[Cdt-l] Black Range water

[Brett]

Chloride Creek and its northern tributary are fairly reliable except in late spring. Otherwise there's Turkey Spring, located 3/4 of a mile W of the trail where it leaves FR 226 heading northbound.

6 miles before Hwy 59, 0.3 mile E of the Divide in a narrow drainage is a spring (shown on maps) and trough that has never been observed dry (since 2005). 

North of Hwy 59 are Adobe Spring (mapped; about a mile off-route) and Dry Time Tank (less reliable in spring). If both were dry and a hiker were out of water, one could head E just beyond Dry Time, 5 miles and a couple thousand vertical feet down off the Divide, via unsigned, fenceline-hugging Trail 60 (GET route), to Duck Canyon where there's a solar well and tank of fair reliability. This is at the eastern edge of the Gila NF bordering private land, though with access to a public right-of-way dirt road that in an emergency would lead a hiker out to a few houses near Dusty.

Otherwise I'd agree that a Hwy 59 water cache or Winston detour makes sense for CDT'ers in particular, given the long dry stretch heading out to the San Augustin Plain if following the official route. 

www.simblissity.net/get/water-chart.shtml

- Brett
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