Met a guy on the Pacific Crest Trail who taught me about water caching

Last summer near mile 150 on the PCT in Southern California, this older hiker showed me his stash of water bottles he'd buried under a pile of rocks. He said he'd driven out a week before to cache 6 gallons at that spot, which saved me from carrying too much weight. Do you usually cache water on long dry stretches, or just carry extra from the start?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cora18d ago

Did he mark his GPS coordinates or just rely on remembering exactly where he buried them? Seems risky if you're off by even a few yards in that barren landscape.

anthony_wells17d ago

GPS caching is way less reliable than just using big landmarks like that guy did (I've seen too many people think they remember correctly and end up miles off). My buddy and I did something similar on the Hayduke Trail in Utah where we buried gallons under a distinctive juniper tree and marked it with a rock cairn, worked perfectly. Totally saves your back on those long dry stretches between reliable water sources.