[pct-l] Water Purification

[Tom Bache]

Over the past 3 years I've section hiked 1425 miles of the PCT (Mexico to
Burney Falls) plus many other short trips in So. California.  At the
beginning, I tried filtering and Agua Mira, but after a while decided that
water treatment is only needed when the water looks suspicious (reason to
think people or stock are near and upstream).  North of Kennedy Meadows, I
seldom treated water, and my standards for water that doesn't need treatment
keep going down.  Since I haven't had any problems, I plan to continue that
way.  I usually carry a backup -- Agua Mira or a Steripen.  The Steripen is
light and quick, but it is an electronic device that can fail.  Mine once
went out the first time I tried it on a weeklong trip -- good thing I was
comfortable with untreated water.  (but full marks to Steripen -- they
replaced it as soon as I told them it failed).

Tom Bache
San