X-Treme X-Training: Portable Water Filtration Made Easy

Navigating the mighty Manasquan River in the great northeast.

I'm currently on vacation now through September 17th but just wanted to share this from our trip so far: When you're traveling, on vacation or using your local parks and campgrounds, there is one thing you might not want to do. That is drink the water. I've used the public water fountains in the campsites where we've stayed and it wasn't too pleasant. We ended up buying bottled water which was a waste of both time and money. Still it beats getting sick and dehydrated as you just don't know who used the spigot before you.

What if you could transform that park water fountain swill into fresh, pure, bacteria free water? It can be done. We were canoeing on vacation this week and decided not to carry in a lot of water. Instead we simply packed two ice filled 12oz Insulated Polar Bottles with a Purificup Portable Water Purifier, and an Adventure Medical Kit Marine 250 and put everything in a Snap Sac Cooler Tote on the deck of the canoe.

That was about all we needed for the time out on the water but once we came ashore, we had access to the public drinking fountains and were able to re-fill our bottles. This actually worked out great because we didn't have to board with excessive amounts of water. Heavy coolers and rolling bottles are not what you want with you in a canoe!

So the re-fill was quite simple. Since this was water fountain water, it is potable or safe for drinking. We used the Purificup for Tap Water but could have just as well used the Purificup for Natural Water to filter water directly from the Manasquan River we were navigating.

Purificup filtering into a Klean Kanteen

As you can see here, we just dumped the water we collected into the top of the Purificup container. It comes with a separate collection cup but I thought, "Oh, what the heck!" We filled the Purificup to the "Fill Line" and let it go. The flow rate is pretty fast and before you know it, our public water fountain sample tasted like store brought bottled water. I had peace of mind knowing that the bacteria most often present at public drinking sources had been killed along with any other pathogens and heavy metals.

I can't underscore how liberating using a portable water filter like this is. Due to the flotation vests, we can't use cool lumbar packs like The Dart or hydration packs like the CamelBak Antidote. To be able to carry the bare minimum amount of water aboard our watercraft made such a difference. Everything stowed neatly in our cooler tote under the bow's bench. After canoeing, we even took a 4 mile hike through the woods on the nature trail.

We weren't concerned about running out of water because there was plenty available for filtration: both via natural river water and public drinking fountain sources.

So if you are concerned about having to pack a lot of water, running out or having to purchase bottled water, (may not be available in the outback), consider bringing along a way to filter water on the fly. The type of water filter you use will depend on where you're going and what sort of water you'll have access to. Either way, a portable water filter like Purificup can be a major player in being prepared, eco-friendly and staying hydrated outdoors.