Ultimate Guide to Carrying Water for Backpacking
JUMP TO: WATER PLANNING | WAYS TO CARRY WATER | FILTERING & TREATING WATER | OUR FAVORITE HYDRATION COMBOS | TIPS & TRICKS
Author: Steve Edgerton | Updated: Oct 10, 2023
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An entire guide to carrying water for backpacking? Really? If you are lucky enough that water is hardly more than an afterthought in daily life, you might be wondering this yourself. Water arrives at your home filtered, safe, and on demand. You drink when you’re thirsty, that is about all there is to it.
Well, there is a little more to water than that when you head out backpacking. In the backcountry, you need to be highly aware of where you will find water, how you will carry it, how much you will need to carry, how you will treat it, and how you will make it safe for consumption.
No longer an afterthought, water is a matter of life and death. This guide will help you understand:
Your water requirements for specific climates and backpacking routes
The pro and cons of various water carrying strategies
What to consider when picking a water filtration or treatment method
How to put together a hydration system to meet your needs and preferences
After sharing the best gear and water strategies for backpacking, we will wrap up some tips that will ensure you stay safe and hydrated in the backcountry.
WATER PLANNING
To know how much water to carry for backpacking, you first need to assess your route, the season, and recent weather conditions.
An early summer hike in the mountains? You might never be more than 15 minutes from running water. In the desert, hauling enough water for multiple days is sometimes necessary.
Water conditions will also vary season to season and year-to-year. Those high mountain streams may all run dry by late summer. An intermittent desert lake you were counting on may be nothing more than a mirage in a drought year.
There are regions where year-round water access is all but guaranteed, but this is not an assumption you should make. Understanding current conditions is the best way to pick the appropriate gear and carrying capacity.
Even in alpine areas your access to water might differ depending on the type of terrain and the season, so it is important to do sufficient research and planning.
WHERE TO FIND INFORMATION: Park authorities will often provide updated information on trail conditions and water access. You should check the parks website or give the visitor center a call before hitting the trail.
For more popular trails, apps like FarOut can be enormously helpful. FarOut crowdsources trail data from fellow hikers, who can leave waypoint comments to identify current water sources and any access issues. You can also review recent trip reports on blogs or other apps like AllTrails.
Once you have researched current trail conditions and have identified the longest stretch between water sources, you’ll have a good idea of what you water carrying capacity needs to be.
HOW MUCH WATER TO CARRY: You should plan to carry and consume at least one liter of water for every two hours of hiking and have two liters of capacity as an absolute minimum, even in regions with abundant freshwater, like the Canadian Rockies. This number will vary depending on humidity, elevation, temperature, and your sweat rate. They higher any of those factors are, the more water you will need.
Your maximum carrying capacity needs to be sufficient for the longest dry section of the trail, and then some. For example, if you expect 8 hours of hiking between two water sources, you will want to have the gear to haul 5 liters of water, and even more if you will be stopping for the night between water sources.
Camping near a water source means you avoid having to carry your water for cooking and overnight.
WAYS TO CARRY WATER WHILE BACKPACKPACKING
With a good idea for your required water capacity, you can now determine how exactly you will carry it. Your options include:
WATER BOTTLES: No surprises here. Water bottles are the simple, time-tested solution to carrying water while backpacking and remain the default choice for many hikers. Advantages of water bottles include:
They are easy to access, so refilling is quick and efficient. Just about every multiday backpack will include side pockets for 2 bottles, or 2-4 liters of water capacity.
You can easily measure your water consumption, knowing how much you’ve drank and when it is time to fill up.
They are cheap, simple, and reliable. No parts to break or clog.
Hard-sided water bottles, like the ubiquitous Nalgene, have been favored by backpackers for decades. They are rugged, affordable, and easy to fill. But they are not always the best choice. Their wide-mouth design is not compatible with many inline water filters, and in terms of weight-to-volume, they are one of the heavier backcountry water vessels.
Many ultralight backpackers prefer plastic disposable water bottles, especially Smartwater bottles. They are slim, reasonably durable, much lighter than Nalgene bottles, and can be found at any large grocery store for a couple of dollars.
HYDRATION BLADDERS: Hydration bladders are a popular alternative to bottles. Hydration sleeves that accommodate a bladder and hose are now a design fixture in most backpacks. Advantages of bladders include:
Easy hydration. Unlike bottles, which may require you stop and remove your pack whenever you need a drink, you can sip on the go with a bladder system.
High volume and lightweight. Bladders are made of soft and light polymers and allow you to carry 3+ liters of water in a single vessel.
Filter compatibility. Most bladders are compatible with inline filters or can be utilized in a gravity filtration system.
In short, hydration bladders make drinking easy, are very versatile, and can help you carry higher volumes in a single vessel. Their major downside is that tracking you water intake and remaining supply becomes a guessing game. Assessing when to stop and fill is tricky, as unless you’re stopping regularly and pulling out your bladder, you will not know if you’re running low until you’re completely out.
Hydration bladders are also harder to clean and have more failure points than bottles, including bite valves, hoses, and connection points. Plus, some hydration bladders have relatively slow flow rates (compared to a bottle), which for some people can make it feel like you’re never able to quench your thirst.
SOFT FLASKS/COLLAPSIBLE BOTTLES: With the materials of a bladder but the functionality of bottles, soft flasks serve as a middle ground. They are lighter than hard-sided water bottles and very packable. Including a soft flask or bottle in your kit is a great way to add some additional carrying capacity without adding too much weight or volume to your pack.
Soft flasks and collapsible bottles can replace conventional bottles entirely, but some hikers don’t like how they lose structure when they are not completely full. Like bladders, they are also harder to clean and are prone to algae and mold growth.
The Best Way to Carry Water
So, is there a best method for carrying water for backpacking? Like most things, it depends. Often, the best system is a mix of the above options and factors in your personal preferences. Some like bottles for the simplicity and efficiency, others prefer bladder systems to hydrate effortlessly while moving.
Whatever setup you decide on, try to provide yourself with:
A way to drink while walking
A vessel you can refill quickly without unpacking your backpack
1 liter of capacity greater than you expect to need
2 or more different vessels for redundancy, including at least one bottle
FILTERING & TREATING WATER
Having a method to treat your water is a critical part of your backpacking hydration system. Even pristine mountain streams can be a source of microscopic threats like giardia. When deciding on a water treatment method, you should consider the water quality on the trail and compatibility with the rest of your hydration system.
Water treatment methods for backpacking include:
INLINE FILTRATION: Inline filters integrate into your vessels themselves, treating water as you drink it. The most popular inline filters include the Sawyer Squeeze and the Katadyn BeFree. They can be used with their provided water vessels or with any compatible water bottle. The Sawyer Squeeze can even connect into bladder hoses.
Inline filtering makes refilling quick and minimizes excess bottles or bladders, as you are drinking and filtering from the same container. But pulling water through a filter does require more effort, and many hikers would rather carry an extra container than fill their drinking vessel with untreated and possibly turbid water, which will result in more cleaning and maintenance down the road.
GRAVITY/SQUEEZE FILTRATION: Filters used in an inline system can also filter at the source, keeping your treated and untreated water vessels separated. Through the force of gravity or exerting pressure (squeezing), water is filtered from one container into another. Gravity systems are better for higher volumes when you can set and forget it. Squeeze filters are most efficient for individual use when you are only filtering a liter or two at a time.
The Sawyer Squeeze is one of the best backcountry water treatment solutions — offering the option for either inline use or the squeeze filtration method.
PUMP FILTRATION: For very turbid water, pump filters are most effective. They are heavy and slow but will remove more contaminants and handle sediment better than other filters. Pump filters are best for trips where you need to treat high quantities of poor quality water.
CHEMICAL/UV TREATMENT: Non-filter treatments will not remove sediment or microplastics, but they will effectively eliminate any harmful pathogens from your drinking water. Chlorine dioxide drops, iodine tablets, and UV lights are all lightweight and reliable alternatives that can serve to back up your primary filtration system.
HEAT TREATMENT: If all else fails, boiling water is an option. Heat will not remove sediment, microplastics, or other contaminants, but adequate boiling (at least one minute at a rolling boil) will eliminate harmful pathogens. Boiling water is time and fuel-intensive—it should only be relied upon in emergency situations.
To dig deeper into the pros and cons of each method and some specific gear options, check out our favorite water filters and purifiers for backpackers.
Boiling water won’t remove sediment, microplastics, or other contaminants, but it can be used as a last resort if your other treatment methods fail.
OUR FAVORITE BACKCOUNTRY HYDRATION COMBOS
Wondering how to put this all into practice? Here are a few examples of effective backcountry hydration system setups:
The Ultralight Combo
This is as simple as it gets. The ultralight combo works best with backpacks featuring water bottle pockets that are accessible while moving. Aquamira chlorine dioxide treatment drops are your backup. The Squeeze filter is compatible with the pouch and the water bottles, offering redundancy if one breaks. The pouch can be carried full of untreated water for extra capacity over dry sections of trail.
This ultralight system provides 4 liters of potential capacity, 3 vessels, and 2 treatment methods for less than 8 oz.
The High-Volume Gravity Filter Combo
The Platypus GravityWorks Filter has an impressive flow rate, capable of filtering 4 L of water in 2.5 minutes. It is also compatible with all other Platypus bottles and bladders. Setups like this are great for small groups planning to share one filter system. It is efficient, high volume, and the extra weight is justified if serving multiple people.
The On-the-Go Inline Combo
Minimize your weight and time spent treating water with this inline filter and flask combo. The BeFree filters work best in a fastpack-style backpack with vest pockets or any pack in which you can remove and return the flasks to side pockets without stopping. The HydraPak Seeker 2 L adds extra capacity for dry sections and cooking at camp. It has 42mm threads, making it compatible with BeFree filters as well.
it’s important to have enough water carrying capacity to cover the longest dry section of the trail.
TIPS & TRICKS FOR CARRYING WATER & AVOIDING DEHYDRATION
BRING ELECTROLYTES: All the freshwater in the world won’t fend off dehydration on its own. Your body needs electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium) to properly retain and utilize those fluids. A typical trail diet, with an abundance of salty snacks, often provides more than enough electrolytes. However, packing some NUUN tablets or a similar drink mix will ensure you stay hydrated in hot and dry conditions when your water intake goes up and you need supplemental electrolytes to match it.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED: Water is vital to your safety in the backcountry. So, however unlikely, prepare for things to go wrong. This means having an extra liter or two of capacity if the trail is drier than expected, carrying a backup treatment option if your primary filter fails, having at least two water vessels, and refilling at good water sources far before you run dry.
DO YOUR RESEARCH: Knowing what to expect will not only ensure you prepare the best hydration system, but it will also help you make informed decisions on the trail as well. Rather than lugging around 4 liters of water all day, every day, you will know when traveling light with minimal water is not a risk, saving energy for the dry desert stretch or mountain pass when carrying your maximum capacity is necessary.
PREPARE AT HOME: A successful trip begins long before you hit the trail. Keep your hydration system well-maintained and test it all at home when the stakes are low. Look for leaking valves, cracked hoses, and any sediment build-up or performance issues in your filter. When returning from a trip, clean and dry your gear right away. This will extend the lifespan of your hydration system and help you identify any potential failure points to fix or replace long before your next adventure.
MORE INFORMATION
For more tips on multi-day backpacking see other articles in our Backpacking 101 series:
Or if you are looking for more information on hiking and backpacking, be sure to check out some of our other tips and gear reviews:
Or check out our entire Gear Reviews Page, our Knowledge Base Articles, or Destination Guides for more hiking, backpacking, and outdoors related content.
Happy hiking and take care out there in the wild!