The walk takes us through a valley with stockpiles of coal from old coalmines. We find an old mining town with cemetery near Rausch Gap. The temperature is nearly 100 degF. We are looking to have a swim in the river. We find a swimming hole next to the most amazing scientific experiment - a limestone regenerator with filtered water to reduce the acidity of the water to enable trout to survive. The coal mines destroyed the river for fishing - no trout could survive and a philanthropist was able to develop a technique to restore the water.
I have a nasty fall on a gravel path at about 4pm - I fall flat on my face/hand/knee with bad grazes and it takes the wind out of me. We find some trail magic - two lots of eskies with soft drinks. I am so depressed from my fall we decide to try and hitch a ride into the nearby town. We stand on the bitumen in a 100 deg heat, and 10 cars drive past without stopping. We give up and push on.
Helicopters fly over us - we are near a military zone. As we cross underneath a freeway we find a big water cache of gallon containers left for us. We replenish and keep walking hoping to find a flat spot to camp away from the freeway. We are lucky. We have a good campsite and mobile phone reception. I send a text to Scatters who is ahead of us to ask her about water supplies for tomorrow. She replies within minutes, and we learn that there is water at Hertlein Campsite so it meansn we dont have to walk 20 miles plus tomorrow.
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