I’m starting off with something cheap and unsexy: an ancient Nalgene Wide-Mouth Cantene that has seen better days. I know, exciting.
When I was thinking about this list I looked over my standard backpacking packing list and picked out the items that simply make camp life easier. This item is a perfect example so I had to choose it.
The Nalgene Cantene gave me a camp technique that I find very useful. When I get to camp I fill the Cantene up and keep it in my kitchen area. I don’t treat it – it’s my cooking and cleaning water, and a fill up is usually good for dinner and breakfast the next morning. I fill my water bottles separately and always treat those. That way I always know what water is treated, I always have water on-hand, and I don’t have to keep making trips back and forth to the water source. It sounds really simple but it provides some structure and patterns that make camp life more relaxing.
The best part about this Cantene? I bought it years ago and almost immediately accidentally cut a gash in it with my camp knife. I field-repaired it by covering the ~inch long cut with a piece of gorilla tape and it is still there, never letting a single drop of water leak through. I’d pull the trigger on a new one, but you’ll have to click some more ads for me to afford the whopping $10 that these retail for. Ha!
I have the exact same container. Well, two of them actually — one for unfiltered water, and the other for filtered water. Sure makes filtering a lot easier.
Sounds like a great item, and appears to take up less room than a typical hard plastic nalgene bottle. Off to go click some ads for you 🙂
I use a Coca-Cola 2 liter bottle for the same purposes, but it’s annoying to pack. However, since I bought a new bear canister, I’ve been using the bear canister (with a liner) to fetch dirty water. It works great, except that you have to empty it each night.