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View Full Version : staying hydrated



chris
10-22-2002, 12:25
Since this is nominally food related, I thought I would post this here. What are people's strategies for staying hydrated? Here are a couple of mine.

I think we all know how important it is to stay hydrated while out for a hike of more than a few hours. During normal spring-summer temps, I tend to drink about 6 liters of water per day, usually one in the morning, 3 on trail, 1 with dinner, and 1 just before going to bed. Drinking 6 L of iodized water can get rather dull after a while. Bringing drink mixes is an easy way to drink more fluids. As is obvious, mixes with sugar (like Gatorade, etc), weigh a fair bit. However, mixes with artificial sweeteners, like Crystal Light, weigh almost nothing. Some of the flavors actually taste good. During the winter, lots of powdered hot soup workds extremely well.

DebW
10-22-2002, 17:02
quick question: If you add sugared or flavored mixes to your water bottle, do you then need to store it in your bear bag overnight? That's one reason I don't use them. I always need to drink during the night so keep my water bottle in my tent.

wacocelt
10-22-2002, 17:55
Never cross water while carrying water. If I come to a drinkable source while still toting water i'll drink what i'm carrying and refill. If I happen to be in a drought area then i'll sit and drink 2 quarts, perhaps eat a snack, then fill every container I am carrying.

EarlyRiser
10-22-2002, 21:10
I think its usualy recomended to hang anything that smells strongly so if you use drink mixes you should probably hang your bottle. what i do, is i have two bottles, i keep one for just water and one i can put mixes in if i want to. i also know people who have one regular water bottle and another much smaller that they use for things like hot chocolate which you dont usualy drink a whole lot of so its ok not to have an entire liter of it. they then hang that bottle. its probably ok to keep a watter bottle with you even if its had mix in it, but i figure its just safer to hang it.

chris
10-23-2002, 08:28
The only time I'll hang a water container is if it still contains the flavored water. So, if I've already consumed the flavored water and have put regular water in the container, I don't bother with hanging it.