How do you physically carry enough water for a multi-day trip?

[HeikeDog]

If you're not a big, strapping guy ...?

My 16yo son and I are heading to Big Bend for Spring Break, and the only thing that really worries me now that we have some overnight hiking experience under our belts is carrying enough water.  Is one gallon per person per day a rule of thumb without taking body size into consideration?  Do I as a 5'4", 110-lb, reasonably fit person really need a gallon per day?  I don't want to do anything at all that will jeopardize our safety, but 24 pounds of water leaves me precious little carrying weight for anything else.  My 6' son will be lugging the tent and the few other shared items.  We've lightened up our equipment as much as is reasonable for the amount of hiking we do, but the water weight is something I can't find a less heavy solution for.  Any ideas?  How do smaller people carry enough water plus all the other necessities?

We're going to take our time and do the South Rim trail over a Sunday - Tuesday.  We're not in a rush and want to enjoy the peace and quiet away from our mile-a-minute hectic urban lives.

Thanks!

Lesley

[Casa Grande]

Where are you hiking?  Depending on where you're hiking and whether or not you're going to be around flowing springs will determine if you need to carry a ton of water or not.

Investing in a water purifier  and water caching (pre-placing water in strategic locations along your route) will help.

[Juan Cuatro Lados]

Good advice from Casa Grande.  You can get away with a gallon a day in cool weather in a shady place
but climbing hills etc. in the sun & heat you could easily need twice that, so a lot depends ... if you go up and down
via the same route you can cache some on the way up and drink it going down, also chug a huge bellyfull
before you hit the trail so as to delay the need to drink for a while, long sleeves and a wide hat help.......

[Jimbow]

Some of the water is for keeping clean. If you are heading to the Chisos area you may wish to consider getting a permit for Boulder Meadow and using it for a base to day hike to the South Rim and another to Emory Peak. It is a medium difficult trip to the campsite from the Basin but it is easy enough to make two trips. One with gear and some water, another with just a load of water. Stay there a couple or three nights. You will need to make a bit of a climb each day to reach the upper Chisos, but it will be with a lighter day pack. Be sure to explore the area off trail.

[eddie]

My wife and I have taken many backpacking trips up into the Chisos and also into the Quemada's. We almost always go at Christmas time so it is cool, and we normally go for three days and two nights. We have breakfast and dinner at the campround or Chisos Lodge the morning of the first day before we leave and evening of the third day, after we return. We take 13 liters total between the two of us, and alway have plenty of water when we return and never feel deprived when we are camping. I weigh 180 lbs and my wife 130.  Hope this helps. 

[SHANEA]

Dehydrated water is one option.  I prefer light water myself.  Powdered water has just hit the market.  Do a Yahoo on dehydrated or powdered water or light water.     

[dkerr24]

Hi Lesley - There really isn't much water to be found in the upper Chisos unless you can find some in Boot Springs.

An option would be to get there a day early and haul a few gallons up the trail and stash it.  I think lack of water is why you don't read about many folks spending more than a night or two in the upper Chisos.  It's just physically impossible to carry enough water for more than a 2 night stay up there.

Another option would be to plan only a 1 night stay in the upper Chisos, then pick some other desert hikes that do pass natural sources of water, or just do dayhikes and use your vehicle as a base station for resupply.

I go through more than 1.5 gals per day myself, so I could not stay more than one night in the upper Chisos.  When I hiked the Outer Moutain Loop, I was able to supplement my water by finding water in Fresno Creek and with a water stash I left at Homer Wilson Ranch.

All my other multi-day desert hikes have been in places like Grand Canyon where fresh water is readily found in many of the side canyons that flow into the Colorado River.  Even hardened desert hikers would be pressing their luck and endurance to go more than 2 days without a water resupply along the route.

For that matter, big strapping guys usually go through more water than normal sized folks

Darin

[steelfrog]

I have had the opposite experience--and I am a pretty big strapper (6' 215); I sweat a lot too.  I don't drink usually anywhere near a gallon a day, especially first day, partly owing to the fact that I hyperhydrate for half a day before the hike (that is, drink like a madman).  When I hyperhydtrate, I drink about 16 oz to get to the Rim.  After that, the exertion is pretty minimal.  You kinda have to know your consumption, etc.  But do consider that if you hyperhydrate, that will largely keep you good for at least half a day; and then you got another half day, and then the next day, and then you can run dry for a while coming down without too much trouble.  Great thing about the Chisos is once you are up there you are never more than 2-3 hours from the Basin; just monitor your remaining water and deccend when necessary.  IMO.

[FatPacker]

I would pile most of the water on your 16 year old........ he can handle it!
My 17 year old once told me "I don't have time to pack my stuff before we go.... will you do it for me?"     He did not slow down, or realize he had ALL our water (for 3 of us) until we got all the way to the SE3 campsite... ha ha ha..... that taught him a good lesson. 
Also, if you are starting on Sunday and returning on Tuesday, then in all reality you are only going to be up there for a little more than 2 whole days..... 1 gallon/day/each always worked for our family.

[Jimbow]

Also, look for lighter weight containers for the water. Most people find dromedary bags work the best. The last thing you want to have happen is to spring a leak or have the top come off cheap plastic jugs. If you do decide to use the bottles that water is sold in,  beware the round Ozarka bottles are not a gallon. They look like they would stack so neatly with the necks fitting the hollow bottom, but check the capacity.

[Homer67]

My wife and I did a 5-nighter on the OML in November...I hauled a 3-L hydration bladder and two gallon jugs, while my wife carried a 3-L bladder and 1 gallon jug; we each also had a 20 oz bottle in a pocket on the outside of our backpacks for easy mixing of some electrolyte substance.  This was enough water for the haul through the Dodson; we rolled into the Homer Wilson with about 4 oz left, but we did make soup a couple of nights.  This was a good thing as it put back the salts we had lost.  We refilled with a "full load" at the cache near the Homer Wilson and hiked up Blue Creek, eventually up to the rim and out Juniper (via Boot Canyon)...we each had a good bit of water in our hydration bladders left when we reached the Juniper Canyon/Dodson trailhead where our truck was on that 6th day.

It was a bit of a haul, but it wasn't too bad.  I did have to bring the 4-season tent (9lbs 8 oz), but this allowed for us to use our light sleep pads (Z-lites, 14 oz each) and light sleep bags (1 lb each), a trade off from the -20 deg bags (4 lbs 15 oz) and the 4-season thermarest (3 lbs 8 oz) and a lighter tent (5 lbs); I suppose I could have saved a little weight with the 4-season stuff if we had used the siltarp (7 oz) to make "roof" over us.

We had to lighten up on a lot of things due to the weight of the water, so I took only the socks/undies I would need and wore the same pants the whole time. We did have clean shirts/socks/undies in our cache and we compressed our garbage and used socks et al and put them in a zipped-up bag in the cache box and retrieved them after we completed the hike. I have to give my girl kudos on her meal planning; she kept it light and tight. It all worked well as we worked in tandem carrying what we would need.  We also used the Esbit stove and pared down the contents of the mess kit to just what we would need. We used to haul a big first aid kit, but we even pared that down.  Our headlamps provided enough light, so no other light source was taken.

So for us it was a trade off in what gear to use and what we would leave behind.  It is my preference to spend as many days on a continual overnighter as we can on our trips, and this means hauling a lot of water! This has also taught us what is necessary and what is not...each trip is still a learning experience in this regard!

Here are a couple of photos to enjoy!

Sandi Outlook After Dodson Creek by Superhomer670, on Flickr


Sandi making Bokchoy and chicken soup with some dehydrated something by Superhomer670, on Flickr

If you are interested in our hike of the OML, here is a link to my trip report:
http://www.bigbendchat.com/portal/forum/your-trip-reports/doing-it/

Homer

[steelfrog]

I find what works best are the thin, crushable 16 oz water bottles you can buy 24 of for about $3.  You can stuff them all sorts of places, in outer pockets, in pants pockets, hold one or 2 in your hand at first, etc; and when done, crush and put lid on and they pack easy; if you filter water, blow them back up and they're easy to pump water into.

[fartymarty]

I can't say that their water is better than any of the others, but the Fiji water bottles have a square cross section. That shape it makes it very easy to pack five or seven (3 up and 2 down 2 up) of them up close to your back when packing a backpack. YRMV. They don't do so well in the outside pockets of most packs however, so some careful container water transferring must be done before the next day.

[HeikeDog]

Thanks, everyone!

Carrying two gallons sounds a whole lot better than three!  We're going to do a practice trip to Pedernales Falls this weekend carrying two gallons each just to experiment with the weight.  I think it will be OK once we work out load balancing.

Lesley

[Homer67]

The gallon jugs work very well for us.  I usually cut the first to go dry into a urinal for my wife so she doesn't have to brave the cold at night; she usually hands it to me to get out and dispose of or will simply place it outside the tent until morning. They also make decent staging for water filtering; I would usually cut the jug open (pretty much in the same manner as making a urinal) and fill it with water from the source I wish to filter from.  I do this to let any sediment settle before filtering.