Around 5:00 pm, five of us squeezed into a truck to make the trek to the mountains outside of San Diego. We spent an hour driving past ripe avocado bushes while the smell of wild sage streamed through our open windows. We were in pursuit of something readily available inside the city; however, we wanted to get to a purer source. Finally we arrived at the perfect spot, pulled the truck to the side of the road, and began to unload. What we sought literally awaited us on the side of the road, pouring out of a spicket, natural spring water.

Natural Spring Water

Our San Diegan host, James, graciously allowed us to accompany him on this expedition into the mountains to partake in his ritual of retrieving natural water. For months, James has been drinking purely wild spring water. Chlorine, fluoride, plastic, chemicals, antibiotics… the list of additives in tap water goes on and on. And even though there are systems to filter most of this out, you can’t really filter out everything. So James made the decision that he only wanted to drink the best of the best. After all, when your body consists of up to 60% water, why wouldn’t you pay attention to what you’re drinking?

Natural Spring Water Spicket

What we really wanted to know was what made spring water so different from, say, well water. James says that he prefers natural spring water over well water because essentially spring water has matured. When you are drinking well water, you are drinking water from way down deep in the grown that hasn’t had time to make its way to the surface. Spring water has had more time to naturally filter off extra minerals on its trek to the top. That makes it a purer and more natural source. And bottled spring water? Well, all those companies advertising spring water actually have some leeway in the water they end up bottling, and they can add quite a bit of additives after they extract the water from the ground. Not to mention the fact that the water is sitting in heavily-chemicalized plastic bottles. Again, when you’re searching to hydrate with the purest and most natural source available, these alternatives just don’t measure up to natural spring water.

A Cruising Couple, Natural Spring Water

While we had pictured a long and rugged hike to a lake where we would fill our buckets with water and then balance the goods on our head, the actual process was pretty easy. Someone who found the spring installed a spicket, literally producing a sort of running faucet with water ready for the taking on the side of the road. The whole process (because of driving) still takes a few hours, and James devotes every other Saturday evening to retrieving the water he will drink for the next two weeks. He explained that the whole process had become a sort of personal ritual, to go out, immerse himself in nature and appreciate the water that he is putting into his body. We were impressed with this devotion.

Mountains outside San Diego

While we aren’t sure if we are quite committed enough to only drink wild water, we love the idea of really connecting with nature on such a deep level. If you’re interested in trying something similar, check out Find A Spring. The user-based site will help you locate a natural spring in your own area. One thing is for sure: the spring water we drank with James was absolutely incredible, and you can definitely taste a difference! And James says he feels much better after only drinking spring water for so long.

Friends getting natural spring water

We’re curious…has anyone found a natural spring in their area, and if so, do you retrieve water from it?