[pct-l] Platypus CleanStream

[Brian Lewis]

Brad wrote:
"All this talk about chemical purification has got me thinking about leaving
my sweetwater filter at home.  However, I am curious about how everyone
pre-filters when using only chemicals.  i.e. chemicals don't get the sludge,
silt, algae etc., out of your water."


Hi Brad.  The coffee filter idea no doubt works; what I carried was some
fairly fine mesh to hold over a water bottle mouth, but in fact I never used
it.  I carried a gravity filter for the first 700 or so miles (because of
some concern about getting water out of fire tanks or low flow streams or
the like), and then I switched to chemicals (or occasionally nothing).
Even the water sources in the first 700 miles were better than I had
expected, and from Kennedy Meadows north I can literally not remember a
single instance where I had enough particulates in the water to worry about,
so prefiltering wasn't an issue.

I do recall once in a previous year when section hiking somewhere in the
~middle of Washington an off-trail pond that was scummy, but thru hiking
this just-now-past year I always found sufficiently clear water, though
sometimes fetching it from just a bit below a lake surface.    It could be
that my standards lowered a bit on the trip, but bottom line is that I
wouldn't worry too much about pre-filtering.  IMO a bandana is sufficient
for the few instances you might want to do this.     Of course YMMV based on
the particular water sources you end up drawing from and how wet or dry a
year you have, but still --- I think a bandana should be sufficient.


Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle