How hard is it to get used to drinking tepid water on the trail. Does ice in your water become a delicacy? I know much comes from cool sources but after toting it a mile or two it has to warm up.
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How hard is it to get used to drinking tepid water on the trail. Does ice in your water become a delicacy? I know much comes from cool sources but after toting it a mile or two it has to warm up.
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Never been a problem for me. I have found that backpacking has the life-changing benefit of learning to not making yourself miserable by wanting unnecessary things you can't have. You can be happy or miserable. It's your choice.
Perhaps a thread on this subject could enliven White Blaze's 'Humor Forum'.
For me backpacking, or for that matter simply doing low mileage back country camping, is very enjoyable. That's because I have never tried to replicate the "comforts of home" out in the woods.
Not having iced beverages to drink during warm days is the least of the attitude adjustments that backpackers continually make. Even during my very first backpacking trips, made back during the Paleolithic Era, I did not even notice the temperature of the water that I drank. I was instead preoccupied instead with learning how to **** in the woods, feel comfortable walking alone there, and getting sleep at night lying on the ground in an initially unfamiliar environment.
Last edited by Siestita; 05-21-2018 at 14:22.
I asked the same question:
https://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/sho...ste?highlight=
I never give it a second thought. Water is water. But it bothers my one of my desert hiking partners. He says he can never feel refreshed after drinking warm water. But he sucks it up and goes hiking anyway.
I chemically treat with chlorine dioxide rather than filter so I have to wait a bit to drink my water on trail rather than drink it fresh from the source when it's at its coldest. This has never bothered me much. But it's also true that I avoid hiking during times of year when it's really hot. I discovered on my last section hike that this makes a difference. It turned unseasonably hot on the last four days of that early May hike. Temps in the high 80s or hotter. And by the third day I found myself fantasizing about COLD drinks. You know, the way long distance hikers start obsessing and talking about certain foods. Well, that was me, only my hankering was for something as simple as cold water.
So when I came to the first road crossing after Dragon's Tooth and unexpectedly found a cooler of ice cold drinks in the back of a pick-up with a sign telling hikers to help themselves, it's difficult to describe the pleasure I experienced at downing a half-liter bottle of ice cold Aquafina. It was perhaps the single happiest moment I experienced on that particular hike. So I now empathize with those with a yen for cold water in a way I wouldn't have a month ago.
Last edited by map man; 05-21-2018 at 08:20.
Life Member: ATC, ALDHA, Superior Hiking Trail Association
Water temp doesn't bother me. I have been known to drink water that has been sitting in a car in direct sunlight all day. Only time I have ice in anything is at a restaurant. All about what you are used to.
AT: 695.7 mi
Benton MacKaye Trail '20
Pinhoti Trail '18-19'
@leonidasonthetrail https://www.youtube.com/c/LeonidasontheTrail
Its a commin outta the ground, its quite cool. If you don't spend time filtering all your water when you get it, and only a bottle at a time, then if you haven drank the dirty water by the time you get to the next source then you can dump it out, and get cold water again.
Trail Miles: 4,980.5
AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
Foothills Trail: 47.9
AT Map 2: 279.4
BMT: 52.7
CDT: 85.4
Sometimes was a problem, even when I was thirsty. I would add a sleeve of some kind of flavoring - preferably something with a little nutrition.
After filtering and adding the chem tabs, I had to wait a minimum of 30 minutes. Usually, it wasn't TOO warm. Between far off water sources is when it got warm(ish).
Old Hiker
AT Hike 2012 - 497 Miles of 2184
AT Thru Hiker - 29 FEB - 03 OCT 2016 2189.1 miles
Just because my teeth are showing, does NOT mean I'm smiling.
Hányszor lennél inkább máshol?
I do the majority of my water drinking around water sources, so it's usually pretty cold. Any sipping in between sources the water usually still stays cool unless it's a super hot day. When it does warm up I'm usually so thirsty that I don't really notice once I've been out a few days. What I do notice on a hot day is how cold the some water is right out of the source.
AT: 2007-2019 (45 sections)
JMT: 2013
In some parts of the world, people only drink warm/hot broiled water. Warm/hot water, actually, has more benefit to your body. If you do long distance thru-hike, you will soon learn to let go all the unnecessary things you believe you definitely can't live without.
I started my "desert career" in the Middle East in summertime.
It was terribly hot.
The only thing I cared about water was, that it was not too hot to burn my mouth (which happened once).
From then on I like drinking warm or hot water more than cold one.
Here in the Alps, most water sources are so cold that you can't guzzle it down, you can take small amounts at a time only, which easily leads to dehydration (if a mild one).
I like much more like the luke-warm water from my drinking bottle.
I was wondering the same thing. I have a couple containers that keep water cold for 24 hours. The problem is they are heavy.
I'm seriously thinking about taking the weight penalty and bringing the small one as a luxury item.
You can make a cozy for your water bottle. I have one for my coffee bottle and my water bottle. Keeps them nice and hot/cold for several miles.
Blackheart
You may build a desert fridge :
Keep the cozy wet and hang the bottle in a shady windy place.
When it’s hot and my water bottles have heated up, the cold stream becomes that much more enjoyable!
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I most places except during the worst of summer the water is generally cool, at least for a nobo.
I remember a few quite chilly creeks in Vermont near the end of July
I've dragged many a cooler full of nice cold adult beverages up a mountain side. It's a matter of willpower really...