchy name like we did to CharleyBoy in the Supes

HAAA. Love it! Sounds like a plan, Al. Thanks again.

[Baudelaire]

Oh, and yeah, he was a weird French poet dude -- but I think he and the other folks in his general set might've understood the drive to go out to the edges of places, if you know what I mean.

[chumley]

@Baudelaire
There are some tanks that are structures too...
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=438992
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=477139

[Baudelaire]

Wow, Chumley, those are looking like the Bellagio Hotel of water tanks compared to some of the back-alley-No-Tel Motels you had in the other pix.

[kingsnake]

The cement pad on the right of chumley's last example is what is known as a "rain apron". Basically a way of gathering water from a larger area than that of the tank itself, the apron being slanted and slightly funnel shaped, in order to gather the water into the tank. (larger area = more water gathered)

Some tanks also have solar-powered electric well pumps, for example, just off the AZT segment southwest of Superior / Picketpost Mountain ( http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=379916 ). That tank also had amazingly clear water, and was overflowing into an overflow tank.

[Baudelaire]

Makes sense as a collection method. Thanks!!

[blisterfree]

It's a little-known fact that the word "tanks" is a vernacular form of saying "thanks." As in, "tanks for the water" (when present) or "tanks for nothin'" (empty tanks).

In other states, a tank might just be a metal container of some significant size, but in Arizona it is excavated from the earth itself by the sweat of the brow. Tanks for the labor of the rancher. No tanks for the presence of ingrates. But tanks for your thanks, most assuredly.

[CannondaleKid]

It's a little-known fact that the word "tanks" is a vernacular form of saying "thanks." As in, "tanks for the water" (when present) or "tanks for nothin'" (empty tanks).

And it probably originated in Scandavia? ;)
(Or maybe Minnesota, don'cha know?)

[SuperstitionGuy]

And it probably originated in Scandavia? (Or maybe Minnesota, don'cha know?)

Yaa dats fer sure..... ;) :whistle: