Hiking

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Choosing a Water Treatment System

The majority of us don’t have any trouble at all in finding clean and safe drinking water at home, at work or anywhere else in our urban lives . . . we just turn the tap and “hey presto”, clean drinking water appears as if by magic. If you’re not near a tap you can just buy a bottle from a store, gas station, hot dog stall or Starbucks (for a price). But what about when you’re out and about back-country hiking, not just for a couple of hours (you can take that with you in your backpack no trouble), but for an overnight or multiple day hike. It’s impossible to carry sufficient drinking water for a hike of that length, so you’ve got to find it along the hiking trail. Sound exciting? Well, it is, kind of, the one thing which experienced hikers will always tell you (and those who are not that experienced but are trying to look like they’ve hiked for years, but an experienced hiker told them) is to never pass up on the opportunity to fill up your hiking water bottles or bladders. Funny, it comes more naturally to me to empty my bladder than worry about filling it up again . . .

But how do you know whether the water you come across on your hike is safe to drink (if it hasn’t got that symbol on it for starters). What is there is something unpleasant lurking in the water just waiting for you to have a sip before cramping up your stomach, making you vomit and run behind the nearest rock (not enough time to dig a hole)  . . . not pleasant at the best of times, but can you imagine having those problems when you’re a couple of days into your week long hike and right slap bang in the middle of nowhere. Have you ever been to “the middle of nowhere” . . . I have many times but they’re all in very different places . . . strange that don’t you think?

Who poisoned the water hole? Who would do such a thing? Mind you, here’s a good clue . . . if there are dead hikers or backpackers  lying around the water hole DON’T DRINK THE WATER, even if you have a great water treatment system . . . you’d best call the Sheriff!

Water Treatment Filters & Purifiers – They Are Not The Same

Do you know the difference between a water filter system and a water purifying system? No, well I’d better tell you before you embark on any more hiking expeditions . . . you gotta know to keep safe Dude!

• Hiking Water Filters get rid of any harmful bacteria and/or protozoa in the water (it’s small, you can’t see it, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there). Anyway, hiking water filters are considered to be good enough to treat any water you will come across while hiking in the US or Canadian back country.
• Hiking Water Purifiers – get rid of that stuff, plus viruses. If you’re going on a world wide hike (I don’t mean hiking all the way, but maybe on a hiking vacation to another country) then you are advised to take a water purifier with you because a water filter might not be sufficient to treat the water you come across on your hike.

Woweeee, Argentina looks like a great place to “take a hike” . . . let’s go bro!

Choosing Water Treatment Systems for Your Hikes

Hikers need a good supply of clean drinking water, but they also like to travel light, (some of them more than others – the minimalists and ultralight hikers don’t like carrying much stuff in their back packs at all). There are a few different choices and methods of treating the water on your hiking trip to the back country:

• Ultraviolet light pen purifiers
• Chemical tablets
• Pump-style purifiers and filters
• Gravity fed purifiers and filters
• In-line filter straws on hiking water bottles
• Good old fashioned boiling

Hikers don’t like to waste too much time treating their water, they just want something quick, simple, light and effective. Of course, these water treatment systems not only have to be easy to use, but they need to be easy to clean too . . .