[pct-l] Water Caches - Mason Valley Truck Trail

[Joe McDougall]

Thanks.  I will keep checking the reports and plan on both Sunrise and Rodriguez and not cache water.  Also, I will have water in the truck anyhow, but plan instead to just pick up trash at Scissors Crossing when I finish (if I still have any daylight).  This is a great community!

Regards,
Joe

----- Original Message ----
From: AsABat <AsABat at 4Jeffrey.Net>
To: Joe McDougall <long4trails at yahoo.com>; pct-l at backcountry.net
Sent: Saturday, April 5, 2008 10:15:20 PM
Subject: RE: [pct-l] Water Caches - Mason Valley Truck Trail

Mason Valley is only 3 miles after Sunrise Trailhead and only 6 miles
later is the tank at Rodriguez Truck Trail. Mason Valley tank is a long
dirt road - I last drove it years ago and a stock 4x4 was fine but
there's been fires and floods since so I don't know current conditions,
but as others said, there's better ways to do this. If you really want
bottled water rather than filtered from Sunrise, maybe hide a cache
nearby.

As for Scissors (and any cache), it can go dry any time. Other times it
is overloaded with water. By that I mean there can be several caches on
both sides of both S2 and 78. (The main cache is just before crossing
S2.) The problem is trash builds up from empty bottles blowing around.
The main cache handles this by tying the bottles together through their
handles (1-gallon jugs) and hiding them as best as possible behind the
cache box and a large bush. 

As already mentioned, if you put water out for others, you should plan
on retrieving the empties later. I've seen just a couple small surprise
caches in the past of a few 1-liter bottles with "take the bottle with
you" written on them, so that the hiker removes the trash. Whether this
really works I don't know, but I could imagine someone taking all the
water but a few ounces and rationalizing they are "leaving it for the
next hiker" when in reality they just don't want to carry an extra ounce
to the next town.

AsABat
Pacific Crest Trail Water Reports Southern California 
http://pct.4jeffrey.net


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