Part B [The Cache]
We drove through the night to make the most of our time off from work. We met our Texas partner, Dale, at a pre-arranged place: Panther Junction. We were a few minutes late. I had tried to call him but cell reception wasn't so great. But it worked out. How did anyone ever locate anyone in the days before cell phones?
We started out with what we had planned--to camp at The Basin, get our backcountry permit, and to cache water.
Two of us stayed in my truck and went to cache gallon water jugs at the area around Homer Wilson Ranch. The other two jumped in Dale's truck and went to cache water at the junction of Juniper Canyon Trail and Dodson Trail.
My old truck with my plywood tonneau cover and the hitch carrier. The carrier was borrowed from a friend. It later was lost in a storage unit fire. The plywood cover lasted for a few years until I was able to replace it with a proper Craigslist topper.
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Overlooking Homer Wilson Ranch from the road. There was a bear box downhill from the road for hikers. We put our water there. It's scary to leave it there, walk away, and then have your life depend on it.
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It turned out we had the easy cache. The other site was down a high-clearance road. We got back to camp at The Basin and waited for a couple of hours for the other two to get back. We went through our gear for a final shakedown. We made a final determination of what we were going to carry when we backpacked out the next morning.
The Basin.
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Looking out over a neighboring campsite that night.