Hydration

: Image by wynlok via Flickr

The importance of hydration and hydration planning for hiking and backpacking can’t be overstated. Here’s an account that will hopefully illustrate what I mean.

I never really thought much about water or how much to drink. I would drink when I was thirsty, and that was usually during a break in the game, from a bottle in my backpack, or in most cases, during meals.

After a hike on the Appalachian Trail ten years ago, I have become something of a hydration evangelist. It was late July near Palmerton, Pennsylvania, and the air temperature was nearly a hundred degrees, which was quite unusual for that area. In spite of the heat, and even though there had already been a long drought, my brother and I packed two days worth of water for our five-day hike. This would save weight, and we could find more along the trail.

With a number of springs near the Blue Ridge Mountain, we planned our days accordingly, intending to minimize our load and hiking a certain number of miles per day. Water is heavy, after all, and we thought that a lighter load would mean a faster pace, which would give more opportunities to refill our canteens.

By the end of the first day, we had used up all of our water, and the first spring was a considerable distance down the ridge. The rocky terrain was far worse than we had accounted for, and the heat had slowed our progress. We were already two days behind our plan, but we slung our hammocks and waited for the morning.