Day 24 Mile 278-296

High Desert

All day long walking and only two human interactions both Oregon Department of Transportation guys. I chatted with a man out spray-painting markers for an upcoming road work project on Route 20 and I met DeeMcGee who gave me a gallon of water and let me camp out over the ridge behind the ODOT gravel grinding facility. I set off from Hampton with my two liter camel pack full and two twenty ounce bottle of water on me. By today I had drank one of the bottles and as I walked I wanted to drink everything I had but I had to ration. It was eighty-five degrees out, dry as a bone with direct sun all day long. At this high an elevation the air is thin and dry and I was parched and my lips were cracking. I wanted to drink to my hearts content but I forced myself to just take small sips so that I would have enough for the next day to get me through to Riley. I was doing alright and had it planned out just right to get me through... but I had two lucky breaks. First I came across a cow pond which I could use my filter to pull out water, and then I met DeeMcGee who was generous enough to give me one of his six gallons of water that were going to last him for the week. It was his first day at this job site and I got to chat with him for a while before I went over the ridge to camp out for the night. He had gone off when he was 23 for adventure and had been out to Alaska for fishing. After a long day of rationing, I drank as much as I could, filled up for tomorrow and still had some left over. The desert was stunning today and I spent a good stretch listening to my iPod just dancing down the road... seriously, I was dancing:-)