Water is easy to come by while on the road when traveling main roads in and between towns. This is due to the nature of modern gas stations that sell all types of snacks and drinks for the pleasure of the mind-numbed driver looking for a quick salt fix and the “scratchie” upon which all his or her future dreams of fast cars and large homes rest. One frustrating quality of this availability, as I found while touring Maine, is that gas stations tend not to have recycling containers for their plastics. As a result, refilling water supplies at a gas station usually ends up with quality recyclable plastic being tossed into the trash. While in Maine we attempted to carry our recyclables until a proper receptacle could be located, but in many cases ran out of storage space and only once located a place to discard the bottles. Still, this receptacle only accepted small bottles and I ended up jamming the machine trying to recycle my gallon-sized water container. I was pretty mindful at the time, as I watched the store workers attempt to dislodge the container, that this type of stupid and careless behavior is why some locals don’t like tourists.
Other states may differ from Maine,
which has its tax-paying public in an iron-fisted kung fu grip by charging up front for recyclable containers and paying back the cash at time of container deposit. This results in specially marked deposit centers where people can take their recyclables for payment. My hunch is that a side effect of this law is that “free” recyclable containers are made scarce in order to avoid pilferers and other vagabonds rummaging through a store’s trash for profit. I’ll test out this hypothesis while on the road.
In any case, this post is about water, and more specifically the containers I am taking with me. These are of two kinds:
- Camelback “Podium” 24 oz. squeeze bottles – I will be carrying 3 of these in the available holders on the Surly Long Haul Trucker. The “Podium” is nice because it is made of BPA-free material and has a patented “Jet Valve” that removes the need to pop open and closed the mouth piece when drinking. Camelback also makes an insulated container called the “Podium Chill”, but you end up sacrificing water storage space for the insulation barrier (at the tune of 3 oz. per bottle). When it comes down to it, I’d rather the 9 ounces of water than the 9 degrees of chill.
- MSR 6-liter “Dromedary Bag” – I just got this puppy in and didn’t have the opportunity to take it on the test drive. The Dromedary Bag has a wide mouth for pouring in water and a small mouth for pouring out. It also comes with a “squirt” mouth for directly drinking from the container. I am uncertain how well this will work out in terms of weight, but the ability to store extra water on the surface seems like a large advantage. This bladder in particular comes with side straps, so that it can more securely be strapped to the top of either the front or rear rack. Most likely it will go on the back as I am concerned that the moving water will make front steering unstable. I may also just toss it into a stuff sack.
I mentioned in an earlier post the Iodine Purifier that I am also bringing with me to purify water if needed. I didn’t come anywhere close to needing this in Maine, but it is lightweight and I am still leaning on the cautious side, especially planning for the western states where population centers are fewer in number and further between.
Great choices! I did the same thing on my last trip and found that I could refill my bottles from hoses and bathroom sinks along the way. No extra plastic and no charge. I found that I used my drom most often in camp and it usually wet dry during my ride. The drom was really handy to fill and then use to cook or refill bottles in camp so I didn’t have to walk back and forth to the water supply. It may sound lazy but often I was just dammed tired. Looking good man.