Hydration Preferences

[magikwalt]

Currently I am using straight Gatorade for hydration on my longer hikes. One of the other guys I hike with uses water and the fizz tablets. Anyone using other items they have found that work better for them?

[Florian]

I've been experimenting making my own "gatorade" type drink for hiking and cycling. This recipe is working pretty good for me ...
• 2 quarts water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt substitute (1200mg potassium)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (575mg sodium)
• Kool-Aid lemon-lime flavor packet (or flavor of your choice)
A 16 ounce serving contains 96 calories, 300mg potassium, and 140mg sodium. LOTS cheaper than buying quart bottles of ready-made drinks.

-Florian

[halhiker]

I cut my Gatorade in half and also carry just plain water. If I only drink Gatorade it makes my mouth feel bleh.

[bluerail]

....just carrying Cytomax these days. Loved it through the summer and now that I'm trying to carry as little as possible up the hill I'm carrying only Cytomax, no water at all. It has worked extremely well for me. tried Enduroc R4 but went back to Cytomax.

[Pup]

Too much sugar in the Gatorade for me. For my longer runs I use Perpetuem from Hammer Nutrition. Only 7g of sugar compaired to 14g in Gatorade.
For shorter runs, (under 12 miles) I use Vitalyte, which used to be called Gookinaid. Very light taste with a little more sugar (10g) but loaded with electrolytes.
I'm not sellin' them. Just my opinion for what has worked for me for a while.

[HikeUp]

Gatorade makes the G2 product line that has about half the sugar of the regular Gatorade. I prefer the G2 because of this. Less of a cloying feeling.

Down side is it has half the calories, so you'll need to get your calories from somewhere else if that's what you're after.

[Rumpled]

I use the Gatorade powders. Works out to much cheaper per serving for the bulk ones.
I generally use it at recommended strength as I am looking for that sugar energy.
I make it in half gallon batches and refill my bottles and bike bottles.

I also use their individual serving pouches for backpacking - those are as expensive as buying individual servings of liquid.

I haven't really explored any other options - this works for me.

[Florian]

I cut my Gatorade in half and also carry just plain water. If I only drink Gatorade it makes my mouth feel bleh.

Before i started mixing my own drink i did the same and diluted Gatorade 1:1 with water. My recipe uses half the sugar that KoolAid calls for on the packet.

-Florian

[Hikin_Jim]

....just carrying Cytomax these days. Loved it through the summer and now that I'm trying to carry as little as possible up the hill I'm carrying only Cytomax, no water at all. It has worked extremely well for me. tried Enduroc R4 but went back to Cytomax.

+1 on the Cytomax. Good product. I bought an enormous canister of it on the web. It works out to be quite cheap that way. Buying individually wrapped packets is far more expensive. On multiday trips, I just put Cytomax powder in a ziplock and dispense from there.

Tip: the orange flavor is pretty good. The tropical fruit flavor is not.

HJ

[asabat]

On multiday trips, I just put Cytomax powder in a ziplock and dispense from there.

I package my powders in individual baggies to make one quart each. I typically take 2 to 4 baggies per day. Put a scoop of powder in the baggie, shake it down into one corner, then twist it closed and tie the twist in a knot. To mix, just work the powder away from the corner of the bag and gently tear it open and easily pour it in my bottle. No measuring, no mess on the trail, and much cheaper than those foil packs. I don't use zipper bags, they sometimes pop open and coat the pack with sticky critter attractant.