Ray Jardine’s Suggestions

>>it can become a real gamble to try to arrive at your next water source on empty.<<

I believe that bit of advice, or at least their actual practice of precision-tuning the amount of carried water, came out of their third and final PCT thru-hike (1994), a southbound hike where they reached the deserts of southern California during the height of the dry season.

Of course, they knew the trail inside and out at that point, knew the terrain, the likely nature of upcoming water sources, knew their daily mileage potential. And one of their overarching goals was to achieve maximum efficiency, to sort of master the art of PCT thru-hiking, to strive as much as possible toward an uncanny perfection.

Drinking your last drop of water upon arrival at the next source would seem to be an understandable symptom of the overriding philosophy, in this case. And it's the sort of irresistible logic that makes for good copy, lest any likeminded aspiring trend-setters forget the personal value of that.

One shoulder carry would depend entirely on the amount of food and water you needed to carry in addition to Ray's 8 lb pack.

I personally don't like carrying 20 lbs on one shoulder, however 14 lbs is ok.

You need to keep Ray's book in perspective. He's talking about thru hiking or section hiking on a long established trail. On the AT, for example, you usually don't carry more than 4 days of food and a liter of water (not including drought years). Some years you can almost get by with just a filter bottle.

That yields a pack weight of 16 lbs or less.

In Beyond Backpacking he also describes carrying gallons of water over dry sections of the PCT.

I think the point should be made that Water Management is one of the key principals of effective ultralight hiking. Knowing your own body and how it hydrates in different environments is critical. Carry more water than you think you'll need until you feel VERY comfortable with this knowledge.

BTW he also doesn't filter or use water treatment ….. I wouldn't recommend that strategy myself.

Okay, you are hiking with a UL gear. No filter. But most use chemicals or tablets. You get to your water source just in time, and out of water. Oh, oh the instructions say to wait 4 hours before drinking. Now I don't wait 4 hours every time, but I do wait an hour or two.

So I like to get to my water source with a liter of water minimum. I drink that water, and then fill up the bottles.

"BTW he also doesn't filter or use water treatment ….. I wouldn't recommend that strategy myself."

I think you will find that Ray does filter, he has a MYOG gravity filter. This is talked about in the book several times so one would assume he uses it.

Cheers