If you've been searching for the best source of information and stimulating discussion related to Spring/Summer/Fall backpacking, hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada...look no further!
I disagree. The overwhelming majority of the minerals are absorbed in the duodenum, right below the pyloric valve where the stomach attaches. The bivalent minerals all use the same transporters. This is why the body can only absorb so much electrolyte at any one time. The transport mechanism gets maxed out and the extra unused minerals pass right on through. At high concentrations of salt, the solution pulls water out of the tissues to dilute itself to a lower molarity. Too much electrolyte solution actually dehydrates you.
Agree do disagree. Pretty sure the duodenum is mostly just adding digestive enzymes, bile salts and neutralizing acid. Along with some other regulatory and mucous secreting jobs. It does absorb a lot of iron though. Later in the small intestines and the large intestine is the primary site of water and electrolyte absorption. All that said, maybe I interpreted the research incorrectly but either way the findings did show that it's more efficient to drink more water less often than to sip more often, volumes being equal. Now I need to go find that paper again...
Yes, a lot of moisture is lost from your mouth, but I rarely breath with my mouth open. I hate to get that dry-mouth feel. If I have to breath with my mouth open, then I slow down. I think a lot depends on your style of hiking.
Breathing through your nose definitely helps! The respiratory water loss is due to your lungs trying to stay moist in dry air, so it's an issue either way but breathing through your nose moistens the air much better than your mouth. However you slice it, it's good to keep in mind that even when you're not sweating in the mountains, you're still dehydrating way faster than down in the land of humidity.
Last edited by limpingcrab on Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
All this discussion goes to show, everyone is different!
And how!
I hike with a holster around my waist that holds a 32 oz wide-mouth Nalgene bottle. Most days I start with the bottle about half full and drink when I'm thirsty, without having to remove my pack. I'll refill (half fill) the bottle once or twice a day, as needed, until the day's hike has ended, then drink a quart with my end-of-hike lunch and cool down. I usually add a lemonade mix to this quart of water, mixing it to taste in my cup, not in the Nalgene bottle. If I'm near snow, I'll make it a slushy.
kpeter wrote:I carry a two liter Platypus with a sip tube and sip water steadily--probably every 10 minutes. It dramatically improved my experience. When I drank from bottles it was such a pain to stop and take off the pack for a drink that I drank far too infrequently. This led to mild dehydration, causing headaches and dizziness. I used to think headaches and dizziness were just a natural consequence of high elevation, particularly for a flat lander like me. Wrong. They are a natural consequence of dehydration which I was experiencing every time I went into the mountains. Now I never have those problems.
Why would you need to take your pack off to get the bottle? Just carry it in one of the side pouches that are bottled sized. Works great, just reach back and grab the bottle, take a drink, and replace in side pouch. Using a lightweight bottle, it is easier to monitor how much you are drinking and how much is left by looking at the water level in the bottle. No guessing needed like with a water bladder. And, bottles are much easier to refill since you don't need to stop and partially empty your pack to refill a bottle on the outside of your pack like you need to do to refill a water bladder on the inside of your pack.
The Sierra tends to have far more water sources than the places I backpacked in CO, NM, VA, NC, and GA. I used to do a lot of following what appeared to be dry stream beds. After awhile you develop an eye for sharper drops in the bed where (@ the bottom of the drop) water may spring from the ground, trickle for a few inches and drop back below the surface. When those same places dry up, you can usually dig down a couple of inches and find water. I would collect a few oz. at a time, filter it through my bandanna, then treat it. I surely hope it never gets that way in the Sierra, but except for last year, the last 7 years are not looking good.
I have never used a water bladder. How do you keep it and the tubing clean on a long trip? I would think you get a lot of spit and slobber on the drinking apparatus. Grosses me out. I agree that getting to your bottle to drink is not a big deal, whether it is reachable with the pack on or not. Lately, I take my pack off quite often because I get better photos (shake less and more willing to move around a bit for the better viewpoint), so I just take a sip of water then.
I usually carry two Gatorade bottles, one on each side of the pack. It seems to be a good compromise between weight and toughness. I used to carry Nalgene but now that or metal bottles seem ridiculously heavy. The primary drawback with Gatorade is the lack of a wide mouth. I load both bottles only rarely in the Sierra when needed. Most of the time I treat (UV) one liter, drink half and carry half (1 lb). I carry iodine for backup, almost never use it.
Water is one of the heaviest things that most people carry. 1 liter weighs more than a lot of sleeping bags and some tents. I have friends with clumsily designed/inconvenient (old) internal bladder systems, who load up with all their water for the day before leaving camp! I used to use a bladder system but got annoyed at yet more gear without clear benefit.
I have backpacked in Zion a couple of times. In the desert the days without water sources you need to carry a gallon of water per person per day (8 lbs) – a real pain.
I carry liter bottles, or a liter platy which when I am hiking hard drink until empty every hour along with a couple hundred calories of trail mix or bar or something. I can get by with less, but it kicks my butt if on the trail for a long day 12+ hours. And also if I get too dehydrated I risk a gout flare-up.
The total amount of water I carry depends on where I am hiking, in the Sierra where sources are plentiful I will generally carry one liter or less. Grand Canyon, our along the West Tonto trail in early fall as much as 3 gallons between the S Bass trail and Boucher Creek.
Nalgene bottles, that's a blast from the past! Years ago I switched to Mayo bottles until they reduced them to only 30 oz (boo!). Then I went to a quite light wide mouth Pepsi bottle but they discontinued that (boo again!). Now I use the 1L bottles that come with that wonderful colonoscopy prep kit. Like the mayo bottle, they have a wide mouth for the Steripen but save about half the weight vs. Nalgene. I also like the indented sides for easy gripping and the gradation marks for measuring.
Always pay attention to water sources on my route. Seldom carry more than a pint.
Mike
And I see W. Daisy and Limpingcrab mostly concur. Great, more ammo to level at my wife, who has recently rebelled against my cardinal rule- Never Carry Water! This camel routine has served me well; I can hike all day, and into the night, not super long days, but many 20+ milersI So it's not that I don't work up a sweat, or just laze around fishing and reading books- I just stop and drink when I need to. The few times I gotten thirsty were on winter ski tours, where water is harder to find.
My second unpopular rule, is to never treat Sierra water; I just search out water from areas less frequented by people. I've spent untold days living in the Sierra, perhaps a couple years total counting the couple summers when I lived out of camps doing conservation work, and I've never had a bad **** yet! It's not that I'm asymptomatic for Giardia, because I have come down with it in Pakistan, I think it is a lot more rare in the Sierra than many folks think. Note, it's okay to blast away at me for this if you like. I did take more care on trips with the kids- used boiling, tablets and later the Steripen deal.
And Sierra water is beautiful!!!
DSC00870.JPG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
