Learning + Tutorials
A Guide To Water Treatment In The Backcountry
Why all the fuss about water treatment outdoors? The answer is that there’s no easy way to tell whether or not that pristine-looking stream a few hundred yards away from your camp is harboring a gut-seeking microbe. If any animal, including humans, can reach an area, so can disease-causing microorganisms.
Water Treatment & Containment
You need to provide 1 gallon of water (3.7 liters) per person per day for you and each of your family members if you don't have access to clean water or a faucet.
Think about that for a minute. That's a lot of water.
A half gallon (2 liters) is what you need for drinking each day - in warm weather or during periods of high stress or activity that amount could double.
Use a Signal Mirror
Back in the late 1980s, an oral surgeon was in the middle of a two-week raft trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, when disaster struck.
He and two other men were on the bank, getting their 18-foot (5.4-meter) raft ready for a trip down the Crystal Rapids when it got caught in a wave, filled with water and ripped the line from their hands.
