Camping Ferret
Gear and Gadgets for the Great Outdoors

Water Filtration

Even clean water can make you sick - water filtration is not an optional accessory, but an absolute requirement for campers and hikers. You see, there are micro-organisms in water, things like bacteria, and protozoa that can make you sick. Fortunately technology has an answer. Water filters- which use a variety of methods to clean water. Boiling water most definitely helps, however if fire isn't close at hand and you want to be extra sure the latest filters use a variety of methods to protect your from pathogens, both large and small. Many filters, such as Katdyns use ceramic filters embedded with silver to impede the growth of bacteria. Most filters use a staged filtration, taking out successively smaller contaminants with different porous layers. Filters are commonly made with ceramics and carbon, and a newer technology- ultraviolet light. Waterborne microbes like viruses, Giardia and Cryptosporidium, can be killed with UV. Cryptosporidium can cause Cryptosporidiosis, which results in some pretty unpleasant stomach symptoms you most defintely don't want while camping- at best causing dehydration and at worse causing hospitalization, definately ruining your outdoor camping trip. Giardia, an intestinal parasite cause giardiasis, which in one to two weeks leads to more stomach and digestive woes that can last for two to six weeks! You can avoid all this misery by simply making sure that your water filtration is completed with a quality filter, every time. Just because the survivalists on the Discovery channel drink unfiltered water from a mud puddle doesn't mean you should. Water filtration is the probably the most important, and often overlooked element of a good camping trip.