[pct-l] Bleach?

[GARY HEBERT]

I hiked the first half of the AT with Aqua Mira, then bleach thereafter.
Bleach is not equal, but kinda close for safety, cheap - readily available
for free for a tiny cup if you ask at any restaurant or motel. Iodine is
also ok, but again, not as good. None of these can possibly be good for you
over multiple weeks, but hay -  I'm all for SUL. Left my 11oz pump home long
time ago. (Even it doesn't kill viruses. I can wait 30 minutes to drink my
water saving nearly a pound with hose, carrying sac, etc.) And gravity
filters were good in their day, but better SUL options now -chemicals!
What I didn't like about Aqua Mira was having to wait 5 minutes for chemical
reaction. I've now switched to same chemical (Chlorine Dioxide ) in tablets
under several brands (Potable Aqua, Micropur,etc). One tab per 1L.  Foil
packaging adds slight weight but I can carry 30 or even 60 tablets weighing
far less than 3oz bottle of Aqua Mira. For shorter hikes I've used smaller
dropper bottles with Aqua Mira to save weight. (note - drop size is smaller
and requires some crafty measuring and adjustment to # drops)

Crystal versions of Iodine (Polar Pur) are ridiculously heavy in glass
bottle (IMHO) though they seem convenient & everlasting (add water to
crystals in bottle, hike, when you resupply add this concentrated solution
to your drinking water, refill crystal bottle for next time). You'll never
have to replace it during even the longest thru hike, but way too HEAVY for
me.

I believe you can buy liquid version of the tabs (Klear Water by Xinix) for
convience of no need to mix two chemicals first (vs. Aqua Mira), but hard to
find around here.

As for longterm use the jury is out. Ryan Jordan did mega research and
posted great article on backpackinglight.com about how all these work and
how effective each is at killing the crud. Very enlightening about risk
taking and how naive people are about drinking from
seemingly innocuous streams (though many have gotten away with it for years
in backcountry & on the big 3 thru hikes)  But even his research doesn't
tackle longterm use for many weeks. I use it but also drink up at townstops.
I'm keenly aware this is not the intended use of product (many weeks 100% of
your water). I also subscribe to drinking after just 30 minutes of treatment
knowing that will definitely not kill viruses. Nor will any filter! Gotta
use chemicals and wait 4 hours. For practical reasons that pretty much means
overnite, cuz I'm certainly not carrying extra water I can't drink. I
suppose if I were in a third world country and worried about human waste in
water (Hepatits, etc) I probably would have to carry more water and have a 4
hour rotation.  I highly recommend these 2 articles (see next post -too big
to attach)  for a much better understanding of how you can safely use these
options effectively.  Ryan uses his research to cut the # drops by half or
even 10 fold doubling the time or letting it sit overnite to make his drops
last much much longer, meaning he carries tiny tiny volumes of chemicals for
many many days of treatments. So he would never consider tabs. Also he uses
for disinfectant for cuts etc.(see article).

Anyway thats my 2 cents.

FedEx