[pct-l] Water cache techniques

[jmertes@verizon.net (John Mertes)]

Don,

    I'm in no ways an expert having cached water only once. I hoped someone with more expertiese would have spoke up.

    Last year a Friend and I did the Hat Creek Rim portion of the PCT over 3 days (we're not through hikers, we're thorough hikers <g>). We did it the easy way -- bought gallon jugs of drinking water for our cache. Already sealed and
presumably good for a while. We cached the water in the shade a little ways off the trail (100 meters or so) and out of sight from the trail. I also used my GPS to mark the location of the caches as a backup means of locating. We had no
trouble finding our caches of water. However keep in mind that the locale where you cache the water can look a lot different when you approach it on the trail compared to when you drive and hike in to cache the water. We cached 3 gallons
for 2 people per day; and based on this one experience, this was not quite enough. We didn't go thirsty but we scrimped on water for cleaning ourselves and the pots.
    Another advantage of the store bought jugged water -- when empty the jugs are light and easy to crush so you can pack them out with minimal added weight. No matter where you cache your water, I would conceal it from view both from the
trail and from any nearby road. I think the drinking water jugs offer an advantage in that they are already sealed and thus relatively easy to detect tampering.

    As I recall Colin Fletcher wrote about food and water caches in one of his Compleat Walker books; don't have a reference handy.

    No matter where you cache your water, I would conceal it from view both from the trail and from any nearby road. I think the drinking water jugs offer an advantage in that they are already sealed and thus relatively easy to detect
tampering.

Hope this helps.

John

Don C wrote 28 May 2002:

> Are there any tricks for caching water?  Are there container types that should not be used, do you seal the containers in any way, do you put anything in the water, should it be stored in shade, how long can water stay at a cache, etc.
>
> Thanks
>