[pct-l] Amount of water containers

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Apr 20, 2009, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> 5) Don't camp in the middle of a long waterless stretch. I disagree  
> with
> Jardine on this one. I remember he had a bunch of strategies for  
> doing long
> waterless stretches that involved "dry camping" in the middle. But  
> for me,
> camping is a surefire way to use up water quickly and not gain any  
> mileage
> for it. You may be different, but I tend to use up a lot of water  
> in camp.

I agree with you on this one. (I didn't disagree with the others,  
either.) I tended to use almost 2 quarts of water in camp. Some to  
make food and the rest to drink during the night because I was  
thirsty. (Strange how I changed from someone who would not drink near  
the end of the day for fear of having to get up in the middle of the  
night to pee to someone who would go to sleep with a belly full of  
water and drink throughout the night. Peeing in the middle of the  
night no longer bothered me.)

In mosquito country I learned that it didn't kill me to fill up my 2  
quarts and hike on another mile or two. It helped get me away from  
mosquitos, it was water carried at the end of the day when it wasn't  
quite so hot, and sometimes I even just held the bottle in my hands  
which seemed to feel less like hauling heavy water and more like I  
was just looking for a good campsite.

So now I can see some value in dry camping beyond a water source.