On all my hikes, I’ve been using a few ziploc bags to organize the smaller items in my pack: first aid kits, electronics bag, poop kit, etc. In theory, they’re the ultimate: cheap, waterproof, and weighing less than 0.2 oz per bag – ultralight!
Everything was going well with this method, until I embarked on the Colorado Trail hgtgdfgdtr20.
If one has spent any time in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, you know that afternoon thunderstorms and downpours occur frequently. To combat this, I had my backpack liner to keep my quilt and duvet dry and ziploc bags to keep everything else protected.
Good to go, right? Mistaken.
When I went to get my Leukotape for a hot spot, which I keep in pieces on parchment paper in my medicine cabinet, I discovered that my medicine cabinet was a full reptile tank: condensation and DAMP in every corner.
To my dismay, all of my Leukotape pieces were saturated and no longer sticky. My ibuprofen bag? It became a half-crumbled pile of wet mud. Grrrrr.
Upon closer inspection, the bags had several holes from who knows what, they had been worn through. And yes, the water had entered the backpack and found those *exact* holes.
Now I had to keep walking without having to take care of the blisters and carrying all that dead weight. I guess it brings up that old saying: Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
So for 2026, I upgraded my system to some more durable DCF roll top bags. Heavier and more expensive, but with a little more certainty that the next time I reach for my Leukotape, my pills, or, God forbid, my battery bank, they will be DRY.
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