[pct-l] Water Consumption--leaks

[Mary Kwart]

On the subject of water supply leakage--at Scissors crossing in SoCal right before going into the dry stretch of the San Felipe Hills while taking a break my Camelbak 3 L bladder sprung a leak on the seam and soaked all of my gear. I had just filled it up and put it back into the pack. No rough treatment whatsoever. Luckily I had other bottles. There was also a trail angel from Shelter Valley that loaned me some bottles. In a pinch I could have used one of the leftover cache gallon containers. But the salesperson at the store where I got it swore you could run a truck over the Camelbak before it would break.

The leak was on the seam, so camelbak replaced it.

I definitely would stick with MSR dromedary bladder bags. I also found out that having a bladder bag with a tube let me drink more, but I took a lot fewer breaks because I didn't have to remove the pack to get a drink. This proved to be not a good thing. After I used bottles only, I took more frequent short breaks and actually improved my hiking mileage.

--Fireweed