We just use a dry rag to wipe our chains before and after lubing - seems to work fine for us.

As for the comment on the CamelBak - a friend of ours rigged up the CamelBak tube to his water bottle so he didn't have to reach down and grab the bottle (he was captaining a triple, so it's hard to let go with one hand). He said it was wonderful having the nozzle right there so he could very easily grab it.