Wilderness of Rocks three day backpacking adventure - day 1 part 3 - Marshall Gulch to Wilderness of Rocks

We left the house at about 11AM, and drove to Marshall Gulch.

On the drive up the mountain, I was able to capture some pictures, which you can see.

The fall of 2017 was a very very dry one in the mountains, so the mountain streams are nearly universally dry with few exceptions. As a consequence, it was necessary for us to carry all of our water for 2 days with us, which amounts to about 14 pounds of water.

What this meant is that we were carrying about 48 pound packs instead of about 40 pound packs when we left Marshall Gulch at just a few hundred feet below 8,000 feet elevation.

Fortunately we only had to carry extra weight for the first day. We had the normal 1 days' water weight on the second day.

On our hike that first day, we only saw one or two pools of pretty nasty water in Lemmon Creek. It is questionable whether someone would want to filter that water, but of course it's better than going without.

There was water in Marshall gulch, so someone would probably push on to that point to get their water if they were on Lemmon Creek and nearly out of water.

I slept pretty well that first night after lugging my 48 pound pack to the campsite.