What's the most water you have lugged around?

I have been trying to plan some trips lately and many of them require you to carry a ton of water. So I was just wondering, what is the most amount of water you have carried starting out? Considering a gallon weighs around 8.4lbs I think, it adds up quickly.

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I carried 2 2.5 gallon jugs on my back while I rappelled 270+ feet into the canyon at the bottom of Gemini Bridges during Primal Quest Utah in 2006. Water was at a premium at that event. It was 122 degrees one day!

On outings with my SAR team it's not uncommon for me to go into the field with 2 3-liter camelbak bladders in my pack.

The rule of thumb, in warmer climates, is 1 gal per person per day. Depending on where you're going, you might be able to use a filter and use the water that's already there.

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In principle, a gallon of water is 8 pounds (remember the old rule - "A pint's a pound, the world around"?). A gallon is 4 quarts, with a quart being 2 pints, so 8 pints to the gallon, and thus 8 pounds (plus container, which can be a couple ounces for the foldable mylar type, or 3 or 4 pounds for some of the heavy duty jugs).

I have had to carry 2 to 3 gallons several times on desert trips that headed to a dry camp, with no known water sources on the way. Going into Grand Canyon to Tapeats, I have always carried at least 2 gallons (per person), since there is only one spring (sometimes dry) on the way down to the river (and you need filtration at the river, unless you like boiled mud to drink on the way out, so carry a filter). Most I have carried is 4 gallons on a multi-day trip in Death Valley in summer (and each person carried this much - but luckily, we didn't need sleeping bags, we used tarps for shade during the hot part of the day, and we did most of the travel at night).

Before you start out on a trip where you need a lot of water, I strongly advise you do a series of similar, much shorter trips to see if you can really deal with it. Count on getting dehydrated, and have an evacuation plan with a crew standing by until you can thoroughly check out everything. We worked up to the Death Valley trek in half-day increments, and were all very fit before we even began that.

I am assuming you intend this in summer and desert conditions, or along some coastline where you have only salt water available, since in winter you will have problems with melting frozen water (either snow or ice, and your water bottles will freeze), and virtually anywhere else you can purify water from various sources (some of which are pretty gross, but usable).

Where is it you are going on foot that you won't have water available for multiple days, anyway?

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I always carry my 4-liter camel pack in my pack. Its just not always full :).

The most I carried at once would be somewhere close to two gallons.

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Five gallons in a flexible water jug - when I was 14 years old at Philmont in New Mexico. As the largest kids in the crew (both around 6' tall) another kid and I got tasked with hauling the water to the dry camp at the Tooth of Time.

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I typically carry about 4L of water on day hikes, in the summer in the Sierra. On a hike during a particularly hot period during July last summer, I still ran out of water, and felt extremely (maybe dangerously) parched during the last mile out. It was that "hard to even swallow" kind of parched feeling...

I didn't have a water filter then. Now I carry it even on day hikes, and could have used it on the hike in question to refill from a river along the way. Even so, I would still carry the same amount since I'm never sure whether I'll find a suitable water supply or not, since I tend not to read guidebook trail descriptions before-hand and don't really trust maps as a sure indicator of water availability (often I've found they're misleading).

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I've done mainly desert backpacking in Arizona and I actually picked up some of the square water jugs at Basha's --- I think they still have a 2 gallon and 5 gallon SQUARE jug that will fit nicely in an external frame's lower compartment and will fit OK in an internal frame.

If I take 2 of the smaller square jugs, I will throw both of them in the freezer a few days before the trip and wrap them in a few brown paper bags - this has really helped keep the water cool, if not mostly frozen, for the first 36 hours or so of the trip.

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4 gallons, from Page Spring to Horseshoe Mesa (in the Grand Canyon) with my scout troop. One mile only, but straight up.

Prior to that was 3 gallons during a 3 day weekend summer backpack in the Mazatzal.

In AZ, if camping near a water source, I'll usually start with 3-4 quarts.

I like the MSR dromedaries as light, robust containers.

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On many brief sea kayaking/camping trips on much of eastern seaboard but mainly Block Island Sound/Eastern Long Island, there was no potable water but temperatures and most paddling goals were modest.

Thus two quarts per 18 hours, was a severe minimum , supplemented by frequent self-dunkings in cool water.

More relevant to "trailspace," my hikes and climbs, also in moderate temperatures, have often been more strenuous than these paddles, and required sometimes maybe 20% more water, though often less planning.

Not uncommonly on these kayak trips, I went a little thirsty on this ration, but was rarely more than an hour from emergency supplies, and probably less if I wanted to hail down a boat and beg.

I certainly never declared an emergency, and only begged once: It was a quart, from of a desperately shipwrecked yachtsman, or swine, it appeared,who provided the pearly liquid while awaiting an expensive and dubious tow off a beach that severely flumoxed him the night before.

I strived to supply myself with a fairly optimal four quarts per 24 hours. Yet I often failed to achieve this goal, due to laziness and/or uncertain plans for an early return to port or intermediate supply points.

Water consumption, obviously includes major variables: most sigificantly perhaps the effective temperature and the amount of work, or calories (heat) expended, fitness to whatever degree, but certainly also, to a lesser degree, congenital differences related to body type and metabolism.

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When I began hiking, around 17 or 18 years of age, I carried 6 liters (via 3 old two liter coke bottles) with me while on a 4 day trip in the Opal Creek area of Oregon, just east of Salem. They were very heavy, for about a day and a half. That's when I ran out of water and had to drink from the stream. It didn't help that I had all these fears of Giardia implanted in my head. I drank from the stream without any problems and after the trip purchased a water filter. That was the last I drank straight from a stream.

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