Hiking

Image by Earthworm via Flickr

Water, Water Everywhere . . .

. . . and not a drop to drink – well, not quite!

Hikers, Backpackers and all back country campers need to take the subject of water bottles & treatment very seriously indeed . . . after all, you can survive for a few days without food (some of us carry a larger “reserve” than others) but you ain’t gonna get far without water . . . especially with all of that hiking and climbing, using up valuable energy on a hot (or even a cold) day.

How Much Water Should a Hiker Carry

Hikers and back packers really need to carry as much water as they can . . . you very rarely have too much water when you’re hiking, but you will often find that you wish you had a little more.  The actual recommended amounts of water you should carry on a hike do vary from expert to expert (like everything else around here), some reckon that you should carry a minimum of 2 liters of water per person, others say 4 – 6 liters is nearer the mark. If you get the opportunity to fill up your water bottles somewhere along the hiking trail – take it, you never know when the next water source may have dried up!

You won’t just get thirsty if you don’t keep hydrated, all sorts of other nasty symptoms can start too . . .

• Headaches – major headaches, not just those niggling ones which spoil your partners fun . . . I’m talking the type of headache which makes putting one foot in front of the other mighty painful, which is a bit of a problem because hiking and back packing does involve a lot of putting one foot in front of the other.
• Fatigue – not the type of fatigue which can be fixed by parking your fanny on a rock for five minutes to get your breath after a hefty climb . . . real proper fatigue which you can’t shake off because you are de-hydrated.
• Muscle cramps – not very nice at all!
• Mountain sickness
• Heat stroke
• Heat exhaustion

Yes, all of these symptoms are magnified greatly if you don’t have enough water to drink. Keeping yourself suitably hydrated is a major part of back country survival.

Don’t Drink The Water . . . Or Can I

You are very likely to come across a natural water source on your hike, and as I’ve already said once on this page (I’m beginning to sound like my gran . . . I know I’m always repeating myself but for very good reason so don’t be cheeky or you’ll go to bed without supper – aaahhh, it’s happening again) – anyway,  never pass up the opportunity to fill up your water bottles and reservoirs “en route” (very continental) but how do you know if the water is safe to drink? And what can you do if it ain’t? Even the purest looking sparkling stream or babbling brooke could be home to microscopic pathogens . . . they’re microscopic so you can’t see ‘em with your naked eye (or even with your eye glasses) but that doesn’t mean that they can’t strike you down with a severe dose of cramps, vomiting, diarrhea and fever, not pleasant at the best of times, but even worse when you’re wilderness hiking in the middle of nowhere.

Back packers, hikers and back country campers (those who don’t have access to water taps and hot showers . . . you can often recognize them by the smell) need to make sure that any water they come across in their travels is safe to drink . . . and for that they may need to embark upon a water treatment or purification procedure to be absolutely sure that there is no bacteria or lurgies lurking in the water which will make them ill. It all sounds very scientific, in fact it IS very scientific but don’t worry, hiking and backpacking equipment experts have done all of the hard work and scientific experiments so you don’t have to. There are many water filtration systems available which just get simpler and simpler.

He seems to have plenty of good ideas. Warning – if you use too much bleach it can have side effects . . . just look at what happened to Simon Cowells teeth.

Carrying Your Water Bottle

Packers & Hikers should not have any excuse not to carry water bottles . . . because backpacks are designed with hydration in mind. Good quality backpacks will have ample storage pockets to carry your water bottles within easy reach, or an increasingly popular option is to use a backpack with a built-in hydration system or the capacity to carry one. These backpacks which have a drinking tube are particularly easy to use . . . you don’t even have to stop hiking to take a sip, just keep on walking and sipping throughout the day.

Camping & Water Containers

Don’t forget to take a suitable water container on a family camping trip either!