[pct-l] How much water to carry

[Bill Potter]

I had read that a person drinks about a liter of water every 7-8 miles.  Until yesterday, that was exactly what I was drinking preparing for my through hike.

However, yesterday a friend and I hiked Mt Diablo.  It's only about 10 miles round trip but about 3500 feet of elevation gain.  I was about half way down when I ran out of my second liter of water and I'd been rationing.  We stopped at the first fast food restaurant and downed a huge root beer I was so thirsty.  It made me realize that water intake is really based on distance, difficulty and heat. The more difficult and the hotter it is the more water you need.  Yesterday was harder than the hikes I'd been doing and hotter.

It was a good lesson and I'm going to do more hikes with significant elevation gain and in the heat of the day to really learn what my water intake is. 


> > Is a 3 liter camel plus one platypus enough or should one carry more
> water
> > capacity?  Thank you for your advice, Pamela
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >