Water Kit

Sawyer Squeeze filter (*edit* with added coffee filter pre-screen on the inlet side)

1.5L Evernew bag – dirty water
.5L Sawyer bag- back up
small dipping cup made from a plastic bottle

1 or 2 1L powerade bottles- clean water

I had one sawyer bag leak on me.. hence the Evernew bag. The system now makes me glad.. it is simple, fast, easy, light. no complaints.

Steripen Adventurer, cut in half old Platy for scoop, (2) one liter Platys and (1) two or a three liter Platy if in desert conditions. Pills for backup, buff for filtering. Extra batteries for Steripen.

1. Katadyn Micropur chlorine dioxide tablets (for hydration bladder)
2. Steripen Adventurer (for fast clean water for bike bottle)
3. funnel W/ fine mesh screen (filters out bugs and small children)

Sawyer Squeeze Mini
1L Sawyer Bladder
1L Smartwater/Gatorade Bottle
Cut plastic bottle for pouring into bladder

or

Aqua Mira Drops (Repackaged)
2L Dirty Water Bag
2x 1L Smartwater/Gatorade Bottle
Cut plastic bottle for pouring into bladder

What DM said above ^

Steve

what DM and Steve said :) quick, easy and efficient

Water kit?

I carry a couple of water bottles, and small vials of repackaged A.M.
And a 2L platypus in areas where water will be scarcer
And another 1 or 2 L platypus if it will be really, really scarce.

If I need to dip from a trickle, my cookpot works for that. So will a ziplock

I have carried a big straw (large pixie stix) section to use for detouring downhill trickles into my bottles, but rhododendron leaves work too.

1. MSR Sweetwater
2. MSR Aquatabs
3. 3-Liter Camelbak

Sometimes I swap out the Sweetwater for a Sawyer Mini, but I like the pump for the sole reason that I can pump 3 liters into my camelbak in just a few minutes without even taking my pack off. I've never actually needed or used the Aquatabs. I recently bought some Polar Pure iodine to try out, although it comes in a glass bottle that tells you the concentration, making it a bit much for a backup method.

I love my MSR Sweetwater, but the first one I had broke halfway through a trip. I was filtering water that wasn't much above freezing, and filtered a bit too aggressively. The plunger is glued to the pump rod, and I think the temp change caused the glue and plastic to contract at different rates, straining the glue and making it more brittle at the same time. It snapped right off. I've encountered issues with UV pens, probably battery-related though.

MB I hope you were not serious about using rhododendron, it's very toxic.

From. http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/rhodo/rhodo.htm

"All parts of the plant, but especially the foliage, contain the poison, and two or three leaves may produce severe toxicosis. Sucking flowers free of nectar may produce serious illness. Rhododendrons are more likely to retain green leaves year round than are most other plants, and therefore most toxicoses occur in the winter and early spring, when other forage is unavailable."

I use AM with A and B repackaged into 10ml bottles, then do a daily pre-mix into a 3ml bottle, which I find is just the right amount for 1 day.

Container is a 20-oz gatorade bottle for ready consumption, plus a 1-liter platy (which remains empty during the hike if water supply is certain), ranging up to 2 x 1-liter full if the season has been pretty dry around here.

I realize that desert hiking is a whole other problem regards to water. I've done only a bit of desert stuff but I remember well that water is the most difficult logistical issue.

I use a Sawyer mini (regular Sawyer filter in this photo) with a gravity setup.

The top "dirty water" bag is a platypus with the bottom cut open for easy filling or scooping water. Cord attached for hanging from a branch, etc. while filtering. Note the tiny quick-release so the cord can be easily looped around a branch.

This rig supplied 4 guys with water for 5 days on the most recent trip, filling at least one liter bottle for each of us at each water source. Everybody thought it was plenty fast, and didn't slow us down at all. Not as fast as chemical treatment, but not as slow as some pump filters I've used, and no waiting for chemicals to take effect. No squeezing, no pumping; just hang it and watch it work. Filter speed depends on the pressure head (tubing length) of course.
The whole rig weighs 133g, or 100g with the MINI. Heavier than chemicals, but shared among 4 guys it comes pretty close. Everything stows in the platypus.

I made a gravity filter based on some good ideas from BPL, using a 4L Walmart "dry" sack, the filter from a Sawyer personal water bottle, thin silicone tubing and various connecting bits. The "damp" weight is 169g.

http://frankwalks.blogspot.com/2014/09/161-g-gravity-filter.html

My hiking mates both use Steripens, so during quick stops if we're getting water, they'll treat a liter for me. In camp and during longer breaks (like lunch), I can use the gravity filter for everyone.

I haven't done it yet, but I plan to get a bite valve and a short piece of tubing to make a shower head for the water bag.

I carry a liter bottle in a "bottle holster" that slides on the front of my hipbelt. Instantaneous access with the pack on, better weight distribution (why would anyone want to carry water on their back?) It's not in the way, doesn't swing back and forth, and doesn't interfere with anything I do while hiking. No hose, no bite valve, no separate pocket or compartment in the pack, no post-hike cleaning out a bag. This cordura holster weighs 37g; 76g with bottle. It could be made with lighter materials, or I'm sure there are other lighter ways to hang a bottle on your belt.

If I need to carry more water, I also bring a 2 liter platypus…in the pack, not on the belt.

Side note: when you set down your water bottle without its top screwed on, and it tips over (if this hasn't happened to you, trust me, it will), which do you think will empty its contents into the dirt faster: a wide mouth nalgene-type or a regular soda-type bottle? That's why I don't carry a wide-mouth bottle. I don't want to unexpectedly lose most of my water miles from a water source.

Another tip: If you use iodine tablets, get a blue tinted bottle so it won't look like you're drinking urine!

Frank: Nice water-bag project there. Another approach is to use a wine-in-a-box bladder inside of a slightly smaller nylon / cuben sack (so the bladder takes no force). Then adapt to the standardized wine-in-a-box for tubing or shower head. I've got a purpose-built such adapter to tubing/shower head I purchased in the early 80's.

>"a short piece of tubing to make a shower head"

+1

Leaving the bag in the sun gets it lukewarm to hot surprisingly quickly in high-elevation direct sun. With a very low-flow shower head, I've often wetted myself with 0.5 liters, soaped up my hair, head, and body, and then rinsed with another 1.5 liters. Your 4-liter bag would luxurious in comparison or, as they say in California during their droughts, "Save water – shower together!"

Edited to add: some water bags can be multi-purposed into pillows at night.

Ewell, "set down your water bottle without its top screwed on. . . empty its contents into the dirt faster: a wide mouth nalgene-type or a regular soda-type bottle?"

True that. Also, narrow-mouth soda-bottle caps are small, light, and free, so you can bring an extra in case your cap goes on walk-about (who among hasn't had that happen?). P.S. get a vibrate green or orange one off of Mountain Dew or Orange Crush so that little cap is easier to find on the ground. And/or you can modify some of those small, light, free soda-bottle caps to be shower heads, a bidet spigot, an adapter to tubing, etc.

Frank, good idea on the polyester prefilter discs. I'm gonna incorporate that into my setup.

I've sipped that Aloha Lake water too; beautiful place.

DM, yes rhododendron is toxic. But you have to eat 1/4 lb of leaves to get the toxic symptoms.

Running a little water over a leaf, isnt going to do it. Id be dead by now otherwise.

Everything is toxic in large enough quantity, even oxygen.

Whew, ok just don't go using hemlock stems for straws……..sorry I'm a Mom, when kids start sticking leaves and twigs in their mouthes, eyes ears I kinda worry.

I use the original sawyer on a Fiji water bottle with the bottom cutoff. It is the scoop and dirty water "bladder". I gravity filter into another fiji water bottle (with the bottom intact ;^) ).

I also carry the full bottle in a bottle holster on the hip belt of the pack. I purchased the holster and it is very light.

I have the shower head from a solar shower that I can use with scoop.

Currently a Sawyer Mini rigged in a gravity filter, as demonstrated wonderfully by those above.