News You Can Use-Staying Hydrated in the Great Southwestern Wilderness

Dear Trekkers and Parents,

​For those of you that have been bitten by the backpacking bug and are use to making multiple stream crossings on any given hike in these parts, when we are at Philmont, you will have to be challenged by the notion that water is a precious commodity on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristos. Not only can it be a scarce commodity, it is a shared resource-shared with a host of wildlife, cattle, horses and livestock, and other adventurers like yourself. For this reason, I recommend starting your hike each day at Philmont with at least four liters of water, whereas in our Carolina mountains, two liters is usually plenty. Carrying four liters of aqua fria means an additional load of 2.2 pounds per liter, so you will start your day carrying and finish you hike consuming almost nine pounds of the stuff!

So water is heavy right-we've established that fact;  so what about the containers? I carry two, 1 liter, wide mouth Nalgene bottles in the side pockets of my pack and two liters in a hydration bladder in my pack. A one liter, plastic Nalgene bottle with the attached wide mouth and lid weighs 3.5 ounces. The harder, Lexan plastic version of the same 1 liter bottle weighs almost double that at 6.2 ounces. Personally. I prefer the lighter plastic 1 liter, wide mouth Nalgene bottles so I won't be carrying over a whopping 1.5 pounds of plastic alone if I carried four bottles!

There are other great reasons for carrying 1 liter , wide-mouth, plastic bottles- they do what they do really well! First off, the wide mouth bottles are easy to fill. You will really appreciate this when you are on water detail before supper for your crew and you have about 30 bottles to fill. Secondly, since you are now picturing yourself on the evening water detail bonding with your fellow crew members' water bottles, you will appreciate the simple fact that you can stand up each bottle and drop in the one tablet per liter per bottle through the wide mouth opening-I might add, and you can see what it takes to purify your and your crew's water.  Another nifty, yet priceless advantage of the wide mouth Nalgene bottle is that the lid is connected to the bottle so it will not become a crisis when your lid gets perminently separated from your bottle somewhere in the Philmont wilderness, and mark my word, it will-but not if you use a wide mouth/ lid combo! Nice! For the peace of mind and thoughtful consideration of you and your your fellow crew members, if you are not sporting wide mouth, one liter  Nalgenes or its kindred, please seriously consider making the switch. Consider two in conjunction with a two liter hydration bladder or four bottles. This will handily do the trick to carry your almost nine pounds of water. 

At Philmont and during our training, we will be using Katadyn Micropur purifying tablets. Each tablet is wrapped and sealed individually in its own foil packet. This is the same technology used in municipal water supplies-no wander the BSA chose this purification method for Philmont! These tablets are effective against a whole host of water born nasties-viruses, bacteria, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium. In fact, these tablets destroy bacteria and viruses in just fifteen minutes and Giardia in 30. Cryptosporidium takes a little longer at four hours, but the real gastro-catastrophy is Giardia. You might have had a serius stomach bug before, or put another way, you just think you have been sick. Whatever you had pales in comparison to the nemesis Giardia! Take my word for it! All told, purifying water for a large group like a crew is really pretty easy when done right using the Katadyn Micropur tablets. 

And now a word about hydration bladders. Along with trekking poles, using a hydration bladder was an absolute game changer for me. Think about it-water on demand! Water on demand means that you ware more likely to remain hydrated during the course of the day. When choosing a hydration bladder, look for one that has a large opening for adding water. Not only does this make it a breeze to fill, but it is easier to clean too. My personal favorite is the Platypus Big Zip. Check it out and you'll see why I like it so much-t it delivers what you need easily. Hydroflask also makes a new hydration bladder that is worth checking out as well. 

I hope that you have found this information on stying hydrated news you can use. As always, if you have any questions, please contact me anytime.

Mr. Brown