Thursday June 5, 12.9mi/20.8km

Tonopah (722.9/5990ft) to Lime Wash (735.8/6300ft) (NV)

Sleeping indoors is always a little strange during a hike, I’m used to the mentality ” the sky’s awake so I’m awake”. But the motel room stays dark so I slept in until 7:30, grabbed a second shower, and some free tea and muffins from the motel lobby. This next section is 145 miles long, so I bought 7 days worth of food.

I packed everything up, and it’s quite heavy. This section also starts with a 45 mile water carry, so I’m bringing 7 liters. The guidebook has a source after 7 miles, but it’s a well and I don’t trust man-made water sources as much. Plus the last few hikers have had trouble finding it, and I’m sure I will too. I swung by the Tonopah brewery to rehydrate.

I had planned on stopping by the pizza place for a slice and a soda, but once I was there I noticed they had a buffet so I had to partake.

After many slices, breadsticks, and root beers, I slowly made my way out of town.

It was mostly hiking on dirt roads today through sagebrush, not the most interesting thing but it certainly is relaxing. I spotted these two radar antennas on a nearby hillside, kind of a strange place for them. I wonder what they’re used for?

As the afternoon went on, the clouds started to build up.

After 7 miles I came to the spot where Frazier’s Well was supposed to be. I found an old mine shaft.

And some old rusted metal troughs.

I poked around the area pretty thoroughly, and didn’t come up with anything that looked wet or that had water. I looked closer at my maps and noticed another drainage just 100 m away, so I explored that and found what I believe was supposed to be the well.

It was a dry metal trough with a black plastic tub that had grass growing in it. But definitely no water. Not even any damp soil. Darn.

I’m glad I carried all my water from the town! Continuing on, the sky seemed to get even cloudier in every direction except for the area I was hiking in. Weird.

After about 13 miles, the easy road walking was coming to an end, and there was a long XC climbing section coming up. So I decided to camp a little early, before I got into the XC section.

Of course, I’m camped in another wash. Better than being camped up high and exposed to wind and thunderstorms!