Hello World! Welcome Friends! The chances of you going on a camping trip and being mauled by a zig-zag running bear are extremely low, but that doesn’t stop this situation from being the highlight of many a horror story. However, seasoned and practical campers know that the real horror story is one that features an even scarier threat: lack of clean drinking water.
Whether it’s hiking on a new trail or camping at your favorite spot, having access to clean water should be your top priority. An average person needs about one gallon of water to get through a day of moderate activity. But when you consider exerting activities like hiking or camping trips, that easily goes up to two gallons. Add a dry, hot day into the mix, and your requirement increases to compensate for the water your body is sweating out.
Also, it’s not enough to have sufficient water; you need to have sufficient clean water. This means having a drinkable water source. Drinking unfiltered or unpurified water can quickly turn into a nightmare for your gut and your physician. Not to mention, no one wants a sickness to spoil a perfectly planned camping trip.
So what’s the best way to get clean drinking water and avoid all these terrible scenarios? How can you stay hydrated and healthy while having the most fun on your camping trip? Keep reading to find out!
This detailed guide will explore all available options, from practical gravity water filters to portable filter bottles, to ensure you have clean drinking water on your next camping trip.
Why is it Essential to Arrange for Clean Water?
No matter how much you fill your bottles to the brim, you can only carry around a limited amount of water in them. An amount that is nowhere near enough to meet the demands of a busy campsite. Besides drinking, water at the camp is needed for food preparation, cleaning utensils, and personal hygiene. Therefore, it is essential to arrange a clean water supply to ensure a smooth camping experience.
Can you Directly Drink from Freshwater Sources?
A question people often ask is whether it is safe to drink water from freshwater sources. They often see crystal clear, sparkling water streams running in the open and presume it’s safe. But don’t be fooled, because even the cleanest-looking waterfalls and lakes can be dirty. Sure, there may not be floating impurities in a running water stream, but that’s not what you should be worried about. Instead, it’s the disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoans that are too small to see with the naked eye that pose the biggest threat.
So, if you want to avoid frequent trips to bathrooms and the ER, you better avoid drinking stream water.
What Are your Options Then?
So you can’t rely on bottled water, and you can’t use open stream water sources to quench your thirst.
What now?
Don’t give up on your camping plans just yet. There are quite a few creative solutions to getting water on the go for all kinds of outdoorsy trips. Each option has its pros and cons, so be sure to consider what your needs will be and what suits you best.
Here are some of the ways you can get clean drinking water on your trips.
Gravity Water Filters
Gravity water filters are an all-around favorite pick for us. If you’re able to get your hands on a gravity water filter – one that is fit for your needs – you’ve solved your clean water problem.
A gravity water filter will purify any water source into healthy, clean, and drinkable water. This includes water from taps, streams, and waterfalls. This essentially means that you can feed your gravity water filter water from any pond or lake, and it will provide you water you don’t have to think twice about drinking.
There are quite a few other neat benefits you can get from using gravity water filters.
First off, the way this functions is a plus point in itself. As the name implies, a gravity water filter will use the natural pull of gravity to purify the fed water over time. This makes it a fantastic option as it doesn’t use electricity or added water pressure to function.
Secondly, the range of sources you can use to get clean water makes these filters a good purchase for all types of uses. So whether you’re camping near a pond or a river – gravity filters will guarantee healthy water.
Additionally, these filters come in a bunch of sizes for you to choose from, from a portable 1.3-gallon size to a tabletop 2.3 gallon. The filters are pretty safe to use because you aren’t dealing with chemicals. They also require very little maintenance compared to other options.
Portable Filter Bottle
Next up, we have portable filter bottles. People usually prefer them because of the portable design. Think of this as a refillable water bottle with a filter attached. So, you just have to fill up your bottle by a lake or river stream and drink relatively clean water.
Besides being portable, the simplicity of this type of filter is another selling point as you don’t need to set up a complicated machine.
However, you will have to look into the pore size efficiency of your portable filter bottle. For example, if your filter says it has a rating of 1 micron or smaller, it has the ability to filter protozoans’ parasitic eggs and larvae.
Important note: a rating of 0.4 micron is ideal because only that (or smaller) can remove harmful bacteria from water.
Do keep in mind that the filter rate slows down as the pore filter efficiency increases.
Chemical Tablets
Chemical tablets work differently from the other options on our list. Instead of removing harmful bacteria, these tablets kill them. And while doing all this violence, they remain harmless for humans.
While the idea sounds great in theory, there are some downsides to using chemical tablets. Firstly, some chemicals used, like iodine, can be harmful to people with certain conditions. So you need to research if it’s safe for your consumption. Secondly, chemical tablets vary significantly in their ability to kill all disease-causing agents.
Filter Straws
Another popular option for campers is the filter straw. Like portable bottle filters, the best thing about filter straws is their portability and lightweightedness. However, filter straws have some disadvantages, like slower flow rates and low filtration strength. This makes them not a very suitable option for pro campers.
Final Verdict
From all the options, our favorite source of clean drinking water for camping trips has to be the gravity water filter. These filters offer the greatest range in terms of filter sizes and the sources you can use to get filtered water from. They are also some of the most durable and reliable filters out there and don’t require maintenance. Since you don’t need any electricity or plumbing services to install them, gravity water filters get full marks in ease of use as well. With these on your side, you don’t ever need to worry about going thirsty on your camping trips again!
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