Just Aquamira?

[astafford]

Planning on hiking from Katahdin to NY August 1st of 2016. Any problems with taking just Aquamira and no filter?

[Lyle]

Nope, AquaMira is just fine.

Most of the water sources are clear. It's conceivable that you may want to filter some water through a bandanna if not filtering, but that would be very unusual on the AT.

Without a pump, it is very occasionally useful to have some type of dipping cup for filling your water containers from a shallow pool. A quart ziplock, folded over at top to make a "rim" works well in a pinch. Other folks will cut the top off of a plastic soda bottle and use the bottom portion as a free, extremely light dipping cup.

Most of the time, you can easily fill any water bottle directly.

[Rocket Jones]

I've always taken just Aquamira. If the water has crap in it, I pre-filter it through a coffee filter or clean(ish) bandana.

[garlic08]

On my AT thru I only carried AM and used about 1/3 of a set on the whole hike (treated about 10 gallons from GA to ME). The water I saw that year was excellent in quantity and quality.

[10-K]

I think I've had the same 2 bottles of AM since 2009...

[Rocket Jones]

LOL The stuff does have an expiration date on it, but as long as it still turns bright yellow it's ok.

[Another Kevin]

LOL The stuff does have an expiration date on it, but as long as it still turns bright yellow it's ok.

The expiration date is mostly because sodium chlorite will eat its way through the plastic bottle in time. (It might also leach nasties from the plastic, but I'd sooner imagine that they'd oxidize to fairly harmless stuff.) They don't want to be responsible if the stuff leaks and ruins your gear.

[Del Q]

I take a small amount of AM, prefer the Sawyer squeeze............fresh cold water when I need it - not 30 minutes later.

Try to get to water supplies empty.

[Hangfire]

The aquamira should work fine but you may find yourself looking at some shallow creeks depending on how dry it is out there this summer. I was a bit freaked out by the brown water in New York, it guess it was from the tanen in the leaves or something along those lines. Also had to scoop some weird water in New Hampshire with a cut down water bottle, aquamira got it smelling better...

[shelb]

As a section hiker for the past 4 years, I started out with a filter, but I have switched to Aquamira.... Since the switch, I have only had one time that I needed to filter the water through my bandana first. The water on the A.T. is much cleaner than that of the NCT in Michigan.

[TEXMAN]

I use aquamira but always bring some tablets along with it since it can spill or you could put the cap on the bottle wrong and have leakage.
tablets have more aftertaste but basically weigh zero

[CarlZ993]

I used AM exclusively on my 2013 AT thru-hike. Worked great for me. Sometimes the water will have a tint to it (tannin). Just gotta be sure you screw the lids on tight. Also, save the extra fill-caps when you resupply your AM. I typically carry one more fill-cap than I have for the number of water containers/bottles that I plan on filling (in case I lose one; which I haven't.... yet).

[HDLV]

I frequent the NY trails and have never had a problome with just AM drops.

[ralph23]

"Most of the time, you can easily fill any water bottle directly."

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you dip your bottle into a water source aren't you getting potentially infected water onto the lip of the bottle? This water won't get treated by the AM or any other method. My personal theory is if you are going to dip the bottle don't waste time or money trying to treat the water.

[double d]

AM is a great product, its lightweight, works very well (as directed) and is affordable.

[CarlZ993]

"Most of the time, you can easily fill any water bottle directly."

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you dip your bottle into a water source aren't you getting potentially infected water onto the lip of the bottle? This water won't get treated by the AM or any other method. My personal theory is if you are going to dip the bottle don't waste time or money trying to treat the water.

For most of the hike, I used the Gatorade Sport bottle lids on the old-style (wide mouth) Aqaufina bottles. I'd dip my water bottle into the water source, apply the Aquamira, & screw the lid back on. With the quarter-turn to open lid in place, my mouth never came into contact with potentially contaminated water. When those bottles bit the dust, I just simply used my bandana to wipe off the threads of the bottle before I put on the cap.

[Another Kevin]

"Most of the time, you can easily fill any water bottle directly."

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you dip your bottle into a water source aren't you getting potentially infected water onto the lip of the bottle? This water won't get treated by the AM or any other method. My personal theory is if you are going to dip the bottle don't waste time or money trying to treat the water.

A few drops of contaminated water is likely enough reduction in total microbial load that your body can handle it. You're talking about 10,000x fewer bugs ingesting a few drops as opposed to a whole litre.

Another thing is that you'll get rid of a few nasties simply by having the AM-treated water come in contact with the few drops of contamination, and some of those are the ones that would make you really uncomfortable. The recommended Aqua Mira concentration will get 99.99% inactivation of rotavirus, norovirus, coxsackievirus type A, enterohemorragic E coli, and shigella in less than a minute of contact. The long treatment times are because Giardia and Cryptosporidium are harder to kill.

[double d]

A few drops of contaminated water is likely enough reduction in total microbial load that your body can handle it. You're talking about 10,000x fewer bugs ingesting a few drops as opposed to a whole litre.

Another thing is that you'll get rid of a few nasties simply by having the AM-treated water come in contact with the few drops of contamination, and some of those are the ones that would make you really uncomfortable. The recommended Aqua Mira concentration will get 99.99% inactivation of rotavirus, norovirus, coxsackievirus type A, enterohemorragic E coli, and shigella in less than a minute of contact. The long treatment times are because Giardia and Cryptosporidium are harder to kill.

Now that is a great answer, thanks for posting more detailed information, very cool!!!

[Jake2c]

I was on the AT a few weeks ago. Top of Tenn and into Va. In that area, about 1/4 of the water sources were the type you had to scoop water up from basically a puddle, though the water was flowing slightly. Most common method I saw, and I was using was a gravity or squeeze filter. It was a fairly small sample though, maybe 20+. Also saw one person using a steri pen. I bring tablets as a backup to my filter. Lots of ways to do it. Just have to pick one and stick to the instructions.

[Berserker]

I use a Steripen, but thought I'd add a few things that have worked for me since this kinda morphed into an additional discussion on pre-treatment. I use my cook pot to scoop water out of the source, and pour it into a 2 liter Platypus bag that has a nozzle on top. the nozzle has a piece of a metal coffee filter that I glued into the bottom of it so that I can pour the water from the platy back into my cook pot for treatment. This gets rid of a lot of crap. As a matter of fact, I almost exclusively use this method. If I come up on a source that's a real stinker (cloudy water), which a saw a few of in NY, then I'll use a biodiesel filter that I purchased from DudaDiesel. The 1 micron filter gets a lot of smaller stuff and typically clears up the water a bit.