My Hydration Setup

So if you are reading this there is a good chance you follow us on social media and there is a good chance you have seen us Getting The Fox Out There, and the most popular way for us to do that is either on a hat or a water bottle. I was sitting here going what I am going to talk about this week well I should quickly discuss my water bottles and hydration strategy on the trail. Why because there is a method to the madness.

So first the water bottle, my preference is a Nalgene HDPE 48 oz. Silo bottle. It’s easy for me because I need to carry water and I can carry more with a larger bottle, duh. Well snarky duh aside the Silo has the same diameter as a 32 oz. bottle so it fits in all of the backpack external pockets that they do plus my cups still nest the bottle. I carry two of them so I get 96 oz. of water or around three liters and with minimal loss of space if they are on the outside of your pack. The other upside of carrying two is redundancy, if something happens to one you don’t lose your whole water supply or risk contamination. Also, life hack, other than covering your bottle with super cool KFO stickers wrap a few feet of duct tape on there as well for a ready supply.

On longer trips or trips where I will need more water, I will also put two Nalgene Oasis Canteens on my belt.  They are close to a liter too so with the two Silos I’m around five liters. Spread loading my water is important to me for a couple reasons, like I said before I don’t want to put all of my eggs in one basket and they remain accessible to me and my hiking buddies on the trail. Another major upside on the trail is I can move them around and reconfigure them as needed to shift the weight and keep the load comfortable.  

The next piece of the puzzle here is my Source Drinking Tube; these bad boys are awesome since they turn water bottles like Nalgene, SIGG and standard soda bottles into drinking systems like a hydration bladder. So you have the benefits of a durable easy to clean reservoir with the ease of drinking you get from a tube. The only down side is there is a small rubber air valve that sometimes leaks little bit when you leave your gear on its side, and when I say a little bit I mean like a few drops so don’t lay it down on the family photo album and you’ll be fine.

So, on my other bottle I have a Pillid between my bottle and my lid, these things are awesome! They were originally designed for medications and they foot that bill extremely well. You can have it as an open container or you can divide it in half or quarter it up so you have options. I carry my Salt Stixs and some Advil in there and on other trips I have used it as primary storage for my purification tablets (why store them anywhere else than on the container right).

And that’s about it, it’s a little more in depth than just carrying a water bottle but it is a simple set up that gives me three liters of water in two durable containers with the ability to hydrate on the go and carry purification tablets and meds easily and readily accessible.  I have been using this set up for years now and really think it is a great set up for SoCal and the desert. I will admit the water can get a little warm exposed on the outside of the pack but it’s a minor draw back compared to the use and durability of this set up.  As always thanks for checking us out and taking the time to hear me go on about how I drink water on the trail hopefully it helps out a little and we see you out there on the trail!

 

For more water options check out our water and containers collection too.



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