By Ranger-Rob   Tue, May 6, 2008

In the course of my job I get to spend much more time outdoors than in. If it’s not under the blistering Alabama sun walking on freshly placed asphalt then it’s in the woods surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes, swarms of chiggers (a.k.a. red bugs), and the odd tick or twelve (million) as part of a survey crew. Then when I am off work I go geocaching. Go figure.

So, two things I’m pretty familiar with are toting water and insect repellant. This article will focus on water toting.

For anyone not familiar with paving operations, hot-mix asphalt comes out of the spreader at over 250 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s usually placed in the summer months. Those two facts equate to an ambient air temperature of above what the normal household thermometer will register in the vicinity of the spreader.

Needless to say, water in the form of perspiration pours out by the quart.

What’s this got to do with Geocaching? The need for water, and plenty of it.

There are many thousands of acres of forest in this state, and many of those acres have caches on them that require leaving the car and hiking an undetermined distance. Packing enough water to make it back to the air-conditioned splendor of the car is a necessity.

“What do you mean ‘undetermined distance’? The GPS says it’s 100 feet that way!”

Ahh, young padawan you must consult the tomes…err, blogs of The Zen Bass Masters or the cache logs of Stephanie2427. The actual distance may be something totally different from indicated distance!

In other words, the GPS will not take into account the cliff that must be negotiated or the fact that there are two ridges separated by a deep valley between where you are parked and the cache. Add to this the innocent-sounding descriptions like “just follow the trail” or “it’s an easy hike”... such things are far to subjective to be taken at face value. An “easy hike” to one person may be more like the Baatan death march for another.

The longer you’re out in the heat and humidity the more you need to drink. If you don’t believe me, turn on the local news on any given night between June and September and there’s bound to be a heat advisory urging people to avoid going outside and to drink lots of water if you’re exerting yourself.

Navigating through the woods, especially if there’s any bushwhacking involved, certainly qualifies as exerting yourself, only there is no house or store or cool place to retreat to and grab a drink. You have to carry your drink with you. Unfortunately, at 8.35 pounds per gallon (2.2 pounds per liter) water is heavy.

There are many carrying options out there, from the low-end good-old military-surplus canteen or belt-mounted Nalgene type bottle ($10 to $30), up through the sport and military style CamelBaks (varies widely, but usually less than $100) to a backpack with a built-in hydration bladder ($100+).

I use two different schemes depending on where we’re working and how carried away we’re going to get. The first is a three-liter Camelbak Viper with the Omega reservoir. The pack is 3-color Desert camouflage. The reasoning being that three liters is the biggest they make in personal-size reservoirs and plain tan wasn’t available. The 3-color desert is light enough in color not to absorb heat too quickly. The Viper has a zippered compartment perfect for carrying a spare roll of flagging, a small first aid kit and other stuff I use surveying and geocaching, and the fill port on the reservoir is large enough to accept ice by the scoop. The Viper is part of CamelBak’s Military line. I chose this line for several reasons, the major one being that the components are more rugged than the sport / recreation line and more suited to my needs.

For the not-so-serious everyday stuff I use a wide-mouth one-liter Nalgene bottle with a SplashGuard and a nylon carrier. Nalgene, being lab-grade polycarbonate, accepts freezing well, is rugged, and the wide mouth is easy to fill from water fountains, cooler spigots, etc. The SplashGuard makes drinking on the move less messy in that it prevents or reduces “backsplash”. It’s also handy in that it doesn’t have to be removed to refill the bottle.

The web addresses for CamelBak, Nalgene, and SplashGuard are included below for anyone interested and wanting more information or curious about availability and pricing.

I’ve seen the sport / recreational CamelBak products at Bass Pro Shops. The less expensive knock-offs of CamelBaks and Nalgene bottles are available at most sports and outdoors stores and at Wal-Mart.

www.camelbak.com

www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store/index.html

www.guyotdesigns.com/splashguard