Life in the Highlands
When chatting with other thru hikers the conversation will almost definitely come down to two topics; Everything to do with food and the thing you miss most about life off trail. When asked the latter question in Damascus VA my answer was easy. The thing I miss the most is instant access to potable water. Processing water for our daily consumption out here is a serious chore that takes up a lot of time and energy. Our relationship to water is ever changing as we move through different regions, into the next season, and are around more people. Here are some tricks we have learned through 800 miles on trail that help to make our relationship with water a little bit more manageable. Don’t hike with more than a liter of water at a time, especially when traveling up hill. It took a few weeks on trail for us to get comfortable carrying small amounts of water at a time. The fact of the matter is that it is rare to go more than 6 miles without hitting a water source on the AT. Wh