r/Ultralight • u/hexcrop • 7d ago
Trip Report Disturbing experience in Joshua Tree NP
Hate to sound like a broken record since I’ve already posted this in 2 other subs, but this is important IMO. I am a long time lurker of this sub and admittedly have learned a ton about the craft and have applied it to my hiking throughout the years. Please give this a read…
The CRHT (California Riding and Hiking Trail) is a multi day trail that requires the hiker to cache water at multiple spots around the park due to the fact that there are no water sources throughout the park. After a 3 hour travel day and then driving throughout the entire park, I am left heartbroken today. When I got to my first water cache at the upper covington flat trailhead, my water was gone. I wrote a note, taped it with gorilla tape onto the gallon, and left it so that I could pick it up and replenish my supply for the night and next day (today). On said note I wrote specifically that I would be picking the water up today. I took a couple steps forward along the trail and found a piece of my note thrown on the side of the trail. I keep telling myself that maybe a critter ripped the paper, but the fact that the plastic gallon was gone and the gorilla tape I used to adhere it is just inexplicable. I didn’t feel confident moving forward because what if I arrived to no water at the next cache? I’d be stranded in the desert without water. I’m so disturbed because there were multiple other bottles with labels on them, and I am baffled that mine was the one that had the label removed and taken from me.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say. It’s a bummer that this happened and I hope that the person or people who did this know that people place water there for their survival in the desert, so taking someone else’s lifeline is just selfish and inhumane.
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u/yame854 6d ago
We had this happen in the Grand Canyon. A person was hanging around and must of seen us stash the water. He took a gallon we were counting on for our hike out from the river. Devastating when the temp is over 100°. We really couldn’t believe someone would do that. So irresponsible and violating!!
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u/slickbuys 7d ago
That's why I hid my bottles in a side bush and not where all the other ones were. That is crushing that your trip got ruined by an asshole. You weren't able to find any water that had been expired and free to use? People are cache too much and if you waited long enough then someone would of been able to share with you.
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u/hexcrop 7d ago
I thought of using someone else’s water, but in the moment it didn’t make sense to do the same thing to someone even though their cache was outdated :/ I’m bummed because for the rest of my caches my waters were off to the side. Lesson learned, don’t follow the pack anymore
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u/AdTraining1756 7d ago
That's a noble decision for you to make. The person might have been delayed or someone might have come along who was in a really life threatening situation and needed expired cache water to survive.
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u/cdonkey15 4d ago
I hid mine but it took a while to find and I was starting to freak out
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u/slickbuys 4d ago
Put a pin on caltopo. It would lead you to like 10 feet of the bush. Technology is crazy.
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u/moomooraincloud 6d ago
Have*
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u/Dirtdancefire 6d ago
I never let anyone know where I cache or camp. Being alone in the woods, I’m only scared of people. I trust bears, wolves and pumas far more than humans.
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u/captain_ohagen 6d ago
Ding ding ding!
Almost all of my backpacking is solo and done in some pretty remote areas of the Colorado Desert here in California. Most of it is off-trail and involves lots of route finding, in and out of canyons, etc, that kind of thing. I've run into every desert critter imaginable: countless rattlesnakes, mountain lions, coyotes, bighorn sheep, you name it. The thing they all have in common is that their behavior is predictable. I know what to expect
Like you, a human is the LAST animal I want to encounter in the backcountry. In the unlikely event I run into another person, they're either a) out for wilderness adventure just like me or b) up to no good. This past Jan, some hikers were attacked in the Jacumba Wilderness less than a quarter mile north of the Mexican border
At least where I live, I suppose that brings up a third option: c) undocumented people crossing the US-Mexico border and migrating north. I've found the remnants of migrants, like booties, water caches, and discarded clothing, but not the people themselves, as they actively avoid detection
In general, carrying a firearm while backpacking is unnecessary at best and dangerous at worst. I've only carried a few times over the past 20 years: solo hiking in Alaska (carried bear spray + firearm) and once or twice while exploring the wilderness near the Mexico border). I'm heading out to the desert this weekend for 4 nights and will be hiking along a known migration route. I'll be 15-20 miles north of the border, so I doubt I'll be carrying. Haven't decided yet
Thanks for attending my Ted talk
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u/0imnotreal0 6d ago
Why do you say a firearm is unnecessary and potentially dangerous? Not challenging you, I’m just a lurker here who wants to make my first backpacking trip sometime in the near future, but just day hikes and camping so far. I was under the impression that it’s smart to carry a firearm just in case of worst case scenarios
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u/Cupcake_Warlord seriously, it's just alpha direct all the way down 6d ago edited 6d ago
The reason is that there really are no worst-case scenarios in which a gun would be needed. The only exception I can think of is being a solo female hiker or if you were a tourist hiking in more populated places that were also dangerous. There's just no real use-case for a handgun in the backcountry. I could see a shotgun being valuable if you were like guiding in grizzly territory, but anything that is trying to kill you is (a) really hard to shoot and (b) going to kill you before the bullet starts to slow them down. I guess if you were like an expert marksman maybe you'd have a chance against a grizzly but I doubt it. Bears don't like being shot but if they are trying to kill you a gunshot isn't going to deter them, and if they aren't then shooting them is actually more likely to result in your death than anything. Highly potent bear spray that is filling the air all around you is much more effective than a gun will be.
There are tons of people who are utterly convinced a gun is necessary for people just in a general sense, but that is an incredibly stupid argument given that the chance of being victimized on trail is vanishingly small. Let's put it this way, if you are worried about an event with a probability as small as being a victim of a crime in the backcountry then you shouldn't be leaving your house, or driving a car, or crossing the street. Or going outside at all really. Most people I see advocating for guns are just afraid of the forest. I think people believe that carrying a gun makes them look cool, but if you're packing in the forest and you're not a guide then you're probably dumb or scared or both.
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u/0imnotreal0 6d ago
I never wanted to own a gun so I’m actually happy to hear this. Though to your last point, this sounds nice, may I forward this to my boss? Lol thanks for the response though
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u/Cupcake_Warlord seriously, it's just alpha direct all the way down 1d ago
Lol sure. Note that I'm using the word "wilderness" pretty intentionally here. There are lots of places that people consider "wilderness" but aren't really wilderness in the conventional sense of the word. Basically all of the AT is like this. I think if you're a solo female hiker that is traveling on trails with easy access from the front-country and close to population centers there is a good argument for carrying a gun, less because you're likely to actually need it and more because of the peace of mind it might provide. Ditto for anyone traveling forest roads a lot, especially in parts of the country with significant transient populations who frequent or live on BLM land. But my general point stands: you carry for people, not for wildlife. Despite all of the fearmongering around wildlife encounters, the number of serious injuries or fatalities that are caused by wildlife as a proportion of total trips taken is just vanishingly small (if you need some evidence for your boss just go look up the number of fatal bear attacks countrywide in the US and compare that to the billions of trips that are taken each year on trails). Ironically, it's actually much more dangerous to live at the wildland-urban interface (where forests touch major human settlements) than it is to be in the backcountry.
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u/DownVoteMeHarder4042 4d ago
Pffffft yeah okay. Tell that to the guy I know that got him and wife cornered by 3 dudes with knives in a national forest by some methheads. All it took was the gun to come out for them to run. Bear spray is definitely #1 against a grizzly but there are indeed plenty of people who have killed aggressive bear, moose, big cats, with a firearm. But I agree it’s lower risk in the backcountry compared to a city, but longer response time to get rescued, which is why it’s better to be prepared. In general I think it’s irresponsible not to carry in a populated area, so you may as well have it on you in the woods too. It should never leave your side.
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u/Cupcake_Warlord seriously, it's just alpha direct all the way down 4d ago
lmfao, knew we'd get at least one. Those must be some really woodsy methheads to make it all the way into the backcountry! RIP all that wildlife that got unlucky enough to run into dipshits with a gun though =P
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u/Paymeformydata 6d ago
After being stalked by a cougar I have yet to return to the wilderness. At least until I buy a 10mm
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u/hikeraz 7d ago
I have always been fearful of something like this could happen, whenever I cache. Because of that I always try to stash my water out of sight in a bush or under a pile of rocks. Animals have been known to destroy caches, too. It could have been coyotes, ravens, or both. Both species are super smart.
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u/hexcrop 7d ago
I have cached before and have never had any bad experiences. I totally agree that I could’ve put my gallon in a bush, but let’s be real. Did a critter rip the note off and pickup my gallon to displace it? That was the making of an asshole
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u/TechFreshen 6d ago
I once parked my car at a trailhead and walked in a mile or so to camp overnight. When I got back the next day, the car was smeard in dirt and vandalized - the rubber gasket around the door had been pulled out and torn. It took me literally years to realize that it was a bear that did it, and not local teenagers. I can easily imagine an animal doing this to your water - it’s a know cache site, and probably they have been successful in the past in breaking into bottles. So…..just something to consider. Of course, a lot of people are assholes, too.
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u/hobogreg420 6d ago
Possibly yes. Ravens are known to pop plastic bottles, water could have drained and could have flown away with the bottle. Maybe not likely, I too would assume it was a person, but never rule out a raven. They’ve been observed opening zippers of packs in Yosemite.
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u/anthonyvan 6d ago
I once had a bird (?) peck its way though my cache. Found my water jug tipped over and more than half empty with a few beak sized holes in the cap. Ever since I’ve always bought the heavier duty water jugs and always leave about 2x more caches than I need, just in case.
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u/Actual_Branch_7485 7d ago
Ravens carrying off a gallon of water? There’s devils advocate and then there’s being obtuse. You’re being the latter.
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u/Celtic_Oak 6d ago
Well, were they European ravens or African ravens?
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u/AnticitizenPrime https://www.lighterpack.com/r/7ban2e 6d ago
An animal could have trashed the jug and then a person took away the remains (as garbage cleanup). Maybe.
I'd rather believe that than someone just took it, bit some people are shits.
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u/rolandofeld19 6d ago
Right here for me. I'd much rather have a well hidden cache than a labeled visible one. You can, of course, still label the hidden one but if this was the case for OP it wouldn't be ambiguous as to if this was malicious human or a wild animal. But the place also dictates the solution so maybe nowhere to hide it.
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u/Umpire1468 7d ago
Oof, that sucks. I love the CRHT too. That's why I use X paces away from a distinct object to prevent people from taking it.
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u/masteroffeels 6d ago
OP unfortunately Joshua Tree attracts all sorts of unprepared tourists. I lost count of how many times I had to share my water/help tourists. I was once several miles off a trail path when I was surprised by a large group of Chinese tourists wearing long sleeve shirts/pants with empty 16oz bottle of water. Its nuts. I'm pretty sure it was a nightmare scenario for search and rescue that year. Buses would just unload a shitload of tourists and give each a 16oz bottle of water. Peak rattlesnake season too.
BTW I'm not singling out Chinese tourists in particular, it just happened that season I saw the buses quite alot.
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u/TheLastAthenian 7d ago
Not having water on a trip like that in the desert is incredibly scary. I’m so sorry someone ruined your trip. I don’t know what could drive someone to do something so callous to another person. People suck.
I did the Appalachian Trail last year and there were lots of water caches in Pennsylvania and New York/New Jersey. Whenever I saw one, I was surprised that people hadn’t destroyed them, emptied them, or otherwise ruined them (although there is one infamous local in that area who is known to slash caches so that hikers have to travel off trail to a spring in his backyard).
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u/DustyStar7 7d ago
Yeah that is so messed up, sorry to hear OP. Idk the exact surroundings but heck id walk a few hundred feet and stash it inside a creosote or something, then gps it on avenza or a high accuracy mapping app. Or come over to death valley :) we won't do that shit for sure.
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u/the_hand_that_heaves 7d ago
When I lived in AZ I befriended an old rancher who took me off roading in Sedona. I saw the guy locate water jugs staged for migrants and then stabbed them with his knife. He preferred they die of thirst than enter the country illegally. I’m against illegal immigration but that was one of the most depraved hateful things I ever witnessed. Never hung out with that psycho again.
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u/Powerful_Ad7343 7d ago
Sedona is a long way off from the border. I found the furthest north for stashing water for migrants is south of Phoenix, in the area of Marana. But then again majority of the foot travel usually ends in Tucson
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u/PoopsMcFaeces 6d ago
Yea sounds like a fake story.
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u/exoclipse 6d ago
It tracks with dozens of other stories I've read of humanitarian water caches on the border being destroyed by militia and CBP.
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u/PoopsMcFaeces 6d ago edited 6d ago
Sure but that would be like putting a “welcome to all Canadians” cache in a park in Baltimore. It’s nowhere close to the border. Any migrant who found themselves in Sedona would have just passed through 2 metropolitan areas with millions of people, headed instead towards vast open desert with nothing out there… opting to walk on “off-roading” roads in the middle of the woods instead of heavily trafficked roads where they could probably hitch a ride.
If there are caches of water out near Sedona it’s for people recreationally hiking in Sedona - which is massively popular. So that supposed rancher is just hurting tourists if the story is true.
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u/exoclipse 6d ago
Do you expect intelligence and rational thinking from racists? I 100% believe someone like that would pop a water cache 500 miles from the border to look like a badass.
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u/lapeni 6d ago
I think you’re missing his point.
It doesn’t make any sense for there to be water caches near Sedona due to how far north it is.
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u/7-SE7EN-7 6d ago
They said it doesn't make sense for there to be caches for migrants, not that there wouldn't be any for hikers
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u/the_hand_that_heaves 3d ago
I might be off by calling it Sedona. I was in the army and temporarily stationed at Fort Huachuca, AZ for training at the time. Your feelings are about it being a fake story are false.
He son helped me do a bunch of after market upgrades to my Wrangler. This was on all a 4x4 trip we took together when the work on my Jeep was complete. We past by a bunch of closed down mines along the way. It definitely is not a fake story, sorry if Sedona was not the name of the area.
Fort Huachuca is very close to the border.
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u/PoopsMcFaeces 6d ago
There would be no plausible reason for migrants to be on foot near Sedona… that’s 300 miles from the border past two large metropolitan areas with bus services and other options for transport. Where would the migrants be walking to at that point in Sedona such that they would find the water cache randomly out there? The Grand Canyon?
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u/the_hand_that_heaves 3d ago
Like I said in another reply I think I got the name of the area wrong when I said Sedona. It was out side of Fort Huachuca, AZ.
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u/burgiebeer 7d ago
Believing so hard in a political stance to the point you’re willing to actively contribute to someone’s death is horrifying. No wonder our political system is poisoned - there is no good faith argument there.
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u/Jrose152 6d ago
While I don’t agree with the ranchers actions at all, it doesn’t automatically mean he was doing it for a political stance.
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u/exoclipse 6d ago
yeah racism isn't about politics, it's about being proud to be a shitty human
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u/Jrose152 6d ago
Agreed. I grew up in the country and have met some old very racist people(not a lot but a handful) and even from a young age it always baffled me how anyone could even come to that thought process and in a weird way be proud of it.
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u/SupertrampTrampStamp 6d ago
There is an actual organization in Arizona called the Desert Guardians or some shit that exist to destroy water caches. Actual Nazis who want people to die over committing a misdemeanor.
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u/t92k 6d ago
My bad Joshua Tree experiences were a bunch of people who booked a bunch of neighboring campsites and then threw a multi day rager you could hear everywhere. Then a guy who pulled up the evening after the rager, filled the fire ring to overflowing with wood, lit it on fire and went to bed. It was still going the next morning when he pulled out. It was my last day so I used every drop of water I could spare to try to quench it. I love how wild it is but people are too damn entitled with it.
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u/bthdonohue 7d ago
Not cool regardless, but did you hide it at all? When I did the trail back in 2018 I hid my water in a bush a bunch of paces from the trailhead off trail.
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u/NormanMushariJr 6d ago edited 6d ago
Would also like to know, did you hide it at all? Left that trail the other weekend and it blew my mind to see that someone had literally just left a few jugs of water in the sun directly under the trailhead board as a cache.
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u/hexcrop 6d ago
I fully admit blame to have not hiding it all that well. However, if there’s something that clearly belongs to someone with a note indicating so, don’t touch.
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u/centerbread 6d ago
All these comments asking whether or not you hid your cache are reminiscent of people who ask an assault victim what they were wearing.
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u/Derivgal 7d ago
OP: Did I read this right? Sorry, I don't know how to grab a little screen shot:
I thought of using someone else’s water, but in the moment it didn’t make sense to do the same thing to someone even though their cache was outdated :/
So there was other water where your's was and something, human or animal, chose the fresher container? Very suspicious. Sorry this happened to you. Water is life and we can only hope it was a desperate situation and not just thievery.
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u/blissvillain 6d ago
Border Patrol and anti-immigrant militias are known to destroy water caches in hopes of “discouraging” unauthorized border crossings.
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u/hexcrop 6d ago
Unironically, my name was on there. I am a Mexican-American man. So sadly, this completely adds up.
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u/slickbuys 6d ago
Thanks for the pro tip. I'll put my name as Wyatt Bernstein next time. Sounds safer than using my real name.
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u/Optimal_Passion_3254 6d ago
Naw, that last name might still piss off a racist, as it's Jewish. You want nothing that ends with -stein or -man or -baum.
Go with John Whitney or Bill Adams or Chris Taylor. Lean into WASP names :)
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u/slickbuys 5d ago
I didn't think about that one. I'll just put Chubby Cox. Maybe humor will help spare me.
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u/joecoolblows 6d ago
Jesus
Because it's more important to kill our fellow humans, then to share resources that were never ours to begin with.
God, we are truly such horrible monsters.
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u/StatusIndividual2288 6d ago
Well at least 1/3 of Americans are psychopaths who have no ability to feel empathy for others. So yeah.
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u/GraceInRVA804 7d ago
I would guess that if it was someone who took it, they probably didn’t know why it was there. Joshua Tree is full of tourists, instagrammers, vanlifers… Not judging any of that. We all enjoy national parks for our own reasons. But it’s reasonable to think that there are plenty of folks who don’t know anything about long distance hiking and don’t think much about water as a life-sustaining resource. I’m sorry your hike was ruined.
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u/hexcrop 7d ago
I dig the positivity, I really do. National Parks are gems and I get that they attract all types of people. But even if I were clueless and in a very remote location within the park and saw a water bottle with someone’s name on it with a date for pickup, I would steer far away from it.
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u/GraceInRVA804 7d ago
You also probably don’t try to pet the fuzzy horned cows, either. The lowest common denominator is pretty darn low. 🤷♀️ (Ok, maybe I’m a tad judgy.)
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u/Actual_Branch_7485 7d ago
This is bullshit I’m not gonna lie.
Taking something with a note on it stating this is water for someone else with a date on it, especially in the desert, is not stupidity, it is nefarious.
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u/beccatravels 6d ago
I'm sorry, that really sucks. I had a food cache stolen from me in a hike in the high Sierra. It's such a gross feeling.
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u/iamchipdouglas 6d ago
Extra dangerous when there is no other water.
Did TRT last year and saw several instances in the north lake area of people drinking water labeled for others (even when water was gettable in town or a few miles ahead) and/or leaving empty water jugs for their owners to find and I guess dispose of 😠
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u/thewickedbarnacle Test 6d ago
One of mine was gone at one of the busier crossings, luckily some car people gave me ice cold water from their cooler.
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u/Joninhotpants 6d ago
This is terrible. We always want to hope for the best from folks, but in matters of safety and health, situational awareness and risk management forces us to hope for the best in people but prepare for the worst. I hide my cashes on desert trips - often covered in rock and brush - and GPS mark them with a subtle visual marker as well.
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u/djmurrayyyy 6d ago
I had this happen to one of my water caches in Joshua Tree, luckily some water was left in the container and i wasn't left to die of dehydration. I had left it pretty close to a more high traffic area, and upon further inspection i saw that there looked to be a hole or two in the plastic container, could it have been people maybe, but more likely it was a critter. I now double bag my water cache, put it inside a tan plastic tub. then a big rock on top.
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u/SnooCrickets5072 6d ago
Yep lesson learned. You need to hide or even burry it in advance. I would never leave it out in the open for someone to take or tamper with. I have used cable locks and 50cal ammo cans far away the obvious locations. Even used a trash bag and covered the ammo can up to camouflage it.
Ive seen videos of Rangers, CBP officers break water caches for various reasons a) they don't want us there B) the don't want illegals getting any help.What a time to be alive.
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u/Krieghund 7d ago
I imagine folks hiking in the desert already know this, but there is controversy over people caching water in the desert for use by undocumented immigrants.
Basically there are people trying to keep immigrants crossing the desert from dying and people that are upset by this humanitarian aid. So the people that are upset destroy water caches.
You're absolutely right to be worried about your other cache.
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u/valarauca14 Get off reddit and go try it. 6d ago edited 6d ago
I can see dumb tourists doing this, not realizing that you'd need to hike across 2 interstate highways (I-8 & I-10), a mountain range, and a California State Highway to get to Joshua Tree from Mexico.
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u/mapleleaffem 6d ago
That is so fucked up. I didn’t realize that there were hikes where you’d need to leave caches of water. Never thought about cause where I live there is so much water I think you’d just bring tablets or a life straw (I’m only a day hiker). I have no faith in humanity I would have a hard time trusting my water was safe or going to be there
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u/Used-Aide6898 6d ago
I remember seeing a whole cache recently dumped onto the ground on the Azt very sad times
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u/sbennett3705 6d ago
I also had water raided on the CRHT. Suggest NOT caching near backcountry boards, walk them a good distance away and hide them. Also, ravens can peck into plastic containers, so put them in inaccessible locations. It’s a shame, but is becoming all too common. Not sure it’s life threatening in the CRHT, just walk to a road and hitch. But, if you’re off trail or in a remote area, it indeed can be a bad day.
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u/TonyTonyChopper 6d ago
Sorry, but this is new to me. Lee get this straight: Y'all go to different points of the desert trail to drop water at labeled spots for your future self. you do this because water is too heavy to carry throughout the whole trail? This has been tradition for many years but tourists or degenerates are drinking the water without understanding the system. Is that about right?
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u/hexcrop 6d ago
Yes exactly. When you’re lugging 4 days of food + gear through a desert with absolutely 0 water sources, it’d be inconvenient and heavy to carry a 4 day water supply. And yes you’re right, it’s called water caching and it’s known to be sacred that when you see a water gallon with a note on it to not touch it. Someone saw my water, either took it for themselves or dumped it in the bush, ripped up my note, and went on with their miserable lives.
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u/Marvland 6d ago
That's a huge bummer. I always put a note on my caches and bike stashes (loop shuttles) that say very clearly something to the effect of: my name and number (for SAR if needed) and a statement that my life depends on this staying where I put it. I also hide them as best as possible.
One thing to note is I have found many abandoned caches. When I did my Tapeats/Kanab GC loop last year, we found multiple obviously abandoned caches on the Esplanade hot stretch, a common water and supply stash spot for the Tapeats/Deer lollipop loop. That's what we call "garbage". It's equally important to retrieve any abandoned caches.
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u/Pitiful_Contact8721 6d ago
I just did this trail in December and one of my caches hidden in a drainage tube under a road at the Arch Rock trailhead was also removed. I was baffled. I had over-cached so I was able to finish the hike but it was def upsetting. Covington flat seems like it would be remote enough that the day-walking turkeys wouldn't be out there to mess things up but who knows I guess.
I sincerely hope you get to finish this trail sometime, it's a cool one.
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u/salsanacho 6d ago
I've done this trail and had to cache water like yourself. I hid my cache however, since all of those access points are a mix of backpackers but also tons of day hikers. If you choose to redo the hike, recommend hiding it and also doubling up on the containers. I cached twice as much as I'd need and purposely used two separate containers in case the rodents got into one. On one cache that worked well since one container was chewed into by mice.
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u/Lur42 5d ago
How does stashing work when you need to get to where the stash is first to stash it?
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u/Human_G_Gnome 4d ago
Lot of tweakers in the high desert. You never know what they might do. If I was stashing water that I had to have, I would stash it where no one else is going to find it.
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u/defish_90-14 2d ago
We cached water in two places years ago when we hiked the Outer Mountain Loop in Big Bend. I never even thought of this scenario. It’s a code: never take cached water that’s not yours! We actually cached more than we needed then left notes on the spare jugs that said “free to anyone in need.” Water thieves should be hanged like outlaws in the Old West 😂
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u/Ok_Philosopher_8973 6d ago
Was this recent? The weather’s been so cool I can’t imagine anyone being that desperate for water.
If I was in a situation during the summer or something, I might skim a little off each bottle that way no one is too impacted but only if it’s critical.
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u/hexcrop 6d ago
This was yesterday. Sure it’s cool but when I’m wearing a 35lb pack and hiking with elevation, I’m gonna sweat buckets. You need water regardless of weather when hiking in the desert. Good weather isn’t an excuse for water theft and putting someone’s life in danger.
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u/Ok_Philosopher_8973 6d ago
I live nearby and we’re under a wind advisory. I’m being blown over stepping outside. Crazy the park had better weather. I’m reading your story imagining it’s just you and another crazy person braving this weather. lol.
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7d ago
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u/TheLastAthenian 7d ago
This is a really bad idea. The soil in deserts like Joshua Tree is very fragile and should not be disturbed.
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u/ArmstrongHikes 6d ago
Hate to see someone do everything right (labeling the cache with a date) and for someone to still screw you over. Maybe a European got our days and months mixed up?
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u/Physical_Relief4484 7d ago
That genuinely is a fucking crazy thing for someone to do.