[pct-l] PCT water update April 7-9

[David Money Harris]

I walked from Mount Laguna to Warner Springs this weekend.  Water 
conditions are noted below.

43.2 Desert View Picnic Area
Water in restrooms. Spigot off.

48.9 GATR faucet (Noble Canyon Trailhead)
Spigot on.

52.7
No water in tank.  4 gallon cache and register behind tank.  Best to 
save it for emergencies.

57.2 Oriflamme Canyon
dry

62.2 Mason Valley Truck Trail
tank dry

63.5 Upper chariot Canyon
No water at the PCT

68.4 Rodriguez Spur
Tank full.  Treated the cool water.  Delicious!  Tanked up, then carried 
5.5 quarts to make it straight through to Barrel Spring without relying 
on caches.  Would have need more if it were warmer.

77.2 Scissors Crossing
Big cache nearly full.
Another 6 gallon cache and register under the Highway 78 bridge over San 
Felipe Creek.

91.2 Third Gate
 > 100 gallons.  Impressive effort to stock this!  Last year, the cache 
ran out on May 8 for about two days.  Scott Williamson signed the log in 
October and indicated he'd met about ~450 NOBOs while SOBO.

101.4 Barrel Spring
Water spurts out of pipe in bursts.  ~0.5 quart/minute (estimate).  A 
sign indicates that the collection point has been "improved" in 2009 
such that mice fall in and drown.  Nasty pictures. I was 33 miles from 
my last water source and boiled the heck out of the water for dinner.  A 
rite of passage?

104.4 Pipe into trough
Flowing 0.6 quarts/min.  Looks like decent spring water.

104.9 concrete trough by San Ysidro Creek
Pipe is gushing strong, trough completely full.  Is this well-fed?  It 
looks like the cattle depend on this, so it's likely to be running reliably?

105.2 San Ysidro Creek
2 feet wide, 3 inches deep.  Good flow.  Cow-contaminated.

106.4 Eagle Rock Spring
trough full.  Didn't see flow.

108, 109.6 Canada Verde
2 feet wide, 3 inches deep.  Good flow.  Cow-contaminated

109.6 Warner Springs
faucet under tree by entrance to Warner Springs Community Resource Center.

The trail is getting lively.  I met three NOBOs on the trail and passed 
five 2-person tents. 2-4 people a day are signing the registers.

I saw a baby rattler on the trail north of 3rd gate.  It wouldn't rattle 
at me; maybe it was too young to have rattles.

Very nice folks at the Warner Springs Community Resource Center across 
the highway from the fire station opened a day ahead of schedule to 
offer me breakfast.  They have a good stock of food and supplies, hot 
breakfast and lunch, internet, and water at a hose outside.  They'll be 
having an event the weekend after AZPCTKO with showers and camping (that 
weekend only).  They also say they are experimenting with accepting 
packages.  That would be very nice to save going out of the way to the 
WS post office.