[pct-l] Using Aqua Mira drops with silty water

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I hiked the PCT in two sections between the months of May and August,  
inclusive. I found that extremely silty/muddy water was very very  
rare on both my trips. Many times it looked worse in the pool than it  
turned out to be once I scooped some other. The worst-looking water I  
saw were some of those glacial melt streams. I drank it silty. It was  
not bad. We need minerals, right?

I carried a paint strainer which you can buy at the hardware store  
for about $2, and you get two of them. I used the paint strainer to  
hold my Aquamira kit so it sort of served dual use. You could also  
use a piece o panty-hose for something similar, but I think the paint  
strainer is more durable. I would cover the opening of my container  
with the strainer and let the water go in. Sometimes this would be  
difficult, like in a lake. For shallow lakes I had to squeeze my  
container (a recycled plastic bottle) so that it would suck up the  
water. The strainer would filter out larger things. Smaller things I  
would just drink.

For pools that were too shallow, I had a bowl I ate my cereal from  
each morning that I could use, or my cookpot. I liked having a  
separate bowl because I didn't always get my pot clean after dinner.  
The bowl was made by cutting the bottom off a large container of  
yogurt. It weighed almost nothing. I thought for sure it would not  
last. I've been using it for 3 years now.

Usually I didn't need to scoop water. I could seek a small trickle  
upstream and just be patient using my Naked Juice bottle.

Diane

On Aug 19, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> For those of you who use Aqua Mira drops to purify water, what do  
> you do when the water source?is extremely silty/muddy?? And how do  
> you scoop up the water when your only source is a very small spring  
> (say about 3 or 4" deep but only 4" wide) that's too small and  
> shallow to dip a water bottle into?? Thanks for sharing your  
> expertise.
> ?
> Carolyn (AKA Sole Doctor)