SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS, CO
I was up early for breakfast and to boil water. Since both my water filters are plugged, boiling is the last resort to get potable water. I exhausted one of my fuel canisters doing this, but I have another big one that will last well past the next town stop
I got a lot more sleep than the previous night. I had the fly on my tent to occlude a bright full moon. In the morning the tent was covered in frost and it was another cold one. Thin layers of clouds kept it overcast as I hiked
I encountered big ruts, stupidly steep climbs, and treacherously lose rocks and soil this morning. Navigation was tricky, as the trail is not as well marked now and there are several intersecting trails, one of which took me off course for a while causing me to backtrack.
At lunch the skies cleared and bright sun gave a temperature of 70 degF
After lunch I came down to a big meadow with an intersection. Despite checking my GPS, I took the wrong trail. After a while I wondered why I wasn’t climbing yet. My GPS showed me way off trail. Again I had to backtrack. I think I lost an hour today in navigation problems.
In the middle of the meadow was a sizable stream. There were no bridges and the water was deep. I decided to try an illogical leap to see if I could avoid having to get soaked up to my waist in a stream crossing. Pack and all, I took a running jump. All but my left foot made it across dry. I was about 6 inches short of a clean jump, but my left foot splashed a bit on landing. It didn’t get soaked, just a sprinkling on my left side
I had some big climbs and it was getting late, so I decided to camp at the north fork of Los Pinos stream, a bit short of today‘s goal. This was a great spot; flat ground for the tent, great scenery, and clear running water
I decided to try to backflush the FirstNeed filter in a last gasp effort. Although it seems to backflush fine, it is almost completely plugged when trying to pump filtered water. The condition of the FirstNeed filter is hopeless.
The good news is the Sawyer filter that I thought was plugged is now usable. The disadvantages of the Sawyer are that it can be painfully slow to filter and it does not filter the nasty tasting contaminants. I came up with a novel engineering solution of using the FirstNeed pump with the Sawyer to get faster results, which worked great until last night. Today I figured out that I had air in the pump line, which made the Sawyer act like it was plugged. Tonight I filled up the line first and the Sawyer filtered without a problem, giving me 5 liters quickly. To solve the nasty tasting water problem, I looking for streams with good flow and no yucky stuff. I would only use a Sawyer for stagnant water if I was desperate. The stream by camp gave great water.
I have about 45 miles to Wolf Creek Pass where I go into Pagosa Springs for my last town stop before finishing. I plan to get there is 3 days. HeHo!