I passed the 500 mile mark first thing this morning. Animal played the Proclaimers’ song for the occasion. We are about to walk a lot more than 500 more though.
One of my water sources today was strange. A large piece of metal roof is held up by posts and slightly slanted so that rain water it catches flows into a gutter, which funnels the water into a pipe, which leads to a tank underneath. You can crawl under the roof, take the lid off the tank, and reach down for water if the level is high enough.
The trail started to get hot and exposed again as I lost elevation today. I’m back down to 3000′, which is pretty hot. I actually expected to end up lower for the hot section coming up but it’s plenty hot still this high up.
I did 19.1 miles into Hikertown, a very unusual hostel. It looks like a small, old town movie set, with little buildings labeled City Hall, Schoolhouse, Gun Shop, etc. Each of the little buildings is a bunkroom or a private room for hikers to sleep in.
I took a very cold shower, although I was happy to have it, and then got placed in the garage / lounge with some other girls. We had a few more hikers join us by the end of the night so it was a late night.
That was how most of the wildlife water resources were set up in AZ on Kofa. A metal roof that sometimes caught the water but also shaded watering holes for the animals. That hostel looks fun!
I like your desert outfit – you look ready for the Sahara. Stay cool
Creepy down!
They call those “trick tanks” and are often used to collect water for wildlife. Sometimes they are just a thick tarp on the round that drains rain/snow water into a tank.