Monday, September 5, 2016

Minimalist Water Bottle

(Hydrapak purchased at EMS)

As a follow up to my post on the minimalist umbrella I will now post my new minimalist water bottle.

I was at Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) befor a trip overseas and my goal was to maintain my Prius Minimalism mindset on this trip.

I saw the above collapsed water bottle and figured I would give it a try.


I normally bring my CsmelBak (right above) as my go to bottle.  The problem is that you can't bring water through airport security and why buy $3.00 water after security when you can use a water bubbler (fountain) to fill your own.

So, the CsmelBak stayed home for the new Hydrapak minimalist bottle.  It collapses to take up very little space,  

It expands to about 700ml.  See side by pictire above.  CamelBak is a 750 ml bottle.

Being soft sided it feels funny and when you open the Hydrapak, you need to be holding the top ring as holding the middle will cause the water to come out from the pressure of holding in the middle.

So it takes up less room, is lighter weight, and seems rugged but probably will not take the abuse the CamelBak will take.

I will be continuing to use it as my go to water bottle on some more trips before my next Prius Travels January 2017.

I still will be carrying my 2 Liter CamelBak bladder in my day pack for hikes.  The Hydrapak will be carried in addition.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com 





Saturday, September 3, 2016

Minimalist Umbrella


Living in a Prius creates minimalist thinking, and this week I was at the Container Store and saw this very small umbrella (right-above).  I didn't carry an umbrella the last 2 Prius Travel years, as I was still working on reducing the number and size of things and feeling a bit too crowded.

I have reduced the size of many things and cut back on what I carry and there is a need for an umbrella as I learned at the SE GTG this past spring.

I do carry a rain suit and my hiking boots are waterproof.  But there were a few times that an umbrella would have been helpful.


The small umbrella I found does not have the push button opener so it is called manual.  I can handle manual, even though one handed push button actuation is a very nice feature.

Size does matter when living in a Prius.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com