From: Chip (rcenci@twcny.rr.com)
Date: Sat Dec 14 2002 - 09:19:27 CST
I have used Nalgene bottles for years I had a pocket on my old pack had a
side pocket that was perfect for their one quart rectangular bottle. The
pack predated the slide out pocket for the round bottles. For a second more
accessible bottle I had a small belt pouch on my pack hip belt that was
exactly the size of a round Nalgene bottle, the bottle had to be carried
horizontal and I never had a leak. I for one can not stand having gear
dangling off of my equipment, I have seen many a hiker hook one of the loose
items on a tree and get spun around many of them falling from it. To me it
also looks like you do not know how to pack a pack correctly.
The first hydration tube system I ever had was a Nalgene like bottle with
a hand pump bulb to pressurize the bottle and release valve. It worked fine
except for the times when the hose fell off of a pressurized bottle and the
water came sprayed all over the hiker following you. Actually it was a
pretty good system and worked well. I now use a Camelback 70 oz model, I
modified an area on my new pack to hold the bladder alone and leave the
cover home to reduce weight. I run the hose along the shoulder strap and
use one of the D-rings to secure the bite valve end. I have an older
straight bite valve, the newer angle head valve with the shutoff probably
would not fit. I have noticed an ID badge clip/plastic strap at Kinko's
that could hold the tube end and then clip on that same D-ring.
Let me bring the hydration thread a little further now. I do not like
putting drink mixes into my Nalgene container. I know with the multi-colors
bottles or duct tape it would not be difficult to distinguish the smellable
bottle from non smellable bottle, mixing them up is not my concern. I fear
a sloppy drinker could get drink mix on the outside of the bottle then in
the process of putting it into a pocket wipe that mix on the pack thus a
smellable pack. I also saw way too many crews putting 10 or so quarts of
smellable bottles into their bear bags at night, they were some heavy pulls,
a strain on the bear cable, not to mention a lot of wear on the bear rope.
For my crews I prefer everyone carry water only bottles and than we have
a 2qt collapsible Nalgene for mixing our drinks in. Everyone does have to
get his/her their bowl or cup out at meals even trail lunch stops but that
didn't seem to be difficult. This method kept or Nalgene bottles clean and
gave us an extra 2qt capacity for dry camps. A side note, we received so
much Gatorade in our meals that we used four packets to make 2qts of drink,
it was strong but tasted pretty good and it made sure we replenished our
electrolytes.
And old procedure I learned in the military was to always drink from the
same canteen and store it on your equipment in the same place. This comes
in handy particularly when needing to purifying. You switch the drinkable
canteen to your use location and purify in the other location. This way you
give the purifying chemicals time to work and you do not mix up which is
which. Once I started using a hydration system I now purify in the Nalgene
and only purified goes into the Camelback.
After reading about little blue dots all over the ranch it reminded me of
1991 when TOTT sold bungee cords that had little rubber tips on the ends of
the metal hooks. I must have picked up a hundred of them and I'm sure there
were thousands that fell that summer.
Chip Cenci IWTGBTP
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