Water on the Trail

[ScrapIron]

The flying trots are good for weight loss.

[mybackpackingblog]

The flying trots are good for weight loss.

Yes....yes they are...

[Sickmont]

The flying trots are good for weight loss.

And, if you dont clean up constantly, its also good way to get severe monkey butt too.

[ScrapIron]

And, if you dont clean up constantly, its also good way to get severe monkey butt too.

I heard that! Monkey Butt may be one of the most debilitating diseases known to man.

[mybackpackingblog]

ole monkey butt...yes...potentially...

[Berserker]

It depends on how long you are going to be out, and how much fiddle factor you mind dealing with. I’m a filterer (if that’s a word) that’s recently converted to the Steripen. I have also used Aqua Mira a good bit, and actually carry it as a backup in case of a Steripen failure.

Basically there’s two ways to get water from a source. Throw a hose in a pump it out (or a bag to collect dirty water if gravity filtering), or collect it in something for chemical or UV treatment. I guess there is the 3rd option of drinking straight from the source, but I’m apparently not a stud like a lot of folks on here and don’t want to risk getting sick. The first one doesn’t have much of a fiddle factor if you have a decent filter. You just pull out your filter, sit by the source and pump away. The fiddle factor of the other one depends on your personal preferences. If you don’t mind scooping up water, treating and then drinking it then the factor is low. If you need to pre-filter or anything of that sort (i.e. it depends on how much small stuff you want out of the water) then it goes up a bit. And of course it also depends on what you use to treat too. The Steripen is pretty easy to use, but there is the potential of failure and need for batteries. Aqua Mira is easy to use, but there is the 5 minute wait time after mixing the parts and then the additional wait time after putting it in the water.

So you just need to figure out what you think will work best for you. As for pre-filtering for Aqua Mira or the Steripen I found where some dudes on BPL had made a cap for a Platy bag, and I made myself one (see photo). It works pretty darn good, and I don’t have to mess with bandanas and junk like that. I just put it on my dirty water container, pour water into my cook pot, and zap it with the Steripen.