DAY 3: GLASTENBURY - STORY SPRING
8.9 miles. Sunny/warm.
Today started out rough but ended on a higher note. This morning, my Sawyer Squeeze broke about its threads while prepping water for the day, after I burnt my breakfast— these may both be due to fatigue from yesterday. I climbed the fire tower at Glastenbury and then made my way down to Kid Gore for lunch. A trail guardian gave me his Sawyer as a backup (thank you!). It’s slow but functional. It seems they’re putting in a new privy there; I believe the construction supplies are air-dropped by helicopter or carried in on foot.
Between my two Sawyers, I almost have a functional filtering system now. My filter flows well enough, but only when set in the one exact position where the remaining threads catch those of the bottle. This seal is improved by taking a trash bag and wrapping it around the joint, taking care to tightly cover the broken bit so it can form enough of a seal to function. This is reinforced with a shock tie to keep it stable enough to use. The whole process is repeated every time I filter water, several times in a row to produce 1-1.5 liters of water. The backup works consistently, but like many Sawyers after time/use, it’s in need of a thorough backwashing session to make it flow efficiently.
Today started out rough but ended on a higher note. This morning, my Sawyer Squeeze broke about its threads while prepping water for the day, after I burnt my breakfast— these may both be due to fatigue from yesterday. I climbed the fire tower at Glastenbury and then made my way down to Kid Gore for lunch. A trail guardian gave me his Sawyer as a backup (thank you!). It’s slow but functional. It seems they’re putting in a new privy there; I believe the construction supplies are air-dropped by helicopter or carried in on foot.
Between my two Sawyers, I almost have a functional filtering system now. My filter flows well enough, but only when set in the one exact position where the remaining threads catch those of the bottle. This seal is improved by taking a trash bag and wrapping it around the joint, taking care to tightly cover the broken bit so it can form enough of a seal to function. This is reinforced with a shock tie to keep it stable enough to use. The whole process is repeated every time I filter water, several times in a row to produce 1-1.5 liters of water. The backup works consistently, but like many Sawyers after time/use, it’s in need of a thorough backwashing session to make it flow efficiently.
I decided to call it a shorter recovery day and made it to Story Spring around 17:00. There’s a couple dudes from Maryland and upstate NY at the camp. I have a good tenting spot nearly out of view of the shelter, but very well situated on level clear ground. Also met an older SOBO couple that has done this half a dozen times, who visited for a bit before pressing onward to the road.
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