How much water to carry in a hike?

Hiking in the Smokies - Photo: Still Gravity.
 Our bike bottles work fine for short hikes - License our images here.

No simple answer because there are many factors: terrain, climate, availability of water, time of the day, intensity of the effort, hiker age, and sweating rate. 

The consensus on good hydration goes for drinking ~2 cups of water per hour. Using this number, we need half liter per hour for moderate hikes and up to one for the strenuous ones. 

The recommendation for desert hikes is to carry one gallon per person per day. We also add a water filter in the pack in case need a refill from natural sources.  

Also helps to add some additive to the water. We use Gatorade Thirst Quencher Powder - the link is affiliate to Amazon. This product contains salt, sodium, and calcium, among other ingredients. If we don't have it, we mix some liquid Gatorade. 

Useful conversions:

1 liter = ~4.2 cups or ~33 ounces. 

1 gallon = ~3.78 liters or ~128 ounces.

Remember that:

Water is the driving force in nature.

          Leonardo da Vinci

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