I haven' t read the other posts yet so I hope I'm not just being redundant.

I now look at the solar still as the end game in a water search strategy. In my area it is relatively easy to find active seeps in the mountains. Sometimes you have to dig down a foot or two to form a little puddle of water in the bottom.

Of course you only dig where there is a high probablitiy of hitting water. This means the sides of the hole are usually wet dirt.

If I had to search for flowing water and couldn't find any, then had to find the most likely place and dig for it, and if that hole didn't collect any water, I would consider making a solar still out of the hole already dug in moist soil.

Digging out a seep will produce liters of water over the course of a day and this is really what you need, liters, not the ml's of water that a solar still will produce. If I'm going to spend the sweat necessary to dig a hole there must be a high probablity of producing liters of water.

I would consider the solar still more viable on a sandy beach where digging is easy and there is plenty of sunshine and saltwater to feed into the still. I have never tried this but from my experience in other locations it would seem ideal. Not overly productive, mind you, just as good as you're going to get.

If I had to make a solar still out of a seep-dig hole that failed to produce I would also try all the other expedient means I could, like transpiration bags and seeking sources of plant water, vines especially. I'm in the habit of cutting a sample of every vine I run across anyway just to see if water drips out. Mac