Filling Water Bottles

[Drapac]

I am planning on using Smartwater bottles to store my water and aquamira to treat it.

My question for the people that use the same set up is, how do you fill and treat the water?

I imagine that just dunking the bottle in the water source to fill (maybe with a bandanna as a debris filter) would work. I am just curious to see what others do, and if there is anything I might not be considering.

Thanks!

[Rex Clifton]

I take an empty 16.9 ounce water bottle with the cap on and cut on a diagonal near the bottom. Squish up and carry alongside the Smartwater bottle. Use the cut bottle to scoop up from even the shallowest pool. I'm carefully and won't use skuzzy water, so I don't strain.

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[Tennessee Viking]

Sometimes I take a very small funnel and use it at piped sources to avoid treating the threads. Or use a torn corner ziplog bag.

Submersion collecting. Fill up near top. Halfway screw the cap back on. Every 5 minutes during treatment, I turn the bottle over for treated water to seep into the threads.

[soumodeler]

I use the bottom cup of my Jetboil to scoop water if the source is too low or doesn't have a pipe.

[garlic08]

I carry a cup to eat out of and use that as a dipper only if needed.

On the southern AT, use a rhododendron leaf as a scupper if you have a trickle with some slope to it. If you anchor it in place with some pebbles, it may stay in place for a day or two and others will be amazed at and thankful for your ingenuity.

[The Cleaner]

Get a pump type filter with a prefilter. I'm too old to squat or bend over for 10-15 minutes to fill a bottle by a few tablespoons at a time. If it's a piped spring on the southern end just drink w/o any chemicals or filtering.

[Drapac]

Thanks, I did not think about the threads at all. That is a great point

[Turk6177]

I use my titanium cup without fear of contamination because anything I drink out of it is boiled anyway. I did hear a good idea from a LASHER this fall. She used her sawyer syringe to suck up water from sources with minimal water. I would assume any irrigation syringe would work.


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[hyperslug]

I use a Smart water bottle with top cut off to scoop. To use Aquamira, place 7 drops of A and B in the white cap per liter and wait 5 minutes then add to water. I usually pour a little water back in the cap to get the last of it out and pour it back into the water. Tighten the cap and shake it for a couple of seconds, then loosen the cap a little and squeeze until water flows out the top soaking the threads and inside the cap. Tighten the cap wait 20-30 minutes to drink. Sounds more complex than it is. When you finish your first set of Aquamira bottles, keep the cap and then you can treat 2 bottles at one time with your next set.

[Slo-go'en]

Filling a bottle from running water, be it a piped spring or stream, is obviously not a problem. But many sources have to be dipped, so have a cup or pot with you just in case. You can often find out if you need the cup from hikers who already went to the water.

The water can be some distance away (and always steeply down hill). You will not want to make more then one trip. Since I don't use a bladder, I use a 1 gallon, sil nylon water bag to carry water back from the source in bulk.

There are times you'd like to filter out the big stuff which gets scooped up and the bandana works well for that, though a bit slow. I usually just let the debris settle out in my water bag and scoop out any floaters as best I can. But on the whole, you drink a fair amount of dirt and leaf litter along the way.

[Cheyou]

Filling a bottle from running water, be it a piped spring or stream, is obviously not a problem. But many sources have to be dipped, so have a cup or pot with you just in case. You can often find out if you need the cup from hikers who already went to the water.

The water can be some distance away (and always steeply down hill). You will not want to make more then one trip. Since I don't use a bladder, I use a 1 gallon, sil nylon water bag to carry water back from the source in bulk.

There are times you'd like to filter out the big stuff which gets scooped up and the bandana works well for that, though a bit slow. I usually just let the debris settle out in my water bag and scoop out any floaters as best I can. But on the whole, you drink a fair amount of dirt and leaf litter along the way.

yes sometimes a long way down hill!

thom

[jefals]

smart bottles are easy to fill with a Katadyn filter. I use a rubber band to secure a paper coffee filter over the pump's filter end, drop it in the stream, creek, whatever, then stick the other tube in the smart bottle and start pumping.

I would not use a sawyer syringe unless it's a clean water source - or unless that's the only thing you have. But it's supposed to be used to clean the sawyer, so you really want to avoid getting dirty or contaminated water in it. the baggie with a torn corner or a scoop made from a plastic bottle with the bottom cut out both work. I used to take a scoop made that way and punch a hole thru the plastic close to the cut end, so I could get a carabiner thru it to carry outside my pack...

[Dogwood]

I am planning on using Smartwater bottles to store my water and aquamira to treat it.

My question for the people that use the same set up is, how do you fill and treat the water?

I imagine that just dunking the bottle in the water source to fill (maybe with a bandanna as a debris filter) would work. I am just curious to see what others do, and if there is anything I might not be considering.

Thanks!

I use Smart Water bottles and almost always carry a 2.1 L Platypus bladder and, usually in N America, treat with AM 2 part drops. I treat water less then 25% of the time chemically or by filtering with an additionally carried filter in N America although I always carry the AM drops just in case.

For me, there are important details to dunking to obtain water that not everyone knows about and follows that open oneself up to higher/lower water borne risks. "Treating" water begins long before whether I decide I want to/need to treat water. IMH forthright opinion treating water has become ENTIRELY too narrowly defined by and focused on as treating water with chemicals or by carrying a separate water filtering device. I say, "how about expanding your skill sets and knowledge base?"

I take water from the upstream side of trails preferably at moving water sources where the water is flowing over a ledge or as a waterfall. Water location sources are chosen based on taking water where others haven't taken it from as most convenient for themselves. I believe this is key on the AT. I place the water bottle over the trickle or into the waterfall NOT touching anything or disturbing any debris. EASY and ABUNDANT if hiking in the late winter to early summer in the Appalachian Mts or on the AT for example. I look for brooks or streams with many rocks and certain types of vegetation growing in the water that the water flows over because I know it helps clean the water and can entail cleaner water. Shallow stagnant non moving lakes, ponds, and rivers are usually less than ideal but this can vary. I like being aware of the surrounding landscape wherever I hike. I'm a map person.

When dipping I prefer deeper pools AWAY from where others have made an obvious beeline to having taken water from before. When dipping I look for water with no debris floating in it and dip the mouth of the Smart Water bottle quickly, but without disturbing any bottom debris, just below the surface. I don't want to obtain surface water. If debris is on the surface or is suspended in it I GENTLY swish away careful not to disturb any other debris on the bottom, rocks, etc and then gently dip being mindful of obtaining clear/clearer water going into bottle. IMO, taking water at specific locations like many AT lean-to's or obvious typical water obtaining locations used by hikers or downstream of human civilization which includes campgrounds and established campsites PARTICULARLY on high use trails like the AT entails a higher risk of disease and problems. This carries over to wildlife issues that have altered behavior as a result of ignorant imposing supposedly more highly evolved human behavior. IMHO, it's often human activity that goes ignored that creates issues in Nature NOT always Nature that's the cause of problems for humans.

From seeps I'll use a "water ramp" like a stick or clean fresh green rolled up leaf as a make shift pipe to siphon the water into the bottle again trying to disturb as little debris as possible or touching anything. Sometimes I may dig out a Ziploc or flat rimmed cook pot to siphon water from especially shallow water sources or seeps. In some highly suspended particulate water locations like on the Colorado Plateau or in Colorado River or fed by glaciers I'll let water settle out and decanter the top water to drink.

Nearly every town stop all my cookware, sporks, water bottles, threads on water bottles, and threads on caps are cleaned using a few drops of bleach. I do this usually at the same time as I'm washing laundry and cleaning gear.

Water obtaining topics that go into greater detail should be explored to a higher degree particularly on trails like the AT where were observing various poor hygiene practices, mega usage that's concentrated, and various disease outbreaks(like nor virus, various stomach ailments, Giardia, etc) that can be largely human behavioral related.

[Drapac]

Thanks for the extensive reply, definitely some good tips and plenty to think about.