Water

For my trip, Water will be a large hurdle to overcome.  I will be flying out there, so pre-setting water caches is not really possible.  Nor is it really what I want to do when trying to be self-sufficient in the backcountry.

So I will choose the filter and/or carry route.  I felt that 340oz is probably the most that I would carry at any given time, being that amount would last me for 2 days (plus safety), which is the longest time I can see being away from a water source, this will be during the stretch from Schafer Trail all the way around until I get back to Hwy 313.

Back from my climbing / camping / kayak days, I became a fan of the MSR Miniworks EX filter.  I have owned this for about 6 or 7 years now, and it is still going perfect.  It is rebuildable and cleanable with just your fingers, and has cleaned water from the silty Colorado in the past with little effort.  This makes it the first obvious choice for taking with.  Woohoo!  456 grams added to the gear list, its the first item!

Next, I need a system to carry this water.  I will put a drinking bladder in my frame bag, a drinking bladder in my backpack, and one storage bladder in the frame bag as well.  For these bladders, I chose the MSR CloudLiner 100oz bladders and the MSR DromLite 140oz storage bag.  The reason I chose these bags is that the screw-lid interface was designed to work with the MiniWorks filter, so there is a nice tight design with no adapters or hoses between the filter and receptacle.  Also, when I talk about frame bags, there is a little trick I am trying to figure out that will make this feature more attractive.

The 4 liter DromLite is 145 grams and the CloudLiners are 176 grams each.  They will weigh much more when wet.  This brings me to 953 grams for the water system, just a hair over 2 lbs.

When I read back through this post, it sure seemed like I was a shill for MSR product.  I assure you, I am not, and I purchased these products with my own money and have no affiliation with MSR.  I purely chose them on the past performance I have received from their products, and the usability between the pieces.