Hey Guys,
Ya, if you're traveling alone, you should be a bit more prepared. I have a pretty good story for you -
Years ago my Cousin and I were heading back deep into the Tip Top area in my old 1985 Toyota 4x4 with a 3-inch lift. The little truck was setup for prospecting, still wish I owned it. We were travel back in the night, as we both got a wild hair one night in Prescott and decided to head out for a prospecting trip. It must have been at least 10pm or so, we crossed a guy walking the road. It was a huge surprise to see anyone this deep into the backhills, but he broke down in his sand rail and was hiking out. He was out of water, had no supplies whatsoever. He kind of scared us, as back then we were just young pubs. We both told the guy we would give him some supplies, but we were heading back deeper in the hills and would be coming out the following afternoon. We agreed to pick him up on the way out, as we were not going to allow him to camp with us.
The guy was a bit strange, we didn't know if he was some type of loose criminal or what. Figured the supplies we gave him would last him overnight and if he really needed a ride out he would be waiting for us at some point on the road. That evening we had a hard time sleeping, thinking the guy was going to sneak up on us .... LOL Believe it or not, we actually kind of hide the truck out on a high road where we could watch below us until the next morning. We spent 4-5 hours detecting and then headed back out. We were both curious if the guy would still be there. We actually found his broke down sand rail, so that was a valid story. Looks like he broke a tie arm on the front drivers side. He didn't have any supplies, as we quickly looked over the broken down sand rail.
We passed the spot where we dropped him off and about a mile further down the road, there he was!! He was sitting on the side of the road waiting for us. We talked with him for a bit, he said he just wanted to get to New River so he could make a phone call. I asked him if he needed more water or food, but he said he would settle on a cold beer. We got him back into New River and he made a call and was able to get someone he knew to pick him up and head back into the area and get the sand rail out.
I really don't think the guy would have walked his way out of there. He was at least 20 miles back into the back country with NO water, NO Food or NO supplies. It was just starting to get warm in the afternoon, so my best guess it was around April - May.
I personally take about a case of water when I head out into the hills. Normally I will have 3-4 larger Gatoraide's also for the trip and food. I figure I could go at least 3-4 days with minimal food if I had plenty of fluids to keep in me. I also always have 3-4 Granola bars and several small packs of Nuts that have plenty of Salt.