How much water?

[Newtosavage]

When you leave the truck, how much water is typically in your pack for a day. How much for multi-day trips?

Obviously, water is one of the heaviest things we will carry. I'm just curious what folks water strategy is.

 

[duchntr]

Entirely terrain dependent, If going high for an extended stay where no water is, Ill hump more to the top, likewise if Im in a water a rich area I won't be carrying extra, 32oz is pretty standard though.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Generally 4 Liters.
Unless I know exactly where I'm going and the water sources.
I may just leave with 1-2 and bulk up on the way.
But if it's new country 4 or maybe even 4 plus a 16oz bottle.
But I sweat alot and usually drink 6 liters a day. So I got be careful where I hunt.

 

[Rokwiia]

If you know where you're going, you can study a topo map of the area to determine the access to water. I would never go out in the wilderness, even for a day hike, without having reviewed a topo map. I try to look at the map and envision the terrain in 3D and almost walk it before I ever set foot there. In so doing, you'll know where streams and ponds are.

Where I am, water is plentiful so bringing a filter allows for having to bring little water.

 

[Newtosavage]

If you know where you're going, you can study a topo map of the area to determine the access to water. I would never go out in the wilderness, even for a day hike, without having reviewed a topo map. I try to look at the map and envision the terrain in 3D and almost walk it before I ever set foot there. In so doing, you'll know where streams and ponds are.

Where I am, water is plentiful so bringing a filter allows for having to bring little water.

That doesn't work in many places. I couldn't tell you how many ponds and springs I've seen on topo maps that are dry when I got there. Good way to really be screwed a long way from the truck. If you're in an area where the springs and ponds are really reliable, then yea, maybe so.

4 liters of water is nearly 9 lbs. Add that to a pack for multi-day trips that's already 30 lbs. and it makes up 25% of the pack weight.

I once did 52 miles in the Guadalupe Mts. of W. Tex, carrying all my water the whole way. Started out with a 5 gallon collapsable container in my pack that weighed 60 lbs. total. But I was younger then. LOL

I'm trying to find ways to cut weight and water seems to be an obvious place. My purifier weighs nearly a pound, and I've been looking at lighter options there but just haven't pulled the trigger on one yet.

I did 8 miles yesterday on 1 L of water. For whatever reason, I don't drink as much as most folks do. Maybe because I don't sweat that much? I'm going to start packing 2 L / day and 1L for day trips and see where that gets me.

 

[ChrisAU]

The area we chose has good access to water, its a determining factor in where we camp. Both my hunting partner and I functioned well this past elk season using two 1L smart water bottles and carrying dirty water bags with water in them only when needed. If we knew we were hiking high away from water we'd fill up a dirty water bag or two (3-4L) and filter those when our bottles got empty. Always made sure we stopped and guzzled some extra when we'd hit a good water source when hiking around. Generally we were fine filling up our two bottles in the morning and finding some mid day to refill with, though a couple days we knew we'd planned to be away from water sources we toted the water bags.

 

[5MilesBack]

I'm trying to find ways to cut weight and water seems to be an obvious place.

I'll generally have my 3L bladder full and sometimes add a couple 16.9oz bottles of Arrowhead Spring Water with WA H&R in them. So about 8lbs of water for a normal day. The nice thing is......the pack gets lighter and lighter as the day goes on. But I rarely ever skimp on water. Hunting in high altitude dehydrates you even more, and those dehydration headaches can be a real bear. That's why I over-hydrate and am up peeing 1-2 quarts every night. Don't like those headaches.

Where I do get into trouble is on those pre-planned "short" jaunts to just investigate a certain spot that's not far. So I don't fill up my bladder or add any water bottles and I end up with an elk on the ground and have very little water with me. This seems to happen a lot for me.

 

[Newtosavage]

The area we chose has good access to water, its a determining factor in where we camp. Both my hunting partner and I functioned well this past elk season using two 1L smart water bottles and carrying dirty water bags with water in them only when needed. If we knew we were hiking high away from water we'd fill up a dirty water bag or two (3-4L) and filter those when our bottles got empty. Always made sure we stopped and guzzled some extra when we'd hit a good water source when hiking around. Generally we were fine filling up our two bottles in the morning and finding some mid day to refill with, though a couple days we knew we'd planned to be away from water sources we toted the water bags.

So that would be like a 2L bladder with a Sawyer in-line filter then? Been looking at those.

 

[Newtosavage]

I'll generally have my 3L bladder full and sometimes add a couple 16.9oz bottles of Arrowhead Spring Water with WA H&R in them. So about 8lbs of water for a normal day. The nice thing is......the pack gets lighter and lighter as the day goes on. But I rarely ever skimp on water. Hunting in high altitude dehydrates you even more, and those dehydration headaches can be a real bear. That's why I over-hydrate and am up peeing 1-2 quarts every night. Don't like those headaches.

Where I do get into trouble is on those pre-planned "short" jaunts to just investigate a certain spot that's not far. So I don't fill up my bladder or add any water bottles and I end up with an elk on the ground and have very little water with me. This seems to happen a lot for me.

I'm with ya on the high altitude headaches. On my drive to CO each year, I spend the day downing a 1-gallon jug of water that sits in my passenger seat, for just that reason. It helps tremedously.

With my luck hunting elk, it sounds like I've been packing too much water! LOL Thanks for the tip.

 

[Mike Islander]

My purifier weighs nearly a pound.

Sawyer Squeeze is 3 Oz and will clean 1000000 gallons of water as fast as you can squeeze it through, which is more than a liter per minute.

 

[ChrisAU]

So that would be like a 2L bladder with a Sawyer in-line filter then? Been looking at those.

We used BeFree's this past season after using Sawyers the first time around. The BeFrees are much faster, and our water sources are extremely clean anyway. One extremely cold, and thirsty, morning we drank 3-4L each straight from the creek (filters were frozen). Best water I've ever had, and we didn't get sick ha.

 

[Newtosavage]

Sawyer Squeeze is 3 Oz and will clean 1000000 gallons of water as fast as you can squeeze it through, which is more than a liter per minute.

Thanks for that. I was wondering how quickly those Sawyer filters could move water. I couldn't figure out how a guy could fill a pot for cooking, but it sounds like that's not an issue.

 

[Newtosavage]

Alright, just watched the Sawyer squeeze video and I'm ordering one. LOL I appreciate the info guys. Thanks!

 

[ChrisAU]

Thanks for that. I was wondering how quickly those Sawyer filters could move water. I couldn't figure out how a guy could fill a pot for cooking, but it sounds like that's not an issue.

Here ya go

 

[Jimss]

I got tired of hauling water this summer while bighorn scouting and decided to look into other options. I did a bunch of research on filters, tablets, etc and decided to give a Katadyn BeFree bottle a try. With the filter in the mouth piece the 1 liter bottle only weighs 2 oz. Most empty Nalgene bottles weigh around 6 oz, The bottle plus filter is significantly lighter than water filters. Another thing that sold me on BeFree was how quickly it filters water. As seen in the video above, it's much faster than the Sawyer and quite a few pumps. It's possible to filter water through the mouth piece into other water bottles. I knew where there were a number of water sources so it was possible to filter water as I drank it rather than carrying full jugs around.

 

[*zap*]

subscribed.

 

[BeaverHunter]

Enough so I don’t get thirsty.

 

[ChrisAU]

I got tired of hauling water this summer while bighorn scouting and decided to look into other options. I did a bunch of research on filters, tablets, etc and decided to give a Katadyn BeFree bottle a try. With the filter in the mouth piece the 1 liter bottle only weighs 2 oz. Most empty Nalgene bottles weigh around 6 oz, The bottle plus filter is significantly lighter than water filters. Another thing that sold me on BeFree was how quickly it filters water. As seen in the video above, it's much faster than the Sawyer and quite a few pumps. It's possible to filter water through the mouth piece into other water bottles. I knew where there were a number of water sources so it was possible to filter water as I drank it rather than carrying full jugs around.

Yep its not a big deal to hold a bottle between your feet while you squeeze the Katadyn bag to fill the bottle because its so fast. Sawyer's drove us insane the first time out with how slow they were.

 

[*zap*]

Not having H2O sucks.

 

[gfreidy]

Hauling water is quite a chore. But being willing to do it will separate you from other hunters. Go where others aren’t willing to put in the effort. The critters will always have a way to get water.