Attention, Lexan-bottle nerds (you know who you are). Sure, water bottles rank as on-trail must-haves, but you can forget about enjoying a cool beverage after five hours on, say, the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail. Enter Liquid Solutions’ Bootle, a double-walled agua transport that comes in three flashy colors—strawberry red, royal blue, and macho gray—and is insulated to keep libations chilly, or hot, longer.
Liquid Solution Double-Wall Insulated Water Bottle
At first, I scoffed at the silly name and hefty construction, but testing revealed that the Bootle introduces several delightful improvements upon a good ol’ standby. The product’s main feature is its two-layer structure. A strong Lexan interior holds your beverage of choice—and features a measuring scale that won’t scuff off—while a tough polycarbonate outer shell resists cracking and provides more insulation than one-wallers.
But does it work? While on the top of a blustery mountain in the Santa Fe National Forest, I loaded snow into the Bootle and my beat-up Lexan bottle and tramped back down to drier ground. The white stuff in the Bootle lasted only about a half-an-hour longer. But, hey, that’s nothing to sniff at, and the other features I dug tip the scales in Liquid Solutions’ favor: An inch or so broader than a standard liter Lexan bottle, the Bootle would be impractical without the two-inch, rubber “flypaper-like Grippy band” encircling its middle. Pshaw all you want but the grip proved indispensable while holding onto the slick poly shell with frozen digits. Add a segmented lid for easy twisting, and a sippy insert that actually makes it possible to drink while you walk, and this field tester’s convinced that the Bootle is better. $11;