5 Tips to Stay Hydrated While on a River Rafting Trip

Believe it or not, dehydration is a common problem during river rafting trips. You may be on a raft surrounded by water, and you’ll likely get at least a little bit wet, but you’re also exerting yourself and working up a sweat, and that will quickly lead to dehydration no matter what you’re doing. If you want to make sure that you stay hydrated during your next river rafting trip, consider these five tips.

 

1. Drink Plenty of Water Before Your Trip

 

One great way to make sure that you’re sufficiently hydrated for your rafting trip is to start out hydrated. Six to eight glasses of water every day is enough for most people, so get an early start before you head out on your trip and drink at least a couple of glasses of water.

 

2. Keep a Water Bottle on Hand at All Times

 

You should always have a water bottle on hand whenever you engage in strenuous physical activity, and river rafting is no exception. Your water bottle should always be within arm’s reach in your raft. If you’re worried about losing your bottle when the water gets rough, clip it to a secure place with a carabiner and keep it secured when you’re not drinking.

 

3. Drink Often

 

Keeping drinking water is key to staying hydrated during your river rafting trip. If you’re not sure how much to drink, set benchmarks for yourself. Try to drink a bottle of water in the morning before you set out on the river, drink another bottle of water by the time you stop for lunch, another bottle of water before you reach camp, and another bottle before you go to bed that night. That’s a lot of water, and you’ll have no problem staying hydrated if you can achieve those goals. If you can’t drink that much water, just striving to reach those benchmarks will ensure that you’ll be safely hydrated.

 

4. Watch What You Drink

 

While we’ve only been talking about drinking water, we understand that some people might want to drink other things as well. Sports drinks such as Gatorade are usually safe to drink as long as they don’t contain too much sugar, but alcohol and caffeinated drinks should mostly be avoided. Drinking too much alcohol or caffeine will only cause you to become dehydrated faster, and you really don’t want to be under the influence of alcohol when you’re trying to stay in control of a raft on a dangerous river.

 

If you want to drink anything alcoholic or caffeinated, go drink for drink with water. For example, for every beer you drink, you should have a glass of water.

 

5. Know the Signs of Dehydration

 

Finally, you need to be able to recognize signs of dehydration. These include thirst, feelings of thirst that go away, dry mouth, fatigue, confusion, headache, dizziness, and irritability.

 

These are all signs of dehydration, but they can also be caused by other things. As a rule, if you feel thirsty, you’re probably at least slightly dehydrated. Drink whenever you feel like you need to drink, and keep an eye on others who are with you, especially children. Encourage everyone to keep drinking water, and stay safe on the river.