As we approach the dry spring and summer months, the scope and severity of California’s drought has become more apparent, but it is already clear that California is faced with extraordinarily dry conditions, with impacts to all sectors and every corner of the state. Some Regional and State Parks may not have running water this summer, and we’d like to address a few things to help you better prepare for your walk.
We will always provide cooking and drinking water on Coastwalks, and will be purchasing a few new water containers for extra water storage on the chuckwagons. Walk coordinators should anticipate that water availability can change at a moment’s notice.
In your walker letter, you may want to prepare your walkers for limited water, such as a lack of showers, and share some water conservation information. I’ve included a few links to such resources.
Low Impact Backcountry Hygiene
Tips to Help You Conserve Water (some of these practices run counter-intuitive to Coastwalk, but you may want to consider their convenience if you will be camping in a park with no running water)
Walks will not be cancelled due to weather (i.e. rain, heat, etc.), barring a serious safety issue. Coastwalk’s insurance will not cover cancelled walks. However, the safety of our hikers is our first priority, so preparing them well for slippery trail and wet conditions (if expected) is a good idea.
Please contact Coastwalk if you have any concerns or need help preparing for this. Or leave a comment below if you’d like to leave some tips for fellow volunteers!
Nothing on this link that’ll help us deal with the lack of water.
Hi Mike, we know that Coastwalkers already conserve water and there aren’t a whole lot more ways that we can do that on a Coastwalk and you are right what we need to figure out is how to deal with a complete lack of water at sites. We did want to alert everyone to the potential lack of running water and to be prepared and let Walkers know of the potential conditions. Some Walks will be using paper plates this year for some meals to reduce their water consumption for specific sites without water. As Stephanie mentioned will be purchasing additional water jugs to fill off site and I would recommend that you create a map of sites for your wrangler to fill up on water in between campsites, if you need help with that please let Stephanie or myself know and we are happy to help! If you or anyone else has tips on water conservation or concerns about alerting Walkers please post them and if you have any other items you think might be helpful please let us know! Thanks so much for reading!
This was a nice little article. We are very concerned about the drought’s impact on California’s greatest resource, our nature. We at Slocounty.info are more than happy to offer any help we can for your organization, to bring attention to the amazing hikes in our area.