God's Little Tricks, or Water.

Hiking up and down hills takes a lot of energy.  With that as well, the human body uses quite a bit of water via persperation, or old fashion sweat.  According to Allen & Mike, you will need 3-4 quarts of water per day.  That translates into 8.35 lbs of water that you'll either need to carry with you or find along the way.

Of course, you will need to carry the water in something.  We have a cute little stainless steel water bottle that we picked up at a store somewhere on sale.  It looks to hold about 16 fl oz. and weighs about 5 oz.  However, according to Allen & Mike, carrying the fancy water bottle is just a waste.  They suggest that you take an old plastic Coke bottle, clean it out, and use it for your water supply.  The plastic bottle weighs only about 1 oz. and you won't be using it long enough for nasty chemicals to leach out too much.

I'll probably end up with the Coke bottle method, since I regularly do what you're not supposed to do and refill plastic water bottles from the tap.  I also save quite a bit of money not buying a skid of water every week.

The unfortunate part about finding water on the trail, though, is that it's usually at the bottom of the hill.  The trail usually crosses a stream, then goes up to the top of a ridge, where it's barren.  I guess I'll just have to figure on carrying that 8.35 lbs of water up the hill with me on a daily basis.

Thanks, God.  Gravity is fine most of the time, but sometimes it's just a bit inconvenient.