A big question that newer backpackers have is how to find water on the trail. If you’re gone for multiple days, it’s not going to be possible to carry enough water for you to survive, so knowing how to find water is a critical skill that you need to learn before setting out.
You’ll find water in lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, waterfalls, water caches, and even backcountry campgrounds along your hike. You will need to have methods available to filter most of the water sources, or you may end up getting sick on the trail.
Finding Water On The Trail
Before you set out on a backpacking trip or along a trail, you should review where you’re going and what water sources will be available along the way so that you can plan to find water as you progress along the trail.
Use multiple methods to determine where water is located along the trail, including:
- Topographic maps of the area that show large water sources
- Aerial photos of the trail and surrounding areas
- Guidebooks for the trail or region
- Online hiking forums to get peer information on the trail
- Check with park rangers or other authorities in the area
- Google maps is also a helpful interactive tool to scout the area for water sources
For most trails, there should be a good online overview of what water sources are available and if there are any issues that you should be aware of with the water source.
It’s essential that you know where the water sources are along the trail before you set out; you should not be hoping to find water simply as you walk along a trail.
Trail Water Options
On the trail, you’ll find a variety of different water sources to check for online and even keep an eye out for once you’re on the trail. Looking for treated water from manufactured sources is ideal; otherwise, fresh, flowing water is the next best thing, and then your options go down from there.
- Campgrounds can be found along trails, and they often have fresh water available.
- Water caches may be set up along your trail and have fresh water put there by somebody, but they are not guaranteed, so they should only be noted as a possibility.
- Rivers, streams, and waterfalls are the next best thing as the water is moving.
- Lakes, springs, or large bodies are water are your next option.
- Ponds and creeks are another option to look out for.
- The smaller water sources can be used but are less ideal depending on your filtering.
Be sure to check if water sources are available year-round or if they may dry up during summer, and also check whether there are any known issues with the water sources posted online.
Online forums with recent updates will be hugely helpful as many guides or articles could have outdated information included that puts you at risk on the trail.
Water Requirements While Hiking
You need to stay hydrated on the trail, and that means knowing how much water you need as you progress along the trail and how much you need to carry with you between water sources.
If you know that it’s a full day’s hike between two water sources, then you need to ensure that you take enough water but not too much with you in your backpack. If you take too little then you get dehydrated, but if you take too much, then your hike becomes much harder due to weight.
You typically need about 16 ounces of water for every hour you’re hiking, or you may need around 1 gallon of water throughout the entire day.
So understanding those requirements, having enough water with you, and having a clear understanding of where the next water source will be, is something you need to preplan and then execute on the trail.
How To Treat Trail Water For Safety
No water source on the trail is guaranteed to be safe to drink, so you should be filtering or treating your water before drinking anything or putting it into any containers you’re going to drink out of.
If you drink untreated water on the trail, you could become sick, so puke and diarrhea are possibilities that could lead to further dehydration, which is a major risk when hiking in the backcountry, especially by yourself.
- Bacteria such as E. coli or Salmonella
- Parasites such as flatworms or tapeworms, or even Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia.
- Viruses such as Hepatitis A, though these are less common if hiking in North America.
There are a range of methods to clean your water, and anything is better than nothing when it comes to trail water.
- Boiling your water is one of the best methods; you’ll need to bring your water to a boil for 1 minute when you’re at lower elevations or 3 minutes when you’re above 6,500 feet.
The problem with boiling water on the trail is that it takes time to boil and then cool. You’re also either using your fuel source or have to build a fire.
Boiling water is a good option if you’re setting up camp for the night near the water source.
- Purification tablets are something that most outdoor stores or even Amazon sells. They’re easy to carry packets of tablets that you simply drop into your water and wait.
You’ll need to wait for 30 minutes or so before the water is treated, and you need to keep buying enough and new tablets for each hike you do.
- Water bottles with built-in filters are a great option as a reusable method to clean your water. Make sure you get one for hiking or the outdoors and check what it actually filters to ensure it’s going to do a good job for you.
The downside is that most water bottles are small and may only give you enough water for 1 hour, though you can buy multiple, or your water sources may be within 1 hour of each other.
There are a range of other options to purify or treat your water before drinking; some will filter all problematic organisms out, and some will kill them, but nothing is as good as boiling the water to ensure that everything has been killed.
If possible, you should consider boiling water once a day and carrying it with you for the cleanest water. This also ensures that if any water sources are dried up or look heavily contaminated with other things that you still have water for the day and won’t need to panic.
