Water in the backcountry

[Sad604Man]

Hey guys,
A friend and I are going into backcountry for some scouting in a couple weeks and I was wondering if anybody had any advice when it comes to bringing water along. We plan to go up to roughly 10km into a plateau-ish area where we are unsure of the water supply and quality. Im rigged out with a Katadyn water bottle and filter as well as a couple 1.4L nalgene bottles but im not feeling super confident that it will be enough to last 3 days 4 nights. I figure stashing a 4L bottle at a couple spots would work but doesnt seem very efficient ! Does anyone have any ideas or advice for a couple backcountry newbies ??

Thanks !

[HarryToolips]

I would invest in either a life straw or water purification tablets (that's what I bring with me)..definitely not efficient to be stashing water places....and if you find yourself out of water and don't have any of the above mentioned things, just pick your sources wisely...I agree with Les Stroud (Survivorman) that it's better to drink if you have to rather than getting too dehydrated because your worried about untreated water sources, just have to be smart about it..try to avoid stagnant sources if possible, and I find streams that you can see coming out of the rock or coming from higher up the mountain are best...

[walks with deer]

if your in a plateau you should be near many sources..i wouldnt over think it and sure as shit would not pack in 4l that said i drink eitheir from my spring or creek year round...subalpine.

[eatram]

minimum 2L per person per day. Water is not to be neglected; you need to figure out how to do this trip safely. Lack of water makes the brain choose poor decisions. Have a stash somewhere so that your mind can think straight, knowing that you are not too far from fresh water. Then keep your eyes open for a water source so that you can come back next time with confidence...

[sky-gunner]

Get the platypus gravity system. Been using it for years now Filters 2liters in about 1.5 min, can be used in even super shallow water or in rain as it's a bag system, folds into a very light very small package, and is fairly inexpensive. We've done well over 200km worth of hiking in the backcountry with it and zero issues, great tasting water.

[Sharpish]

Bring water tabs and two bottles. When you find a water source, drink both bottles and then fill them up and throw tabs in. Every time you come across a stream and the existing bottles have had their 30 minutes of treatment time, drink them and fill them up again.

[5.56mm]

Get a water filter. Msr or platypus or there are a few others available also, I've drank river water many times using my platypus, and the kit comes with an adapter to filter right into a nalgene. AMD has a dedicated dirty water bag so no cross contam.

Jon

[Bustercluck]

You should be able to go on google earth or something similar and figure out whereabouts some sources of water might be. Bare minimum I would mark any lakes or ponds nearby, just in case you have to drop down to get water. I recommend a filter too.

Google some different ways to treat water. I can’t stand the taste of those tabs, they leave me still feeling thirsty afterwards. I usually risk drinking poor quality water over putting tabs in, I only use them if it’s swamp water. A filter and a uv light, or a filter and some drops of bleach might be better.

Like others have said you’re probably over thinking it. Depending on the research I do I usually only pack my one litre bottle full and an empty 4 litre bag for getting cooking water and stuff. I’ll put a litre or two in the water bag if I’m unsure of the next water stop.

[Bustercluck]

I have an msr miniworks filter. It works ok, but the filter plugs up quite often and depending on the water source it can take quite a while to fill a bag of water. The reason I bought it is for the hose it has on it so you can suck water out of the tiniest creek, or there was another time I had to shimmy out on a log and suck some water out of a pond where I couldn’t reach the water by hand.

[albravo2]

I love the Platypus gravity filter. Very slick system.