August 20

Mom and I hiked 15.2 miles today to get to Six Horse Spring, our campsite for the night. We are camped in the Mt.Thielsen Wilderness and for the first time in the section she is hiking with me, we are not at a campground. I have looked on completely void of jealousy as she popped two blisters on her feet, both in spots that I had to do the same a few weeks back. Other than my mistake on water sources, we've had an uneventful day. We took the Oregon Skyline Trail as an alternate because of the abundant water sources, and found that to be exactly the case. There was a 3 mile stretch at the end where the OST turned to rejoin the PCT and left the lakes in lower elevation. At the road, my book told me there was water 0.5 miles east at a stream that crossed the road. In an effort to be as light as possible for blistered feet I've been a bit of a water-nazi making sure we have just enough to get to the next source as to not carry any excess weight. As it turned out the book failed and there was no water at the road. The stream was bone dry. Our options were a creek two miles north on the PCT (the last resort I was considering in case the road stream was dry), or the spring in 6.3 miles. We had 3/4 of a liter between us and decided to hike on for the spring in the increasing afternoon heat. I have been much more dehydrated than this stretch, but thankfully it doesn't happen very often. Between quenching our thirst and dinner for both of us, we have gone through 4 liters of water. It's good to have water again, but we have a 16.3 mile waterless section tomorrow. This time we will be carrying enough to make it all day.