Re: How do you hydrate?
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:41 pm
I use Nalgene bottles and, for harder trips, use some sort of an electrolyte replacement drink. For years in my youth, this was ERG (Gookinade), and even as a kid I seemed to notice the difference in recovery and the reduction in post-trip soreness compared to without. In the years since then I found that I had a hard time finding Gookinade, so I simply picked up powdered Gatorade which I reconstituted with water on my trips. I never ran any sort of a semi-controlled test to see if Gatorade worked as well as Gookinade, but the results certainly seem superior to plain water alone. The only negative experience I've had with various drink mixes like this was one brand I bought at REI (forget the name of the drink) that I took on my Tunechuck trip of 2008. For some odd reason (I think to add protein?) this powdered drink included a hefty proportion of milk. This contributed to a less-than-stellar day 1 on the Tunecheck trip. By early afternoon I was noticing that I felt sort of weak and soon after noticed that my stomach was getting increasingly upset and that this upset was beginning to work its way down my GI tract. Finally I looked at the ingredients on my drink mix (which I should have done when I purchased the thing because I couldn't find Gookinade anymore). In any case the my immense milk consumption while downing liters of this mix (probably 4 liters before I realized what hit me) really took its toll as my stomach was really messed up and I suspect my nutrient uptake was also severely impeded. My hiking gradually slowed and I had to settle for camping in a valley below Hummingbird Lake, then the original plan of blasting all the way to Blue Canyon on day 1 (probably feasible without the pronounced late day slow down). On days 2 to 5 I avoided using the drink mix and drank water alone and my stomach was pretty much back in order from day 2 onward. I felt much better for the rest of the trip. I will take powdered Gatorade on my next trip (first serious backpacking trip since 2008).