For the past several weeks I’ve been grading the choices I made during my recent John Muir Trail thru-hike. Thus far I’ve scored a “D” for my sleeping bag, a “B” for my sleeping pad, an “A” for my stove, and a “B” for my tent. Next item: how I purified water.
For those of you who may be new to the Sierra Nevada, here’s the good news: the water tastes great. It tastes so good that when I returned home I had trouble drinking water from my tap—which had seemed perfectly adequate just a few weeks earlier.
It also tends to be clean. Most hikers who have spent a significant amount of time on the John Muir Trail have run into people who claim to rarely purify their water before drinking. I’ve drunk untreated water on occasion and have never gotten sick, but I still don’t recommend it.
I’ve used the same water purification system for every one of my extended hikes through the Sierra: a SteriPen Classic.
I always used a SteriPen Classic on my hikes through the Sierra Nevada.
The Steripen has a lot going for it. It is light, never needs to be back-washed or cleaned (unlike most filters), and is effective against the flagellated protozoa known as giardia. (If you are going to get sick in the Sierra from the water, it will probably be from giardia.)
It’s also effective against the smallest of the “bugs” that can make you sick, viruses.
It works by subjecting the various microorganisms to ultraviolet light. The UV rays do not necessarily “kill” the bugs, but it does prevent them from multiplying in your gut, which is just as good.
The Steripen I carried has some disadvantages. My nineteen days of hiking required a total of twelve lithium AA batteries, which adds to your pack weight. I also needed to carry some sort of container to hold one liter of water (the maximum amount it can treat at a time). I choose a Nalgene bottle, which, again, added to my weight.
The other disadvantage is that the Steripen is as fragile as any device consisting primarily of electronics and glass. In fact, on my 2009 thru-hike, mine stopped working after the first few days. I didn’t purify water a single time during the remaining two weeks, and never got sick (proving absolutely nothing, I should quickly add).
One of the hikers I met on this year’s thru-hike (thanks, Dale!) had what may be a better idea. It was certainly lighter.
He took the filter off a Sawyer Squeeze and mounted it to the end of the supply hose on the bladder he carried. He would fill the bladder with untreated water, and simply suck the water through the filter. It was light, small, and effective against everything except viruses. It seemed like an elegant solution, particularly if you are like me and are fond of bladders.
My technique for purifying water was fine, but by adopting the filter-at-the-end-of-the-bladder-hose strategy I could have shaved off another eight to twelve ounces. That will probably be my approach next time.
My grade: B
Good hiking, Ray
Hi again Ray. Last summer I used the steri-pen Adventurer Opti for the first time. It took 2 CR123 batteries. (on sale now at REI now for $65). Much lighter than the classic but after 3 days my batteries were dead. Waste of money unless you go to Mexico, etc just for a few days.
What we usually use & will go back to using in 2014 is just the Playtpus repalcement cartridge. Remove the rubber ends and install in-line from your bite and the bladder. The Sawyer Squeeze is much cheaper & can be found a Walmart for $29 but it is twice the size and much heavier. These cartlidges will easily last 2-3 years.
http://www.rei.com/product/813800/platypus-gravityworkscleanstream-replacement-cartridge
Darryl
Thanks, Darryl! That looks like a great alternative, and the website states it’s good against protozoa, which I would assume it means that it’s good against giardia.
Yes. And it looks like we both have learned again not to depend on anything that uses batteries while hiking. Aside from my music palyer that takes only one AAA Li Ion battery. (20 hrs of listening). Entertainment is important too when the sun goes down if you are hiking alone. Another discusssion.
The Chloride – Dixoide tablets are also a very good back-up but I don’t always have 30 mins to wait but we always bring them. I drop them in my bladder the night before and then you covered for viruses if you are outside North America — Darryl
I too, had issues with the steri-pen, and ended up returning it, (thank goodness for REI). Sawyer now has a “mini” version, which is only 2oz. and very inexpensive (my scale says 1.8 oz). I much prefer it to the steri-pen, which ate batteries and conked out on me 2 days into a 5 day trip. A replacement steri-pen bit the dust after the 6th use, and I gave up. I’ve used the platypus cartridge inline also, and that worked great, but it bit the dust when I dropped it once. The Sawyer mini is comparable to the platypus, (and just a tad lighter on my scale) but is cheaper to replace, if like me, you are clumsy.
Thanks Geek girl.
Sawyer mini — $24 at REI. I’ll chek it out. Can you install it between your bite valve and baldder?
http://www.rei.com/product/866577/sawyer-mini-water-filter?s_kwcid=dsltrgZh|pcrid|3361254761|pkw|Sawyer%20Mini%20Filter|pmt|be|bing|main
Yes, you can install it between your bite valve and bladder. That is exactly how I use mine. I do like the lower cost, (I carry an extra one on long hikes) because I’m a bit of a clumsy person, and I’ve dropped filters, (and cameras) more than once. They normally fail once dropped from any kind of height.
On this summer’s JMT hike, I used a “LifeStraw Personal Water Filter”. It instantly filters water as you drink, up to 1000 liters of water total, for about $20. No pumping, no chemicals, no batteries. Just suck the water through the straw out of a cup or wide-mouth bottle (Gatoraide bottle). It worked great.
Since I was trying to go lightweight, it was great that I only needed to carry water twice, which saves a ton of pack weight. With most water treatment systems, the treated water becomes a precious commodity… so much time and energy has gone into treating the water that it is inconceivable to just pour the extra water out. You end up carrying treated water over streams and past lakes, sometimes until the very end of the day. To me, it seems really inefficient to carry water past water sources. With the LifeStraw, I would use the straw to sip water whenever thirsty, and I only needed to carry water for 2 long dry sections of trail.
Chris.
Interesting approach, Chris, and about as light as you can get and still filter.
Back to Steripens, we also took an Adventurer Opti with the supplied two CR123’s plus two in each of three re-supply buckets and an extra pair just in case and came back to the UK with four unused batteries. Each pair lasted nearly ten days and we were getting through 6 to 10 litres between us a day. (Boiled water for cooking) However we did meet a guy with a failed one at MTR. Strange anomaly that may be down the the manufacture of certain component perhaps?
It’s hard to say, Nick, why the experiences vary so much. The one thing that the Sierra has going for it is that, even if your purification strategy fails, it’s unlikely you’l encounter bad water. It’s not impossible, but it’s unlikely.
Good post. I have to say that it’s likely a person will drink from water sources with giardia in it at some point along the JMT, but most likely won’t get sick. That said, there is significant risk. I know because I got giardia on my first time hiking through the Sierra on the PCT, and there were several other PCT hikers who got giardia in the Sierra that summer as well.
I make my argument against the infamous Rockwell paper (which downplays the risk of giardiasis in the Sierra) here: http://bucktrack.com/Giardia_Hiking_Water.html
Thanks, Buck, for the comment. I agree that purification is definitely the way to go.
[…] More on water purification can be found here. […]
There is no need to carry a 4 oz Nalgene bottle just to fit a Steri-Pen. Mayo and Applesauce bottles come with wide mouths. A 32 oz. Mayo bottle weighs ~2.0 oz, just 0.2 more than a Gatorade bottle.
Sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Dave.