A few years ago I was getting ready for a trip to North Carolina and I needed a new canteen. The old two quart blanket sided metal tank I'd carried for about a decade finally lost one of its belt brackets and all I wanted was a replacement, exactly like that one but not broken. Shopping for a new one turned out to be a grand adventure all by itself, because in the years since I'd bought that canteen the market had been overtaken by hydration packs. Every sporting goods store had rack after rack of hydration packs in all shapes and sizes, and I could have bought a new backpack with a hydration compartment, but since I already had a good pack that I liked I didn't want to waste the money on superficial equipment. All I needed was a good canteen. Not a water bottle; not an Army surplus clunker canteen; and not a bota. Just a canteen like you'd see in an old TV western where some prospector is wandering through the desert with a burro.

The only place I found anything like it in a local store was in the toy department at Walmart, where I found a scouting canteen, cheap plastic in a cloth cover but serviceable enough. That's what I bought. I still don't have a hydration pack. I have several water carrying systems but no bladder pack with sip tube. I probably won't get one unless I have a chance to walk the Grand Canyon, in which case it would make good sense to me.

I'm not against the hydration pack concept and I do think it's very practical if you're a mountain biker or a trail runner, but for general backpacking I wouldn't choose it. Apparently I'm a minority, because it's an option in most of the backpacks sold today. Possibly the change is fashion oriented, with the hydration bladder part of the hot new technological look that's a must-have this year. Possibly it's just a marketing manipulation, something new that sells better if there's no competition from canteens. It may mark something more important, a change in philosophy that marks a difference in the generations of hikers on our trails.

Some people carry water. Some people find it. That's the difference in philosophy.

Most of the gear I favor today has evolved from things I was given as a kid, when most of my time was spent wandering alone or with other wild children in the Ozark wilderness, the hills and hollows that were too remote and too steep and too rocky to be of any commercial value. In those days you could follow the chortling sound of water winding through the maze of limestone slabs at the bottom of any ravine, and when you found a pool you could safely drink from it. Any permanent spring had its resident population of plants, insects and crayfish and if you brushed the living things aside, the water was cold and clear and sweet. I did carry a canteen -- one of the aluminum war surplus types that rides in a heavy canvas pouch and hooks onto a painfully heavy canvas belt -- but I rarely needed the water in it. A canteen of water was a backup system. Potable water was common.

Times have changed that country terribly. A few years ago on a visit home I visited some of the old places I knew as a feral child. The trees that were venerable when I was twelve are gone now, the old giants cut for lumber or dead of new disease and drought. The forest is still there, but smaller in all dimensions, with an unhealthy look. Where there were half a dozen homes scattered along a five mile stretch of ridgetop road, now there are a hundred, all of them with septic tanks that eventually empty into the hollows. Cattle farms that were limited to the number of cows that could live on the grazing acreage have been replaced by turkey and chicken houses without a population limit, generating as much manure as a small town.

All that changed the water. With fewer trees, the water retreated. More wells and pumps literally lowered the water table. Springs dried up. The ones that remain are clogged with green beds of algae that grows in eight inch high strands like seaweed. Most of the living things that flourished in clear water are gone. If you drink any of that green stuff, you're drinking somebody's toilet effluent. If you grow up in that country now, you carry your own water and you probably have a hydration pack. It's the most comfortable way to haul around all the water you need.

Before you crumble totally and join the herd as it rumbles towards the racks of hydration packs I'd like to point out some minor issues and speak up for the alternative. The canteen still has a few good things going for it. I may stock up on canteens soon, storing them in the closet with the hundred packages of incandescent light bulbs Alice bought when threatened with pale blue neon light. In a few years the canteen may go the way of books and become something you just read about on the internet, a thing that existed a long time ago.

I usually carry two quarts of water if I'm going out for a few days and I know there will be water available on the trail. One large two quart canteen or a small one quart model and a storage bottle for my pack is all that I take. That gets me through the first day without having to sterilize any water, but by the second day I'm running on local supply.

The Camelbak Rogue holds 70 ounces of water and has enough room left over for the essentials of a day's outing. It's more comfortable than a two quart canteen, and it keeps that extra weight in a balanced position. The water bladder provides some cushion effect if you have uncomfortable gear in the pack, although with anything this small you probably won't.

For biking or running that's usually plenty of water and for a long walk it's way more than you need. Water needs vary with the climate -- we did a ten mile run on the hottest day of the year here in Indiana a couple of years ago, and we both needed more water than the Camelbak Rogue will carry. We had two quarts each to carry, another two quarts stashed behind a tree at the halfway point, and we still stopped in town on the way back for a cold drink.

A Camelbak would probably be more comfortable than the waistbelt with two bottles that I wore that day. With the waistbelt, the load bounces with every step and as you drink the weight gets unbalanced. That's always irritating. On the other hand, I'd rather carry things on a belt than on my back. It's a personal choice to make, whether you want the load at your waist or on your shoulders.

Hydration packs have sipping tubes so you don't have to take them off to drink. Just pop the tube into your mouth and take a drink. I don't like this method at all. When I drink I want to be able to take a good gulp, not a sip, and I'm not in such a hurry that I mind stopping to do that. A canteen is very convenient that way. You get water fast.

If you're racing, a hydration pack makes sense. If you're not, there are other valid solutions. It's all about comfort. If there's going to be a lot of bouncing involved, the hydration pack is probably the best solution for anyone who doesn't have callouses in odd places. If you're on a bike and you need balance and extra capacity, it's hydration pack all the way. If you're just walking, a hydration pack is overkill.

Today if you buy a good backpack it will probably have a pocket for a hydration bladder. It may even have the bladder itself. The pack I'm using as an example (the Teton Sports Scout 3400, a random choice) has the pocket but nothing to put in it, so if you're packing water instead of looking for it you have lots of options. Bladders for backpacks should be cargo oriented -- built for capacity, not necessarily streamlining. Before you buy, make sure they fit the compartment in your pack.

CamelBak is at the top of the heap in popularity, but also in price. Since there are at present no standards of testing, buyers depend completely on the reputation of the manufacturers and their own testing procedures. Generic bladders may or may not be good buys.

CamelBak bladders, and the numerous CamelBak clones sold under different names, offer wide mouth openings that are easy to fill. The CamelBak build is rugged and you shouldn't worry about poking a hole in it. Lesser products might require more caution, but I've gotten by many times with gallon water jugs bought off the shelf at Walmart and packed away carefully. Set them on a sharp spike and you'll make a hole, but take care of them and they'll last for the trip. Pretty much anything you buy is better than that.

If you care about water storage and not the fancy sipping tube, which to me is just another thing to get caught in the brush anyway, consider the Platypus water bottle. It's the size of a more expensive hydration bladder, durable, and doesn't have all the unnecessary fancy stuff. You get the true advantages of water bladder transport -- balance, low center of gravity, and no sharp corners -- at a bargain price.

Water bladders can hold as much as three liters and you can of course carry more than one. Except in desert areas, that's totally unreasonable. On many of the trips I've taken I've only carried a quart canteen of water which I refill as needed, from local sources. A water filter and a little bottle of purification tablets is a lot lighter than three liters of water. The purification tablets ought to be a permanent part of your rig, essential for disinfecting your hydration bladder in the field.

Which brings up a little problem that hydration bladders have: sanitation.

I get curious sometimes about what it would be like to live without the modern tricks and toys. A few years ago I took a week to go canoe camping on the shores of a northeastern Arkansas lake, where I found out a little too late, as the Park Service was about to tow my car away, that camping is actually illegal. Fortunately I kept well out of the sight of the rangers until the end of my vacation and it all worked out ok. Except for the water problems.

I hadn't brought my usual vial of water purification tablets, thinking that from a permanent base camp I could just spend a little extra time each day boiling water. At that time of year the lake was a bit low and the water was pretty green with chunks in it, so I was very careful to strain out the big pieces as I filled my canteen and to boil the water for a full ten minutes. Even so, by the end of my sojourn there I had the rumblings of trouble brewing within me, literally. I realized a little too late that it doesn't do much good to boil the water if you just pour it back into the canteen you dunked into the lake.

Water purification tablets go right into the canteen. Seal it up, wait an hour, and the water's safe to drink. Actually there's some concern now that cryptosporidium may survive the iodine or bromine treatment. The safer way is to filter the water before you treat it, or use another method like UV sterilization to back up the pills.

Hydration bladders and their sipping tubes are wonderful incubators for mildew and bacteria. They need regular disinfecting and storage can be troublesome. The interior of the bag must be dry to prevent the growth of mold. Though manufacturers like to imply this isn't difficult, in real life it can be troublesome and imperfect. Purification tablets can take care of residual issues.

Found water today is not good water. Nearly all open water in the continental U.S. is dangerous to drink. Even with water filters and purifiers you need to be careful. Cross contamination of drinking containers can be enough to make you sick. Used to be, when I dipped water out of a stream, I reminded myself of what W.C. Fields said about it. I've seen all sorts of things in rivers, from dead fish and animals to hog sewage and horse manure. It's not just animals that pee in the water, it's other campers, too.

My major reaction to hydration packs is Why Complicate Things? Without them, I've had no problems carrying extra water. Either I put a jug in my pack or I strap a canteen to the outside of it. All it takes is a little bit of rigging, and my water is right there. If you're wearing a backpack anyway, it doesn't take a lot of brainpower to hang a canteen so it doesn't bang against your hip. A one quart flask is pretty comfortable slung over one shoulder and it's easy to get a drink from it. To some extent the hydration pack was a solution to problems nobody had.

Now that it's available, there are times it makes sense, but if you like the old system the canteen works just fine. Bladders have the advantage of being collapsible -- canteens are always going to take up the same amount of space whether they are full or not. Canteens can ride outside, though, leaving room in your pack for gear. Perhaps, if you don't have time to stop and unscrew a canteen cap and have to drink on the move from a sipping tube, you need to just calm down a bit and enjoy the scenery.

Many of today's packs have pockets especially designed for water bottles, but not for canteens. A bottle in a side pocket is sensible, but for large volumes (water storage) it isn't efficient. Although a soft drink bottle actually works just as well, water bottles are more environmentally friendly because they cost too much to throw away. They come in designer colors, made from coated aluminum or stainless steel to prevent metal contamination, or in special plastic that won't vent chemicals into your drink.

Life shouldn't be this complicated. All we're trying to do is carry water and it doesn't require an eighty dollar solution to do that. Worry about things like this too much and you won't have any fun. There's a lot of weird advice floating around today about what to drink and how much and how often. I find that I can run about five miles in the heat of the summer and then I get thirsty. If I'm running ten miles I need to carry some water. If I'm not, I can leave a bottle sitting on the porch for when I get back.

The simplest solution is usually the best one. Beyond that, it's just advertising pressure.