[pct-l] Water Treatment and doubling up on certain gear

[Barry Teschlog]

For your consideration.......

Things I doubled up on, gear wise, for my thru hike:

1)  Water treatment.  Aqua Mira was my primary treatment BUT as there have been reports of the bottles leaking I also carried the Potable Aqua small bottle of iodine tablets.  I considered it cheap insurance in the event I ran out of my primary or it was lost / destroyed.  I used the thru hiker bandanna to filter floaties before treating several times.  As a last resort, I would have drank untreated knowing that the nasties typically take a few days to a few weeks to germinate and by then I'd be to town and could seek medical treatment - after all, you gotta' survive today's battle (dehydradion in this case) before you can fight tomorrows.

2)  Light source.  I had a button LED light as a back up to my primary LED headlamp.  If I had to hike in the dark for some reason (or set up camp, or whatever), the last thing I'd want is my light to die without a backup, especially in incliment conditions.

3)  Fire starter.  I had a small lighter that I used to fire up the stove (and still use the same one to this day - it's still ~3/4 full of butane).  But I also kept a few waterproof matches in a zip lock baggie as well.  Again, if I was cold and wet and needed a fire in a survival situation, better to have a back up ignitor (DNA / HEET stove fuel makes a great accelerant to get a camp fire going, BTW).

4)  I carried an extra plastic sheet ground cloth in addition to the Tyvex version.  This served as extra insurance I wouldn't get wet on really damp ground and also doubled as an emergency shelter in the event my tarp tent failed in some catastrophic manner.  This one came out of my experience of being a (all but) Seattle native, used to hiking the (seemingly) always wet Cascades of Washington.  An extra sheet of plastic is quite helpful when packing up in the rain as well - it gives a dry place to stash things while breaking down the shelter.  It's also handy to hide under when stopped for breaks / lunch when it's raining.  

 
With exposure being able to kill in a few hours and dehydration in a few days, the above items seemed like prudent extra gear to bring, even in the face of the ultra light philosophy of substituting knowledge for gear.  The weight, volume and cost of each of the items individually and collectively are small compared to the alternative of doing without if you really needed them.  YMMV, IMHO, HYOH, opinions are like (I'll stop than one right there), blah, blah, blah.........
 
TC