Carrying Drinking Water

tennjed

tennjed

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Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
165
This topic was brought up on another forum and I thought it merits discussion on here.

How do you carry your drinking water on the stream? For trips to my local stream or trips where the car is near, my platypus attached to my waist pack works great. However, the long hikes and all day trips away from the car require a different approach. I don't want to carry a ton of water. The whole point of going with my waist pack was to reduce the amount of weight I carry. Water is one of the heaviest items I carry (Well, I guess second to the 2 cans of brew).

I have a lever style water filter for hiking, but it is too bulky. Does anyone use the steripen, aquamira frontier pro, katadyn bottle, tablets, etc. ?

 
I always bring a bottle of Gatorade in my day pack. But, if I run out I'm not afraid to drink from the wild streams I fish. I always make sure it's moving water though. Never had any problems in 30+ years.
 
When I'm backpacking I use the PA Plus pills. They are too terrible tasting as long as you follow the dirrections, and use both of the tablets.
 
been using these types of bottles for the past 10 years
I have this one now...
aquamira_water_bottle.jpg

 
Long day trips I don't take any, but have gatorade or water in the car.

On normal fishing trips I carry a bottle of water or gatorade in my downs backpack, or I bought a water bladder to go in it and I fill that up.

I have a water purifying straw that was $10 from cabelas that filters up to 60 gallons of water before you discard. So you can drink right out of the stream without worry. Its like 6" long and very light; the only problem I foresee is knowing when 60 gallons has been sucked through it.
 
I'm thinking the bottle type system may be the way to go. Virus removal is a whole other beast. Do you think PA streams warrant chemical treatment for viruses? mmmm...iodine.

thanks guys


 
Depends on the trip.

Short trips, or trips where I'm reasonably close to the car, I don't carry water, just leave it in the car.

Longer, all day trips, where you're hiking a big distance from the car, thats when I put on the waste pack and it has a bottle holder on each side. Usually I take a gatorade and a water.

This is seldom, but where I do run into trouble is on the longer trips and the big streams, where I don't want to wear a waste pack cause I plan to wade above it. The only 2 streams I can think of that have done this to me are Oil and Penns. And to be honest, I usually choose not to take the water, I chug a little before I go and have some on ice (with beer) for the minute I get back to the car.
 
Katahdyn bottle for long trips - fill it up at home and then if the need arises I have the option to filter. For short trips a naglene or similar bottle
 
I think taking a snack on day-long brookie trips is more important than water (4-8 hour hikes).

Well I guess even just long regular fishing trips too.

I get tired and need some sugar after a couple of hours.
 
When I'm fishing I'm usually surrounded by water. If I carry any fluids in with me it's Jameson.
 
I carry a 20 oz. Flexi-Flask (bought at International Angler about 10 years ago). It's a 20 oz. clear bag in a neoprene case you carry on your wading belt. I fill it about 1/2 full and freeze the bag the night before fishing. Next morning, top it off, and the ice will last about 6 - 8 hours even on a rather warm day.
 
wildtrout2 wrote:
if I run out I'm not afraid to drink from the wild streams I fish. I always make sure it's moving water though. Never had any problems in 30+ years.
Click to expand...

That gives me the heebeegeebees. 27 summers ago, my boy scout troop was hiking to route 30 on top of the mountain on the Laurel Ridge trail. It was a hot summer day and a number of us ran out of water, myself included. We drank from a stream, that was running cold and clear. I spent the next 3 or 4 days praying to the porcelein gods. Must have gotten giardia or some protozoan infestation in my digestive track. since then, I have never drunk anything that didn't come from a bottle, spigot, or fountain.

I need to find that stream now to see if there are brookies in it.
 
If I'm hiking into the freestone mountains to camp, fish, party, I already have a rod tube, my tripod, camera, food, tent, and the large 1 gallon gatorade container filled with fresh spring water before the trip, and have tablets in my assortment of goodies...

... knife, 2 lighters, bug spray, matches, rolling papers, folded tin foil (a lot of it), and tablets, all in a freezer bag. The most imperative of these being my blotter ;) and the papers haha.
 
I like my water to be purified through the use of barley and hops.
always carry a couple bottles of it in that form.
 
Man you guys are making this way too serious...a bottle of WaWa water in your vest pocket ...good to go!
 
fadeaway263 wrote:
Man you guys are making this way too serious...a bottle of WaWa water in your vest pocket ...good to go!
Click to expand...

Says the king of complicating things . . . . :-D
 
Fade forgot to mention in warm weather you want to freeze the WAWA water.
 
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