Day 91: I woke up with the rest of the group. The Canadians and group of ladies head south, towards Sierra City. And I go North. The hiking through the Sierra Buttes was nice, but you pass by tons of lakes from way up, so you have no access to the water. (They have actually just changed the trail starting in 2018 where it will now go lower along the water.) But overall, I will come hike around here again! I hiked Solo all day, I didn’t really see any other people. I ended doing 34 miles, but the last 5 were grueling. So in the Sierras I was spoiled with water. I never really had to try and find water it was just everywhere. But today, I learned the hard way that I am no longer in the Sierras. And NorCal, specifically this section is a different story. I’m lazy in the sense I usually refuse to go off trail for water. Even if it’s just half a mile. I’ll carry more liters Han go off trail. But today basically all of the water is literally off trail. So I kept postponing. Saying I’d go to the next one, the next one would come and I’d skip it. Finally I actually needed water, but I chose one that was hard to find. On Guthooks, the hiker app used to location and key points, the comments for this water source showed a lot of people couldn’t find it and those that did had a really hard time. After walking for a bit and seeing nothing I had a choice. 1) Keep walking around trying to find the water here, which may not happen, then I waste a bunch of time going nowhere. Or 2) leave this option and just walk towards the next source. So I chose #2. If I’m going to be walking it’ll be towards for sure water. So I had about 6 miles to go to get to it, and I had no water. A little before this spot I came across some people doing trail maintenance and thought about asking them for water but didn’t want to be “that hiker” that doesn’t know how to plan water. Should have dropped my damn ego and just done it. Now hot and thirsty I have 2 hours with no water. Luckily, today was mostly tree covered which helped me stay cooler. Finally I got to the road. At this road I just have to walk a ways down to where there is a bridge and under the bridge is Fresh water! I was so happy when I got there. I chugged so much water right away straight out of my filter. Until I was cooled down I drank water, then filled one bottle for my last 5 miles. Because where I plan to camp, there is a side trail leading a half mile to a creek. So I hang out a bit then head on. It was such a slow 5 miles. I really fatigued myself today. It was a lot of up and down too, but the dehydration hit me hard. So I kept chugging along, slowly but surely. Until I hit the next paved road, that was for the Fowler Creek trailhead. I saw a car there and was excited to maybe get some water or something from someone. But they must have been out camping I never saw them. I camped at the spots right near the road and headed to find the trail to water…..and never found it. I only had 1/3 of a liter of water. And I was too tired to go on. But I knew I couldn’t drink it. So I didn’t eat dinner, because I didn’t have water to cook with. So tired, hungry, thirsty, and frustrated I laid in my tent. I slept on this night although being alone again. But I could have drank 3 liters of water right then. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better prepared.