Water in the Great Divide Basin

[10-K]

If you've hiked through there what was the water situation like?

[garlic08]

As I recall it was all stock tanks and wells. There was at least one nice well for hikers developed by the BLM, with solar power. I'd heard there were more of those in the pipeline, so to speak. Everything was there and had water that was supposed to be per the information I had from Ley's maps and Wolf's guidebook.

[10-K]

Thanks for the info. Do these tend to be close to the route along the way or further off trail?

[Venchka]

Yesterday I mentioned Diagnus Well. Unfortunately, that well is on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Forget I mentioned it.
I'm no help. Except to say that many people complete the route. It must be doable.
Be safe. Stay wet!

Wayne

[Mags]

No worse than SoCal on the PCT IMO (of course, this was pre-water caches everywhere..ha! ) IIRC, the water was basically on the trail.

[burger]

Hey, 10K, why don't you try something novel and just be surprised about something coming on the trail?

Half of the fun in a long-distance hike is not knowing what's around the corner.

[fiddlehead]

When I did the trail in '98, we ran into a man who worked for BLM in Rawlins.
He was a huge help for us and told us where we would find (and not find) water.
We found a spring that was most needed that he had mentioned.
From what I hear and read on the FB page, the BLM office in Rawlins is a good source of info.
I don't remember that mans name, but we probably would not have attempted going through the middle without his advice.
Have you read Eric Ryback's book? I believe he ran out of water in there.
I will say there were trucks that you could flag down as there was a lot of pipeline construction going on back in '98 and again in 2002 when I did it.

[handlebar]

In '10, I found water everywhere Ley's notes indicated. Close to trail IIRC. Of course '10 was very wet year.

[Dogwood]

As I recall it was all stock tanks and wells. There was at least one nice well for hikers developed by the BLM, with solar power. I'd heard there were more of those in the pipeline, so to speak. Everything was there and had water that was supposed to be per the information I had from Ley's maps and Wolf's guidebook.

No worse than SoCal on the PCT IMO (of course, this was pre-water caches everywhere..ha! ) IIRC, the water was basically on the trail.

On a 2010 SOBO CDT thru this is what I experienced. Hauled water a long distance twice in the Great Basin though making a dry camp twice. The exact timing going SOBO verse NOBO weather wise can affect the water logistics though. For example, I collected water once at night(did a couple nights of night hiking through the GB) when a storm front passed through. Kinda freaky like a Weather Channel episode with all the lightning bolts lighting up the sky as far as I could see and the sheet of clouds turning orange and purple. With due respect IMHO it doesn't significantly hurt the adventure when a long distance hiker can avail themselves of water info on such a long dry hot exposed remote stretch. For example, I felt no shame apprising myself of the latest availability of water caches on the PCT throughout SoCal in 2006. As Mags said little difference than SoCal on the PCT although IMO the CDT through GB offers greater exposure. I too had the Wolf guide and Ley's maps for this section which together helped piece it all together.

[Sly]

One year in June there was tons of good water. Another year in July, not so much. The temperature also increased by about 30*

[SCRUB HIKER]

Half of the fun in a long-distance hike is not knowing what's around the corner.

Correction: half the fun in a long-distance hiking is thinking about it for months and months and years ahead of time, over-planning and knowing it's all meaningless once you're out there. You can't restrict the hiking just to the time you're actually out there hiking!

[Miner]

Correction: half the fun in a long-distance hiking is thinking about it for months and months and years ahead of time, over-planning and knowing it's all meaningless once you're out there. You can't restrict the hiking just to the time you're actually out there hiking!

. That is pretty much my opinion on the matter.

[burger]

There's planning and then there's overplanning.

[fiddlehead]

With the technology that is available today, you don't need near as much planning.
Trying to figure out which boxes, which maps go in, magnetic deviation, where you MIGHT find water (from studying maps) are things of the past for most hikers anymore.
Just take the guthook app, ley maps with GPS, a few batteries, and your navigation is pretty much taken care of. Water sources too.
Still helps to talk to those rangers though as to: which water sources are running, where you need to hang vs sleep with your food, what trails might be closed.

[Venchka]

... and the highly variable, day to day, location of any fires along the route and the current operational status of small stores in out of the way locations.

Wayne

[Spirit Walker]

There is water directly on the trail on a daily basis. The quality of the water varies, from boxed springs, to solar pumps, to large reservoirs open to fishing and wildlife visits, to water seeping up into the ground in what are basically stock tanks or large pools in a streambed. Have a method of treating the water because while the good is pretty good, the worst is really bad. 1999 was a wet year, and there was a lot of water available. In 2006, a dry year, some of the sources were a lot harder to find or even empty. Some of the springs are obscure (i.e. Mormon Spring, the good water is hiding in a pile of rocks in the middle of a rocky pasture, though in a wet year the entire pasture may be wet, and full of cows.) When we reached 9 mile spring, north of Rawlins, it was dry, but we were able to get water out of some irrigation tanks there.

[Spirit Walker]

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT%20images/cdt155water.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT%20images/cdt161solar.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20i...ng%20Water.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20i...%20Springs.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20images/WY32.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20i...ow%20water.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20i...te%20Gulch.jpg

http://spiriteaglehome.com/CDT06%20i...Sweetwater.jpg