Originally Posted by Machka
Let me ask you...how much water can/do you carry with panniers? I can and do drink lots of water while biking. 3L don't make it far with me. Especially if you are in the U.S. SW. You might be days from water.
I had about 3L on the bicycle in bottles, and the capacity to carry another 4L in my panniers if I needed to. I never needed to. There was always some place where I could get water.
I actually have trouble believing that a person could be DAYS away from water in the SW US ... according to my maps there are towns at least every 100 miles all through that area, and that's only a one-day ride.
I think I would need more than 3-4L of water for 100 miles in the SW. I could probably make it on that but would prefer more. That's assuming I could make 100 miles fully loaded on hot windy dusty day in Arizona. I have taken water for granted living in the eastern US, lots of streams and rivers everwhere. But when I lived in Utah we always had to focus on H2O. Filters are great and are not that heavy. Might be good choice to use with the water tanks (which was an excellent bit of information). There's lots I need to learn about touring and water is an important area. You may be right about 3L and 100 miles. Charlie