Not enough water

 July 1

We are packed up, have eaten breakfast, and are heading out of camp at 6:25 this morning. We have some sunlight on the hill in front us; however, the sun has not yet popped over the mountain behind us.

We hike parallel to highway 2 again, just above it, on a hillside. The terrain has changed to mostly granite with a fine granite sand under our feet. 

Once again, we cross Highway 2 as we enter an area known as three points because of the three roads that intersect at this location. Had we continued on to and Crest Christian Camp. This is where we would have gone off the road. There was a sign here that says PCT 

Hikers can only stay the night on a weekend, so I am glad we stopped at Glenwood.

I am a fan of large granite rock features. This section has some neat ones. I think it has something to do with the power of nature and how these large rocks just randomly come out of the ground and are stacked on top of each other.

We wind uphill uphill towards a saddle that if I remember correctly has some awesome views. We came out of camp a little lighter on water than we should have. We both have just drank the last that we have and we have another 2 mile uphill before the next spring. 

I made it to the saddle, full sun, no shade, not much of a breeze today, so I stopped long enough to check for any last remnants of water in my pack. I found about a swallow and a half left in my water bottle that the drink tube was not picking up.

This picture is of another spot where I camped in 2023. It had awesome views and was well protected from the wind and the fog that surrounded the camp in the morning. The piped spring .1 mile north of here is not flowing. There’s just some muddy ground around it. We will continue on another .6 to the next stream that is reported to be flowing.

Hallelujah we made it to the spring and it is flowing albeit a little slow. I definitely am dehydrated. I drink a full liter of water with electrolytes one without electrolytes. An 8 oz shake, and am taking another liter and a half forward on the trail.  

We made it to the top of our midday hill. We now have a nice long downhill to the Millcreek fire station that will be our next water spot about 6.3 miles ahead.

It’s a bout 1 PM and we’re in full exposed sun on hillside with very few trees and almost no shade. We pulled out the sun umbrellas and get a little bit relief from that but it is still hot. 

We’ve made it down to the Millcreek fire station. Just beside it is a vault toilet and a faucet providing plenty of water. I don’t know if it was the heat, the dehydration earlier today, or just being tired knowing we have three more miles to go, two of it uphill, but I did not get any pictures of us having a lunch h or our slog up the last hill. We reached mile 20.5 for today, with a climb of 2852 feet. We found some flat spots for our tents on top of a hill that has beautiful views off of both sides.

We were treated to a gorgeous sunset, and city lights in the distance, before heading off to sleep.