[pct-l] WATER!

[Pea Hicks]

i support the 3rd gate cache and the efforts of everyone involved in 
maintaining it, however i also realize that some don't like to see 
caches directly on the trail, especially when it's not at a road crossing.

my suggestion going forward is to maintain the cache at the parking 
area, which is 1 mile and 300 feet down off the trail. typically charlie 
stores boxes of water there, waiting to be carried up, and i've placed a 
map at the 3rd gate cache directing hikers to the parking area. this 
seems to me a good compromise, since it's an easy downhill stroll to get 
to the water, even for most hikers who find themselves in serious need. 
but it's enough of an extra hassle to deter those who are *not* in an 
emergency situation not to plan on relying on it, and not to just 
casually take some simply "because it's there." also, it helps to ensure 
the privacy of the ranch owners, who otherwise would get the 
water-seeking hiker traffic if there were *no* cache at all.

don't forget- the pct was routed through the san felipes as a compromise 
situation, due to private land inholdings in the julian / volcan 
mountain area, which is where the pct originally was supposed to be 
routed to stay "on the crest." anyway, the original plan for the san 
felipes, as i understand it, was for a trailside well to be dug for pct 
users, in the vicinity of the current 3rd gate cache location. but this 
never happened... so that 24-mile waterless stretch isn't exactly there 
"by design."


girlscout