Free Water Source Along Routes
08-24-19, 07:20 AM
#51
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More importantly what are the sources for free beer along a route?
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08-24-19, 09:01 AM
#52
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Osprey also makes a number of different packs. The Raptor 14 is similar in capacity to the Camelbak MULE. The Raptor 14 also has a clever bottom pocket for tools. Osprey packs have slightly better bladders in that they are top filling with a slide closure rather than a twist closure.
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Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
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08-24-19, 06:58 PM
#54
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Living on an island (Oahu) I pretty much have a handle on where I can get water wherever I go. Mostly parks and schools. With all the crap going on in schools I've cut back on those, but no one has stopped me yet (I don't go while school is in session, except at the local Uni). The uni actually has a fountain designed to refill water bottles (intended to discourage one-time use plastic bottled water).
scott s.
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scott s.
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08-25-19, 06:50 AM
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From yesterday's ride in Lehigh Gorge State Park. I will drink the water but not use the restroom unless absolutely desperate. It smells terrible. When it's hot you can smell the place as you ride by.
08-25-19, 08:40 AM
#56
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After reading a post about the homeless population using drinking fountains as showers, then seeing it happen in person, I pretty much cannot use a drinking fountain anywhere. Even those indoors. I developed a phobia overnight.
Gas stations with mini-marts work, though in 9 out of 10 cases I buy something rather than just ask for water. Grab a snack, ask if I can fill my bottles with ice water, I've never once been refused.
In moments of desperation, you can ask a dude out watering or mowing his grass. For the most part, people are decent. I've been out riding when it's far too hot to be riding, and random people have offered me bottles of water.
If you have frequent routes, start to build a mental database of friendly gas stations, convenience stores, and any other place you can grab some water or take shelter if need be.
One of the local credit unions has a coffee maker and filtered water right by the front door. I've gotten water there countless times. My LBS has a 5-gallon water dispenser in the back.
I have friends and family scattered all around the IE, and have stopped and gotten water out of the hose bib at numerous houses.
Gas stations with mini-marts work, though in 9 out of 10 cases I buy something rather than just ask for water. Grab a snack, ask if I can fill my bottles with ice water, I've never once been refused.
In moments of desperation, you can ask a dude out watering or mowing his grass. For the most part, people are decent. I've been out riding when it's far too hot to be riding, and random people have offered me bottles of water.
If you have frequent routes, start to build a mental database of friendly gas stations, convenience stores, and any other place you can grab some water or take shelter if need be.
One of the local credit unions has a coffee maker and filtered water right by the front door. I've gotten water there countless times. My LBS has a 5-gallon water dispenser in the back.
I have friends and family scattered all around the IE, and have stopped and gotten water out of the hose bib at numerous houses.
Cheers
08-25-19, 10:07 AM
#57
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I agree. My Camelbaks have water in them pretty much continuously throughout the year...i.e. they always have water in them... and they never have a problem. Water out of the tap is relatively sterile. We add chemicals to it to keep it that way and there not much in water for small beasties to live on.
Yep. Remember those but not all that fondly. They are so much better now.
Signed,
My first hydropack was the original Camelbak sleeve with those really thin straps that dug into your pits.
My first hydropack was the original Camelbak sleeve with those really thin straps that dug into your pits.
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Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
08-25-19, 11:16 AM
#58
Non omnino gravis
That’s why I said hose bib and not hose— pretty much every hose you see at a home improvement store has a tag stating something along the lines of “don’t drink out of this.” Unscrew hose, full bottles, screw hose back on.
08-26-19, 12:42 PM
#59
Senior Member
Free water
08-26-19, 12:52 PM
#60
Senior Member
Mountain spring water
Count me in on this. I do think getting a drink down stream is more risky. I've never had a problem and the cool fresh spring water is very refreashing! I'll take some chances in life, this is one of them. My sons were appalled.
08-26-19, 01:01 PM
#61
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Some convenience stores around here will have a sign up by the soda machine that ice is 25 cents.
I ALWAYS ask first before taking water/ice.
On one of our routes my friend insists on getting water from the public fountain by the ranger station, its pretty horrible. I much prefer the Subway just around the corner.
On one of the mountain tops there is a small grocery store that puts out a pitcher of water for the cyclists, though they are one of the ones that charged 25 cents for ice. Their ice machine broke and they are making do with bags of ice in the old ice machine. On top of a much higher mountain there is a small deli, they won't give out tap water, I don't know why. Their refrigerator is broken so the bottled water is room temp, but they will give free ice.
I ALWAYS ask first before taking water/ice.
On one of our routes my friend insists on getting water from the public fountain by the ranger station, its pretty horrible. I much prefer the Subway just around the corner.
On one of the mountain tops there is a small grocery store that puts out a pitcher of water for the cyclists, though they are one of the ones that charged 25 cents for ice. Their ice machine broke and they are making do with bags of ice in the old ice machine. On top of a much higher mountain there is a small deli, they won't give out tap water, I don't know why. Their refrigerator is broken so the bottled water is room temp, but they will give free ice.
08-26-19, 01:08 PM
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I’ll happily read any evidence you provide, and acknowledge if I have made an error. But without providing a citation to the alleged law, this post is pretty meaningless.
Last edited by Koyote; 08-26-19 at 07:00 PM.
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08-26-19, 01:19 PM
#64
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You may also want to borrow or pick up a used copy of "How to **** in the Woods." It is a very simple, easy read but an eye opener re the state of our waterways and why we should filter.
-Tim-
08-26-19, 02:09 PM
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ali-180971852/
08-26-19, 03:02 PM
#66
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https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q...uest-tap-water
has a good run down for several countries. Those that are required seem to be for paying customers and those that serve alcohol.
https://www.******.com/r/toronto/com..._to_serve_you/ but this is for Toronto, so this could be legislated city-by-city.
08-26-19, 03:09 PM
#67
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Yes, well, I just wonder how many of these here millennial whippersnappers ever even heard of engine knock.* Why, back in my day... 
Errrrr. Never Mind.
*I will post a gloat that may not go over well in a bike forum, but my first two cars were a 59' T-bird, and a 67' GTO. The latter really did better with Ethyl. Which is a chemical they put in gas, Millennials!
Errrrr. Never Mind.
*I will post a gloat that may not go over well in a bike forum, but my first two cars were a 59' T-bird, and a 67' GTO. The latter really did better with Ethyl. Which is a chemical they put in gas, Millennials!
08-26-19, 04:09 PM
#68
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Google it. It does very country to country, and state to state.
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q...uest-tap-water
has a good run down for several countries. Those that are required seem to be for paying customers and those that serve alcohol.
https://www.******.com/r/toronto/com..._to_serve_you/ but this is for Toronto, so this could be legislated city-by-city.
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q...uest-tap-water
has a good run down for several countries. Those that are required seem to be for paying customers and those that serve alcohol.
https://www.******.com/r/toronto/com..._to_serve_you/ but this is for Toronto, so this could be legislated city-by-city.
It may be that the current occupant of the White House has exhausted my tolerance for this sort of thing...But I really don't understand how people make assertions without checking (or seemingly caring to check) on their veracity. The "information revolution," which puts so much info at our fingertips, seems to have been for naught.
Last edited by Koyote; 08-26-19 at 07:01 PM.
08-26-19, 04:59 PM
#69
Senior Member
I read somewhere a while ago that in the UK if you're a restaurant / a bar ... if someone comes in and asks for a glass of water you legally have to give them one for free (and I think to their horse as well) ... I believe it goes back to old law that someone could of been travelling by horse on a long journey and need water just to survive.
I've never put it to the test though ... as others have said I've gone in and bought something like an energy bar / sweets and asked if there's any chance of some tap water as well.
I've never put it to the test though ... as others have said I've gone in and bought something like an energy bar / sweets and asked if there's any chance of some tap water as well.
08-26-19, 05:31 PM
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I read somewhere a while ago that in the UK if you're a restaurant / a bar ... if someone comes in and asks for a glass of water you legally have to give them one for free (and I think to their horse as well) ... I believe it goes back to old law that someone could of been travelling by horse on a long journey and need water just to survive..
08-26-19, 06:52 PM
#71
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You must be a lawyer.
08-26-19, 06:59 PM
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If you really think it works that way, then I heard that Elvis, Bigfoot, and JFK are all alive and living together on an island in the South Pacific. Please confirm.
08-27-19, 07:24 AM
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Bigfoot lives in Yaak, MT.
08-27-19, 08:39 AM
#74
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now to the original question of free water - I will fill up with ice and water at a mini-mart soda fountain, but often I will fill the bottle with ice at the fountain and then buy the water and a snack from that mini-mart so that they welcome me back the next time I stop there for ice.
08-27-19, 03:31 PM
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In the same vein, I remember in the early 1970s in Detroit there was a minor controversy one year when the rules around water and restaurants were changed. I remember that suddenly restaurants were allowed to charge for a glass of water. I remember once being dinged for a nickel for one glass. Beyond that, my memory is honestly fuzzy on the details.
