Gone are the days when I carry loads of water. The Sawyer Squeeze filter is so quick and easy to use, often I only have the one-and-a-half pints that my water bottle holds, filtering water as I find it. Having boiled water for lunch, and being quite thirsty from all the salt in the ramen noodles, I’d run out of water by the time I got to Mary Hollow and the end of the Devil’s Backbone Trail.
Opposite where the trails join is a rock shelf with water pooling beneath it. It’s one of the few places where I’ll take water from a standing source — I prefer running water.
There’s none to little water in Mary Hollow, so I filtered over a gallon to last me through the night and until I (hopefully) arrive at McGarr Spring, lunchtime on Day Two. That’s an extra 8lbs I’m going to have to carry on the trail.
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