Making Useless Useful-The Cheap Canteen!

                                                  
 
                                                        A New Use for Uselessness 

     One of the reasons this blog contains the word Minimalist is to highlight the idea of taking less on a hike.  Another good reason to identify as a wilderness minimalist is to spend less for a hike.   Take the quandary of water for instance.  A couple of times I took out my hydration pack, (I still have one), and for several hours grimaced as all that water sloshed around on my back.  For some reason I enjoyed far more the primeval like habit, of attaching two quart army canteens to a waist belt. Chugging down water from them when the need arose was refreshingly simple. To modernize I recently experimented with using the leg pockets on cargo pants to carry a water bottle, but alas the bottle was to large and it felt like the whole hike I had a wet cast glued to my leg. 
   Yet, not disheartened I have been searching for a solution.  I thought first a metal flask would be fine, but alas it carries only some 12 oz of water.  Compare this to my quart canteen 32oz, or my water bottle 24oz.  I even drained out a vanilla extract plastic bottle, but alas it was small, smelled strongly of vanilla, and leaked!  I stalked the grocery store aisles looking at mayonnaise bottles, ketchup, and barbeque bottles.  I finally ended up at Dollar Tree.  I had settled on two Chinese Tupperware reproduction, small 10.5 oz bottles, when I saw it.  There it sat in all of its sugary aloofness.  It was a 1 dollar, squeezable, grape jelly container.  Holding almost 20oz this plastic jug fits nicely into my lower cargo pocket.  Yes the head may protrude.  On the trail I might get a question why I'm drinking grape jelly.  But the satisfaction of finding a solution to my difficult quandary is so much more rewarding.
   Now, I need not spend 5 dollars for a military surplus pilots plastic flask. I don't have to pack a hydration pack or even canteens for a small hike.  Just hand me a couple grape jelly bottles. Empty them out and fill them with water. Then lets head for the mountains.  Yes, trash can easily become a treasure!