Advice Needed Re Water Purification

Dont worry about weight for a filtration device. You will be on the trail 6 months. You will drink hundreds of gallons of water. During my LT thru-hike, i learned very quickly that its more about getting to the end than getting to the end in style. One filtration slip-up at the wrong place and time WILL kill your trip and throw you off shcedule long enough that you won't finish. By the time you hit Pennsylvania, weight wont be that big an issue anyways and your legs will be fit enough to carry whatever you are carrying. If i were to do it today, id pre-filter and then use some kind of electrical purification that they sell. Money is of no value when it comes to making or breaking a 6 month trip that you may never get a chance to try again.
 
Any high end filter is the best option. Recently, it's been the MSR Miniworks EX for me. It works very well, and screws directly onto Nalgene Bottles (a plus for most thru-hikers). Other big-name filters are probably just as good, but I have no personal experience. I've heard, however, that this MSR model is more efficient, light, reliable, and easy to clean. I've cleaned and field-maintained them quite a lot, and can't imagine it being much easier. Definately a good buy.

But let me stress again: IODINE DOES NOT KILL CRYPTO. IT IS NOT AS EFFECTIVE OR GOOD FOR YOU AS OTHER, NEWER CHEMICAL TREATMENTS. As far as I know, the only chem that kills the crypto is Aquamira. But I'd still go with the filter for the reasons that others and myself have stated.

Boiling, of course, still works. No treatment required there. Just a rolling boil. The problem there, however, is the need for more fuel to boil the water. And if you're thru-hiking the AT, you'll probably be using a stove. Cost-, weight-, and time-wise, a filter would be a more efficient option.

Nam
 
How about getting water out of your enviroment? Anybody succesfully tried that? I *read* about some ways; and I tried to de-salt saltwater, but it didn't really work.
 
There are quite a few ways to "trap" or "collect" water from the environment around you, but they take quite a bit of time, and usually a bit of preporation, and they often do not yield substantial quantities of water. For the purpose at hand, a small filter is probably the best idea, and use the others (boiling, tablets, etc.) as backups.

mike
 
Welcome Akabu!! Great to see you around :) Have you been around HI much lately and I just missed you?
 
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