[Sherman Logan]

in winter conditions that gallon of water you're carrying becomes a block of ice and can rupture the container.

Quite true. So carry a few cases of bottled water instead. I freeze the 16 oz bottles all the time and haven't yet had one rupture.

[Billthedrill]

I'll try that - I went down to 2-liter bottles and left some room for expansion but that seemed to pop the seal on the cap. Not disastrously (they're still standing straight up) but it could get messy.

Single digits for a week starting tonight. Three weeks to Spring. :-(