[pct-l] Water treatment question for the PCT

[Kent Spring]

I would second the message from Eric regarding selecting the best water to begin with.  I used a SteriPen, which is expensive, and is subject to break, but I never got sick.  That said, I often did not treat water that I deemed safe.  I also thought the best back up was simply chlorine bleach - very cheap, and very effective.

Adding a quality "pre-filter" can't hurt, although most will pass a lot of stuff through that can then clog a filter.

Sorry to hear you had to pull off the trail - that is always traumatic.

Kent

> 
> My long-awaited Sept 2008 Oregon section hike was truncated
> in no small part due to 
> an ornery water filter (nothing would come out) and a
> subsequent brush with dehydration.  
> Boo, hiss....  I intend to go back (another year) and
> finish what I started, but meanwhile, 
> I'm rethinking lots of things based on my brief
> experience.
> 
> So,what's the community's opinion/experience/advice
> on the efficacy, if one carries & 
> uses some (presumably effective) form of chlorine-based
> treatment (Sweetwater, Aqua 
> Mira), of foregoing the small-pore-sized, relatively heavy,
> clog-prone manufactured filters 
> systems and simply using filter paper (i.e., coffee
> filters, chem-lab filters perhaps?) and 
> gravity to physically clear the water of its largest,
> chunkiest, most textureful components, 
> then relying on the chemical treatment to kill the bad
> stuff, then maybe some E-mergen-C 
> or the like to polish up the taste?
> 
> I know there are some who bypass filtration/treatment to
> one degree or another while on 
> the trail, but that's just not something I'd feel
> comfortable doing.  Yet, if I can find reasonable 
> ways of both lightening my load and reducing the process to
> its simplest (effective) form, I 
> figure that can only improve my chances of completing the
> trip next time out.  Seems like
> we're always more or less trading weight for risk...
> but I don't want to go too far and end up, 
> very lightly making my way to a doctor or the hospital.
> 
> Of course, I know that filter paper can't come close to
> a sub-micron-rated filter cartridge in 
> terms of physical removal, but if the Cl-based
> post-filtration chemical treatment can kill or
> disable whatever cooties get thru, is that an
> effective/reliable enough treatment strategy, do
> you suppose, or an invitation to grief?
> 
> Input from the successful among you would be much
> appreciated.
> 
> Ollen
> 
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