Water bag? - Pacific Crest Trail

imported
#1

i was going to use plastic water bottles to carry my H2o…is it a better idea to carry a platypus bag?
if i do carry water bottles or the bag how much should i bring?

jesse

#2

You’re probably going to get a varying responses here, at least about bag/bottle preference. I enjoyed the freedom of having a water tube and not having to get a bottle everytime I wanted a sip, but that was just my experience. I haven’t hiked with bottles so I’m just guessing that I wouldn’t like it. Bags are expensive and can be damaged though. Bottles are cheap, durable and easy to replace, plus you can add and subtract them at each re-supply for what you expect to need over the next section.

Maybe one platy bag for hands-off drinking convenience and bottles for the rest of the water might be a good compromise.

As for how much: A lot of people seem to not bring enough water to avoid extra weight, but I’ve met people who’ve thrown up from dehydration over long dry stretches in socal. A friend on the trail had to drink out of the one and only scum and musquito-larvee filled water pond on the long descent to I-10 after he ran out. Sometimes there’s long stretches with water in sight but never close enough to the trail to get to so it’s easy to only start out with one liter thinking you’ll likely be hitting water soon enough, only to find five hours later that you’re still way up here and the water is still way down there.

I THINK (but my memory is far from perfect) that I hiked with a total of five liters of water for the longer stretches which was enough, but I’ve read others bring as much as six to nine liters through the desert stretches.

IMHO, it’s better to carry extra wight then take chances with dehydration.

Paul

paul

#3

We use Gatorade bottles to drink from (rather than hydration systems) but because you so frequently need to carry a gallon of water or more on the PCT we also carried a dromedary and a platypus as well as an REI water bag (the bladder kind you fill up at the stream that weighs next to nothing) so we could carry up to 1 1/2 gallons each but they could be rolled up small when we didn’t need to carry that much. We did have problems with the bags leaking occasionally since we have a habit of sitting on our packs at breaks. Be aware that the short water situation continues into Oregon, so don’t send home your extra water capacity until you are sure (from the data book) that there are no more 20 mile stretches.

Ginny

#4

I use one large Camelback bladder/tube for drinking while hiking, but rarely fill it more than halfway unless in a dry stretch or during drought conditions–to keep overall weight down.

I carry one liter-size Nalgene bottle to drink from while on breaks and in camp, but again, don’t fill it up all the way unless conditions warrant. This Nalgene also fits my filter, so it is what I use for all water filtering.

So, for typical AT hiking I’m usually carrying about 1.5 to 2 liters of water.

Also, I carry two collapsible lightweight Platypus plastic bottles for storage of extra water in camp–first filtered into the Nalgene, then poured into the collapsibles. These bottles are generally empty while hiking, unless conditions warrant I carry more water.

For gathering water from water sources, I use a very light compressible water bag with handles, from Campmor, and then filter out of that bag.

Skyline

#5

Just noticed this was for the PCT. My advice and experiences were for the AT. Might be a whole different ballgame on the West Coast.

Skyline

#6

One of the things I didnt like about my platypus bag is that I never knew how much water I had. Being buried in my backpack, I couldnt see the level at all. My solution was to carry one or two extra gatorade bottles. When my bag went dry, I’d start looking out for the next water source.

I also went through 4 Platypus bags on my AT hike last year. They were all replaced for free BUT sometimes they broke at inopportune times leaving me without a good supply of water.

jalanjalan