I understand that most people drink water on a fairly regular basis. The web, as well as hordes of well meaning friends and strangers, is forever admonishing people to ‘stay hydrated’, and often cite the ‘half a litre of water per hour’ trope. In my experience this is utter nonsense. When hiking in all but the most extremely hot, dry places (across Phoenix one day) I carry 2/3 l. Time after time this has proven to be perfectly adequate for a 5 hour hike. That being said, regardless of the quantity, no one wants to get sick from drinking water.
The default choice for most people is bottled water. However it is not always possible to find bottled water (nor really is it desirable). Some ‘Eco’ locations or overland trips offer filtered or chemically treated water which you may or may not trust. On mountain treks it is nice to be able to use water from a natural source. Also, in many (mostly Arab) countries there are water jugs and taps for public use all over. Tap water in many, many places is perfectly fine, but I just cannot remember if Romania is one of them. So, given the choice, I prefer to add an extra level of disinfection.
In years past I used iodine crystals. These are extremely light and compact and do a great job of cleaning water and making it taste pretty terrible. After that I switched to a ceramic pump filter. This is big and heavy and is incredibly clumsy and time consuming to use. Next I went with a Lifestraw, a truly lifesaving invention. However, it is a giant straw, and requires you to suck water out of an open container. Finally I considered a bottle with a built in filter, but I often put ‘non water’ in the bottle, and do not want to have my only bottle contaminated with impure water that I then suck out.
I ultimately settled on a Steripen, which uses UV light to disrupt (most of) the bacteria, viruses and cysts found in fouled water. I takes all of a minute to purify a half liter of questionable water and after that I drink straight from my bottle. It has a cute little timer icon and is actually pretty fun to use – usually while I am brushing my teeth. When filling my bottle from a stream I use my bandanna as a macro-filter first. The USB charging model weighs in at 140g and on a full charge lasts me over two weeks. It is a bit spendy, but in my case it paid for itself in the first month of use.
A note on water bottles. I carry a metal container that is single wall, with a medium size screw opening. It weighs 90g. A web search for hiking gear lists recommendations for containers that range from 290g up to an astonishing 440g. In my view anything other than simple is too much. Complicated tops with sippy soft parts make for much more difficult cleaning. Bladders are the acme of inconvenient and hard to maintain (especially if you, like me, sometimes fill up with fruit juice or add in some sliced carrots for fun). Insulated bottles add weight as well as bulk – instead revel in hauling a third less of a kilogram around with you and get used to drinking water at ambient temperature.
Once a month toss a couple of denture cleaning tabs (Polident, Efferdent) into your full bottle overnight. These help to descale and dissolve off any grime on the inside surfaces. Clean the threads of the lid with soap and toothbrush. When your bottle is not in use, store it with the lid off. This saves anything marinating in it, reducing funky taste and odour.
Cheers.
