Just want to post a photo of my wonderful new acquisitions: a Sigg 1L water bottle (to replace my 8-year-old BPA-riddled plastic one) and a Camelbak day trip backpack:

The rest of the water bottle says “green” in green, and a couple of the people on the other side have green heads. It’s wonderful. If you’ve never heard of Sigg, they are a company worth checking out – though there has been a run on Sigg bottles recently due to the BPA announcements (Sigg has always been, and will always be, a manufacturer of stainless steel and aluminum water bottles).

The Camelbak is a small backpack with about 16L capacity (just enough to hold a rain jacket and lunch). If you aren’t familiar with Camelbak hydration systems, then you’re probably wondering what that blue tube is running out of the side of it. Well, that’s the mouth piece to the 2L hydration sack nestled in its own pocket behind the bag. These things are super convenient, as you don’t have to take off your pack and root through it to find your water bottle, nor do you have to worry about dumping your water down the front of your shirt as you lean back to drink (this has happened to me on numerous occasions). The bag itself has a wide opening to fill which is approximately the same size as a Nalgene mouth, which means that any water filter adaptable to Nalgene bottles will fit this equally well. The mouthpiece is a bite valve, so it won’t open and drip unless you squeeze it. And when the tube isn’t in use, it has a nice little strap to hold it out of the way against the side of the pack.

Pretty awesome, eh? :D