A GOOD Water Bottle Pouch & Kit

Sunrise on the Rockies (Photo by V.A. McMillan 2021)

 Welcome to Emergency Preparedness Week 2021 in Canada. Time to re-visit the concept of hydration and taking your water with you - whether on a hike or an evacuation. Back in 2012 on Mountainman's Mantra this topic was briefly explored: https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/gearing-up-part-2-gear-vests.html 

Water Bottle Options

Since, 2012, many options have appeared in the water bottle market. Water bladders of every type seem to dominate the field. But old school "bottles" do have their place in your water carrying strategy, especially if you find yourself overdue on a wilderness outing or bugged out of your home.

The Nalgene water bottle is only slightly newer than a military canteen. With good reason, it does NOT leak!! Very important if you travel in rough country and cannot spend all your time ensuring your water bottle stays upright, to prevent leaks. 

Today we are going to look at a water bottle system that centres around the Nalgene 1-litre plastic bottle. Further, if I understand things correctly, the Nalgene 32-ounce family of wide mouth bottles and the Nalgene stainless steel 38-ounce water bottle are the same outside diameter, and should fit the system I am about to describe. 

The Nalgene Water Bottle System for Emergency Preparedness & Wilderness Survival

Water Bottle System 

The system consists of:

• 1x Tactical Water Bottle Pouch (pictured is from Amazon.ca)
• 1x Nalgene 1-litre wide mouth water bottle
• 1x Canteen Cup with Lid (pictured is from Amazon.ca)
• 1x Esbit Folding Stove (about 75mm x 95mm)
• 2x Mylar Blankets (available on Amazon.ca)

 

The Whole Kit

Upgrades to consider:

• Fire Kit - BIC lighter/matches/ESBIT fuel tablets
• P-51 can opener or Coghlan's folding can opener
• Silcox Key to open water valves in an emergency
• Water purification tablets 

The one big advantage of the military style canteen and canteen cup or this Nalgene bottle and cup is that when needed you already have a pot to boil your water - the canteen cup. The fact this one has a lid means you will use less fuel getting your water to boil than just an open top pot. 

The Esbit stove can burn Esbit fuel tablets, hexamine tablets, or any solid fuel - twigs, pine cones, charcoal briquets. The stove weighs next to nothing and when folded for transport can carry Esbit fuel tablets inside. It is compact about 3" x 4" x 1", actually a bit smaller. The Esbit can support either a military canteen cup or the Nalgene cup.

Canteen Cup for Nalgene Bottles on Esbit Stove

The Esbit stove and the two Mylar blankets store on the outside pocket of the Tactical Water Bottle Pouch. There is still room for a fire kit, spoon, P-51 can opener, and a few other goodies.

The Mylar blankets are handy in a survival situation to prevent cooling too fast in windy or damp conditions. They reflect body heat, infrared heat from a fire, and they reflect light. So, they are multi-purpose. Anyone sitting in the open on a sunny day covered in a Mylar blanket would be much easier for rescue teams to spot from the ground and from search and rescue aircraft. 

The Tactical Water Bottle Pouch - With Everything Packed Inside

The Tactical Water Bottle Pouch hold it all. The pouch can be carried on a shoulder strap attached to the "D" rings or clipped with the HK Clip to a "D" ring or attached with the MOLLE straps to a day pack or ruck sack. The materials were of a quality that should last years and the construction quality was equally durable. 

What emergency preparedness projects are you working on this Emergency Preparedness Week??

Stay alert, stay alive!!

VAM.