by Anonomous User1

Created on: April 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

You might be surprised to learn that there are still many places in the world - including in the United States - where there is easy-to-access potable water at your fingertips. That being said, you should always know your options and ask locals to be sure of what is safe. There are four approaches you can take to sanitizing your drinking water outdoors:

1) Don't do it at all - in the middle of big clean lakes you can often find some of the most clean drinking water on Earth (such as in some lakes in Northern Minnesota, which I have drunk from many times over the years - tastes better than tap water and has never caused me a problem). However, streams - which many people mistakenly guess are even cleaner than lakes - can often be contaminated by the presence of animals (like beavers) and natural dams. However, be sure to ask locals in a given area which lakes or rivers are safe to drink out of (if any).

2) Use pills - the largely Iodine-based water-disinfecting pills you can buy in camping outfitting stores do kill a lot of bacteria, but not everything. Used alone these are no guarantee of your health and safety and can have side effects or let certain other harmful elements into your system. Ask the shop owner what pills are available and what their effects are - there are different varieties with different chemical compositions designed for specific purposes and types of water bodies.

3) Use a water filter - these can get rid of a lot of the bacteria and particulates in water. If you have room to carry something like this, or don't have knowledge of the water in a given area, you should carry one of these. Charcoal filters do the most good overall, but you should compare to find one that is suitable to common problems found in water in the area you are going to be in.

4) Boiling - boiling water can take time and effort, but if you are stopping to camp each night you can easily make this part of your daily routine. After you have your campfire going, just bring water from an adjacent lake or stream and boil it. Then let it cool overnight and put it in your water bottles in the morning. If you want to get your water extra cold overnight: boil it, put it in a bottle, and set the bottle (attached by rope so you don't lose it) into a nearby stream or lake - it will pick up the temperature of the lake overnight and be cooler by morning.

Again: be sure to know the situation - talk to locals about what they do, or other people who have camped in the area. When in doubt go the safest route: get a filter AND pills or just boil your water thoroughly. However, there is sometimes no point to going to such extremes if you are far enough in the wilderness - where the water may be perfectly clean at the top of a lake and where you don't want to carry unnecessary gear.

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