When I gave up on carrying a water filter, I gave up on Nalgene wide mouth bottles.
In recent years I’ve simply carried a soft drink bottle. It’s fantastically reliable and fits more easily into my pack pocket than a Nalgene.
Crow recommends …
… a 20 ounce “Vitamin Water” bottle. I wanted a wide mouth bottle because it’s easier to add drink powders to them. …
I have been using the same bottle for years. That’s the thing about “single use” plastic bottles, I don’t care how many years I have carried the same bottle, nor how many times I have dropped it, nor how rough its life has been. I have never, ever had a “single use” plastic bottle fail me.
They are light, dependable, and cheap. “Single use” plastic bottles are what I use for all my water carrying needs.
read more – Gear Review: “Vitamin Water” bottle
Good idea. I think I’ll buy my first and last bottle of Vitamin Water.
Needless to say, Crow has no time for water bladders.
besthike.com 
Agree totally with this. We only use a recycled Gatorade bottle. Only criteria is that it has a wide neck.
NEVER need to filter water in Australia (where we go anyway)
Two more downers on bladders .. they need a good cleaning regimen, and since they’re stowed in your backpack you never quite know how much water you have left.
Out of interest, which did you ditch the filter?
(I meant *why* did you ditch the filter?)
I got sick of “cleaning” the filter. … It’s a messy job with plenty of chances to get contaminated.
Though I used to love them, I find I don’t miss it at all.
Hey rick, I got to recommend you this bottle! its simply amazing, I used to use recycled bottles as well until I got a camelbak as a gift. Now I can’t ever go back!! what a product.
check it out: camelbak 750ml classic water bottle review
Welcome to the backcountry water drinking club Rick 🙂
I love ‘single use’ PET soft drink bottles. They are the best strong & light bottles for hiking. Between the three of us, we save around half a kilo to one kilo in water bottle weight for the 5 – 6 litres we carry – compared to other plastic bottles (Nalgene etc). They are very strong and never leak.
BUT, we use a water filter which is designed to attach to a Nalgene bottle. I would really love to use this feature – but don’t want to have to carry heavier bottles.
Wondering if anyone knows of an adapter for this?
I can not figure out why several filter makers design their products to work more conveniently for the heavy trendy bottles, when old soft drink bottles (PET) are clearly the best option for hiking!??? (unless you’re into bladders)