Does anyone else here keep Bottles from Drinks like Gatorade or Powerade as spare/lightweight Canteens?

Absolutely. My preferred canteen is a 32 oz Gatorade bottle- light, strong, and durable. a few year ago, Gatorade was sold in gallon containers that made perfect large canteens,perfect for kayak camping and storage. I wish I had more of those.

Typically, large containers of two liters or more are rinsed out, filled with water,and stored away in various spots to add to my emergency water supply.

I could make 2 kits. Sleeping bags being my big holdback. Actually, make it three, I just remembered I have a third small bag.

Cooking supplies quickly become the second limiting step.

I'm assuming that I don't have a sleeping pad for persons 2 and 3.

Yup. Nalgenes and KleenKanteens are nice but heavy. Backpacking requires less robust h20 containers. There's no reason to pack around a pound of weight just to hold your water. I like the wide mouth varieties in 1 liter.

Metal water bottles also allow you to sterilize your water and allow hot beverages to be produced. This would be quite tricky with just a PET bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gASh1B5bOKI

The survival tasks which can be accomplished with a single 4.6 oz water bottle will make the ridiculous cost (esp compared to a free PET bottle) seem acceptable as I suspect a lot of folks will own a $70 survival knife.

If given the choice between having just one survival tool such as a metal water bottle or a knife, I might well just pick the metal water bottle.

About 15 years ago, I cleaned up and sold at least 1 full camping kit setup. Then a couple of years ago I tossed out some worn out stuff when I moved. I could probably outfit 3 complete sets with lots of spare pieces left over right about now. Ie. about 15 spare knives or so and 5+ survival mini kits, numberous whistles, lights, camp kitchens, stoves, clothes, yada yada yada.

Then of course for some reason I just bought 2 more stoves off EBay the other day. -- "What was I thinking?"

Yep. I use one as my powdered drink mix container. My Playtpus bladders get filled only with clear water. They are definitely durable enough for hiking and far better than the very lightweight ordinary water bottles but obviously they aren't as durable as a Nalgene wide-mouth which I will use for car camping and kayaking.

In fact, I re-use PET bottles as my EDC water bottles. Bear in mind that the water/soda PET bottles sold locally where I live are meant to be recycled, cleansed and used again (about 20 times or so, untill it's too worn out). They're a lot thougher than single use PET bottles.

Just to clarify, my response was for backpacking purposes. I always have one of these with me on backpacking trips so carting an additional metal container is redundant:


I do tend to use metal containers or nalgenes for car and every day carry. Each car is equipped with an esbit stove and one of these:

How you like them MSR Stowaways there desolation?




Interesting, Where you at?