I dodged a bullet at the beginning of the month!
In My Kind Of Triathlon I wrote about my hike to Dorothy, Bear and Deer on a beautiful summer day. What I didn’t share was that I had not brought enough water for the entire trip, counting on being able to use water purification that I carry in my 10 essentials kit.
When hiking I normally bring two methods, my Katadyn BeFree filter and some backpack up purification tablets. When backpacking I normally have three methods because I am carrying my stove.
However, because I had traveled to Greece and made decisions about what I needed or didn’t need to bring, I had taken out my Katadyn and just left the tablets. I was only bringing one water bottle and figured if I needed more for a hike I would just buy another bottle. When I grabbed my backpack for this trip, I had wrongly assumed that I had returned it to my kit for my trip to Canada.
Big mistake.
This can be an forgivable error when you normally carry more than one method (and the main reason I do). It is not unheard of for filters like Katadyn or Sawyer to clog or just not work as intended. Including a backup method like tablets means that you can be assured that you can drink water safely if that should occur.
However, the last few years I have not made a habit of checking my 10 essentials kit thoroughly and on this hike I almost paid the price but indeed learned my lesson. Thankfully not the hard way!
So what happened exactly? I have decided I’d share this story at the same time I give you some ideas for back up water purification methods that you, too, might want to keep in your backpack. Here I am in REI but you can find most of these (and others) online, as well.
This is the last line of defense I have carried in my 10 essentials kit for some time now without ever having to use it. I’m sure I once carried the pills in the glass bottles but decided at some point to put them in lighter baggies. I probably told myself I would remember which was which and I would replace them at some point in the not-so-distant future. The first tablets are basically iodine and you let them sit in the water for about 30-35 minutes. The second tablet is a neutralizer (vitamin C) that helps the water not taste so nasty.
As you can see over time without the glass bottles, the pills do break down. The bags may also have been labeled at one point as to which was first. I had kept them in a plastic film canister (remember those?) but even protected there they did slowly disintegrate over time. Like I said, I just assumed they were in there waiting for me, intact and ready to go.
Not so much.
On the Lake Dorothy hike when I knew I needed more water, I opened the film canister and pulled out the two sad little bags. I debated for some time about how I might still use these crumbles to purify water. I could gamble and say the reddish one was the iodine but it was be just that, a gamble. How much would I use? Maybe put one in and then the other, wait and then do it the opposite way? Assuming, of course, that whatever made them effective when I bought the package was still true today. It is not recommended to change packaging and again I would not repeat this “experiment”. These tablets do not have an expiration date but that depends on how you store them.
I eventually decided it was not something worth counting on and just filled my water bottle from the best looking stream and hoped for the best. It was either dehydration now or possibly giardia later.
It would appear that with a little more than 3 weeks later now that I gambled “wisely” and did not have any adverse affects from drinking the unpurified water. However, I don’t plan on making that bet again in the future if I can help it.
When I first started hiking the PCT, my research had me try these drops briefly as a main water purification method. Aquamira is a chloride dioxide solution that eliminates bacteria and viruses and takes about 15 minutes to be effective. Unlike the above treatment, it doesn’t color the water or add taste. It is fiddly, though, as you have to mix the two separate parts as you need it, so a third bottle is required (not included). I didn’t like having to mix frequently and carry 3 bottles so this method didn’t stick for me. It has a four year shelf life.
These were also available at REI and I have to admit that I didn’t give them much time as I could read that they took 4 hours to work and that didn’t seem reasonable for something I considered an emergency need. Some say that leaves these best for home emergency kits. However, if you want a tablet that does it all this might be for you. They have a 5 year shelf life.
I decided to go with Aquatabs for my updated, last line of defense. They only take 30 minutes, claim to have a great taste and came in sealed, light, individual packaging. The only difference other than being $1 cheaper than the above tablets is that they didn’t list “Crypto” as something they get rid of. They have a 5 year shelf life so the trick will be to remember in 5 years to toss whatever might be left.
All of these tablets eliminate bacteria and viruses. Whether they get rid of protozoa is where they differ. If cryptosporidium is a specific concern for you, you might want to choose the Katadyn or Aquamira (which works after 4 hours like the Katadyn). If giardia is a concern (as it should be), all will do the trick.
Overall, it is personal preference what you carry and important to assess what you want to eliminate when using tablets. For me, these are all emergency methods as none of them actually filter water. There have definitely been times when I was glad to have a filter because available water sources can be pretty sketch in the backcountry. I used to use a Steripen (and loved it) but it also was not a filter. It just makes the germs/viruses/cysts, etc. unable to reproduce, it doesn’t actually kill them.
This hike was a great reminder for me to not take for granted that I have what I need in my backpack and to double check each trip. My Katadyn BeFree is safely back in my kit along with the tablets so I am ready to go for now!
How about you? Do you carry backups? Backups for your backups?
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