High Sierra Topix

I have had some ferocious times with leg cramps on strenuous trips. Lying the sleeping bag I would get hamstring cramps in both legs. As I pull those out by straightening my legs, my quads cramped followed by the sartorius which is the one that runs a long the inner thigh. In all rather a "Grande Mal" of the legs. So I got serious about replacing electrolytes

I don't much like the taste of any of the commercial electrolyte mixes like Gatorade, so I did a little math on the nutrition label on it, an on regular table salt (NaCl) and Morton Lite Salt which is 50/50 sodium/potassium chloride (NaCl/KCl). So what I do is mix those two salts together in equal parts for a 75/25 NaCl/KCl mix. I put a quarter teaspoon per quart or liter in my Platypus hydration system. Crystal Lite lemonade mix masks the salty flavor pretty well. It's not uncommon for me to go through a whole 2 1/2 liters in a day.

Mike

giantbrookie wrote: 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.

A lot of recovery type drinks use milk or soy as their main source of protein. I have had similar experiences when I was swimming in college. Mine were less...controllable...as yours

Evidently, I hydrate by leaving my water bottle behind at rest stops 30 years of backpacking and I never left my water behind. Did it twice this last trip.