I just picked up a SOL yesterday and was needing to find a small ditty bag to stow this in to keep things in order while it's in the backpack.

Also, I picked up a Sawyer water squeeze. Still searching for a convenient way to fill this in the field.

Yes I'm new to this, very new. lol

What do you guys use?

Ken

Ditty bags are easy to find at most outdoors stores. We picked up a pack of three smaller ones at Big5 for under $20...one we use for a NeoAir, one for my wife's down jacket.

The third one sits on the desk in our library, waiting for someone to find a use for it

I just stick the bag in the water and let it fill up. Usually there be rushing stream that I can stick it under for a fast fill-up.

I use two methods to fill the Sawyer squeeze. The first is to find a running stream or river. Then just stick the bag in the flow. If the stream is a really low flow, and not deep, then I look for a spot where it runs over something and makes a small waterfall. This is usually the best spot to fill.

If I only have stagnant water, like a lake, then I use a second bag with a wide opening, and then poor it into the fill pouch. For the second bag, I either use a nalgene canteen, or a cheap platypus knockoff (it cost me $1.50) with a cut off top.

My work around is to just carry one bladder and a Gatorade or Snapple qt. bottle. If I need to filter water using my ancient First Need, I have something solid to stand up. I guess my pot would do the same function, although I like to keep one "pure" container with no food or oil ever in it.
Duane

I just started using a Sawyer Squeeze this past summer. Where the water source flowed well the pressure would do an adequate job of filling it. Any spot where water flows over a small drop, like a rock, is a bonus. With slow-flowing or still water I used a plastic cup to dip and pour.

I've never found a need for a ditty bag with the Sol. The canister, canister stand, and stove store inside the pot (there's even a nifty little diagram on the cozy); the snap-on lid keeps everything together. The only other loose pieces are a small dish cloth and a Jetboil spoon. The cloth can either store inside the measuring cup that fits on the bottom of the pot, or can wrap around the canister and store inside the pot. The spoon, collapsed, fits through the slot in the top of the handle, and seems to stay put pretty well. So, I just drop the pot into my pack and let it go at that. If that doesn't work, consider this: using a slightly larger food bag would let you store it inside the food bag; at meal time, you just grab one bag and go.

Like others said, I fill the "dirty" bottle in the stream if it's deep enough and flowing (the "waterfall" idea works best); if it's still water, I take a pint-sized Sawyer bottle, cut the top inch or two off, and use it as a scoop to fill the bottle. If you're partial to hydration systems, you can buy two adapters that screw onto the filter and let you splice it into your drinking hose. That lets you simply fill your bladder from the creek (most are wide-mouth or, like the Platypus, have a zip-open end), reattach the hose, and filter as you drink.

Thanks for the replies guys. I was not sure how well the Jet Boil stayed together. The lid does seem pretty snug. No use in complicating it. lol.

This Saturday, I hope to make the three hour trip to REI and be fitted for a back pack. It's really premature to buy the one i'm getting now, but at the present time, the overtime is available that supports it and will be gone in a month if I don't do so now. If I don't get now, I'll feel the crunch pretty bad later down the road. I won't hardly feel it at all with this payperiod with 44 hours of OT on this check:-) so I hope to come home with pack, tent and maybe a sleeping system of some sort. I have the stuff picked out by reading tons or reviews, the only thing left to do is put eyes and hands on the stuff to see if those reviews were correct. Looks like i'm going to have to bring my lil 5 year old nephew over to have a excuse to set the tent up in my living room. Lol

Buying gear like this with no practical experience to back it up makes me pretty nervous. I wouldn't dare make such a move with my scuba diving gear. But I guess you gotta learn via experience at some point.

All the best,

Ken

It's kind of a Catch-22: you can't get experience unless you have gear, but you shouldn't get your gear until you have some experience.

Logically, I can see that renting is a way to break they cycle: you can get the experience using gear you aren't stuck with. However, logic doesn't always control: I could never get past the idea that spending $100 on rental gear is $100 I don't have to spend on my own gear.

The route you're choosing, by doing research and then just jumping on in, will work. Just don't get too attached to that first set of gear - as you get the experience, you may end up replacing some or all of it. (When you do replace something, use the spare gear to help get someone else on the trail.)