It’s a beautiful day for a hike, clear skies, very few hikers on your chosen trail. But as the hike progresses, you realize you are almost out of water, and the current temperature is 28 degrees Celsius. Not to worry though as you see a brook up ahead. All your water worries are over. But are they? (photo of water source)
When hiking in the backcountry and come across lakes, rivers and streams with unknown water quality, as a rule of thumb you need to disinfect the water you have just found to get rid of or kill waterborne germs before drinking it as to avoid hikers diarrhea which, face it no one wants to deal with in the backcountry.
The problem we face in the backcountry is that water containing bacteria or parasites sometimes looks the same as water that is clean. Never assume that the water you see is safe to drink. Make sure to only use boiled treated, or bottled water to:
Boiling Water
Boiling water should kill all the pathogens present. According to multiple websites and outdoor magazines, water should be brought to a rolling boil for minimum of 1 minute (5 minutes is recommended if the water is cloudy or has debris in it).
If in the backcountry at elevations over 2000m (6,562 feet. You need to boil your water for over 3 minutes. This due to the fact that at sea level water boils at 100 degrees Celsius and for every increase in elevation of 152.4 meters, waters boiling point is decreased by roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius.
Because you don’t always have the materials or weather to light a fire, or due to a potential fire ban, I recommend the MSR Windburner which is available here. MSR (Mountain Safety Research) has multiple options to help you out. From the Whisperlite Universal and Whisperlite Stove which is considered the best-selling liquid fuel stover made to the Windburner Stove System Combo which is what I personally carry on all my adventures in the outdoors.
The MSR Windburner allows me to boil water at any elevation and without worrying about the wind blowing out the flame due to the ultra-efficient performance of the Windburner Stove. This means that the stove’s windproof radiant burner and pressure regulator maintain it’s performance in all condition, whether you a cold weather camping with friends or showing your culinary skills with a romantic backcountry gourmet meal on a windy beach or a mountain top aka summit. This system also completely fits into the bowl, minus the fuel cannister that is for easy efficient packing. Inside the bowl you will also see
measurements for preparing your meals. Another reason why I find this combo efficient, is that the 2.5l bowl allows me to boil enough water for myself and anyone who might be hiking with me. (photo of MSR Windburner stove with info going around it, I will explain to you.
Water Filtration System
If boiling water is not an option for you, Filtration of water and chemically made purification tablets are the next most effective way to reduce pathogens in drinking water. Please note that in order to be effective, manufactures instructions must be followed.
Some of the best water filtration devices available are purification straws, bottles with purification straws inside them (fill up bottle with water, the purification straw you drink out of filters the water ie Lifestraw) and gravity drain water purification systems. These do a great job in removing the majority of pathogens from your water. I personally carry a Lifestraw Bottle and a Platypus GravityWorks High-Capacity Water Filter System, which comes in handy when doing multi day trips as well as on kayak trip if I run out of water. The Platypus is also highly effective for group camping as it can purify up to 6.0l of water, which really helps if you are camped near a creek or glacial fed stream or lake.
My most used water purification system in Alberta is the Lifestraw GO 1.0L water filter bottle with the Lifestraw Personal water filter inside of it. I highly recommend this product because ONE PURCHASE OF ANY LIFESTRAW PRODUCT EQUALS ON YEAR OF SAFE WATER FOR ONE CHILD IN NEED. Check out lifestraw.com to learn more and see why you should consider this easy to use purification system which protect against bacteria, parasites, organic chemical matter, dirt, sand and cloudiness, it also improves the taste. And in addition to this every fill avoids the need for single use plastic water bottles which more often than not are discarded by the side of the trail, when they are empty. I personally have come across plastic bottles along hiking trails, campsites and along the shores of the Kananaskis and Bow Rivers as well as other streams and tributaries.
Water Purification Tablets
The advantage of chemical purification is that they weigh next to nothing and a small enough to keep in your first aid kit and are any easy way to purify water found in the backcountry. Hikers used to use iodine tablets, but this did not eliminate Cryptosporidium (a microscopic parasite that causes the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis. Both the parasite and the disease are commonly known as “Crypto.” There are many species of Cryptosporidium that infect animals, some of which also infect humans) and iodine also left the water yellow as well as it made the taste of the water bad. Now we use Chlorine dioxide tablets which purify the water with a highly active form of oxygen while they dissolve. You might be asking yourself why not carry these instead of the 2 above listed methods of water purification and this is because once dropped in the water they take 30 minuets to effectively treat most pathogen and where there is a chance that Cryptosporidium is present, you need to leave them for about 4 hours. Even with the time restraint they should be carried in your first aid kit as a backup
