Tag: Sawyer Mini

Weminuche Wilderness – July 2020: Food and Water

My food for the Weminuche Wilderness backpacking trip.

During our past backpacking trips, I had always suspected my brother and I probably weren’t eating enough. However, we had a system that worked and hadn’t had any issues other than being a bit hungry at times. A couple months ago I happened to come across Backcountry Foodie and I decided to do the math. It was no surprise when I discovered the calorie count we were getting was quite low. Haha. Not a huge deal for the short trips that we do, but I decided to try some new things on our San Juan trip anyway. Below I compare how we had been doing food and water, and how we did it on this trip.

Water

Before: For drinking water we would fill up our camelback bladders and drink through a Saywer Mini at the end of our bladder hose. For cooking water and dishes we would fill up the Sawyer pouches and filter through a Sawyer Mini.

This Trip: We primarily used a Sawyer Squeeze screwed onto the top of a 1L Smartwater bottle. We had another smaller widemouth type bottle that we used for filtered water and drink mixes. We also had an Evernew 2L bag that we used to bring extra water to camp if the lake/stream was a little bit of a walk from camp. We had never used drink mixes before, but on this trip we tried out some Ultima Replenisher drink mixes to help replenish electrolytes.

Thoughts: If you can easily get the bottle out of your pack while hiking, I think the Sawyer Squeeze on a bottle is the way to go. The bottle was easy to fill up, the Squeeze has better flow than the mini, and the bottle was much simpler to get in and out of the pack than the bladder. Having the bladder hose to drink through is slightly more convenient (easier to reach than our bottles and drink on the go), but it was much nicer filling the bottles than filling the camelback bladders and getting the bladders back in the packs. The Evernew bag came in really handy several times while at camp. It’s hard to say for sure whether or not the drink mixes made any difference, but it was really nice to have something flavored to drink a couple times a day.

Breakfast

Hydrating oatmeal for breakfast.

Before: We would each have a couple packets of Quaker oatmeal. We would each put the oatmeal into a bowl, I would boil water in my Jetboil, and then pour the boiling water into the bowls with the oatmeal and let the oatmeal hydrate. (320 calories)

This Trip: Lemon Blueberry Oatmeal recipe from Backcountry foodie. I packaged the oatmeal into Ziploc style bags. Instead of pouring the oatmeal into bowls, we poured it into empty Mountain House packets we had brought. We would then pour the boiling water from my Jetboil into the Mountain House packets to let the oatmeal hydrate. After we were finished we would rinse out the Mountain House packets and then use them for the next breakfast. (510 calories)

Thoughts: I thought the Lemon Blueberry oatmeal was just as tasty as the Quaker oatmeal, and just as filling, if not more so. It was a little more of a pain since I had to purchase the ingredients and make it myself, but it was really quite simple. The Mountain House packets weren’t as easy to eat out of as bowls, but they kept the oatmeal warm as it hydrated, which was really nice. It also meant we didn’t have to pack an extra bowl (my Jetboil includes a bowl). For extended trips, I would likely throw in some different meals to change things up, but for shorter trips like this, the Lemon Blueberry oatmeal will probably be my preferred choice. (On this trip, I did cut off the sealing mechanism for the Mountain House packets, as I have noticed on previous trips that after a couple times reusing the packets, the mechanism starts to come apart anyway. To close up the packets while hydrating, we would fold the top over and then put a clothespin on top.)

Morning Snack

Before: some sort of bar (Clif bar for me). (250 calories)

This Trip: no change

Lunch

Before: Trail Mix. It was either a pouch of Great Value Tropical Trail Mix or Power Up High Energy Trail Mix. We would eat a handful or so out of the pouch. (~240 calories)

This Trip: Trail mix. This time I bought the bulk Canyon Runner Trail Mix at WinCo and packaged it into 3/4 cup servings in Ziploc style bags. Both of us really liked this trail mix! (480 calories).

Afternoon Snack

Before: some sort of bar (Clif bar for me). (250 calories)

This Trip: no change.

Dinner

Before: My brother and I would split a Mountain House meal. Prior to the trip I would repackage the Mountain House meals into Ziploc style bags to save room in our bear canisters. I would bring an empty Mountain House packet for making the meal. At dinnertime I would dump the meal from the Ziploc style bag into the Mountain House packet. I would boil water in my Jetboil and pour it into the Mountain House packet for the meal to hydrate. Once it was ready, I would pour half of it into a bowl for my brother and then I would eat the other half out of the packet. After we were finished, I would rinse out the Mountain House packet and reuse it for the next dinner. (~300-350 calories, depending on the meal)

This Trip: I tried some various Backcountry Foodie recipes, and my brother had full Mountain House dinners. As before, the Mountain House meals were put into Ziploc style bags before the trip. As with breakfast, we each had a Mountain House packet we used for hydrating and eating out of, and after the meal we would rinse them out and reuse them for the next dinner. (~600-700 calories for Mountain House meals, ~600-950 calories for Backcountry Foodie meals)

Thoughts: The Mountain House meals are really nice due to their simplicity. Purchase them, repackage them into Ziplocs, pour them into a Mountain House packet at dinnertime, add boiling water, and then let it sit and hydrate. The Backcountry Foodie recipes were a little more involved. I had to purchase the ingredients and make the meals beforehand. For the ramen meals, after hydrating, the remaining liquid had to be removed, and then the spices and oil mixed into the noodles. The Mountain House meals seemed to clean up better than the Backcountry Foodie meals, mainly due to the Backcountry Foodie meals using olive oil. I would dump the remaining water from the ramen into my Jetboil bowl, and since I was reusing the Mountain House packet, my bowl would get oil residue on it, which was kind of annoying. Taste wise, I thought the Backcountry Foodie meals were fine, and I imagine they are quite a bit cheaper than the Mountain House meals. They were also more filling than I expected. To me the Backcountry Foodie recipes seemed healthier since I was making them myself. If I have time to prepare meals before a trip, I’ll likely go with the Backcountry Foodie recipes, but I’ll have to see if I can come up with a little better system for making them while backpacking to avoid getting oil residue on my bowl.

Evening Dessert

Before: Peanut M&Ms. I would bring a sharing size pouch, and my brother and I would eat a handful each evening. (~280 calories)

This Trip: Peanut M&Ms a couple evenings, and a Backcountry Foodie chocolate pudding recipe a couple evenings. (~280 calories M&Ms, 368 calories pudding)

Thoughts: The Peanut M&Ms are really nice since they are easy and don’t make a mess. The chocolate pudding recipe has to be made before hand, and then water added when you’re ready to eat it. The first time I made it, I made it in the Ziploc style bag I had packaged it in, and that was a little bit difficult and messy to eat out of. The second time I made it, I made it in my Jetboil bowl. That was easier mix up and eat out of, but then the bowl had to be cleaned. It tasted great, and was filling, but definitely more of a pain than the M&Ms.

Final Thoughts

I was a little nervous changing so many things this trip, but all in all it went pretty well. Despite my brother giving me a hard time about it, it was fun to experiment with the Backcountry Foodie recipes this trip. They definitely take more effort than Quaker oatmeal and Mountain House dinners, but they also generally provide more calories and seem healthier to me. One downside to the Backcountry Foodie recipes is that a lot of the ingredients come in amounts much larger than needed for just a few meals, which can be a little frustrating. If you’ll be making a lot of meals, I think you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck with the Backcountry Foodie recipes. I also think some of them would be a great idea for trail magic if you do any of that. My brother and I definitely got more calories during this trip, which I’m sure helped, and I’m sure it helped having some drinks to replace electrolytes a couple times a day. Still some things to play with for my next trip though!

Katadyn Hiker vs. Sawyer Mini

Filter vs

The Backstory

Before I get into the pros and cons of each filter, I’m going to start out with the backstory about why I ended up carrying the sawyer mini with me backpacking in the first place.

When we first started backpacking, my brother and I carried the Katadyn Hiker water filter, pictured above left. It got us through four trips without any issues, and I had never thought about carrying a different filter. My backup plan if this were to ever fail was to boil water with my Jetboil. Last summer (2018), my brother and I did our annual backpacking trip in July, which was trip #5 with the Katadyn Hiker. We went to the Highland Park area of the Big Horn Mountains. On day 3 of the trip, while we were camped in Highland Park, the wind came up pretty bad, and while the wind was blowing we went to fill up our bladders in a small pond. The wind had caused the pond to become pretty rough, and thus the water had quite a bit of sediment in it. We went ahead and filtered some water into our bladders, and during the process it got pretty hard to pump the water. Fast forward to the next day. As we were preparing to fill up our bladders at a different spot, my brother noticed some stuff floating around in his water. At that point, we figured the filter was likely bad, and ended up hiking out a day early. Thankfully neither of us got sick from drinking the water.

After this experience, I realized that boiling water probably wasn’t the best backup plan. I wouldn’t be able to do much water at once, it would take a while to cool off, and it would use up a lot of fuel. So before my first solo trip a couple months later in Utah, I looked into alternatives for backup water supply, and I decided to start carrying a Sawyer Mini with me in addition to the Katadyn Hiker. I also bought a new filter for the Katadyn Hiker for my Utah trip. Just a short ways into my Utah trip, it again became hard to pump the Katadyn Hiker filter. I didn’t want to chance bad water again, so I got to give the Sawyer Mini an unplanned test run for the rest of that Utah trip.

For our trip this year, my brother and I decided to carry two Sawer Mini filters each instead of bringing the Katadyn Hiker and a Sawyer Mini each. Based on my experience of using each, I figured I would provide some of my pros and cons of using each.

Pros & Cons

Had we not had problems with the Katadyn Hiker filter, we would have likely continued using that filter this year. I have no idea why we are having the issue of it becoming hard to pump, but for the 4 trips where it worked, we really liked it.

One advantage that the Katadyn Hiker has over the Sawyer Mini is that the water I am carrying around is good water. The water goes from the source, through the filter, and into the bladder, and then can be used for anything at that point. When I’m using water out of the bladder for cooking, brushing teeth, etc., I don’t have to worry about using unfiltered water. With the Sawyer Mini, the water I am carrying around is unfiltered, so I have to be careful about using water out of the bladder. At night, I will typically remove the Sawyer Mini filter from my bladder, put the original mouthpiece on the bladder, and the keep the Sawyer Mini in my sleeping bag to keep it from freezing. However, I have to be careful not to take a drink out of the bladder without the filter, or use the water for cooking, brushing teeth, etc. I just feel like using the Sawer Mini adds a little more of a chance that myself or someone else could accidentally use non-filtered water for something that it shouldn’t be used for.

One other big advantage the Katadyn Hiker has: the bladder is easier to drink out of with the original mouthpiece vs with the Sawyer Mini. With the Sawer Mini attached to the bladder hose, I almost have to work a little bit to take a drink of water. It’s not bad, but it is definitely harder to take a drink with the Sawyer Mini. I also felt a lot of times that I had to hold the Sawyer Mini to my mouth when I was taking a drink, particularly if the trail was rough. However, with the original mouthpiece, I feel like I’m typically able to stick it in my mouth and then take my hand away while I’m taking a drink.

One last advantage the Katadyn Hiker has over the Sawyer Mini: meal time. When we were using the Katadyn Hiker, we would typically fill our camelback bladders up when we got to camp, and then we would have enough water for drinking, dinner, and brushing teeth. However, with the Sawyer Mini, I have to fill the squeeze bag up with water, squeeze the water out into my Jetboil to boil, and then fill the squeeze bag again to clean up after dinner. Also, when I take the Sawyer Mini filter off my bladder to use on the squeeze bag, I have to either put the original mouthpiece back on, or be careful to set the bladder in a way that the water doesn’t flow out and not set anything on the bladder. Not a huge additional hassle, but it is definitely nice having a full camelback that I can use and not have to fill up a smaller pouch a couple times. Along this same note, though, my arms can end up getting pretty tired by the time I’m finished filtering water with the Katadyn Hiker, particularly if I’m filling up a couple large bladders.

The big advantage with the Sawyer Mini? It makes filling up the bladders very quick when you’re hiking. I just get my bladder out of my pack, scoop up some water in a water source, and then put the bladder back in the pack. I don’t have to assemble the pump filter, make sure I’m not getting the “clean hose” in the non-filtered water, keep track of the caps that go on the inlet and outlet nipples, and then disassemble the pump filter. To me that’s a huge plus.

One other big advantage of the Sawyer Mini is that the filter itself is a lot smaller. I can store the filter and my cell phone in my sleeping bag pocket at night without them bothering me. I doubt I could even fit the Katadyn Hiker filter and main body in my sleeping bag pocket. So if I’m worried about my filter freezing, I would much rather have the Sawyer Mini. I do have to be careful, though, that I put the original mouthpiece back on the hose when I take the Sawyer Mini off the hose.

One other final thing to note: when my brother put the Sawyer Mini onto his bladder hose, he put it on as far as it would go. The problem with this? It made it nearly impossible to get the filter back off. After the trip, he ended up having to cut the bladder hose to get the filter off. Just something to keep in mind if you are going to use a Sawyer Mini filter.

My Choice?

My plan going forward is to carry the two Sawyer Mini filters on each trip. Despite a little more hassle at camp, it’s not enough to outweigh the benefits of a smaller filter and easier bladder filling along the trail.

So there you have it. Everybody is different, though, and the choice is yours. Plus, there are many more options out there besides these two filters. These are just the two I have experience with. Feel free to comment on this post with any feedback you have about these filters, or why you use a different filter!