@argonautphoto

February 4, 2002 Day 13, The desert south of Hell to Wiley’s Well Today: 28 Cumulative: 255 Context: I left Cosmo with some people at the Salton Sea. The road crossing the northern edge of the Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range is too sandy to pull a cart on and I’m told it’s too dangerous for Cosmo because of large packs of coyotes. I am walking alone and my last host is watching Cosmo and the cart now and bringing me water tomorrow. It’s a good thing, as I only have water for probably 40 miles and the trail is 90. Except... they didn't end up bringing me water. From my journal: "Today my teeth hurt. I know right away when I sit up in my tent that I am in the desert and that I am out of water, I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep. If they don’t come today I will have to find a way out besides the Bradshaw Trail, some way to get to the Interstate. I figure I am near Augustine’s Pass, and the quickest way out is over the Mule Mountains, to a town on Interstate 10 called Hell. I am 13 miles south of Hell with no water. This is not a joke. The mountains would be harder walking, I will look for the wells on my map and hope for someone to pass by. No one drove by yesterday, and the chances for today are not good, it is a weekday and I am 45 miles from where Bradshaw meets the Palo Verde Valley. My maps show 5 wells in the first 10 miles today, one of them must have water..." But they didn't end up having water. The journals continue at length about all the ways they were dried up, filled with dead animals, or had trees that had grown up through them and sucked out every drop of water. 55 miles into the Bradshaw trail I eventually found the only person living out there, in a lone trailer in a field of volcanic rocks. Her name was Jan. I explain that I ran out of water and needed enough to get to Palo Verde or Ripley. “That’s 35 miles. Lots of people die out here. 5 died just this year tryin to walk this last bit without water, you’re lucky I’m here, you’d be dead too.” #3349miles