Hey what's up everybody. This is Iron here. I'm on day five of a
14 day backpacking and pack rafting trip in the southwest. I'm filling up on water
right now and I figured I would show you guys how I filter my water. How I treat
my water. And how I store my water. Water is life and it's a treat to find
it in some of these areas. I'm in a super beautiful canyon right here.
I've been exploring around all day. Super stoked.
This is my water bottle of choice. This is a one liter smart water bottle. I love this
thing. I take this on all of my trips. It's got an awesome shape to it.
I can grab it out of the side of my backpack real easily.
it's super lightweight. It's cheap. I get some free electrolytes when I buy my first one.
It's reusable. This is my favorite bottle.
My Sawyer squeeze filter can also screw directly onto the top of it.
For this trip I need to carry up to 2 gallons of water at once.
I brought 3 of these 2-liter Evernew bags. That gives me a gallon and a half storage.
Then one more liter here. Then I have a 25 ounce peanut butter jar.
That gives me close to 2 gallons total. I really love these Evernew bags.
They've been the lightest most durable water bag I can find. I also really like
to carry multiple of them, just in case one fails I won't be totally screwed.
If I had just one gallon sized water bag and that
punctured somehow, or sprung a leak it could potentially be pretty bad.
By having multiple bags, if one fails I'll still be alright.
My peanut butter jar here is multi-purpose. I make my coffee's in this.
I make my my cold soaked meals in this. It's also a crucial part to my water
system out here. A lot of these pools of water that we have to use out here
are really shallow. It can be really difficult to fill a bag or a
bottle up. What I do is, blow up my water bag. Then I'll take my peanut butter jar
and I'll scoop the water off the surface and just fill this up.
It's a really good system to be able to utilize shallow water pools.
Those are a lot of the only sources of water we're able to use out here.
This is my two gallon water capacity here. The weight of all of my
water bags, my smart water bottle & my peanut butter jar comes out to about the
weight of a Nalgene bottle. A single 1-liter Nalgene bottle.
This is an awesome system regarding weight, durability and double fail-safes.
it's hot out here. My hands are blistered up.
You want to make sure if one part of your system fails you're still gonna be alright.
That covers all of my water storage out here.
As far as filtering goes I primarily filter all my water with my Sawyer Squeeze filter.
I've been using this filter now for close to a decade.
i've never been sick from any of the water I've drank. This thing has never failed on me.
It will slow down over time. I do replace this filter every couple years.
That's after a lot of use. I can't speak highly enough about this water filter.
It has a million million gallon guarantee.
It's super lightweight. It's just really dependable.
If you do buy this, the only thing you really need to watch out for is being in freezing temps.
The cartridge can be ruined. I've taken this in freezing temps many times.
I try to keep it insulated in my bag when I'm not using it.
AWESOME, awesome filter here. My preferred method of using this
is to fill up one of my water bags with untreated water.
Then screw my filter on top of my water bag. Then filter my water into my smart water bottle.
Then I will just drink out of my bottle. That's my favorite way to do it.
I've noticed other backpackers like to fill up their smart water bottle
with untreated water. Then screw their Sawyer filter directly onto their bottle.
Drinking water straight through the filter. Just kind of a personal preference thing there.
Whatever works best for you.
On most trips the only filter that I ever use. Being down here in the southwest.
There are some pretty bad water sources. The thing about these cartridge filters,
they only remove bacteria. They don't remove viruses. Viruses are smaller than bacteria.
A filter is not effective for viruses.
If I'm drinking from a water source where I'm worried about any viruses,
pesticides from nearby farms. I will treat my water with these Aqua Mira drops.
These drops kill all viruses. It's a two-part system.
I will fill my water bag with the untreated water.
Then mix the 2 parts into this cap. There's instructions on the bottles.
Let mixture sit for five minutes. Then pour it into your water bag.
Then shake your bag up real good. Let water sit for 15 minutes before drinking.
I try to never have to drink from a water source, that may contain viruses.
Sometimes I have no other option. We were drinking water out of a large river.
The water was brown & I was told there were uranium mines
up river from us that had been contaminating the water for years.
I really didn't want to drink that water. It was my only option.
I have found this to be the lightest, foolproof, most dependable system.
I've never been sick from any of the water that I've drank.
There are some other options out there. SteriPEN is a popular option amongst hikers.
The SteriPEN is a UV light that treats water. It kills viruses as well.
What turns me off about it, its an electronic device & uses batteries.
This means more failure points.
I have tried on in the past. I just don't trust it as much as I trust these drops.
I researched the Katadyn BeFree filter. I'm still not sold on it over the Sawyer.
I would advise everyone to stay away from pump style filter.
I've seen a lot of them break in the field. They have a lot of moving parts
and they're heavy. I think they weigh 1/2 - 1 pounds.
I see a lot of hikers with those & I just I don't see why.
If you guys have any questions about treating water or storing water
or anything backpacking related. Please leave a comment below.
I will be happy to answer them. Thanks for being here.
I'm always stoked to share this knowledge with you and to share this experience.
Take care of one another & I will catch you guys
on the next trail. Peace.