With Curt Wells,EditorASK
QUESTION I have two major hunts coming up, and I’m struggling to decide how to stay hydrated while also making
sure my water is safe to drink. Any tips? G. Sunderland, via e-mail
ANSWERThisisaveryimportanttopicthatoftengets
neglected until it’s too late. First off, it is extremely criti-
cal to keep water flowing through your body on any
hunt. If you’re exerting yourself, you’ll get dehydrated
quickly, and that can lead to problems like severe
headaches, muscle cramps, and worse. I’m 6' 5", so I’ve
fought muscle cramps my whole life, and dehydration
is the primary cause. To make sure I’m hydrated, I
always carry a two-liter hydration bladder in my pack,
with the drinking tube on my right shoulder strap.
That way I can easily sip water throughout the day,
often without even thinking about it. I carried a water
bottle years ago, but that was a mistake. If you have to
thatleadsto neglect.
the color of your urine. If it’s clear, you’re doing well.
If it’s the color of a lemon, you’re losing ground. And
if it looks like apple juice, you need to do some serious
catch-up with your hydration.
There are a number of products you can use to add
electrolytes, flavor, and such to the water in your hydra-
tion bladder. And while keeping your bladder clean is
always important, it is especially critical when using
these products to prevent bacteria from growing.
With regard to water quality — trust no one. I can’t
tell you how many guides and outfitters have told me,
“Yeah, the water is fine. No one has ever gotten sick
from it.” Baloney! I’ve had giardia poisoning twice:
once while mistakenly drinking unfiltered water from
a river in Alaska, and again after purposely drinking
(like an idiot) from the McMillan River in the Yukon.
In one case I lost 25 pounds, and both times I was on
antibiotics for 10 days. Never again. I did drink safe
water from a spring in the side of a mountain in Idaho
once, but the key is, if there are any animals that have
access to the water you’re drinking, it isn’t safe. Period.
Boiling all your drinking water to make it safe is
usually impractical, so filtering is the best solution. If I
know I’m going to have to drink from a lake or stream,
I carry an MSR pump filter to fill my hydration bladder.
In camp, one of the best solutions is a gravity filter,
like the 10-liter Katadyn, that you can fill up and leave
hanging in camp. It filters as you use it, and it works
great. There are other products such as filter straws
and mugs, and devices that use ultraviolet light to kill
bacteria, but for the kind of hydration you’ll need on
strenuous hunts, I find a good filter is the way to go.
Good luck, and “keep it clear.”
E-mailyourASKBOWHUNTERquestionstobowhunter_magazine@outdoorsg.com
118 BOWHUNTER /// SEPTEMBER 2019