About Us

Our Story

Several years ago, I was returning from a three day back packing trip in the forests of northern New Mexico. When I returned to my house, I was tired and hungry. I left my gear on the floor, cleaned up, got something to eat, and then went to bed. Next morning, I had to deal with me gear. So, I began with the easy stuff; I put away my sleeping mat and bag, tent, and other peripheral equipment. The last thing I want to deal with is my hydration systems. I use a CamelBak© hydration system and an MSR reservoir. I have always dreaded dealing with my hydration systems because there is no effective and efficient way to dry them. I put my CamelBak© system into the “suggested” zig-zag hanger but that’s bulky, takes up space, is not a pretty thing to look at, and still does not guarantee that your hydration system will dry out. Now it’s time to work on my MSR reservoir. It has a smaller opening than the CamelBak©, so that is problem number 1. Problem number 2 is it has a thicker lining, meaning using a hanger won’t work. I think about it for a while and the light bulb over my head finally turns on! I run to my bathroom and retrieve my hair dryer. I put the nozzle of the hair dryer to the opening of the MSR reservoir, turn on the hair dryer, it inflates the reservoir, and after awhile, it seems to be drying it out. What a concept!

I bought a few more cheap hair dryers, took them apart, and reassembled them in make shift box that I had 3D printed. Needless to say, I discovered a lot of things from my first attempts in developing a hydration system dryer, like hair dryer heating elements will melt your 3D box and the hydration bladder! So, after many trails, errors, and lessons learned, I developed what I now call the HyDry Pod system. It works on the CamelBak© system as well as the MSR style bladder/reservoir.

I am passionate about the outdoors and started Trail 9 Outdoors as one-man operation. Trail 9 Outdoors owns a US Patent on the HyDry Pod system.