How to get water …

A cut out gallon of milk plastic bottle tied up at the handles ?  Anyone done that ?   And throw that over ?

Lowering a dry bag with rigid top may stay open?   Put a rock in the bottom when you lower it.

Need to tie a rope somehow someplace to bring it back up

That is a very good question. I have never had to do anything like that myself. I think you need to add a weight to what ever bucket you use tho so that the bucket sinks rather than sit on top of the water. I am thinking mesh bag with a rock in it, billy in the bag and a length of strong but LW cord and a way to stop the cord from cutting into your hands. Looking at the mesh bag my TOAKS pot came I  think I could make that work but a taller pot works better as a bucket than a wide one. My thoughts run to a tall A-10 tin can like shape, the traditional Aussie billycan

Food point add stone/rock for weight …

Good point instead of food point –  never thought of my cook por tied up at the handles with a small rock …   I was standing by a river today and realized how hard to scoop out water – would have to get on my stomach !

Yeah i was thinking bring some line. I usually bring like 12 feet of like 6mil utility cord so for me it’d be easy, but it’s small weight and small volume and can come in handy to carry a little cord.  Especially if it helps you easily get h2o

Large cooking pot with wire bail handle, and a rock.
Curiously, this will look just like a traditional bucket in a well, and they have been successful for the last few thousand years.

Cheers

I was thinking that using the mesh stuff sack would act like a filter so no large weeds or angry fish were brought up. Putting the rock in the stuff sack rather than the pot increases the amount of water brought up per pull

This comes up during winter camping in our area.  Some established trails have bridges over streams that are often partially open even in winter.  So if you can lower a bucket / bottle / pot 20-30 feet from the bridge, you avoid scrambling down the steep sides of the creek bank and potentially going for a cold swim.

And while that water is exactly 0C / 32F, you save almost half the energy of boiling by having it liquid instead of snow and there are always a LOT fewer chunks than in even the cleanest of snow.

Any pot with a bail works pretty well.  Wide-mouthed water bottles can be suspended with a “barrel hitch”

which can secured with some duct tape or Luekotape to your water bottle.

A mesh bag (containing local rocks) can be hung under the bottle to pull it underwater.

Almost anything can be made to work, although some containers need to bounced around more to give them enough momentum to go underwater for a while.

awesome advice – thank you very much !

I had never seen a Barrel Hitch before.  Great stuff and incredibly simple.  Thanks David.

Barrel hitch looks sort of like how you put a ribbon on a Christmas gift.

YouTube has some awesome teaching of best ties useful for backpackers