How to prepare river water for filtering? Alum?

[Kullaberg63]

Since we acquired packrafts, our hiking exploits are increasingly focused on the river corridor. Silty water is not kind to filters. I've heard the river runners use Alum powder to settle stuff out. How does this work? What's your preferred method?

 

[pixie1339]

I have yet to filter silty river water, but I have looked into it because it's only a matter of time before I'll camp somewhere that I'll need to. If you can wait for a while before drinking one option is to fill up a collapsible bucket with water, let it settle for a few hours, and pump directly from the top of the bucket. Another option I saw that looked intriguing for quicker access to clean water (about 30 min) are PUR water filtration packets. There's a video on the website that shows how they work. You'd need more than one bucket for this option.

http://www.pg.com/pur_packet.shtml

 

[Mike K]

The allum/Pur stuff works well (as pixie's video shows). We've used it on the Escalante and it worked like a charm. We used a collapsible bucket and a cloth to catch all the gunk when done. I'd be curious to see how the stuff handles siltier waters (I'm guessing the Dirty Devil and others are worse than the Escalante - but I'm not sure). I think we used that Pur stuff. I can verify at home tonight if you'd like. Here are a few pics of the stuff in action:

 

[Mike K]

Since we acquired packrafts...

And congrats on the packraft purchases. They are a ton of fun. Do you have any trips planned yet?

 

[Dave]

Depending on the river, salt might be a bigger problem than silt.