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How much drinking water
do you need? |
How should you carry it? That is what this
chapter is about. It is sure to annoy some backpacking gear
manufacturers.
First, how much water do you need? This has no simple answer.
Your fluid requirements will vary greatly depending on the
environment you are in and what you are doing. Backpacking in
the Arizona desert, you may be drinking two gallons of water per
day. Camping in cooler locations, and not hiking much, you could
get by on a fourth of that.
Bottom line? Drink as much as you need. If you are very thirsty,
or your urine is very yellow, you probably should be drinking
more. The important question is this:
How much drinking water do you need to carry to safely and
conveniently get you from one water supply to the next?
You see, unless you are just day hiking, you will never be carrying all
the water you need for a trip. You will be refilling at lakes,
streams and faucets, or melting snow. What you need to know
then, is how much to carry so you won't run out between these
points.
If you are hiking a chain of lakes, you could get by with one
water bottle that holds just sixteen ounces. If, on the other
hand, you are hiking in a desert, where there may be a full day
between drinking water sources, you may need to carry two
plastic gallon jugs of water. Estimate how far you will travel
between the two furthest-apart water sources during your trip.
Then figure how much water you need for that and add more for
safety. This will tell you what your water carrying capacity
should be.
In several decades of backpacking, I have never heard a
backpacker say, "My plastic water bottle broke." Why is this
relevant? Because I have heard many complaints about broken
"hydration systems" and leaky valves and "water bladders." These
devices have their place for runners or other athletes, perhaps,
but for backpacking, they are just technological toys.
Let's review the problems with water bladders:
- They are heavy: Even the lightest weigh more than simple
plastic bottles.
- They are hard to clean: They even sell cleaning kits for them
(one more thing to carry).
- The bladders get punctured easily.
- The valves break.
- They require special backpack pockets to use them properly.
- They are expensive.
Bottom line: There are better ways to carry your drinking water.
More precisely, there is one better way - simple plastic
bottles. More on that in a moment.
There is one other water container worth mentioning. It is the
plastic bladder from a box of wine. They hold about six liters,
and weigh less than three ounces. They cost less than regular
backpacking water bladders, and come with five liters of wine as
part of the price. If you drink wine anyhow, they effectively
cost you nothing - that makes it less painful if they break.
They are tough, however. I have inflated and jumped on them
without breaking them. They can be punctured, of course, and I
would always carry a simple plastic bottle as a back-up.
One other advantage is that they can be used as a pillow. Just
inflate one halfway with air. Put it inside a sweater and it is
pretty comfortable. Or, to cool off in the summer, you can use
it as a pillow while you still have your drinking water in it.
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Avoid making fires on soils that aren't mostly minerals. Roots have been
known to catch fire from simple campfires, and burn underground
for days. Under the right conditions, the fire can then
resurface and start forest fire.
Hiking in the arctic? Here's a quick survival tip to keep in mind: In all
the stories of arctic survival I have read, bird eggs seem to be
one of the most common saviors of people lost in the arctic.
There are no trees for the birds to nest in, so collecting eggs
isn't usually too difficult. Of course, you have to be there at
the right time of the year.
UV radiation from sunlight destroys nylon over time. Don't leave
your tent set up in the yard for days. If you spend a lot of
time camping at high altitude (where UV rays are strongest) you
may want to coat the tent's rainfly with a UV blocking
treatment.
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