I am about to embark on a 3 hike of the Loowit Trail, a 30+ mile trail that circumnavigates Mt. St. Helens. Reliable water sources are notoriously few and far between. Several of them are known to be very silty, such as the South Fork Toutle River, which is likely to be the main water source for my 2nd evening camp, and all my water for the third day, as the sources of water for the last 10 miles are sporadic and may have dried up by the time I am hiking.
I have an Anti-Gravity Gear 1 gallon water bag at 0.8 ounces. If I scoop water with that, drop a pinch of alum in it and stir it up, then let it sit to settle, would that be an adequate way of dealing with the silt before filtering? The bag assumes a very flattened shape when sitting on a flat surface, it might be best to hang it so that there is greater depth to siphon the more clear water off of. The alternative would be to take 2 Sawyer Squeezes, and hope that adequate backflushing will preserve the function of at least one.
