As some of you know, I’m planning my thru hike for early March 2011. I’ve not decided on a system to clean my drinking water.I was thinking about a stiripen because i like to drink alot at each source, then carry very little to the next source. I’ve heard stiripens are not very dependable. ( although mine works good.) I don’t want to wait 15 minutes for the tablets to work. Maybe I’ll buy a filter pump. I just don’t know. Any good advice would be appriciated.
Dogfood
Your choice should or will depend on what you would want from the water treatment. From what I found out Steripens work great and light weight, but the down side is it doesn’t remove particulates in the water and doesn’t improve the taste. Which isn’t so bad in the southern states where water sources are better but water sources get pretty bad in some areas.
Water filters are also great but weigh about a pound and are a hasle to unpack and pump the water. I decided to use Katadyn Hiker water filter mainly cause of the activated carbon used to improve the taste. I also have MSR MiniWorks but after using it for a 1 week trip I found that the ceramic filter needs cleaning alot and clogs up fast making it hard to pump so went back to the Katadyn. I plan on buying the Katadyn Hiker Pro for next year, it’s suppose to filter water faster. I pump the water into a 6l platypus so that I’m not lugging the pack with bladder to the water source.
One thing to remember is what ever water treatment you choose can and will break, clog or stop working for some reason so you should carry iodine water treament tablets as backup. Unless you don’t mind taking time to boil the water until you can get an area where you can replace or fix the water treater.
Also remeber that there are times when water sources will scarce, so drinking a lot and walking to next water source may not work. You may not get to another one until the next day, but you’ll usually get reports on the trail from someone or postings about an areas water source so you can plan accordingly.
Hope I helped.
Tony
For the first month and a half from Springer to Damascus with all the winter melt and rain, and many small creeks and springs, water is not much of an issue. I carried 2 20oz coke bottles and no water treatment other than a few Aqua Mira tabs as a back up. In Virginia as May and June dry things up, water becomes a problem because they run the trail along long dry ridge lines. When the AT comes off the ridge lines the only water you can count on finding is river water or large streams that come through cow country. It’s now time to start to worry about water. From now to Vermont(mid May thru July),It’s time to have my crew mail me my steripen and I add a third 20oz coke bottle. To improve the taste I put in little packs of lemonaid mix. I swap out my heavy clothing and camping stuff at Damascus and now carry 60oz of water…I’m still 5 lbs lighter after Damascus. Switch back when you get to the White’s.
Frankthe tank
Hi Dogfood,
Just wanted to let you know Tony and I picked up a new Katadyn Hiker Pro. I remember using it and the water was great. However since my hikes have including Georgia, Tenn, N. Car, Maryland, WVA and part of Penn., I don’t know how VA and the north are going to be. We also just bought marmot down jackets. If they are as warm as they are supposed to be, they will be great…they are very light weight.
Stylin
Thanks, Stylin, I think I’ll use aquamira as my back up and decide either on my Stiripen or the Hiker pro.I have a few months to decide. I bought a Western mountainering “flash jacket”. I probly paid to much, but I like it. I like what Frank the tank had to say about the water. You make a really good point. Thanks again to all.
Dogfood
I used the Katadyn Hiker for most of my AT section hikes; worked fine; needed to replace the filter every 4-6 weeks. Then I got a Steripen Journey and will never go back. A Steripen will keep me in water for about 2 weeks on a set of batteries. I carry a few Aqua Mira tablets as backup but have never used them. I do carry a home made pre-filter/funnel to keep the “floaties” out. The only issue I’ve had with the Steripen - it won’t work reliably when cold. On cold mornings I’ll drop it down inside my shirt for 10-15 minutes while I’m putting my stuff away.
Dioko
I’ve used the Hiker Pro on the entire AT with very few problems. I bought it in Erwin,TN on my 2006 Thru-hike and used it all the way to Katahdin. I changed the filter in New York as it started to pump funny (clogged???). The new filter improved the operation. In 2009 I was hiking with my wife and had to pump twice as much water so the filter didn’t last as long. I replaced the filter with a filter I bought at the outfitter in Damascus. We had to leave the trail in Massachusetts and we were about to change it again. Other than the weight I loved using it.
Old Goat
We finished up a section in VA last month. I’m glad I had my Katadyn filter because my Steripen doesn’t do well if there is tannin in the water. We had to carry more water than usual because of the drought conditions in early October. There were oak leaves in the spring which had good water. IMHO, the newer “Hiker” filter is even more user friendly and slightly lighter since they bought out PUR.
One new thing which lets the Steripen work with the narrow neck bottles…You fit the little “ring” on and use the bottle upside down. I forget the name, but it’s hit the outdoor gear market.
:tongue
Lady Di
I find that a steripen is the uickest way to get clean water. if u are worried about particles in teh water all you need is a bit of cloth to filter out teh big pieces. I carried Iodine as a backup. As Dioko said the steripen sometimes wont work in the cold, just need to warm it up.
Scree Freak