First off you don’t carry all the water you need for a backpacking trip so you have to treat water (creek, lake, etc.) to make it safe for drinking. There are many options and backpackers can be pretty heated about their personal favorite:
Here are your options:
Don’t treat it all and risk Beaver fever (not a pretty sight)
Use chemicals: drops or tablets.
Boil the water. This uses a lot of fuel and who wants to drink hot water on a hot day. We do boil water for dinner,, no reason to filter and then boil
Pump filter
UV light, powered by batteries
Gravity filter
To the obvious question: I have used all of the above.
Lots of people use chemicals to treat their water. Biggest advantages are they are light to carry and easy to use. Fill up your bottle, add the drops and wait for the chemicals to do their thing. On our last trip to Alaska everyone in the group used drops except us. I was very happy I had a filter. The first part of the trip there was not a nice stream by camp so we were getting water from the trickles melting from the snowpack. People using drops could not fill their bottles without getting some dirt in the water. The bottom of the inside of their bottles had a layer of dirt, no thanks.The fist water treatment pump we bought was an MSR mini-works. We used that for years but it was slow when filtering for a family of 5. I replaced it with a Katadyn hiker which was easier to pump but was not as robust. I recently bought another MSR for a trip to Alaska. In my experience MSR products (stoves and filters) are bullet proof and should be go to gear for a major trip. Pump filters are convenient since you can stop at a creek and quickly fill your bottle. Attached the filter to your Nalgene, throw the end of the hose in the water and start pumping. It does not take long to fill a bottle. Five bottles is another story.This is a Steri Pen which is a UV light that purifies the water. This is the same technology used by many municipalities. It was a gift and I used it a few times and never had any issues with it other than I do not want to rely on electronics to treat my water in the wilderness. This is our go to filter for backpacking in the lower 48. Fill the bag with 6 liters of water, hang it in a tree and let gravity due the work. Place a bottle at the end of the hose and water filters while you are setting up your tent and gathering wood. Added bonus: it is easy to clean if gets clogged and slows down. The only downside: it’s not convenient to use when not in camp.
I still have the Steri Pen if anyone wants it, let me know
