Do you dream about hitting the trail for a long—really long—hike? In Ask a Thru-Hiker, record-setting long-distance hiker Liz “Snorkel” Thomas answers your burning questions about how to do it.

Dear Snorkel,

Some long-distance trails in desert areas (like the Arizona Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, some parts of the PCT, and some routes in the West) require multiple days of backpacking in places where the only water source is also being used as a cow’s toilet. On a dayhike, I’d turn my nose at these chunky green puddles, but on a thru-hike, I don’t always have a choice. What are some best practices for thru-hikers when the water choices are unavoidable and nasty?

Contaminated by Cattle

Dear Contaminated.

Deciding whether to drink from the cattle trough with manure, algae, and who knows what else swirling in it is one of the funnier obstacles of desert hiking routes. Long-distance hikers love to swap horror stories of the worst water they’ve consumed: Cattle tanks, ponds, troughs, and puddles are all fair game when you’ve got miles to make and no other options. Here are a few tricks I’ve developed over the years to make the most of limited water resources.

Above all, don’t let the challenges of desert hiking scare you off. It can be a blast—I know many Canadians who fly all the way down to Arizona to do it every year.Once you get the water dialed in, the silence, solitude, and open skies of the thru-hiking in the desert will call to you, too. 

From 2023