Filter then purify

[Hoosier]

Just curious if you all typically just filter your water while in the backcountry while in the park, or do you filter and then and then use purifier tabs? Got a Katadyn hiker, but just trying to figure if I should be purifying as well.

Thanks in advance for advise.

[SWAMPUS]

Can't help you there.I've been fishing in the smokies for 28 yrs.All I carry is a collapsable cup.Been drinking stream water for a long time with no ill effects.Just check for nymphs!

[GrouseMan77]

Katadyn Vario then consume.

[Speckleman5]

I'm with you SWAMPUS, I dip and drink.

[Oldman]

Depends on how thirsty you are. Me if I am camping in the backcountry and have fuel I will boil cus of my higher education. But if I am up on a small stream I will drink untill my thirst is quiched. Been doing that since 72 and never got sink yet. Although my 22 year younger fishing buddy thinks I will die every time.

[Owl]

Sooner or later....


I've been there. For me, it's not worth the risk of going there ever again.

I have a Purifier. If my buddy is along with his high-tech magic light thing we zap it with that too, just to be sure.

You can always over do it and nothing bad happens. "Under-do-it' and you might be in alot of agony.

Then again, you may never get sick. Luck of the draw with crypto and giardia.

[flyman]

I don't think you need to do both. E coli and Giardia are my two main concerns. I would make sure the filter can eliminate these. I use a MSR with a ceramic filter that was kind of pricy, but I don't won't to mess with treating or boiling water. I'll never forget one time years ago we camped a MT Wiliamson in the Sierras hiking, climbing, and taking photos of the Bighorn sheep. One afternoon after we had been drinking straight out of the creek for 2 or 3 days I walked upstream only to find a dead bloated Bighorn sheep right in the middle of the little stream we had been drinking out of. Got the water from above it the next couple days and bought a filter when I got home

[Mundele]

I just treat with Aquamira. It's great stuff. I cant' really taste it but a friend says it tastes "sulfury". I have a filter but never carry it. I suppose if you're ridge hiking and have to pump out of small puddles, it's nice to have a filter so you're not drinking cloudy water, but if you treat it, you should be safe.

--Matt

[cubefisher]

I've used a katadyn for years. I wouldn't go into the backcountry without it. I typically fill all my bottles at each stop then drink directly from the purifier until I'm full. The katadyn's a good one; I'm very comfortable with filtering only. Whatever you use, make sure it covers giardia. Not sure about the E. Coli thing in the park...

[flyman]

If you have animals or humans using the bath room in the vicinity of a spring or water source you can have a problem with it. I remember a couple years ago Ice Water Springs shelter had to be closed down because of unsanitary bath room habits in the area of the source of drinking water. Thats why a small spade or garden tool should be carried to bury all fecal matter and never use the bathroom within a couple hundred feet of a stream.