Bone Dry

Day 108

If last night wasn't hard enough, today definitely was. We thought we would only have a few miles to the road, hitch down to Chester to get some iodine, then hitch back to hike on with the day. If only it were that easy. When we got to the road, we found it was a glorified dirt road. No traffic. Not a sign in sight of anyone in a vehicle.

Already a few miles into the day, without water, we had to find the closest source and risk drinking it straight. We didn't want to drink too much unpurified water at the low elevation we are at, so we went a full days hike with less than a liter of water. Thats after going half a day without water yesterday. Needless to say we were feeling woozy and drained, and finally got to the main road where there was traffic whizzing by. A guy passed by us, and a second or two later stopped and reversed our way saying we looked pretty drained, so decided to give us a lift. Our eyes told the story of what kind of day we had.

After feeling to the point of exhaustion all day, we got into town, got a large carton of lemonade, some food for later, and then got some grub at a diner. The time we spent at Chester was a haze. Since we had gotten close enough to Drakesbad (where my lovely girlfriend has sent us our water treatment drops to) we decided to fill up on water and camp back at the trail to get an early start tomorrow.

As we were walking into the grocery store, a lady said 'hey hikers!' and we turned around to find Pipers Mom -- a trail angel who shuttles hikers to and from town. She said she had put some trail magic on the other side of the road (with extra water) so drove us back to the trail! Great timing.

So we sit on the side of the road, still in a haze. We are excited for a day of rest on my birthday.

P.s. We broke the halfway marker! The countdown has begun.

-- Ian