High Sierra Topix

overheadx2 wrote:Mav, I always stay at water so I don't know if this helps for your purpose, but I usually fill a waterproof sea to summit 8-10 liter stuff sack full of water. I fill it up, fold it down and use the folded clip part as the handle. I then hang 4-5 liters from a branch and scoop water out as needed or I attach a hose to the bottom and drain out what I need.

How do you attach a hose to the bottom?

I use a Platypus Big Zip for drinking water and a 96 oz Nalgene soft sided for hauling it. Both are more than five years old, have the labels worn off them, and have never turned yellow or leaked. Except for that time I failed to tighten the lid on the Nalgene adequately.

I took the male end of a platapus wine container and threaded a regular platapus female hose end onto it with the bottom of the dry bag in the threads as a thread tape. I then put a hole in the bag in the male end to allow water through. I took a metal coffee filter and made a filter for the hose nozzle in order to pre filter particles. I have a quick connect on the hose to connect a gravity filter when needed. With large groups of 3 or 4, I use a 12 liter bag and fill it with about 7 to 8 liters. It weighs nothing and eliminates water trips.

I'll give a big thumbs up for the Osprey bladder. It is a little heavier than others but I like the stiff frame when placing it in my pack. It come with a quality bite valve and an awesome magnet to hold the valve in place while you walk. When we hike as a group someone always brings a gravity filter and others snap empty gallon bottles to our packs. Nothing beats having 2-3 full gallons of filtered water in camp with no pumping.