Day 4 – 8/28/19

24.3 miles / 80.7 miles total

Only 3 more days til September, then the temperature will drop by 20F, right?

We begrudgingly got up before the sun rose and finished up some road miles before heading cross country to drop into Owyhee canyon. We detoured .2 miles to the river, ending our 24 mile water carry. The next reliable source was only 2 miles away, and I still had 1.5L, so I didn’t actually get any water, but I did rinse out my pee rag, and then used it to wash my face and legs. Hiker trashy, but luxurious.

The “reliable” Bogus Creek turned out to be a stagnant brown pool in a marshy area. Gross. But we needed to haul for 27 potentially waterless miles from here, so, no choice but to fill up. 8L each again.

I’m pretty sure today was the hottest yet, and there was just nowhere to get a break from it, so we just kept walking. I cannot overstate the value of the umbrellas. We use them from sunrise to sunset.

After climbing out of the canyon we cross countried along the canyon rim for a ways, getting some nice views of the Owyhee and eventually making our way back to a jeep road. We stopped to camp for the night a bit on the early side, beat from the heat. We’re only about 10 miles shy of Rome, our first trail town and resupply stop.

From camp, Dan went to investigate a nearby cow tank, hoping to find better water than what we’d hauled from the swamp, which tasted like swamp. To my great surprise and delight, he shouted back, “DNR, dump your water!” A glorious clean culvert with a floaty-ma-bob that opens a valve when it drops down (just like a toilet), gushing even cleaner water! Hooray! This source wasn’t in any of our maps or data books, so it’s an amazing find and will be great for future hikers to cut down that 27mile dry stretch to only 17miles, woohoo!

Doesn’t this trail sound like fun?!?!