updates on water on the Kaibab Plateau?

[VermontGal]

We are planning to do a route, perhaps similar to ChadB's, that is something close to but not quite the same as the Kaibab 125.  (We are so not racers.)  We will roughly bike in from near the Kaibab Lodge, do the Rainbow Rim, out to Sublime, to N Rim, AZ trail to East Rim, continue N on AZ trail for a while and then loop back on the west side of the paved road, around 130 miles.

I'm looking for updated info on water in case anyone has any.

• There was a fire this summer just north of Quaking Aspen Spring - which many had reported to be a reliable water source.  Has anyone been there since the fire to have a report?
• Another wild card is Kanabownits Spring.  Some have said no water.  Others have said yes.  I talked to a ranger last fall who indicated that there might be water but pretty mucked up by cows.  (I'm ok with that; I both filter and use tablets.)  There has also been a fire near (but not right to?) Kanabownits Spring in 2014.  Any beta?

Thanks!

[Smo]

For water mucked up by cows I'd recommend carrying a little bit of Alum (which you can find at the spice section of a grocery store).  Best to save your filter from the worst of the muck.  Add a pinch of alum to a gallon of water, stir it for a few minutes, then wait 30-45 minutes.  Figuring out how much to add is the hardest part (more is not better, it can fail to work completely if you do that).  Gallon ziplock freeze bags are a great ultralight collapsible bucket for this, and you can try different concentrations of alum in different bags without carrying much extra weight.

Even if you don't carry alum, letting the water settle overnight in ziplocks would help if you're camping near the spring.

So this isn't really on your route but it's good info to know in a pinch - there's a very good spring down off the rim at the Muav saddle from Swamp point.  It's a 1 mile hike from the trailhead on a good trail, 800 feet of loss and gain.  It's called Queen Anne's spring in this list of water sources:

http://grandcanyonbackcountryguide.com/Grand_Canyon_Water_Sources.xls

Unfortunately that file is mostly about below-the-rim water sources (which is where most of the water is in the GC).  Interestingly, it also mentions a spring accessible from Fire Point, which might be less of a detour off of your route.  But deer trails and route-finding were also mentioned, so it's not to be taken lightly.

[VermontGal]

Thanks, I know the alum trick for silty water but hadn't thought about it for cows vs. western river water.  Will plan to take some along.  Thanks also for the link on other water sources.