Anxious About Escalante

[fossana]

I mentioned this on another thread, but you can cut one of those gold metal basket coffee filters into a small circle and slot in under the Sawyer Squeeze o-ring for a prefilter.

 

[Janice]

As for the Escalante, although it has been clear whenever I've hiked in it, it can clog water filters when it's really silty.

We've successfully used this collapsible bucket - use the water after the silt has had time to settle. Just don't let it "collapse" when you're using it!

 

[CodyL]

I've used a small katadyn the last 3 years and been fine, and usually prefilter as mentioned. The top section(above the ankle) of Darn tough socks work great as a prefilter if needed. The thread isn't as tight as the foot section. And for the record it tastes better if you haven't worn them for 3 days..ha ha!

@fossana - I'm going to test your coffee filter idea on the katadyn be free and see how it works.
@Janice - that bucket is interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

[RyanP]

I started a thread on this topic (filtering silty water) last year, and settled on using the standard Squeeze but with the setup described here: https://backcountrypost.com/threads...nded-dirty-water-bag.10157/page-2#post-137858. I've only needed to use this method on one trip so far, but it worked well for me. The advantage to this type of pre-filtering is that you can do it either before using a standard filter, or before using purification tablets (which are my backup).

For trips with extra-silty water, I would probably try out the bucket and alum method that others describe (but I haven't yet tried to use such silty water myself).

 

[radioradio]

I'm back from the trip! It was AMAZING. Thank you a million times to everyone here who helped.

Trip report here: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/sad-cowboy-traverse-a-week-in-escalante.10724/