that my Pur Hiker on a canoe trip..the water is "pure" and
the tea color is from the muskeg the water flows thru on it's
way to this lake..sort of like the water in Scotland that
runs thru peat that they make whisky from...
anyway..i'm running it thru the filter to get the Daphnia--
"water fleas" out of it..i may be tough out-door guy but
i prefer to drink water that i can't see stuff swimming
around in....AND--this is just a test--2 weeks in the woods
and i forgot how Photobucket works..Thanks to forum members
who helped kick-start my memory..



--ALMOST GOT IT RIGHT--NEXT TIME I'LL REDUCE THE PHOTO..
well it was just a test..

You could have boiled the water and had "water flea" soup. MMmmmm. Lucky I just had dinner and am not hungry anymore.

My rule of thumb:

1) Bugs/plants = Life = "good water drink after filter/boiling"
2) "No Bugs/plants ect" = "no life" = avoid drinking

My thought is whatever killed the life in the water is most likely hazardous to my health.

I would have tried to find clearer water, but if that the only source, and you found life in it,I would filter and drink.

I have a Platypus bag just like yours. The water looks nice and clear even if it is yellow. I am surprised your filter did not make it clear colored. I might treat for viruses but I would assume the water is good. I wonder if any brand of pump filter would make the water clear? Maybe First Need?

Did you drink some?

CRAIG..and others..yes indeed i did and do drink the water
from canoe country lakes..i think a basic element of survival
is to know,as well as possible,the area that you may be called
on to survive in..city..open seas..desert,or in my case the
wilderness lakes of northern Minnesota and Canada..the water
in the bag may be stained but it is as pure as water in a
natural area could be..this is the headwaters of Hudsons Bay
and no water flows in from any "unnatural"source..it's all
snow melt or rain water..and yes i know about airbourn sources
but none of those would effect me in the short term..
when traveling during the day i fill my water bottle right
out of a lake like the one below..



this is my source of drinking water for a month out of
every year over the last 25 or so that i have canoe tripped
thru this area and i have never had any i'll effects..
when i cook i don't bother to filter but try and keep as
many of the visible odds and ends out as possible..
as for camping someplace else i would filter every
drop of water.. and someplace like Phoenix where the
local river go's by the name of Salt..i would carry water
with me!!!!..as far as a filter that would remove the tea
stain from the water i'll have to say i don't know of
one..

Cool canoe picture!

I am a native of the land of 10,000 lakes, left when I was 10. Don't miss the cold. My oldest sister moved back and enjoys it.

For a second I thought that was a picture from my last backpacking trip.

The water in my Platypus looked just like that after going through my filter AND sitting for four hours with a Micropur tab stewing in it.

Drank several liters of that stuff and still kicking, the idea of it was worse that the reality.

I just pretended it was weak Earl Grey tea.

I was going to post a question if using both my micro-filter and Micropur tabs was overkill, but this thread looks like a good fertile place to plant that question.

Would I just be as well off (and a tad lighter) if I just used the Micropur tabs or would bleach work as well?

Bleach might have gotten rid of the color. Maybe.

SAMHAIN--e.t. all..the stain in the water is of no concern
to me..i only filter to get out the visible swimming odds
and ends..if i used tabs of some sort i would still be put
off by dead odds and ends in the water..
here is another reason i filter....



Pine Pollen..thats the yellow crud floating on the right
side of the canoe..the Zillions of pine trees dump tons
of yellow pollen into the lakes in eary spring..and leave
a yellow "bathtub" ring along the lake shore..in the fall
the water is much cleaner and the ring gives you an idea
of how much the lake level has come down during the summer.
anyway----even in open water it's impossible to get water
free from even a few of the floating globs of this stuff.
while i don't think the pollen it's self is any hazard i
wonder about what might be growing in those fertile globs.
the pollen in open water seems to gather into bits about
this size--"o"..sort of jelly like..i'm sure i've ingested
quite a few of those with no i'll effects--who knows
maybe fermented pine pollen is a health drink!!!!!