Water Treatment & Storage


The Problem

As on any trail, FT thru-hikers will want a water treatment system that is lightweight, reliable, thorough, and produces a decent amount of drinking water is a relatively short amount of time. However, water sources on the Florida Trail are radically different than the clear mountain streams and springs of the AT or PCT.

 

Lots of Algae & Particulates

Florida's shallow, slow-moving waters are filled with particulates like algae, clay, silt, and decaying plant matter. The water is so thick with material that filters quickly become clogged, even when you pre-filter with a handkerchief et cetera. Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) produces neurotoxins as well as hepatotoxins that damage the liver. 

 

Lots of Invisible Bugs

Florida's warm subtropical climate and the abundance of plant matter in the water support large populations of worms, parasites, amoebas, protozoa, and bacteria. Fortunately, viruses are not found in Florida waterways or anywhere in North America. This is only an issue in developing countries.

 

Shallow Dirty Pools

Sometimes your only water source may be a muddy pool a few inches deep at most. You will need to be able to skim water from these pools without stirring up so much mud that the water is rendered useless.

Must Haves

lightweight

eliminates bacteria

eliminates protozoa

easy to clean on-trail

lasts the entire thru-hike

 

Would Be Nice

removes chemicals

improves taste

doesn't clog quickly

high-volume

low cost

fast


Not Important

eliminates viruses

survives freezing

 

What's Out

not treating

chemical treatments

UV light treatments



Flat Topography = Chemical Contamination

Without mountains, the Florida Trail cannot isolate hikers from pollutants that accumulate in valleys by keeping them near high ridgelines and so forth. Furthermore, Florida's flat topography means few bodies of water are safe from exposure to chemical runoff from citrus groves, cattle pastures, roadways, and suburban lawns.

 

Since the Florida Trail passes many polluted bodies of water and most backpacking treatment systems do not eliminate chemicals, we have a lengthy guide to help you identify safe and unsafe water sources at our on-trail issues: drinking water page.


What's Out

Not Filtering is Not an Option

UV light treatment with a SteriPEN and chemical treatments like Aqua Mira will not eliminate the clouds of leaf litter, dirt, and algae in the water. We doubt anyone will want to drink such water without filtering it first but saving weight tempts people to do foolish things — like all those hikers on the AT and PCT who roll the dice and don't treat their water at all.

 

It is easy to imagine a parasite or cyanobacteria encased within an invisible clump of clay surviving a douse of Aqua Mira or zap of UV light. For that reason we want to discourage any notion that you can still use Aqua Mira or a SteriPEN by first filtering water through a handkerchief or pantyhose. The gaps between fibers in these materials are enormous relative to microbial life. Water filtered through a handkerchief doesn't even appear clean to the naked eye (we've tried).

 

But let's image that a chemical treatment did manage to kill every microorganism. Would you still want to consume dead cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that produce toxins like neurotoxins and hepatotoxins that damage the brain and liver respectively?


Our Recommendations

The safest, most versatile choice is the classic MSR MiniWorks EX, which eliminates particulates, bacteria, and protozoa, as well as some organic chemicals and toxins. Once a thru-hiker standard, AT hikers ditched its 16 ounces of weight after Aqua Mira came out. However, since there are so many sketchy water sources on the Florida Trail, its ability to eliminate toxins justifies the weight and makes it a top choice. 

 

The MiniWorks has an easy-to-clean ceramic filter that's durable and will last multiple thru-hikes. The carbon core (a new-ish feature not present a decade ago) is what eliminates some organic compounds and toxins. Hikers complain that the ceramic filter must be cleaned often, but a simple trick solves that problem: wrap three paper coffee filters around the end of the hose and secure them with a rubber band. Coffee filters last a surprisingly long time and block particles bigger than 15 microns across (though the exact pour sizes of coffee filters are not standardized and do vary). This decreases the frequency of cleanings.

Extra Gear Needed:

1)  Dirty Water Jug  To reach the deep, clear water of a cypress dome, for example, you will need to slog through mud and muck. Since filtering takes time and there is no place to sit down, you end up standing in the water while pumping away. If the filter clogs, you spend even more time standing in the water/mud while cleaning the filter. It's never much fun, but it's especially tedious at the end of the day.

 

To avoid all that, we recommend carrying an empty gallon jug for dirty water (not a bladder). With an empty jug you can walk out to the water source, fill up, and later filter while back in camp on dry land (or in a shady spot if it's in the middle of the day). With a milk jug you can drop the MiniWork's source hose into the jug, which is not possible with a soft-sided bladder. 

 

2)  Scrub pad  the MiniWorks EX comes with a green scouring pad to clean the ceramic filter

 

3)  Coffee filters & a rubber band  to decrease the frequency of cleanings, wrap three paper coffee filters around the metal coil at the end of the hose and secure them with a rubber band or hair tie. 


The ultralight choice for thru-hikers on any trail is now the Sawyer Mini. While it will not remove organic compounds and toxins, and clogs quickly without pre-filtering, many hikers love the Sawyer for its astonishing 1.4oz weight, low price of $25, and longevity. While we are skeptical of Sawyer's claim that it lasts for 100,000 gallons, since this is 99,000 gallons more than the nearest competitor, one will certainly last an entire thru-hike or two. 

 

Two complaints: First, in order to force water through the filter you are supposed to squeeze the bags that come with the Mini (and the larger Sawyer Squeeze). However, the bags consistently burst in your hands while squeezing. For most thru-hikers we have spoken with, and from our own experience, this happens after about 3-4 weeks of use. They just aren't durable enough for a thru-hike. Use a Platypus bag instead. Secondly, the rubber O-ring at the base of the threading that screws onto water bottles/Platypus bags is too soft. If you screw the Sawyer too tight onto a bottle, the soft O-ring gets squeezed down into the bottle. The connection is then no longer waterproof and leaks. 

Necessary Extra Gear:  

1) Platypus bag for dirty water — To filter a large quantity of water at the end of the day for dinner and breakfast, screw the Sawyer Mini onto a Platypus bladder, hang it on a tree branch, and let gravity do the work. The 2 liter Platypus Hoser bag weighs 3.6 ounces.

 

2) Dirty water scooper  To get water from shallow pools and pour it into a narrow-mouthed Platypus, you'll need a plastic half-gallon jug cut to make it into a handled bucket. 

 

3) Handkerchief, coffee filters, pantyhose, etc for pre-filtering  Particulates will clog the Sawyer Mini pretty quickly unless you filter out at least the biggest particles

 

4) Plunger / syringe  The Sawyer Mini comes with an off-the-shelf irrigation syringe that you use to backflush and clean the filter

 

5) Replacement O-ring  The O-ring that comes with the Sawyer Mini is flimsy and allows leaks. Replace it with an O-ring from a hardware store intended for garden hoses or kitchen sinks.  


Runner's Up

There are lots of water filters for campers on the market, and while many are not appropriate for thru-hiking, or Florida, or both, there a few other options that we felt were worth considering. A comparison chart is below.

 

Our reasons for rejection: The Sawyer Squeeze is a bigger version of the Sawyer Mini but it's not our top pick because it costs twice as much as the Mini with the only benefit being a slightly faster liters-per-minute rate. The Platypus GravityWorks is essentially a hollow-fiber filter connected between two Platypus bags, but the MSRP is $120, which seems ridiculous considering you can create the exact same set-up with two Platypus Hoser 2L bags and a Sawyer Mini for a lot less money. The MSR AutoFlow is the same concept as the GravityWorks, at the same price point, and yet weighs more without including a second clean-water bag. The MSR SweetWater is a pump-action filter with a toxin-eliminating carbon core like the MiniWorks EX but the handle breaks easily and the cartridge doesn't last very long, which to us does not justify the 5oz of weight savings over the MiniWorks EX. 

 

We did outright reject a number of popular filters and discourage thru-hikers from buying models not on our list. For example, the MSR Hyperflow is incredibly tedious to clean and not good for thru-hiking. The 12-ounce weight of the Katadyn Hiker Pro can't be justified due to its large pour size (.3 microns) and short lifespan of just 750 liters. Finally, not only does the Katadyn Pocket weigh 24 ounces and cost $370, but it contaminates the water with traces of silver, which can have long-term health effects.


Water Filter Comparison Chart

Backpacking Water Filters

Sawyer Mini

Sawyer Squeeze

Platypus Gravity

Works 2L

MSR AutoFlow

MSR

MiniWorks EX

MSR SweetWater

weight

1.4oz

(filter only)

2.7oz

(filter only)

7.2oz - 9.5oz

14.6oz

16oz

11oz

cost

$25

$50

$120

$120

$90

$90

effective against

bacteria, protozoa

bacteria, protozoa

bacteria, protozoa

bacteria, protozoa

bacteria, protozoa, chemicals, toxins

bacteria, protozoa, chemicals, toxins

operation

gravity

or squeeze

gravity

or squeeze

gravity

gravity

hand pump

hand pump

built-in pre-filter?

no

no

no

no

ü

ü

filter type

hollow fiber

hollow fiber

hollow fiber

hollow fiber

ceramic w/ carbon core

silica depth w/ carbon core

filter size

.1 microns

.1 microns

.2 microns

.2 microns

.2 microns

.2 microns

cartridge life

378,541 liters

378,541,178 liters

1500 liters

1500 liters

2000 liters

750 liters

flow rate  (per manufacturer, when fresh)

1 liter per min

1.75 liters per min

1.75 liters per min

1.75 liters

per min

1 liter per min @ 85 strokes per min

1 liter per min @ 75 strokes per min

water bottle connection?

normal

soda bottle

normal

soda bottle

none

Nalgene bottle

Nalgene bottle

none

how is it cleaned?

backflush with clean water using syringe

backflush with clean water using syringe

backflush by raising clean bag above dirty bag

backflush by raising clean hose and filter above dirty bag

scrub cartridge with a brush or sponge

scrub cartridge with a brush or sponge

water taste improved?

no

no

no

no

ü

ü

survives freezing?

no

no

no

no

ü

ü


Water Bottles

Ditch the Nalgene Bottles

Twenty years ago, every hiker carried at least one 32oz Nalgene bottle. Made from shatterproof #7 plastic, they seemed indestructible and became so ubiquitous on trails that manufacturers like MSR and Katadyn designed water filters to screw onto Nalgene's wide openings. Maybe it was the realization that #7 plastic (polycarbonate) contains BPA, but at some point people started questioning whether they should spend $10-$15 on a plastic bottle that weighs around half a pound. And that supposed indestructibility? A 32oz Gatorade bottle is equally as indestructible, weighs far less, and comes free with the purchase of $2 worth of Gatorade. 

 

Today, the thru-hiker's favorite water container is a 1-liter SmartWater bottle. Why?

  • One liter is a large volume and yet the bottle is tall and thin so fits easily into a backpack's side pockets. Gatorade or Powerade bottles with similar volumes are much wider and so don't easily fit into side pockets.
  • The bottle is smooth and straight, making it easier to take in and out of side pockets while wearing the backpack. The curvy design of an Aquafina bottle, for example, makes it more difficult. 
  • The bottle is surprisingly sturdy and won't collapse like a standard disposable water bottle. 
  • The Sawyer Mini & Squeeze screw onto the bottle. You can fill the bottle directly from the water source, screw on the Sawyer, and drink. 
  • At supermarkets, a bottle costs between $1-2, which is rediculous for a liter of water but great for a very functional piece of gear that will last an entire thru-hike.