Hydration and Water Treatment

It’s important to bring water with you when you go day hiking to replace the fluid you lose to perspiration, help keep you more alert and flush waste products out of your body.  Not bringing enough water can lead to discomfort, while bringing too much can slow you down. How …

Water treatment and purification are as important in cold weather as they are the rest of the year. Protozoa, bacteria, and cysts don’t go to sleep when temperature dip near or below freezing, nor do beavers, mice, deer, rabbits and all the other animals of the forest that can contaminate the …

For most hikers, the Pacific Crest Trail begins in a blazing desert without encountering a sure water source for just over twenty miles. The trend continues – for the first 700 miles there is little shade, temperatures often reach over 100 degrees and water is infrequent or several miles off …

Winter hikers and snowshoers often have difficulty staying properly hydrated in cold weather because winter hiking is physically more challenging and the physical act of drinking is more involved than simply sipping from a hydration hose, what with heavy winter gloves and insulated containers. I usually carry two or three …

When selecting a place to camp at night, most backpackers like to choose a location close to water. At 2 pounds per liter, water is often the heaviest thing in your backpack and you don’t want to have to carry it very far if you can avoid it. Especially at …

Water is one of the heaviest things in your backpack at at 2 pounds per liter it can really weigh you down if you carry to0 much of it when you don’t need to. I used to do this all of the time, first as a day hiker and then later …

I didn’t put two and two together when I was experiencing the symptoms of heat exhaustion during a high exertion hike last week, but after a friend pointed it out to me, I realized that I’d had a close call. While I’d taken precautions against the sunlight and heat such as …

When you’re out on a long day hike or a backpacking trip, you will eventually run out of water and need to resupply. When that happens, it helps to understand what’s a good water source and what’s an iffy one. Water Sources to Avoid Here are some general rules of …

I have never been a fan of sports recovery drinks or powders like Gatorade and don’t normally use them for 3 season backpacking because I feel that frequent all day snacking with unprocessed foods provides me with adequate calories and sodium. However, I just finished a book called Extreme Alpinism: Climbing …

If you own a water filter for backpacking or camping, it’s really important to prevent it from freezing in cold weather because it can seize up or crack when it thaws. Either of these conditions are bad news because you run the risk of drinking contaminated water than can make …