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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.