Water on John Muir Trail in August

If you pick up Erik the Black's JMT guidebook (small enough to carry with you) it has all the reliable water sources (and good campsites, too). I went last year at the same time and never carried more than a liter. There are lakes literally everywhere, and streams were going strong at that point (still a drought….)

Sierra people will have better answers I'm sure, but this year I plan on carrying no more than a liter or so at a time.

People have done the JMT in August with a straw. Really…

thank you for the insights. i appreciate it. i plan on packing a katadyn combi filter partly because my parents have one that they're going to let me borrow along with a couple 32oz gatorade bottles.

You can depend on maps only so much.

Last August I set out on a Yosemite trail a dozen miles from the JMT, and I could clearly see on the map where two streams came together with a perfect place for an overnight stop. After that first day on the trail, I came to the spot, and both streams were dry. Actually, there was damp mud in one. Since that was going to be awkward, I kept moving. I found another stream about a mile away, and it had only an eighth of an inch of water trickling along. I managed to harvest some of that, but very little. There was so little water that I just kept walking into the night, and I finished my two-day loop in one long day. Not recommended. It's hard on the kidneys.

–B.G.–

combine what Aaron and Bob said and divide by two.
it depends how fast you hike and your tolerance for being thirsty.
you can get by with one liter if you don't mind being a bit thirsty now and then.
you should never need more than 2 liters.

Given the low snowpack this year, I'd vote for 2L though 1L is usually enough. Though if I was going to dry camp up higher, I'd have the ability to carry another 1.5L. I always liked splitting the big climbs in half: half in the afternoon and the rest in the morning.

+1 Sean

I typically hike the first two week of September, 20 to 25 miles a day. I carry a liter soda bottle in a side pocket for water during the day.

And I carry 2 1-liter platys for dry camping. (I take a bath every night.) Three liters at the end of the day will be a short carry. It will be enough for an hour on the trail to find a camp, dinner, drinks, breakfast, plus a couple of trail hours the next morning. What doesn't go into the 1-liter bottle in the morning stays behind.

August is a long way off. By the time it gets here you'll know what you need for your style of hiking.

Yeah, I'd pack a platypus in addition to your 1L drinking bottle. Hardly any place more water friendly, both in amount and minimal purification necessary, than the Sierra. Still it is nice to at a minimum be able to load up and head somewhere out of the way to camp/have dinner, let alone get you over the passes on a hot day.

If you are really worried about the weight (a few oz) and/or volume of your water bottles you could seriously consider ditching the filter in the Sierra. Think about just using aqua-mira.