Water Bucket? Value or Luxury?

[GolfHiker]

A few years back I kept seeing water buckets on the AT, so I got a Sea to Summit free standing bucket, and I honestly love using it. How do you all feel about this? I guess I am looking for some confirmation and maybe even some examples of how you use your bucket, just in case I have missed something. :-?

Problem is, when you keep adding these useful, but not absolutely necessary items, the weight just keeps adding up.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[rafe]

I normally carry a 3-liter Platypus hydration bag, so that's my water bag at camp. I didn't realize when I went that route that the bag would be multi-purpose.

[lonehiker]

It is a luxury item. If you take the bucket you cannot take a pillow...

[Another Kevin]

My bucket would be one of the last luxury items to go.

Bathing away from a water source is not something I want to give up, and the bucket holds my rinse water. (The bandana gets wet from my cookpot while I'm washing, so that I don't get soap in the bucket when I'm rinsing. It doesn't hurt for my cookpot to get another washing.)

It's also for washing my socks, which I might do more than once a day if I'm getting mud on them. Gritty socks make my feet hurt. Some of the trails I hike involve a lot of swamp water, which gets in even if I'm wearing gaiters. (About the only thing that would work to keep it out would be a pair of calked waterproof knee boots, and they'd be such sweatboxes that I'd have worse foot problems.)

I can run my filter from the bucket and not have to sit at a muddy stream bank filtering.

The bucket is also useful as a settling tank if I've drawn water from a silty source.

I feel better with a half-bucket of water at hand if I've got a fire going, even in my stove.

It's not really free-standing, but a couple of feet of utility cord will tie it to a nearby tree, a shelter wall, or whatever.

http://www.walrusbucketsaga.com/images/82-this-iz-mah-bucket.jpg

[johnnybgood]

This Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Bucket is worth the ounce it is carry it. It looks to be roughly the same size & weight as a pack of cigarettes and I see plenty young hikers carrying cigs. and booze.
To be honest, I haven't until now seen a need for toting one but Another Kevin brings to light viable reasons to have one between town visits.

[Another Kevin]

It is a luxury item. If you take the bucket you cannot take a pillow...

Then it's good that I don't take a pillow. :D A stuff sack filled with whatever clothing I'm not wearing to bed does for me.

[GolfHiker]

Hey, I'm a child of the 60's, waterbeds, etc. So I guess a waterpillow just might be the thing. ��

[Dogwood]

luxury item considering you could use a cut down one gal plastic milk jug costing nothing weighing about or possibly less than an ounce. keep the handle attached when cutting it down and attach it to the back of your pack. That's what "Milk Jug Express" did on his PCT thru-hike in 2008.;)

[Water Rat]

It is a matter of priorities. For me, my Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Bucket is not a luxury item for all of the above reasons and more. The turning point was one trip when it was raining buckets outside and I did not want to have to sit out by a pond while filtering water. I was dry and wanted to say that way. Having the bucket meant I could make a quick dash out in the rain, fill the bucket, and retreat to filtering water under the dry shelter of my vestibule. I have had this happen on a few trips now and it is nice to be able to be confident that I can stay dry and fulfill my camp chores at the same time.

In a pinch I can also use it to haul stuff with me when I am running errands in town.

[Vegan Packer]

I love bathing at the end of the day, and then I can go to sleep in clean clothes. I find having the bucket a step away from absolute necessity, but it sure makes life easy, easy enough that it's worth the once.

[Wise Old Owl]

Please do not forget the value of a waterproof stuff sack perhaps Sea to Summit for storing a down sleeping bag... one can invert it and it will provide as a water carrier and is dual purpose.

[Another Kevin]

Please do not forget the value of a waterproof stuff sack perhaps Sea to Summit for storing a down sleeping bag... one can invert it and it will provide as a water carrier and is dual purpose.

I've also seen a pack cover used for a foot bath. Hikers are inventive.

[SouthMark]

One gallon ziplocks work great for water bags, for clothes washing, and for body washing. (not the same one for each)

[QiWiz]

I have the Sea To Summit silnylon bag. Very light, and very useful to carry water to wash myself and hiking clothes away from my water source in the back country. Unless I'm just out for a couple days, it's always in my kit.