I've mentioned dehydration numerous times over the years in trip reports.

  I too drink from the lakes when safe. I found an old 16oz aluminum cup, the kind with the wire handle on a portage one year. It's clipped to my daypack/ditch bag that sits right in front of me.

The simplest way to see if you staying PROPERLY hydrated is to check the color of your P. This works for everyone unless you're taking a drug that would cause a color change?

  You want to P as CLEAR as you can, almost like clean water. If you're NOT, you need to drink until you DO P clear. They have a color chart over the men's urinal at the Quetico Park office in Atikokan.

  Many people make the mistake of thinking because they drank X amount of water that is enough?
  What they don't realize is that you DON'T feel thirsty UNTIL you're actually dehydrated.

  So the water your drinking is REPLACING the fluid you've lost BUT you still need more to keep you from BECOMING de-hydrated as you keep sweating it out.

  That fuzzy thinking, body aches/fever is your body trying to tell you it needs fluid.

The goal should be to NEVER get to the point of that happening.

Westwood wrote on Apr 26^th, 2020 at 2:10am:


Yep.  I started doing this only about 3 years ago and another reason to do it is I know I have a back up cup if something happens to my coffee mug.  The one I keep in the canoe is probably lexan so it's very tough and weighs nothing and is completely out of the way where I stash it within reach.

When I tell (regular) people that I drink directly from the lake it really perks up their ears. 

As other have said, I keep a cup handy so I can take a drink from the lake.  If your cup isn't handy there is a tendency to wait for an opportunity to take your cup out.

Like Tom I keep a cup on my boat. On bigger lakes I dip and drink- three cups. Also carry a pair of 1 liter bottles with clean water for portages or lakes that I don't trust. Not a fan of flavored beverages or "electrolyte drinks"- if you eat a good varied diet they are unnecessary. I add dried bananas to my morning porridge for potassium. Lots of nuts and beans in the canoe camping diet to replace the magnesium (the electrolyte that I run short of and prone to cramp if I'm eating junk)

Yeah, I have to be careful about dehydration as well.  I tend to drink way too much coffee and not enough plain water.  When dehydrated, I become a little light headed.  I usually use flavoring packets in my water. 

Tom...I'll check out your recommendation.  Thanks.

Stay safe......

I dehydrate very easily and I know it when I get massive headaches usually at night.  My gums will dry out too.  So, I got turned on to this product called Nunn.  It's flavored tablets you throw in the water bottle.  Good stuff.  I also have taken to keep a cup bungee dealied next to my seat and whenever I'm crossing a decent lake I just chug a few out of the lake.

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Yup, I always carry Gatorade or Powerade sugar free to add to drink bottle. If you don’t need/want full strength, go with half strength.

I was on an August trip years ago and I felt like crap after a few portages so I set up camp. The next day I still felt like crap so I took my temp with the thermometer I keep in the FA kit. Turned out I had a decent fever so I just hung around camp deciding about whether on not to head back out.

Thankfully, I felt better later that day and continued my trip on the next.

What I did NOT know at the time was dehydration will cause a fever/chills. Seems counter productive to me but a doc I trust later told me (different incident) that a fever is about all your body can do to warn you. Get some Pedialyte® and you might feel better. I did and I did. Lesson learned.