Water on long multi day trips?

Trips into the middle of nowhere cycle camp thing, for a night or 2, what do you do for water? Carry it all or are any of these water bottle filter things any good? Or would you just drink water out of a stream? Boil it first? Just wondering as water is basically the heaviest thing you’d need on such a trip(food you’d just need to deal with obviosly), what’s the thoughts on this?

what about purification tablets?

what about purification tablets?

Aye another option, just curious on peoples experiences of what they think is the best solution and answers to questions like.. Will i die if I just drink stream water? I guess not as I have done before, but must admit it’s not something i know much about or had to survive on..

as nature intended out of a stream/river but make sure it’s fast flowing and no dead sheep up stream 😉

then if you are still unsure boil it up and have a brew.

Never done a long isolated bike trip but tramping (hiking in nz when we were there) we used the above tabs plus something to take the taste away – and we learnt that 2 different flavours in small bottles is better than big one of the same thing.

If you’re doing it more often then there are more high tech solutions which cost more etc.

99% of my trips are in Scotland.

Shortage of good, clean, drinkable fresh water has yet to be an issue.

99% of my trips are in Scotland.

Shortage of good, clean, drinkable fresh water has yet to be an issue.so would you just stop at any stream and fill up your water bottle, what’s the things to look out for, as mentioned, fast flowing, no dead animals, anything else?

Occasionally I’ve been caught out hillwalking without enough water until I’ve descended at the end of the day (Aonach Eagach on a hot summer day springs to mind) but biking in Scotland has never been an issue other than sometimes there is just too much water.

Depends where you’re talking about? Per Druidh, Scotlands a non issue (assuming you’re sensible and not drinking out of stagnant ponds etc. Having said that two years ago I filled my Camelbak up on a burn which crosses the WHW -a day later a friend mailed me a pic of the same burn (taken slightly higher up) with a very dead sheep in it. That concerned me slightly for a few weeks but no ill effects (that I know of 😉

Yes, flowing water. Sometimes, only just – filtered by moss is okay, but you never have to look too far. It’s all good for the constitution.

Get yourself a Travel Tap, been using one for years with no complaints. They fit well in a bottle cage. Backpacking Light sell them.

Depends where you’re talking about?

Scotland is where I’m interested in, like i say i have drank water when out before, but that’s just to taste it, never needed to use it as a main source though.

seosamh77 – Member
so would you just stop at any stream and fill up your water bottle, what’s the things to look out for, as mentioned, fast flowing, no dead animals, anything else?

As above, that’s basically it. The top layer of water from still lochs(lakes) is also a safe bet as the sunlight acts as a disinfectant.

cool, cheers, ps i’m from glasgow, i know what a loch is! 😆

Aye – but I’m thinking about the uneducated sassunachs

I’m an educated sassunach. Water is good.

As Druidh says – its rare there is a shortage of water in Scotland. Even if there is a dead sheep in the stream anything nasty from it will be so diluted by the time you are a bit below it.

FFS – its highland spring water – you pay huge amounts for it in bottles in the supermarket. Filtered thru the finest scottish bogs

We regularly do multiday treks thru the wild parts and drink nothing but the rivers. Never an issue

haha 😀

Druid – I personally am glad you qualified the lochs thing above. I was about to go and drink from the canal!

Interesting reading all of the above, last summer we stayed in a cottage in Scotland which had it’s “own water supply” said it filtered down through peat etc etc. But there were signs at every tap saying it’s a bit rich mineral wise so drink the bottled water we’ve supplied!! ie you’re gonna have the shits 😯
To be fair tho when we first arrived they’d had heavy rain and it did look a tad like tea!!

If you’re drinking from streams near a bothy you might want a quick look at the bothy book first, we’d been using the stream outside Sourlies a while ago then noticed reports in the book about someone having taking a jobby upstream the week previous.

I’d only just taught my revolted Laaaaaahndan mates about ticks, so I thought it best to keep the jobby one a secret, no point completely ruining their holiday 😀

Stream

I can report back it’s safe to drink the water out in the trossachs!

No bike this weekend so decided to go for a hike and camp instead with the weather being so good(24 miles with gear, my feet are wrecked!), bus out to aberfoyle then out by kinlochard and back…but anyhow we ran out of water and filled up out of the streams up there, water tasted fine and no ill effects! 🙂

Travel tap, about 1/2 way down the page

http://www.drinksafe-systems.co.uk/products.php

Just take 5 litres, flow down and refuse to use the brakes.

You’ll be awesome!

By the way, Puritabs are silver based and don’t taste of chlorine or iodine.