[pct-l] Water at Golden Oak Spring

[jason moores]

MendoRider,

I have such vivid memories of my time at Willow Springs and unfortunately the situation was different in 2006. I thought that I might be confusing the names, so I looked it up on the water report. I found a note attached to the Willow listing that might help clear this up for us.

"...BLM installed faucet, but faucet didn't work in 2005 & 2006..."

I was dehydrated and exhausted when I reached this spring on my 06 section hike. It was around June 12th and I was hiking in the wake of the "herd". The Kelso cache had been sacked, bone dry. It was six long, dusty miles to Willow and I arrived after 9pm. I had passed several cows on the way down to the spring but I didn't care, I needed water, and soon. I've already described the cows standing in the green sludge of the pond. The faucet was indeed out of order and the spring was fenced in. I had to wade through shin deep muck to access a seep trickling under the fence. There was nowhere to camp that didn't have hoof prints and cow pies. The wind was pounding me with a constant 40 mph and I spent the night in a cluster of Joshua Trees that I had to crawl in and out of. This was by far the worst night that I've spent on the trail. Though there was that one night, in '09, on Fuller...well, that's another story.

Jason Moores
Jackass

> Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:22:07 -0800
> From: mendoridered at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Water at Golden Oak Spring
> To: jmmoores at hotmail.com
> 
> When I was at Willow Spring in early June of 2008 there was excellent spring water coming from a pipe at the right corner of the fence. Several acres have been fenced to prevent cattle from getting in. I walked all around the fenced area to look for incoming water, there was none, no seepage, completely dry upslope. Good. No grass up there or signs of cattle. The water coming from the fenced area (coming out of the pipe) was obviously ground water from the spring. I did not filter. This is the kind of source I'm always looking for. The uphill fenceline was a long way uphill from the lower fencing- which was above the pond. The Willows growing were all in the fenced area. I had to tie my horse to the fence. It was hard to find a flat place to sleep on but I did. When I was there I saw no cattle or cattle droppings and the pond water was clear. There was excellent graze for my horse below the pond. When Dave and Arleen Foster were there with thier
>  horses on May 31, 2004, thier trail notes describe exactly what I saw.. Since the pipe is over 4' high they even took showers there.
> MendoRider
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: jason moores <jmmoores at hotmail.com>
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Sent: Wed, January 13, 2010 7:42:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Water at Golden Oak Spring
> 
> 
> Willow Spring is more of a stock pond. In 2006 the water cache @ Kelso Valley Road was empty when I reached it. I trudged the two miles down to Willow and found a foul pond with three cows standing in it. As I walked up one of the cows looked at me and then proceeded to poop and pee in the pond. There was a thick green/black sludge covering the entire surface of the pool. Luckily I was able to work my way around to where the spring was feeding the pond, push up the fence wire and access cleaner water. Willow Spring is in the top three worst water sources on or near the trail that I've seen.
> 
> Jason Moores
> 
> > Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:11:00 -0800
> > From: mendoridered at yahoo..com
> > To: Pct-l at backcountry.net
> > Subject: [pct-l] Water at Golden Oak Spring
> > 
> > There is good water both at Golden Oak Spring and at Robin Bird Spring - also at Willow spring but you have to decend nearly two miles and lose over 500'. After that you will find good water at McIver Cabin. 
> > MendoRider
> > 
> > 
> >      
> > 
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