There is considerable medical controversy over the use of "sports drinks", the need to replace lost electrolyte, the dangers of over/under hydration, and treatment of cramps (see the last reference given below). The following article is only a personal opinion as the author has no medical training.
I've realised over the past few years that maintaining my electrolyte levels on long days is extremely important or I feel very tired and get cramps.
I use either of 2 ways to do this;
1) Eat salted nuts during the day (usually mixed salted nuts or cashews), or
2) add Gatorade to my water.
Both seem to work fine, although on really long days (12+ hrs) I often use both. Then on arrival back at camp I am usually dehydrated and I find the best way to rehydrate is to make bouillon. I add 1 cube to 1L hot water and drink this. Sometimes I'll have 2 servings of this if I'm really dehydrated, and I also add a tablespoon of butter if I have any to make it taste better and help start to recharge my energy. eg. for the Becky-Chouinard route in the Bugaboos, Canada (17hr round trip) I had about 1-1.5L water/tea before I left camp, then 1L of water and 1L Gatorade on route + salted nuts, then 2-3L bouillon when I got back to camp. I find bouillon cubes are better than soup because they contain more salt and are way smaller and lighter. (Contributed by AJG)
More information
Heat Induced Conditions in Australian First Aid: St John Ambulance Australia 2006 pp371-379
Exposure to Heat and Cold (2010 St John Senior First Aid online refresher course)
Heat Related Illnesses : The Backpacker's Field Manual by Rick Curtis (first edition published by Random House March, 1998)
Water, Salt, Cramps, Electrolytes and Sports Drinks: (Roger Caffin, The Australian Bushwalking FAQ)
This article by Bush Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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