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| Backpack | 24.56 Miles |
2,776 AEG |
| | Backpack | 24.56 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 2,776 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Originally this was supposed to be a 3 day hike from First Water to Roosevelt Dam, utilizing the trails along GET Segment #1, and then the AZT.
[ Route MGR ]
I was stoked on finally knocking this one out. Some of my favorites from the AZT, and some new trails to cover in the central supes. But it wasn't meant to be on this trip.
Water
The gist: There is water, not a lot, bring a pre-filter.
Initially water prospects looked fair. There are several good sized pools that exist near the Dutchman/Peralta JCT. Pretty gross looking, but plenty of water to pull from.
A couple of shallow pools between Terrapin and Bull Pass JCTs. Would be hard to pull from, and probably won't exist for very much longer.
Charlebois has water, the lower pool looks pretty low compared to what I remember it being a year ago. La Barge Spring is beautiful. A small trickle into an overflowing trough.
A few very small, very gnarly pools along Red Tanks near Trap Canyon. A couple deep enough to pull some water from. Again, these will not be around for very much longer.
I would recommend bringing something to pre-filter your water with if you're visiting the Supes soon. If we receive no rain in the next week, I wouldn't count on any water along the stretch I did except for Charlebois and La Barge Springs.
Trail Conditions
Dutchman is in great condition.
Red Tanks will cut you up a little, but it isn't a pain seeker's affair by any means, or hard to follow.
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The trend seemed to be (excluding the 2 most reliable springs in the Western Supes): the further in we went, the smaller the pools got. At Charlebois, Alex discovered he had left his filter at home, which left us one sawyer between 2 people to filter some nasty stuff, if you could even pull water from it.
The initial plan was to have a large enough water capacity to only rely on Charlebois and Reavis Creek, but it was clear we underestimated our consumption when we had consumed about half our capacity just getting to Charlebois. We were not going to be able to make it an entire day and a half without filtering more water from somewhere.
All of these factors, plus a lack of experience in the central supes, made me feel like I didn't have enough information to make a good judgement call on whether it was safe to go forward or not, so we decided to suck up our pride and turn around. Even when it's the right thing to do, turning around always sucks.
The contingency plan was to double back to First Water the next morning, then hike in to Reavis via 109 North. This was shot down after setting up camp I discovered my sleeping pad didn't hold air for more than a couple of minutes. It was a long night sleeping on the rocks.
I'll give this one a shot again, preferably when water conditions are more predictable. I was bummed I didn't get to join everyone at Reavis for the event. Hopefully we get some rain soon. |
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Bluff Spring Mountain Canyon |
Pools to trickle |
Pools to trickle |
| | | Some very small pools, would be hard to pull from. Probably won't be around for more than a couple more days. |
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Charlebois Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Plenty of water here, as expected. | | _____________________
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