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..