Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Backcountry water

I'm re-thinking my water situation and wondering what you all do. I primarily hunt in northern CO and S WY in October. Finding water is not normally a problem. My normal procedure is to load my pack with 64-80 oz of water for the day. Thats 4-5 lbs of water I'm carrying around. I do the same for hikes in the Smoky's. I have used a Lifestraw in the Smokys with no ill effects. I'm considering something similar during deer/elk season in CO and WY given water is plentiful in the areas I hunt.

Do you all carry water or use some kind of filter/chemical treatment during the hunt? If so, what filter/chemical system do you use?

I'm sure someone will say that they drink high mountain water without filtering. 95% of the time, that's perfectly ok. However, in the last couple of decades, giardia has spread to some of the most remote places in the country. It's been found even in high springs coming straight out of the rocks. Most streams or springs are clean but if you get that other 5%, it can tear you up. It's a problem that we didn't have when I was growing up but we have it now.
That said, I usually carry about a quart. I have a Sawyer squeeze filter for refills.

I've had Giardia plus I'm a hydrologist by profession. I've sampled ALOT of surface water and will pass.

In my yute, I drank straight from PA mountain streams without ill affect. Once I started sampling water, I never again drank straight from the source. You're right 95% of the time, you'll be ok, its that 5% that will cause you grief. I'd also say, all surface water has various forms of bacteria, most of them fairly benign - and people's guts can get accustomed to high levels of rather benign bacteria. A sudden change in gut bacteria is problematic on a couple levels.

3L packed (roughly 100oz)

Depending on the hunt;
Unfiltered
Msr mini works
Msr gravity flow

May try a steripen this year.

Depending on water abundance and my hunting plan for the day, I often carry 2-3 L in a bladder with an inline RapidPure Scout filter/purifier. Refill as needed when I come across water.

I’d not want to rely on a Lifestraw alone, if only because it would take too much time away from my hunting efforts to find a water source and use the Lifestraw every time I was thirsty.

On a mountain hunt I’ll start the day carrying roughly 1.5 litres of filtered water, and have a gravity or pump filter with me incase I need more.
I’ve had giardia before and don’t want that experience ever again. I’ve been filtering ever since.

2-3 liters depending on temps prefer bottles over bladders.

Sawyer Mini

Various stoves in snow/ice locales.

Told a friend not to drink without processing from an isolated waterfall in the North Cascades...he was very ill for 6 weeks.

"It varies." Like many others in older times I'd just drink from the creek. Never had any issue but a couple years after I stopped, my mom got giardia from a creek I used to drink from so .. no more.

"Back in the day" when I'd get water straight from the creek I always felt a bit exposed / vulnerable while I was face down drinking. I took to carrying a rubbery/plastic cup so I could dip water and drink standing up scanning the horizon for deer or whatever. When I hunt back there today, if I'm going as light as possible I do much the same but after dipping water I drink it through some sort of straw type filter. Most of the time when I hunt, though, I carry a 1.5 to 2 liter water bladder in a day pack and I fill it by pumping with an MSR hyperflow. I usually don't drink much at the water source, I tank up then work my way back up into some cover / concealment so I can watch for thirsty critters that need to be shot.

I like the hyperflow. It has weak points ... clogs if your water isn't pretty clean to begin with. But it's about as compact and light as I've found for one person other than a straw setup.

Tom

Sawyer squeeze backpacking and hiking. It has not failed me and They work well. Just do not let them freeze on you as they will crack.

I hunt roughly the same area. Stream crossings and springs are abundant. I used to carry a full 2L with me in a bladder at the start of each day. Most days I came back to camp with a 1L or a little less remaining. Figured that was dumb. I was carrying 2lbs of extra weight each day. Now I typically load up with 1L and carry a Katadyn pump water filter. It's extremely light and if I do run out of water, I can pump as much as I need and no worries about cooties in the water. I prefer to pump from moving water like streams and brooks. If I'm out scouting with no intention of a long day in the woods I'll leave the water filter behind. I always carry chlorine pills in my first aid kit, so if really needed to refill the water I can still treat it. However, I prefer filtering for the taste and clarity.

I carry 2-3 liters in a bladder. Generally 3. Lots of places that I hunt have very limited water. Or you have to drop tons of elevation to get water. Never tried the lifestraw because I'm generally planning to have to filter lots of water.

Day hikes at Moose camp I'll just carry one liter in a hard bottle.

I know of many water sources in my hunt areas. I'm not keen on non-flowing water - something about the way bull elk roll around and piss in it turns me off.

I'll likely evaluate my daily hunt plan and determine if I'll run into flowing water. If so, I'll likely consider carrying half the water I do now and some type of lightweight filter. I always have some tablet variety chemical treatment but the taste sucks.

I've used Sawyer products in recent years with good success. They have some smaller options. Others to consider?

I grew up drinking out of irrigation ditches and stock ponds before we ever heard of giardia. I do drink from springs and figure I’ve been walking giardia since I was a kid.

But…..at 65 years old I’m aware my gut might not be as robust, and the bugs in other parts of the Interior West might be a different enough variety that my intestinal fortitude may not be up to snuff. I still have my First Need filter (with spare filters) and on occasion use it. It’s more bulky than many of today’s filters but near as I can tell it is still filters out a wider variety of bacteria and beyond, and filters more completely.

I own a MSR Trailshot pump, two Steripens and probably a couple of more somewhere

In the end, I typically just use tabs (Potable Aqua tabs). Typically carry a regular Nalgene reachable in a pocket and a soft-sided Nalgene in the pack. If it's a spring coming directly out of the side of a mountain, I just drink. If not, I refill the Nalgene at hand from the soft-side one and fill the soft-side one with stream water and put a tab in it.

A weeks worth of tabs weighs maybe 0.5 oz, they are waterproof in their aluminum foil packets (ask me how I know!), fool proof and no filter to clog (or freeze!) or electronics to give up.

mt, are you using the iodine tabs or chlorine dioxide?

Also, I have an idea how you know they're waterproof, but how do you know they're foolproof?

they're the Chlorine Dioxide ones- now using Potable Aqua tabs, previously used Aquatabs but found they didn't treat Crypto- which these ones do, also used MicroPur ones- they were tiny tabs and hard to handle

https://www.rei.com/product/736898/potable-aqua-chlorine-dioxide-tablets-package-of-30

dude if I can use them they're fool proof

Thanks. I always carry a few in the pack but I've never used them. How are they on the chlorine taste? Does it help to take the lid off the nalgene and let the water air out a little?

I don't find the taste displeasurable at all. Not as good as straight out of mountain spring, mind you but not really noticeable.

I just shake it up a little after I drop the tab in and then just refill the other bottle when needed- usually a couple of hours later.

I will use one of the Steripen's occasionally, rarely use the MSR- 90+% of the time tab and go. Definitely want two bottles imo, that way one is always ready to drink from.

If you have a base camp, you can just fill some clear plastic bottles and leave them in the sun all day. The bugs can't survive UV. There are lots of UV water purifiers being used in the US. All they do is run your drinking water past a bright UV light bulb. Sunshine isn't nearly as intense so it takes longer but it does the same thing.
For an example, Amazon has a 6 pack of these 1L bottles for $10. They weight 6oz each empty. Leave them in the sun all day and you have 3L of clean water.

Carry in more water than you think you need in
several containers while you're fresh, and make a
stash somewhere before you start hunting.
You can carry a smaller easy to carry amount with
you, and have a supply of known potable water to
fall back on plus your sanitizing method for any
needed replenishment if needed

This could be the best solution yet. The tablets are small - and if the water doesn't taste like an elk wallow after they air a bit - bonus!

We have an REI in town. I'll own and try some of these this weekend. I have a turkey hunt coming up where I can see if carrying half the water I need and purify the rest is feasible.

Thanks mw!

Im really liking this system better than tablets or a hand pump. Its light can screw into most water bottles. I just bring a few empty life wtr bottles with me. Can be used with a large gravity filter bag at camp is camping near a water source

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOX6UM...yZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

I have a Katadyn Base Camp gravity filter. They're famous for clogging and mine is bad at it. I jury rigged one of these Sawyer filters to it and it more than doubled it's speed. It works great now.

I mentioned it above, but I prefer the RapidPure Scout to my Sawyer filters. The RP still functions if you accidentally freeze it, which is a bonus.

Here are some rambling thoughts:

Years ago Steve Roper wrote a book called. "The Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country". His name used to be very well known in backpacking circles. In his book he stated that he never filtered his water when he was above 8000 ft elevation. He had followed this practice for decades and had never got giardia. I am glad that worked for Steve.

Experiences: My sister got giardia 20 years ago on a backpack trip. She drank filtered water the entire time, but she would rinse out her toothbrush every morning with unfiltered stream water and also rinse out her mouth (but never swallowed). That was enough to do it. She had to be on antibiotics for 3 weeks to get rid of it. Both of my sons went on a church summer camp when they were younger (they are grown now) and both of them came back with giardia from drinking from a beautiful clear and cold high mountain stream that was located a long ways from the camp.

My Practice: If I were to add up all of the unfiltered water I have drank from mountain streams over the decades it would total less than a quart. I just don't drink it. I don't care that Steve Roper did it. I have had bad luck with bears, mountain lions, and meeting weirdos in the backcountry that act predatory. I am just not a very lucky guy. If anyone would get a parasite it would probably be me. I do not like the tablets. They give me heartburn. I stopped using them years ago. For over 20 years I used the PUR hiker. I filtered MANY gallons of water from mountain lakes and streams and never had an issue. I still have it and it works as good as it ever did but I have retired it and use the MUCH lighter Sawyer squeeze filter. I take a few moments and filter the water and then drink with confidence.

Years ago, back before filters were readily available, we used ordinary laundry bleach which is about 6% chlorine. It takes 2 drops/quart. It tastes like crap and too much can give you the runs, but it does kill every bug in the water. For an emergency backup, the pills are better.

In 30 years backpacking here in MT I've never treated water - never a problem. In other states I have treated water on occasion. On a 2.5 mo's long backpack on the AT I treated water no more than 10 or 12 times. But here, while I always pack Potable Aqua tabs, I have never used them. In 47 years of extensive backpacking (and backcountry hunting), I've never had one problem with water.

Only time I've had Giardia was at a friends farm in MO. Sweltering heat and humidity, and took a drink out of the stream flowing through the farm. I knew as I was in the act it was a mistake - the good news is Giardia isn't that bad. I got Hep A in 1984 in India on my way to Nepal when my backpack (with Potable Aqua tabs inside it) got stuck in Kuwait. New Delhi H2o is not to be drunk - that's a whole other level of awful than simple Giardia!

For water treatment, I have used Aquamira for years. Doesn't have a bad taste and is very effective. The drawback is having to wait to drink the water. If you plan well and get water in the evening it is good in the morning. I have combined it with a cheescloth gravity filter to get out particulates and been really happy with the system. I also carry a pump filter as a backup. I have yet to try any of the newer systems.

^ that's why I carry to two bottles- one is always ready to go while the other is being treated; when the drinkable one is done I'll fill it from the treated one and start over; works pretty well.

Ribka,

Thanks, looks like the one for me.

Mid-November this year, the boys and I humped into a camp at 9500' in Idaho; we live at literal sea level. Lots of huffing and puffing. Figured I'd find a camp there and did, but it was shaded and covered in a foot of crusted snow, so found an exposed flat spot nearby and put up the tent. The camp was where the trail followed the upper alluvial contour, about 1/2 mile from the main creek, but close examination of the odd green cut in the hillside 150 yards above camp showed a decent trickle of a spring. I dammed a bit of it off with moss and rock to make a pool and went back to camp to get the boys fed and put to bed.

Went back to the pool that evening, filled containers, and treated with aqua mira drops as per normal. Hunted all the next day, sacked camp that afternoon and humped down to the truck. Along the way, one of the boys took a good look at his clear gatorade bottle and noticed that the 2-3 little bits of debris weren't debris; they were swimmers. They moved like leeches on skin. This spring went underground for 1/2 mile between it and the creek, at 9500', in Idaho.

Moral: bring a coffee filter to pour through. And maybe run a round of ivermectin a month or two after hunting season...

Chlorine bleach is great on bacteria and viruses. Not very effective against encysted organisms like giardia.

Lots better ways now.

I carry water treatment tablets and I use a pump filter. I haven't had to use the tablets but I carry them. In survival school I had to drink some pretty nasty stuff. I took the pills after it was over. Was already experiencing the runs several days after starting the cure. Glad I started the cure when I did or it would have been much worse. When I was in South east asia we had lister bags with local water treated with G.I water treatment pills. Everybody had the squirts. I have had no problems backpacking and using the pump/filter. I now also have a Katadyn expedition pump that can supply an army for float trips or horse packing.

Hiking at timberline, I found a good flow of cool clear water coming out of some moss-covered ground at the base of a slide rock hill side. Took a long drink and then hiked up the mountain heading to the pass above. A short way up there was a depression in the rocks that held a small pond of water surrounded by snow. Right in the middle of the water was a decomposing deer carcass. I didn't get sick, but ever since then I always filter the water.