Grand Canyon Denied – Lessons Learned

[Greg Mihalik]

Ian,

Chlor-Floc. This has potential.
My order is placed.
Thank You!

Alum + Chlorine. Pre-dosed at 1 tablet/liter. $12/30 tablets – 40¢/liter.

Usage Instructions:>

Modified for the Grand Canyon –
1. Add 1 packet to 1 liter of water.
2. Shake for 1 minute then leave for 3 minutes.
3. Swirl for 30 seconds, then wait 15 minutes for temperatures of 50°F and above.
(4. If the water is still murky, add an additional one half packet and repeat step 3.)

I'll take a wide mouth bottle with a polyester mesh filter for decanting, and some "sport drink powder", preferably high in sodium, to help it go down.

[Steve M]

Greg in you first post you mentioned adding alum. Was it something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9BY69KnzoU

I've never tried this but maybe (?) it would be easier/cheaper to separate the two processes (settling and purifying) with alum and Aquamira for example. Thanks for sharing this interesting adventure.

[Ian]

Greg,

We were issued iodine tablets and I didn't see chlor floc in the field until the last few months of service. We found the nastiest looking water, and stirred up as much dirt into that as we could until it looked like your pictures. I found that two treatments filtered through my cotton t shirt did the trick. The water in your pictures probably has more silica in it than what we encountered so your experience may vary from mine.

[Gordon Gray]

Shoot. I plan to backpack Canyonlands Utah over Halloween weekend. My main source for water will be the Green River. Think I will have silt issues there?

[Nick Smolinske]

Hard to say, but I would definitely plan for it. The Colorado through the Grand Canyon is still quite silty and it's been several weeks since those major flood events.

[Greg Mihalik]

Call an outfitter in Moab that runs trips and shuttles on the Green.
Google is your friend.

[Russell M]

As another member mentioned here, using a Milbank bag, an authentic one like the Browns Filter Bag made by Rupert Brown would have likely worked to filter out the sediment. I would be curious if anyone has used an authentic Milbank bag in these conditions.

[DirtNap]

Seeing as this thread has just been massively resurrected! I’ve used alum for years as a flocculant. Works great but takes a bit. A few years ago I switched to “Water Wizard” Poly Aluminum Chloride or PACL. You can buy it online at various whitewater sgear suppliers. I decant it into 1 oz per containers and bring the syringe. It’s about 3 times as fast as alum and it’s served my on my packrafting zig zags through the Grand, San Juan, Dirty Devil, Escalante et al. I also ditched pumps long ago. 3l Cinoc (dirty)>Hydroblu>3l platipus screw top (clean). Hydroblu back flushes easily with a smart water bottle. Best thing is you can roll squeeze the filter easily when you don’t have a spot to hang. Banger bulletproof setup. You just need to “train” the Cinoc threads a bit for the first few uses and tighten down hard. You can also hang/fill directly to a smart water bottle. Really slick.

I also never, ever leave home without a 12L folding bucket, which is probably top survival piece of kit. Just make sure you get one with two handles, not the “one handle over the top” ones. Improvised paddle sistern off a slow canyon seep. Long water haul for semi-dry camp. Baths, clothes washer, and most importantly, the FLOCCULATOR!

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