Day 8:
Miles 15.1
It's 32 degrees when we awake. Our rainfly is a bit wet and then the moment we unzip the doors it freees inside and out and we shake it and flakes fall like snow. Hoarfrost forms around the rim of our water bottles when we top them of at the at Kentucky Camp as well.
There we gab with a caretaker for awhile. He warns us to watch for rabid animals as a geologist's wife was attacked by a rabid bobcat before her husband bludgeons it to death with a pick axe. "Good thing he was a geologist," says the caretaker.
We later meet a couple of older folk out dayhiking, the man short and stout, his stomach quite round above his tied on sweatshirt. They hike small sections of the trail and love it.
The terrain is easy enough, gentle undulating dirt road walking and bits of trail, but my knee is still glitchy and my cramping is getting tiresome. I've never hiked hurt before and it adds a new challenge and empathy for others who are in a similar position.
We decide to check out Bowman Springs, a bit off trail, but worth a look. No one had yet posted on the guthook app how far off trail it is, so we use Mark's fancy watch and find it .4 miles off trail and 100 feet lower. A bit of a jaunt but not too bad. The water is clear and cold and we sit a long while and eat and drink and I soak my knee in the brisk water under the gaze of someone's game camera.
Here's a photo montage of the way to Bowman, just in case ya wanna go:
Onward we meet Waldo, a thru hiker, doing a bit of a flip flop and then we meet another elderly dayhiker with a big smile spread across his face. It's our biggest number of people we've talked to in a day.
The terrain turns more cactusy as we head north. We check out each water source, (cattle troughs) as we proceed and comment on the guthook app. - 88.1 has a new pump and no spigot, trough full, but buggy. Road 4064 has only 1/2 inch of water, but up the trail about .2 is green tank on a hill an another full trough. Perhaps our scouting will help another.
We are carrying as little water as possible to lower the weight I'm carrying, on account of my knee. We drank a liter at Kentucky camp and then carried and drank another half liter on the 6 mile hike to Bowman Springs. There we drank another liter and carried a liter on, so we really don't need water on this nice 70 degree day.
The light is slanting long and we are starting to feel ready to make camp, but our last water for the day is turning out a bit farther than we want to go and Mark sees some stuff under some bushes. It's somebody's stash of water and beer. The two cans of Dale Pale Ale are empty (darn) but one full gallon of water is unopened and without any name claiming it. The label is almost weathered off so we are certain it was from last year. Being of sound mind we load up and carry on a bit farther to this nice sandy wash.
In the summer and early fall a wash can be deadly due to flash flooding, but now it's really nice camping; soft, flat and free of pokey things.
Today's takeaway: I wish I'd dried my sleeping clothes at our leisurely lunch today, as they are a little damp now.
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