Chip River - Carter Meadow 8/3/10 21.4 miles

Our "Eric the Black" map seemed to lead us wrong several different times today. There were several jeep roads and water sources listed in there, that were apparently imaginary. Water was the issue today. We filled up before we left camp and again about 12 miles into the day. I filled up my bladder and Chris filled up his two 32 oz. bottles at a nice spigot spring, that was shooting out fresh, ice cold water. Since the map indicated that there were at least two more water sources before lunch, Chris dumped one bottle in order to lighten the load a bit. We walked in nice, shaded forests wit good climbs and then on bare, dusty desert-like terrain. We had lunch at a nice overlook, about 15 miles into the day. Since we had found no water on our way to lunch, we noticed on our map, that there was a creek off the trail. We left our packs up top and walked about 1/2 mile down a forest road, and then green blazed down the hill in hopes to locate the creek. We walked for a while and no creek to be found. After an hour wasted, we put our packs on with no other option but to go 6.5 MORE miles with no water. As we were leaving, Kiwi appeared. We talked with him, Meander and Bacon for a moment, complained of our waterless struggles and headed on. I have to admit, those miles with no water were rough for me. The combination of being already thirsty plus just the simple fact of knowing we had no water, made me dream of ice cold water, the entire walk. My mouth was so dry and Chris and kept talking about the bottle that he had dumped earlier, wishing we were chugging it. The map indicated that the terrain for this section would be flat. We knew better, due to being mislead by promising profiles before. We walked up and down until we reached water. It never tasted so good! Kiwi, Bacon and Meander neighbored us tonight. We had good dinner, good conversation and actually were in the tent before dark. -KB