Backpacjac,

Filtration is probably the best for most of North America. I use an old Katadyn pocket filter the most. Crypto is a common problem, virus much, much less so. Some of the new Sawyer filters appear to remove the virus component also. Overseas you are going to need both. None of the chlorine based products will.touch crypto. Chlorine Dioxide (and the miox from MSR) will do it, but only with extended contact time (four hours is common). The Steripen is nice, I have and use one, but it has limits too. The biggest problem is cross contamination, particularly if you use their recommended procedures. It also only does one liter at a time, not much if you want a meal for a group, or to clean up. In canoe country, working from a base camp, I use the MIOX for a large bladder at camp (fill before leaving/bed) and the Steripen for drinking water in the field.

Respectfully,

Jerry

P.s. Boiling is best, I use it in preference to the others when it is practical. The Wilderness Medical Society recommendations (from lots of experimental data) is only to a rolling boil.

Aquatabs sound like a great idea. However, after a quick check, I can't seem to find anyone selling them in the US.

Does anyone know of a US source for Aquatabs? Or, alternatively, does anyone know of a Canadian distributer who would ship to a US address for a reasonable price?

If all else fails, I get down to Seattle frequently, and while there I occaisionally go up to Victoria or Vancouver. I suppose I can get a supply that way.

Mountain Equipment Co-op (mec.ca) sells Aquatabs and they do mail order to the USA. I am not sure if you have to be a member for online ordering or not, but a lifetime membership is only $5.00.

here's a round-up article you might find helpful as a starting point that i wrote a couple years ago called:

Water Contamination Solutions

Thanks, Teslinhiker. I will probably take out a membership and order some. I understand the MEC is the REI of Canada. We stopped in their shop and looked around when we were in Victoria last fall. Looks like a good outfit.

Thanks for the article Wileycoyote. It's clear as mud now! LOL! This is more complicated than I expected. It looks like BYOW remains the best strategy, with boiling the most secure back-up? Failing the ability to boil, it sounds like a combo of fitlering and chemically treating is best.

The big drawback for me with chemicals is the time involved to treat the water. I know ideal situations say the water is good to go in 30 minutes, but realistically the water is probably a bit colder and dirtier than the ideal so I would have the tendency to allow the chemicals to work for closer to 4 hours (the time needed for the 4 degree C, dirty water).

I know people that exclusively use chemicals for their water treatment and the best method seems to be to start treating the water before you need it. This assumes you have multiple water containers and as you empty one, you fill it with local water and throw the chemicals in. Then, by the time you need it the water is good to go.

With regards to boiling, the big drawback for me is that typically you want cold (or at least less than lukewarm) water to drink and cooling down the water after boiling it isn't a quick task.

When I was researching a backcountry water treatment solution for myself, I decided that full purification was what I wanted; I wasn't comfortable relying on filtering alone. I know viruses are a lower risk in North America, but I wanted a solution that could handle both bacteria and viruses.

Ultimately I decided to make my primary water purification system a SteriPen Journey with a pre-filter. This allows me to clean a litre of water in under 2 minutes which is good enough for me. For backup I also have MicroPur tablets and, when backpacking at least, boiling.

And, as Mark M mentioned, this method (perhaps more than others) does necessitate a backup. I ended up getting a defective SteriPen unit which failed in the backcountry. Backups kicked in and it was all good.

Even after getting a replacement SteriPen, they are definitely more sensitive to cold than I'd like so while I am still going to give it a shot this year as my primary purifier, I won't be without backups!

Chemical treatments have the key benefits of being very light-weight and very effective at working with viruses and dangerous bacteria, but they will not remove air compound matter, may not remove all the dangerous parasites present in the water.
So i always keep traditional hiker's water filter is the bottle filter.Lightweight and easy to use.

Speaking from an Arizona/desert perspective, (I note that you are well to the north) the temperature of the water is quite irrelevant if you are truly thirsty.

I guess for drinking water the straw is Ok but it is not especially useful for other things like cooking or washing, or mixing with flavorings.