[pct-l] Steripen

[Trekker4 at aol.com (Trekker4@aol.com)]

I've bought a Steripen; I haven't tried it out yet,  except in the sink; but, 
I can tell you the weight with 4 Lithium AA batts, a  light blue, nylon stuff 
sack, & 20 coffee filters is 7 oz. No  one can beat that weight.

    The light blue stuff sack is the one that used to  hold my Walbro, my 
First Need, my Sweetwater, and my PUR Hiker. I forget what  the problem with the 
Walbro was, but it was a cup like pour through, possibly  just very slow. The 
First Need clogged; the original Sweetwater clogged;  and the Hiker clogged - 
even with prefilters on the latter 2. I finally started  carrying coffee 
filters, extra prefilters, and returned to the Sweetwater; I'd  still use it, but 
it weighed a pound with all the extras; with a coffee  filter hair-banded over 
the intake prefilter, the regular prefilter (and  carrying spares), and a lot 
of pumping work it was the best of the bunch. BTW,  coffee filters are 
extremely light, dry very quickly (even in a pocket), and  burn very easily. 
    I'm going to try the Steripen for it's 7 oz  weight; it'll purify 1 qt in 
1.5 min (probably 2.5 min with  prep), including killing giardia, crypto, and 
viruses. However there is no  carbon in it to filter out chemicals. They do 
make a stainless prefilter for  rough junk, but it only fits a Nalgene bottle; 
I use Platys, so I'll have  to figure out how to effectively use the coffee 
filters to help a bit in places  like Yogi's favorite cow shit source.
    I know I said weeks ago that I'd report on my  experience with the 
Steripen, but I just haven't taken that longer shakedown  hike yet. I'll have to 
very soon, of course; I've just about got my Luxury Lite  pack use, fit, packing, 
etc worked out to my satisfaction. I've been doing  1-2 hours up a small 
mountain/large hill 4 blocks(nice warm up/cool down)  from me. Anyhow, I will 
report on the Steripen soon, from 2-3 days in Big Bend  Nat'l Pk or Big Bend Ranch 
St Pk or both (they're right next to each other and  about 100 miles from 
me). 
    
 
Bob  "Trekker" 
Big Bend Desert Denizen
(Naturalized Citizen, Republic of  Texas)