This posts title is a famous quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

Let’s face it when we are backpacking we tend to carry the bare minimum water because the plan is to fill up along the way as and when we need it.

The problem is how safe is our water to drink?

Definitely the water quality in the UK has gotten worse over the last decade or so, especially in the low lands. Our water companies can it seems pump literal shit into our rivers with impunity. Farmers being allowed to spray ever more toxic chemicals on crops, micro plastic pellets. The list of possible contaminants goes on. Even the fastest flowing stream far from the polluting grasp of our water companies might be contaminated.

Like my sleeping system I’ve refreshed my options for clean water whilst out on the hill. Besides can I really trust a filter that has remained unused for over a decade?

First up I have a 500ml Pure Clear Collapsible Filter bottle. This will be used throughout the day to stay hydrated by drinking from convient water sources on route.

The next addition is the Sawyer Squeeze SP129 Waterfilter. This will be my main filter for filtering in the evening at camp.

I’m not going to use the bags that come with the Sawyer Squeeze. They don’t have a great reputation online, from ease of filling to how sturdy they are. It would appear that a popular replacement for them is a CNOC Vecto water container of some capacity. I went with the one litre version.

The washer in the Squeeze where it attaches to the water container apparently can fall out when back washing the filter if not careful. So I have some replacement ones in a general mini repair kit.

I also have a SP150 Coupling that allows you to attach bottles etc to the Squeeze.

I’ve also hacked my Squeeze by replacing the sports lid with one from a water bottle. I’m not a fan of the sports lid and its pull to drink. I am much more comfortable and find them easier to use with the flip cover to drink lid.

Another hack I’ve adopted is one to protect the filter end when stowed away.

Now to extend the life of the Squeeze, and increase the time between having to back wash the filter (ie clean it) I intend to pre-filter the water to remove large particles from the water. This should stop the filter becoming clogged as much.

To do this pre-filter I’ve borrowed from the military once more by adding a Millbank bag water filtration bag to the kit. If I’m using this then the water must really be bad.

A hack to the Squeeze itself is to replace the washer I mentioned above with a Danco 80070 Hose Washer with Screen. So I’ve done that too. Yes there is a spare in the repair kit.

This last hack may make the Millbank bag redundant with the Squeeze.

Well that’s my clean water taken care of. But where am I going to be using this setup? I’ll cover that in the next post.