Serves: 5
It doesn't matter whether you backpack or rough it in the luxury of a $100,000.00 RV, water and its availability impacts every camping trip. It's one thing to watch news reports about water shortages somewhere in the country but it hits home when you pull into your favorite campground late at night to see a sign at the entrance which reads "No Potable Water" or worse yet, "No Water Available"! It's impossible to plan for every eventuality but without water just about everything grinds to a halt.
When you're loading up before the trip, take as much water as practical given space and weight considerations. At the very least invest in two or three collapsible water jugs. If you find yourself in a campground without water you can at least backtrack to a place where water is available.
If camping where there is no water, you're limited by the capacity of your RV's water tank or how many water jugs you hauled from home. In these instances water conservation becomes a concern for everyone in camp! Without becoming anal retentive there are lots of things you can do to cut water consumption. The most important is to simply make everyone aware of the situation. As an added incentive, anyone caught 'wasting' water gets assigned to make the next trip back down the road for more water!
Here are strategies I've used over the years to conserve water. Unless I'm cooking for a large group I use one meal's rinse water for the next meal's wash water. Heat one basin of water for everyone to wash up with before supper. You can also take the last of the morning's coffee and rinse off the breakfast dishes. That evening when you get back to camp wipe them with a moistened dishcloth to which you've added a couple of drops of dish soap. Rinse them in the water you heat up for hand washing and they're ready for supper. Even in cooking you can use the same water for two things. Say for instance you're having pasta and steamed broccoli. Drain the pasta into another pot and use the same water for steaming your broccoli. A little common sense will do a lot to stretch your water.
Other steps you can take include boiling, filtering and/or purifying non-potable water. Check large sporting goods stores and outdoor catalog outlets to locate water filters. The extra money that a filter costs and the effort required to filter enough water for drinking, cooking, and brushing your teeth is worth it!
I grew up drinking out of springs and live streams. When Dad and I fished our favorite "cricks" in SE Idaho, we regularly quenched our thirst literally at our feet. Our only concern was getting upstream beyond where domestic livestock grazed! Unfortunately water quality goes down when man, in the name of progress, intensifies his use of the land and the water. In many cases the water may appear to be of the same quality as when Dad and I drank it years ago, but of course it's the little critters that you can't see in the water which are the problem. Before you head for the woods, stop at the drugstore and pick up a small bottle of iodine from the pharmacist. Add two drops of iodine per quart of water and let set overnight before drinking. If you have enough water from home or enough filtered water for drinking, treat non-potable water with iodine for dish washing and other cleanup chores.
Thinking ahead and attempting to plan for the unexpected takes the worry out of the water problem!
Spiced with More Tall Tales - Vegetables and Salads
This _Dry Camps recipe is from the Cee Dub's Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin' Cookbook. Download this Cookbook today.
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