[pct-l] Water Consumption - desert

[John Abela]

Hello All,

Here is how I approach the issue of water usage - this is just me and
some generalized averages based on my hiking over the last year (I
typically hike 4 days a week at this point)

I average 1 liter of water every 5 miles. This is just what makes me
feel good. It allows me to stop every half mile or so for around a
minute or two -- pull off my pack, grab my bottle, take a breather, a
swallow or two of water, look around, throw my pack back on and hit
the trail again. This is just the pattern I have fallen into over the
last year+.

On most days I can hike around 5 miles in 90 minutes (about what I do
unless there are elevation changes of 1000f+ at which point it drops
to around 4.5 miles in 90 minutes) and if I hike an average of 10
hours a day (which would put me at around 30 miles a day) it would
mean I consume around 6.5 liters of water a day just for hiking.

Add another 1 liter of water for hydration of food (I cold-cook and
rarely stop to eat lunch) so this puts me at around 7.5-8 liters of
water a day.

That means 2 through 2.2 gallons of water a day - uggh.

My goal over the next year is to try to reduce the amount of water
intake I consume. I would really like to be able to get down to around
1 liter for every 8-10 miles to reduce my water needs by 45% of so.
Going to try to slowly reduce the amount of water I intake over my
hikes and see if I can do it without any issues.

Planning a 400 mile hike in NorCal later this year that will really
put my water consumption skills to the test for about 250 miles. Hate
the fact that my 6 pound pack turns into a 13 pound pack just because
of 3 liters of water (2 hydration+1food).

John