Ryan Cooper and I started at the upper bristlecone trailhead with the intent of hiking to bonanza trailhead and back with the hope of gaining 10,000' of cumulative ascent in 30 miles. There are some confusing trail junctions in the upper and lower bristlecone trails, and our route did not quite equal 30 miles nor did it come anywhere near 10 thousand. We were unsupported and hoped to filter water at wood spring, it was dry. The week before we had found an elk guzzler near the parking lot of bonanza trailhead and marked its location on our map. We filtered at the guzzler, which our gps track shows, and hiked back to our start at upper bristlecone. Anyone repeating this route unsupported should not rely on any water as the elk guzzlers are unreliable and wood spring is a mud seep.
