Gear: Water Treatment

The water you're going to get on a hike isn't from a tap, doesn't come from a treatment plant, and doesn't come in a cute plastic bottle that you can get by the case at Costco.  It comes from nature.  By nature, that could mean glacier runoff, rainfall, snow melt, or underground spring.  Needless to say, it's full of contaminants from air pollution and whatever interesting chemicals it runs across as it finds its way downhill.  (Remember, Mount Rainier is a volcano, and volcanoes are the largest sulfur dioxide polluters in Washington.)   

Although the water may have chemicals, the larger issue is the bacteria that lives in the water.  Water contaminated with chemicals tastes really bad, but it generally will keep you alive.  Water contaminated with bacteria will make you really mad in a few hours while you're emptying your digestive system any way possible.

The classic response to this is to boil the water.  In the field, though, this presents some problems with the amount of time it takes (up to an hour), the fuel it uses (which you're carrying on your back), and the non-transportable nature of the process.  It's hard to carry something when it's on fire.

So part of any backpacker's kit is more chemicals to kill off all those pesky bacteria.  The bottle with the white cap contains Tetraglycine Hydroperiodide which you add to the water and let dissolve for 30 minutes.  You then follow it with a pill from the bottle with the yellow cap that precipitates the iodine and other chemicals out of the solution.  It is then mostly safe to drink.  You can stop, fill up your bottle, pop the pill in it and be on the trail in a matter of minutes.