How to cache water in a forest?

[Rex Sanders]

Due to severe drought in California, many water sources I've used in previous years have dried up.

So I'm thinking about caching water in forests before a trip, because some segments might be two nights or more between water sources. I would place most of those caches during day hikes a few days to a few weeks before the trip.

Looking through other BPL posts, I find very few descriptions of how to cache water, and most of those are in the desert.

Do I just hide a few prepackaged bottles of water somewhere that I can find later?

Any tips on how to mark or find your cache?

Do packaged water bottles need extra protection from critters?

Should I bury the bottles?

Are some packaged water bottles better than others?

Should the bottles be labeled? What should the labels say?

I hope someone has experience in these conditions.

Thanks.

— Rex

Buck Nelson has a detailed description of caching for his Desert Trail thru-hike.

This BPL thread on caching water in high desert has some good tips.

On 11/17/2013, Roger Dodger said on BPL:

Sure there is the risk of someone stealing your water, I recommend using many small bottles, to reduce single points of failure. I like to wrap the bottle in brown paper bags. brown hides well with dirt. Also recommend you bring a paper map or GPS and mark the waypoints of your cache.

When hiding them, the cache spot always seems genius, and no one would ever think to look there… problem is that the trails often look different on the way back, and your memory will betray you. Hide it well, get creative, write it down, pick it up later.

On 01/03/2011, Adan Lopez said on BPL:

Water Cache. This will be the perfect opportunity to test my compass skills. So instead of picking a conspicuous boulder pile, I walk away from any obvious features and into the sea of Joshua Trees. Lash the rope to the bucket’s handle, go twice around the base of a tree, pull hard, and make it fast to the bucket’s other handle with three half hitches. Drag a fallen Joshua over and lift the heavy side onto the bucket.

[Nico .]

I don't have much experience with caching water (and don't claim to be an expert), but here's what I've done in the past:

I use 2 or 3L platypus bladders and try to stash them in or near unremarkable, but easily recognizable landmarks or features that're just far enough off the trail that most folks won't stumble upon them; this means placing the bladders under a large boulder or in a dead, hollowed out log/tree (watching out for critters and angry reptiles). I don't often hike in heavily used areas, so this minimal effort has been sufficient for me.

The bladders are nice because I can simply roll up the bladder once it's empty for very little in the way of a weight or space penalty.

I have come across others' caches that have over time succumbed to prolonged heat and/or solar exposure and the bottles have cracked, disintegrated, etc. Not surprisingly, most of the water ends up evaporated or pretty yucky.

Seems like a good idea to mark your general hiding spot with a GPS or map if you fear forgetting where you hid your cache(s). If I were concerned with folks finding my cache, I'd probably mark the bladders with my name, date cached and "water cache" on it.

[David Thomas]

Rex,

I've done this in preparation for "death marches" (40+ mile day hikes) to stash water and calories in advance. In part because it gives a purpose to pre-trip conditioning hikes which are increasingly beneficial as one gets older.

A few of my techniques:

-Many foot bridges have spots underneath that can hold cans or water bottles. I've never lost such stashes to humans or animals – they've always been there when I return.

-Have a standard distance and bearing from a sign, plus a back-up. Say, "25 feet to the NW" and "30 feet to the E" are your primary and secondary standards. Every sign you can, you use the first location. But if that doesn't work, use the second.

-Triangulation. I do this A LOT on my toxic waste sites. A 10-inch-diameter wellhead cover would seem easy to find and you THINK you know exactly where they are, but 2 inches of snow or pushing the dirt around makes me realize I could easily be 5 feet off. A 10'x 10' area takes a LONG time to shovel/sweep to reliably find something the size of a salad plate. So I'll mark on a fence post or building siding in tiny Sharpie letters, "MW-7, 27.3' " and on some other landmark, "MW-7, 10.4' ". Then, even using my 6-foot arm span gets me close and using a tape measure nails it exactly. Since you get to pick your locations, you could do "3 arm spans" and "2 arm spans" from bushes or sign posts. A tiny bit of flagging tape or thumbtack could mark your reference points, perhaps with Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, etc, for 0,1,2,3,4 arm spans, etc. We do NOT want to get into offensive mnemonics for BBROYGBVGW, but any electronics geek knows them.

Or just put a tiny bit of flagging tape on a branch, 5 to 15 feet off the trail, directly above your cache. Then you just need to remember / list those locations on the trail. "10 paces past each trail junction" could be a standard location for you.

For desert use, I also like the many-small-bottles approach – those flats of 24 disposable water bottles are only $4-5 at Home Depot or the grocery store. If you want a bigger, gallon-sized jug, I'd step up from the gallon-milk-jug level of HDPE container to something sturdier found by dumpster-diving at the recycling center. Detergent, and kitty litter come in much thicker, stronger containers and I don't fret about reusing them once I've cleaned them thoroughly (insert epic argument about BPA and other estrogen mimics here). (Insert David's general lack of concern regarding, specifically, HDPE containers here).

But my most common stash is Kern's nectar (strawberry, guava, etc) because it is (1) liquid, (2) calories, and (3) some fiber to keep things moving along. Calories totally sealed in a aluminum can means it isn't an attractant for bears (me) or raccoons (you).

I've also stashed things in streams, under a large rock. Of course, it has to be waterproof (Kern's, beer, or vac-pac'ed anything) and you don't have a lot of cool, running streams this year. But a cold micro-brew beer (now available in Al cans) tastes mighty good after a hike. A near-beer has liquid and carbs in it for during the hike.

If you leave something in a more obvious place, I'd put a name and date on it. Maybe, "Stashed by Rex for use on a through-hike in late August 2014, please leave in place, unless you desperately need it, yourself."

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[Bob Gross]

I suspect that you guys know this, but caching of anything like food or water is specifically forbidden in many national parks. Of course, they have to catch you.

–B.G.–

[M G]

…Bob wasn't clear enough if cacheing in NP you may not want to leave your real name on your cache.

[Mobile Calculator]

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[Mobile Calculator]

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[Bob Gross]

Maybe so, but I will beat the rap by showing my satellite tracking log. I was hundreds of miles away.

–B.G.–

[Mobile Calculator]

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[Rex Sanders]

Thanks for all the great tips!

— Rex

[Steven Paris]

Rex & others:

Great question and great answers!

This thread isn't that relevant to me right now in the PNW, but I've still learned something from those with experience, which has always been the strongest part of BPL.

[Roger Caffin]

> but I will beat the rap by showing my satellite tracking log. I was hundreds of miles away.

Well, your satphone was hundreds of miles away. A lawyer might see a difference…

Cheers

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

We've cached water before. The only tip I can give you is that plastic milk jugs don't hold up well to extreme heat or sun.

[Don Morris]

Oh dear! Years ago, I cached water in a Park Service area, and I was a uniformed employee. Since no one caught me caching water in Canyon de Chelly, we returned a year later, and the cache quenched our thirst.. Keep it in the shade.

We had a historical precedent. We stowed our water in the very spot where we had found a fragmentary Navajo water jug….

[Gerry B.]

I have had my labelled water caches stolen on me twice…once in Texas and once in Arkansas. In both cases, they did not just empty the containers, they took them with them. The first time was with my brother, the second time was with a hiking club group of eight or so hikers. Both times they were off the trail but within sight of the trail.

After those experiences I have become meticulous about hiding my containers and taking GPS coordinates of where I put them, normally at least 50' away from the trail. I agree with a previous poster that 1 gallon store-bought "milk" type water containers are unreliable. Instead, I use older water bladders or a special collapsible heavy duty 2 gallon water container that I bought several years ago.

[Sumi Wada]

I use 1-2L containers. I don't hide them all that carefully, but put it out of obvious sight. I do include a note with my first name, the cached date AND the "expiration" date (as in, if you find it after this date, I somehow wasn't able to retrieve the cache.)

IF the cache site is near an established camp and the area is really dry, I might put it in some sort of critter protection. Critters tend to forage near known camps, imo.

I take a few pictures with camera/phone/whatever of the cache spot, landmark, etc. If you hike with a GPS, I assume you can store the position.

I always retrieve a cache even if I don't need it.

[Nick Gatel]

Nowadays I buy 1 gallon bottles of water at the store. The containers seem sturdier than milk containers. Since I am only caching water in deserts where there are few trails or people, I usually hide them under rocks or other natural materials so it takes a little work to recover them. I tape a note to each bottle, completely covering the paper with clear packing tape. The note says my life depends upon this water being here on my hike with the approximate date. I mark the location on my paper Topo map with a note on how it is hidden.

I don't cache water in mountains or near popular trails. I don't trust the average "entitled" American hiker who frequent these places.

Where water is scarce and caching water is not practical, I do long stretches with a pack that can carry a lot of water. When I was a young man I once circumnavigated the entire Joshua Tree National Monument (before it was a park) getting water at the 2 northern visitor centers, the two campgrounds that have water, and at two springs.

[Valerie E]

Just a clarification, in case this subject comes up again:

In Grand Canyon National Park, water (NOT food) caches are specifically allowed by NPS (name & date required). From NPS "Plan your Visit" brochure:

"Many hikers choose to cache water on the Esplanade or Surprise Valley for the return trip. Caches should be dated, hidden from view, and carried out at the end of the hike."

We cache water all the time in GC and have used various containers including MSR dromedaries, "disposable" water bottles 750ml, platipus collapsible, and 1L or 2L soda bottles. All were left off-trail, out of sight, and covered with rocks or tree bark (nice and cool when you pick it up!). So far, we've never had one stolen or destroyed. Our attempts at food caches, however, have been foiled by ravens, and we will no longer even attempt it! One water cache also had food: the raven got the food, but left the water untouched.

[Nick Smolinske]

Valerie: not to sidetrack the thread too much (although probably enough has been said about water caches at this point), but what containers did the ravens foil? I have some GC plans that involve a food cache, and my plan was to use metal paint cans.

[Valerie E]

Nicholas, we used the metal mesh bags (total fail, even though they were tucked out of sight in a crevice AND had rocks piled on top).

IF we ever cache food again, we'll use a cookie tin (or your metal paint can would work great).

[Roger Caffin]

You know those big white plastic buckets with clip-on lids you can buy at a HW store? We have used those, hidden, and had no problems. I think the plastic is too hard AND it seals in any smells.

I have also cached 1.25 L PET bottles of kero in the shade. Nothing touched those either.

Cheers

[Rex Sanders]

Late report, but I did successfully cache four 1.5 liter bottles of Trader Joe's finest H2O in the forest. No extra protection, no notes, I just dropped them in the forest duff and kicked more duff on top of them. I wrote myself a note with the locations, and took photos of the approach to help remind me.

I retrieved two of those bottles with no problems.

The other two are highly likely to be exactly where I left them.

When I dropped those bottles at the base of a large oak tree, an angry mass of buzzing insects rose from the duff around the bottles and headed my direction.

I left too quickly to identify the new guardians of those bottles. Luckily, no harm came to insects or me.

As far as I know, those bottles are still in the forest, carefully protected from casual retrieval.

When I work up the courage and the free time, I'll go back with full body protection to attempt retrieval.

Thanks for all the advice, but nobody mentioned this particular problem. Guess I'm lucky.

— Rex

[john hansford]

In case anyone was thinking of using Platypus bottles to cache water – don't ! I left a Platypus outside my tent one night and some critter chewed right through the plastic material.

[Jim Colten]

When I work up the courage and the free time, I'll go back with full body protection to attempt retrieval.

They are likely diurnal. If there's an opportunity for a stealthy bivouac nearby or a safe walk out by headlamp I'd arrive near sunset, chill until it is good and dark and retrieve them.

disclaimer: I am not an entomologist (and don't play one on TV either).

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