[pct-l] Golden Oak Spring Status

[Marion Davison]

Reinhold Metzger wrote:

>Glen Winters wrote.......35 miles no water in April Arrrgghh.....there is no
>way I can carry enough water for 2 days......are there any llamas for hire?
>----------------------------------------------------
>
>Glenn,
>You don't need llamas, what you need is to suck it up.
>  
>
I have news for Glenn as well.  I am a llama packer.  I would not hike 
my llamas thru an area with no water for 35 miles.  They would not be 
able to carry enough water to meet their own needs, much less mine.  A 
llama needs about three gallons a day and it would take two or three 
days for the llama to cover 35 miles, depending on its conditioning 
(fitness).  My llamas hike  40-70 days in the spring and summer and 15 
miles is a long day for them. The longest day they have ever done is 
17.   This is why I can't recommend llamas for a thru hike.  They are 
best suited for high elevation travel.  They do great in the Sierras.  
They tolerate cold and bad weather far better than they do heat.  I have 
had llamas suffer  heat exhaustion when hiking in hot dry weather.  This 
was in section C in the last week of March, when it was 100 degrees 
descending from North Fork Ranger Station to Soledad canyon. 
Marion