High Sierra Topix

BPA.. funny story there.. My backpacking buddy gets ready for our annual trip and all his nalgenes are gone. Asks his wife where they went. She threw them out when she saw the BPA warnings on the news.

Heck, we're both around 50ish. any damage has already been done. I use the Lexan Nalgene for the 151.. figured it was safer, but i still carry 2 other Nalgenes (one for water and the other as the mixer/measuring vessel. Hmm, I also carry two lexan "sierra cups". I'm not a fan of marskor's two 1 liter disposable bottles, especially when he throws one to me midstream with pack on and says fill this. Plus he never cleans them.

On topic, I carried a bladder and never used it in the Humphreys area. Forgot about it being in the pack. There was water everywhere even in the dry year, or at least enough to not carry much. I do like the bladder for the uphill hot stretches though. Very convenient.

quentinc wrote:There's also the BPA issue if you're using regular plastic bottles. At least the Nalgenes now come in BPA-free. Who knows how significant this really is?

Good point.

There is BPA lining in most canned foods so your getting it anyway.

I've been thinking of buying this holder for a while.

http://www.yamamountaingear.com/index.p ... ucts_id=28" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I love the little bungie-type water bottle holsters on the should straps of my ULA CDT pack. I find that I can easily carry two 500ml wide-mouth Gatorade bottles, one on each shoulder strap. Carried this way I have easy access to the water bottles (no stretching or contortions need to reach back into the side pockets for the bottles). They are hanging right there in easy reach on my shoulder straps allowing me to drink on the move. This works well for me.

There's no BPA in regular old plastic bottles. It was LEXAN (not the cheap plastic) that had BPA.

Those flimsy plastic bottles are the same stuff as plastic bags, and not going to have BPA any more than your ceramic cup will.

I use a vinager bottle. It is a little bit stronger than bottled water bottles and they obviously are made to be acid resistant. My vinager bottle has fallen out of my pack pocket and tumbled down rocks and still did not break. Climbers often use Gateraid bottles and then reinforce with duct-tape making a duct-tape loop to attach the bottle to a pack strap. If you can sew, why not just make your own bottle carrier? You could also just sew two velcroe straps to your pack, placed so that it prevents the water bottle from falling out. You should check some specialty climbing stores- I have seen bottle carriers in these stores.

ERIC wrote:I too have converted from the Nalgene bottle, however ...Gatorade or other disposable bottles can have durability issues as well (especially compared to a polypropylene Nalgene bottle).

Ask anyone who has had the misfortune of hiking with me; I am super hard on gear and a bit of a klutz too. (I break things easily.) Still, even after a 19-day, x-country trip, both my plastic, disposable, liter bottles have always retained integrity. A few layers of fresh duct tape around the plastic water bottle bottoms helps out with durability...good place to store tape too.
Plastic vinegar bottles seem to have the thickest walls of all disposable liter bottles.
Why is it that REI, or Nalgene, (or similar gear shops) do not sell a good lightweight water bottle?
Make a thicker plastic (already marked for measuring) bottle, put some fancy water/electrolyte crap (or?) inside, and sell it as both a sport's drink and as a light, disposable, hiking, water bottle...for ~$3.00 each.
Why do they make 1-liter bottles and 2-liter crystal lite packages?

Russ, yes I do not regularly clean the inside of disposable bottles when in the wilderness, just rinse them out...(You know me, always with filtered water?)
The bottles are, after all, disposable and if you get a fresh (sterilized?) Desani bottles before the start of each trip, (always wrap around a few layers of tape here)...you are good to go. Think probably cleaner than your 10-year-old, Old-school Nalgene's. (BTW, How do you "clean" the inside of your bottles in the wild?)

markskor wrote:Why do they make 1-liter bottles and 2-liter crystal lite packages?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Simple answer. OldRanger likes to add a little more to his cocktail mix! We don't dare mess with OR..

On the topic of cleanliness:

Russ, yes I do not regularly clean the inside of disposable bottles when in the wilderness, just rinse them out...(You know me, always with filtered water?)
The bottles are, after all, disposable and if you get a fresh (sterilized?) Desani bottles before the start of each trip, (always wrap around a few layers of tape here)...you are good to go. Think probably cleaner than your 10-year-old, Old-school Nalgene's. (BTW, How do you "clean" the inside of your bottles in the wild?)

My bottles are checked, then bleached then run through the dishwasher after every trip. They are stellar. I don't need to clean them during a trip (filtered water or 151).. I do remember you poured some crap out of your bottle on our first night saying that was from your last trip. You'll notice that during our last trip you drank from mine directly, but neither Paul or I touched yours.