Upgrade--a better water bottle

If you've read this blog (or these website pages) at all, you know that we are big fans of finding cheap lightweight equipment wherever we can: thrift shops, yard sales, etc. And we have long favored using plastic soda bottles instead of paying real money for something that usually doesn't work as well, and weighs more.

No heavy Nalgene or sexy aluminum bottles for us!

But we have to admit that we have found something better than soda bottles. These platypus folding bottles actually weigh no more than a large mouth soda bottle, so weight is not an issue. But these bottles also roll or fold up when they are not full. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is at least a small deal, for two reasons.

1. Even when partially full, they take up less space in your pack that then soda bottle. We each carry two bottles in our packs, but we don't always fill them, and this does leave more room in the pack. And the form themselves to the shape of our packs, so they fit in the outside pockets much better.

2. Even more importantly, when you roll them up, you eliminate the airspace in the bottles. And that means that you no longer have to listen to sloshing water with every step on the trail. As we drink, the bottles get smaller, and they still don't slosh.

Is that a big deal? Maybe not. But if you go into the wilderness to hear the sounds of nature, a sloshing bottle or squeaking pack are an annoyance. And these bottles aren't annoying.

We've used these now for a couple of years, and we're sold on them.

Nope--we didn't get any money for saying that. sigh.