Johna and I want to thank you for the years of videos and education. Being the husband of an energetic lady, she and I have run so many trail races including a few 100 milers. We enjoy trails very much and being 20 min from Hocking Hills we keep getting the "calling" to hike them. So.. We are ready for our first "extended" section hike of the AT and will be doing North to South from 972 to 872 over 9 days with lodge stay thrown in on night 3. We are laughing as your videos this week have been perfect. Off we go next Sunday. Thanks for everything! Rob and Johna
Cool beans. The closest I’ve been to an ultra is the Mohican 100 near Loudenville, Ohio to join the Shivers family support Regis Sr. It sure looked like fun!!
@@mosquitoeslovejohn Thanks!! Regis SR! He was a legend! Jr and I have run together many times. Jr started my race in honor of his father for the first race. (Forget the PR, Mohican 50K), I used to put on at Mohican. Love that family. Sr was amazing. I will think of him while on the trail. Mohican 100 has kicked me too many times back to "I will get it next year". Lol. Humidity kicks my butt.
I’d probably carry 2 liters but with the ability to carry much more. I’ve tried many types of treatment over the years and now have the MSR Guardian. Yes it’s stupidly expensive, and weighs a pound. It’s also super fast, never clogs, and even if it froze you can test the filter to see if it’s been compromised. If I ever hiked the AT I’d get a big laugh out of someone making fun of me then later needing to use it when their gravity system crapped out on them. 4 years in the desert in the Army has made water my kryptonite! 😆
I find that water bladders are useful for day hikes where it has enough water for most of a short trip. Bottles are more convenient for long trips for sure
From Springer to Damascus I don't bother with filtering except in maybe 4 spots, noticably, the spring right before you hit Blood mountain north bound and Hog pen gap.
Just carry two empty clean bottles and use a Be Free filter with bag. It’s the best way I’ve found to do it. Then both your bottles are always clean and you can add drink mixes as you please. Not to mention with the Be Free method it also gives you an additional 1ltr of capacity.
I am a massive fan of hybrid system. Bottles on outside of bag with the hose and bite valve and inline filter, the MUV modular filter in particular. Unless you're hiking somewhere that is regularly below freezing then set up does not work due to risk of hose and filter freezing. A spare clean bottle for electrolytes when stopped having a break, or in town etc.
I bike in the back country a lot and love hydration bladders. I can keep my hands on the handlebars and hydrate without having to maneuver using a bottle or stop to drink. I do keep 1-2 bottles of water on my bike in case I use all the water in the bladder until I can fill them back up. I NEVER add electrolytes or enhancers to my water bladder, only bottles.
Good Morning Dixie. This was great info, thank you. We just got off a boil advisory for a week, it IS very time consuming. Remembering the grit in water with a smile this Monday. Have a great rest of your summer!
I did use Larq UV - light bottle on my hike. It uses mirco - usb and can run 1 month with one charge. After 3 min I put The Water in my other bottle: camelbak Eddie with lifestraw and filter it through that... and it was ready for drinking 😊
If you're going to put turbid water through a filter be aware it'll shorten the life of a filter. It's better than drinking dirty water, but you'll have to plan to replace it sooner.
Just another point of view about boiling water. The Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommends boiling water for 1 minute to make it safe for drinking. This is for 1 minute AFTER the water reaches a rolling boil. Makes the fuel consumption much more palatable having to boil for only 1 minute instead of 5.
This 5-minute thing is a persistent myth. One minute at a rolling boil at altitudes lower than 5000 feet (3 minutes at altitudes 5000 feet or higher) is both the CDC and WHO guideline. No benefit to boiling it for five full minutes, but a lot of wasted fuel.
Once I scooped up water from the campsite creek for breakfast and noticed some small dark things. After looking closer, and comparing to the source, I realized they were baby leeches! That was the only time I boiled the heck out my water before drinking. I use a filter always now. Another time, we were traveling in Tibet, and although I had Aqua Mira drops, I figured the boiling water pots in the room and the hot soup in the shop were OK. Apparently NOT… my mistake was forgetting that at 15,000 feet, water doesn’t boil hot enough to do the job. Big mistake - definitely add a chemical treatment to filtration in sketchy locales. Many places do not have modern sanitation …or any sanitation.
HI DIXIE 👋 THANK YOU FOR GOING THROUGH THIS WITH US / ME ! BE SAFE ! HAVE FUN ! ENJOYED 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 THANK YOU 🙏 GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS ON YOUR ADVENTURES 🙏
Quality water is so important. In 1978 I was a senior in high school. My younger brother, a friend, and I spring breaked in Gattlinburg. With no supplies we hiked from the visitor center up to chimney tops. My friend got thirsty and drank water by hand out of a slow moving puddle next to the trail. It took hours to make it back to the car. When we got back to our 14th floor room my friend made a beeline to the bathroom. After the next several hours he became best friends with the porcelain. My brother and I had enough sense not to drink out if that puddle. I’m sure my friend is wiser today because of his experience.
I can definitely testify to guys, especially bigger ones, and our water needs. We did a small section southbound from Newfound Gap, originally targeting Fontana Dam, but we got off a day early by taking the horse trail north from Spence Field to the ranger station since we got too far behind. Anyhow, I (at about 240 pounds) could barely keep full enough on water even with 3 liters - I just could not drink enough, and was drenched in sweat, especially after any climb. To be fair, our packs are still too heavy and we need to work on that, but I really could make good use of 5 or 6 liters, especially if we were hiking somewhere like the desert sections of the PCT or CDT. We met a man with the UV system, and he said he'd never gotten sick using it - I hadn't heard of these before and I just had to ask him why his water bottle was glowing! My wife was fine with only 2 liters, and my older daughter (16) with just 1; I actually ended up drinking her 2nd liter one day because she just wasn't using it, and the little ones were fine as well. Moral is, if you're a bigger guys, you ARE going to need more water than Dixie!! Also, met a girl named Becca out there who knows you, and was trail blazing! She was really helpful, clued us in on the horse trail and that we could get cell service at the shelter because it's on top of the mountain!
Yeah I ended up buying a gravity bag, and then just using it with the Sawyer filter since the screw top was the same size. Makes it easier to just have both systems so you aren’t squeezing constantly.
I was out in NJ on the At in sept this year and there was NO water for more than 20 miles, unfortunately I had to cut my trip short,this has been a bad drought year - always check your sources before setting out, it can get pretty hairy
You are cranking these out faster than I can watch them. In the early 1970's we would hike in the Great Smokey Mountain NP. If there were filters, we didn't know about them. We drank water straight from streams and the pumps that were at some shelters. During the pandemic I read an old book, "How To Sh*t In The Woods." Yes, funny title but it's a serious book about the best ways to dispose of waste and on-trail hygiene . The common "cat holes" are not it. In the introduction the author states that up until the 1970's it was safe to drink most surface water. It was also the time when a lot of people started to camp, hike and visit state and national parks. More people more waste. I recently heard a news article that stated that there is no surface water in the US that is safe to drink without treatment.
I prefer a bladder for so so so many reasons. But I hate the taste of water. I love water flavourings, but have yet to figure out a system that works for me. All my flavourings are sugar free, so I don't think there will be a problem with the bladder getting sticky but I haven't tried yet so I don't know. I currently have a CNOC for dirty water and either a sawyer squeeze or a Katadyn Be Free. I have both and both sized CNOCs too. I prefer the katadyn at the moment. But then I squeeze the filtered water into my drinking bladder. I would love to flavour that water.
Can you do a video on Cyanobacteria? It exists in many places and even boiling and filtering the water will not kill it……it can make you very, very sick as well! Thanks
A system I've used regularly in the UK is UV filtration, the unit is called a Steripen. I don't know whether they are available in the US ? They are guaranteed to kill all bacteria and viruses.
Europe has different threads, so I had to buy some yuppie French Perrier water bottle for the Sawyer Squeeze. Asked around online and it works for others. Anyhow, filled with tap water, flow arrow pointing outwards but no matter how much I squeeze, nothing comes out. Am I missing something obvious? Do you need to open it and remove some protection layer like from a ketchup bottle?
Great system. Just don’t add anything with vitamin c in it until after you’ve purified. A lot of people use Vit C to help with the taste but it neutralises the tablets.
Hey it's Erin. Once you fill your smart water bottle, do you have to use a cloth to dry the dirty water off the outside of the bottle before drinking from it so that the little bit of dirty water doesn't drip down and touch your mouth, or does that small amount of dirty water matter?
I know your preference is for a sawyer squeeze. Do you have a comparison video to show differences between a sawyer and a Katadyn BeFree filter? How come you choose one over the other? I am curious as to which one I might want to purchase.
@homemade wanderlust I have a Sawyer squeeze that I left in the trunk of my car over the winter, so I know it froze. How do I know if it's still good? It looks okay I don't see any broken parts, but I'm not sure I want a chance it. Thanks
I rarely filter water, it has to be really sketchy for me to bother. Careful source selection is important though. Most of the time it comes from a spring, right out of the ground. I avoid ponds and streams near road crossings or steams more than a large step across.
I'm really enjoying these AT videos broken down in sections!
Johna and I want to thank you for the years of videos and education. Being the husband of an energetic lady, she and I have run so many trail races including a few 100 milers. We enjoy trails very much and being 20 min from Hocking Hills we keep getting the "calling" to hike them. So.. We are ready for our first "extended" section hike of the AT and will be doing North to South from 972 to 872 over 9 days with lodge stay thrown in on night 3. We are laughing as your videos this week have been perfect. Off we go next Sunday. Thanks for everything! Rob and Johna
Cool beans.
The closest I’ve been to an ultra is the Mohican 100 near Loudenville, Ohio to join the Shivers family support Regis Sr.
It sure looked like fun!!
@@mosquitoeslovejohn Thanks!! Regis SR! He was a legend! Jr and I have run together many times. Jr started my race in honor of his father for the first race. (Forget the PR, Mohican 50K), I used to put on at Mohican. Love that family. Sr was amazing. I will think of him while on the trail. Mohican 100 has kicked me too many times back to "I will get it next year". Lol. Humidity kicks my butt.
I’d probably carry 2 liters but with the ability to carry much more. I’ve tried many types of treatment over the years and now have the MSR Guardian. Yes it’s stupidly expensive, and weighs a pound. It’s also super fast, never clogs, and even if it froze you can test the filter to see if it’s been compromised. If I ever hiked the AT I’d get a big laugh out of someone making fun of me then later needing to use it when their gravity system crapped out on them. 4 years in the desert in the Army has made water my kryptonite! 😆
U V filtration is a method I've used regularly in the UK, the unit is called a Steripen. I don't know whether they are available in the US ?
@@veldara822 Treatment tablets. Learned the hard way many years ago!
you can go many days with no or little food but only a few days w/o water. You make good sense.
@@martinforrester8249 It’s available here, she mentioned it.
You won't make it very far carrying so much water all the time. 2 liters is 5 pounds mate. Pretty useless when you find water every couple miles.
Thanks for making all these videos Dixie! I hope all is going well on your current adventure!🍻
I find that water bladders are useful for day hikes where it has enough water for most of a short trip. Bottles are more convenient for long trips for sure
You are a gifted teacher. Your videos always deliver great content. 👍💯
I seem to always carry way more water than I need, but I also hike with my dog and I don’t want her to ever be thirsty.
Dogs can carry their own food and water ....they are quite capable
@@downbytheriver3252 this is true. Doesn’t stop me from grabbing an extra liter though. Also they are beagles, not bigger dogs.
I was about to add size is a factor...cant expect an 8 pound for to carry 10 lbs of food and water
The AT in New England this year is beyond bone dry, proceed accordingly.
Last summer was sunny and dry weather but plentiful water. This doesn’t bode well.
From Springer to Damascus I don't bother with filtering except in maybe 4 spots, noticably, the spring right before you hit Blood mountain north bound and Hog pen gap.
Just carry two empty clean bottles and use a Be Free filter with bag. It’s the best way I’ve found to do it. Then both your bottles are always clean and you can add drink mixes as you please. Not to mention with the Be Free method it also gives you an additional 1ltr of capacity.
I am a massive fan of hybrid system. Bottles on outside of bag with the hose and bite valve and inline filter, the MUV modular filter in particular. Unless you're hiking somewhere that is regularly below freezing then set up does not work due to risk of hose and filter freezing. A spare clean bottle for electrolytes when stopped having a break, or in town etc.
I bike in the back country a lot and love hydration bladders. I can keep my hands on the handlebars and hydrate without having to maneuver using a bottle or stop to drink. I do keep 1-2 bottles of water on my bike in case I use all the water in the bladder until I can fill them back up. I NEVER add electrolytes or enhancers to my water bladder, only bottles.
Good Morning Dixie. This was great info, thank you. We just got off a boil advisory for a week, it IS very time consuming. Remembering the grit in water with a smile this Monday. Have a great rest of your summer!
Once when I was fishing, the stream water looked great. HOWEVER as I waded upstream, there was a dead deer IN the stream!!
I did use Larq UV - light bottle on my hike. It uses mirco - usb and can run 1 month with one charge. After 3 min I put The Water in my other bottle: camelbak Eddie with lifestraw and filter it through that... and it was ready for drinking 😊
Great post Dixie 🏃♂️💛
If you're going to put turbid water through a filter be aware it'll shorten the life of a filter. It's better than drinking dirty water, but you'll have to plan to replace it sooner.
Just another point of view about boiling water. The Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommends boiling water for 1 minute to make it safe for drinking. This is for 1 minute AFTER the water reaches a rolling boil. Makes the fuel consumption much more palatable having to boil for only 1 minute instead of 5.
This 5-minute thing is a persistent myth. One minute at a rolling boil at altitudes lower than 5000 feet (3 minutes at altitudes 5000 feet or higher) is both the CDC and WHO guideline. No benefit to boiling it for five full minutes, but a lot of wasted fuel.
Once I scooped up water from the campsite creek for breakfast and noticed some small dark things. After looking closer, and comparing to the source, I realized they were baby leeches! That was the only time I boiled the heck out my water before drinking. I use a filter always now. Another time, we were traveling in Tibet, and although I had Aqua Mira drops, I figured the boiling water pots in the room and the hot soup in the shop were OK. Apparently NOT… my mistake was forgetting that at 15,000 feet, water doesn’t boil hot enough to do the job. Big mistake - definitely add a chemical treatment to filtration in sketchy locales. Many places do not have modern sanitation …or any sanitation.
HI DIXIE 👋
THANK YOU FOR GOING THROUGH THIS WITH US / ME ! BE SAFE ! HAVE FUN ! ENJOYED 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 🍨 THANK YOU 🙏 GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS ON YOUR ADVENTURES 🙏
“Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”
lol
Quality water is so important. In 1978 I was a senior in high school. My younger brother, a friend, and I spring breaked in Gattlinburg. With no supplies we hiked from the visitor center up to chimney tops. My friend got thirsty and drank water by hand out of a slow moving puddle next to the trail.
It took hours to make it back to the car. When we got back to our 14th floor room my friend made a beeline to the bathroom. After the next several hours he became best friends with the porcelain.
My brother and I had enough sense
not to drink out if that puddle. I’m sure my friend is wiser today because of his experience.
I can definitely testify to guys, especially bigger ones, and our water needs. We did a small section southbound from Newfound Gap, originally targeting Fontana Dam, but we got off a day early by taking the horse trail north from Spence Field to the ranger station since we got too far behind. Anyhow, I (at about 240 pounds) could barely keep full enough on water even with 3 liters - I just could not drink enough, and was drenched in sweat, especially after any climb. To be fair, our packs are still too heavy and we need to work on that, but I really could make good use of 5 or 6 liters, especially if we were hiking somewhere like the desert sections of the PCT or CDT. We met a man with the UV system, and he said he'd never gotten sick using it - I hadn't heard of these before and I just had to ask him why his water bottle was glowing!
My wife was fine with only 2 liters, and my older daughter (16) with just 1; I actually ended up drinking her 2nd liter one day because she just wasn't using it, and the little ones were fine as well. Moral is, if you're a bigger guys, you ARE going to need more water than Dixie!!
Also, met a girl named Becca out there who knows you, and was trail blazing! She was really helpful, clued us in on the horse trail and that we could get cell service at the shelter because it's on top of the mountain!
At least an ounce a day for every pound is my rule.
I started out with a Sawyer squeeze . But after about day 4 , my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was cramping my hands so bad that I switched to a gravity bag.
Yeah I ended up buying a gravity bag, and then just using it with the Sawyer filter since the screw top was the same size. Makes it easier to just have both systems so you aren’t squeezing constantly.
How do you find out about pesticides or heavy metals in the water? Is there a website? Is that part of the app?
I was out in NJ on the At in sept this year and there was NO water for more than 20 miles, unfortunately I had to cut my trip short,this has been a bad drought year - always check your sources before setting out, it can get pretty hairy
You are cranking these out faster than I can watch them. In the early 1970's we would hike in the Great Smokey Mountain NP. If there were filters, we didn't know about them. We drank water straight from streams and the pumps that were at some shelters.
During the pandemic I read an old book, "How To Sh*t In The Woods." Yes, funny title but it's a serious book about the best ways to dispose of waste and on-trail hygiene . The common "cat holes" are not it. In the introduction the author states that up until the 1970's it was safe to drink most surface water. It was also the time when a lot of people started to camp, hike and visit state and national parks. More people more waste. I recently heard a news article that stated that there is no surface water in the US that is safe to drink without treatment.
Great Video !!!
I prefer a bladder for so so so many reasons. But I hate the taste of water. I love water flavourings, but have yet to figure out a system that works for me. All my flavourings are sugar free, so I don't think there will be a problem with the bladder getting sticky but I haven't tried yet so I don't know. I currently have a CNOC for dirty water and either a sawyer squeeze or a Katadyn Be Free. I have both and both sized CNOCs too. I prefer the katadyn at the moment. But then I squeeze the filtered water into my drinking bladder. I would love to flavour that water.
Can you do a video on Cyanobacteria? It exists in many places and even boiling and filtering the water will not kill it……it can make you very, very sick as well! Thanks
right now main is dry and getting hard to find rivers not doing good saw some videos about it
A system I've used regularly in the UK is UV filtration, the unit is called a Steripen. I don't know whether they are available in the US ? They are guaranteed to kill all bacteria and viruses.
Europe has different threads, so I had to buy some yuppie French Perrier water bottle for the Sawyer Squeeze. Asked around online and it works for others.
Anyhow, filled with tap water, flow arrow pointing outwards but no matter how much I squeeze, nothing comes out.
Am I missing something obvious? Do you need to open it and remove some protection layer like from a ketchup bottle?
the bladder with bite valve taste like rubber and they get moldy over time and o was filling only from the tap.
Anyone using a Grayl Geopress? I just bought one a year ago but not many ppl seem to talk about them.
I do iodine disinfectant then filter. Easy and like.
i drink a lot in the morning so i can carry at least 2 liters at all times
Boiling will kill most living things in the water but to remove chemicals your best bet is to filter the water.
I filter and i use chlorine dioxide tablets to treat the water.
Great system. Just don’t add anything with vitamin c in it until after you’ve purified. A lot of people use Vit C to help with the taste but it neutralises the tablets.
Hey it's Erin. Once you fill your smart water bottle, do you have to use a cloth to dry the dirty water off the outside of the bottle before drinking from it so that the little bit of dirty water doesn't drip down and touch your mouth, or does that small amount of dirty water matter?
Good question, but I don’t worry about it! Never been an issue and I feel like that small amount wouldn’t be problematic
I know your preference is for a sawyer squeeze. Do you have a comparison video to show differences between a sawyer and a Katadyn BeFree filter? How come you choose one over the other? I am curious as to which one I might want to purchase.
♥️
Hey Dixie!
@homemade wanderlust I have a Sawyer squeeze that I left in the trunk of my car over the winter, so I know it froze. How do I know if it's still good? It looks okay I don't see any broken parts, but I'm not sure I want a chance it. Thanks
Not Dixie, but I wouldn't risk it. If you know it froze, toss it.
No good any more.
Once frozen they are no good any more.
There’s no testing, no inspection to be done. Too cheap to risk it, toss it out.
@@asmith7876
Your right . $30.oo walmart
If it ever had water in it (IE is not new out of the package and unused) and froze, it's junk, throw it out.
🦋
My personal rule of thumb, never carry dirty water.
I rarely filter water, it has to be really sketchy for me to bother. Careful source selection is important though. Most of the time it comes from a spring, right out of the ground. I avoid ponds and streams near road crossings or steams more than a large step across.
Pennsylvania water is fine, I've drank it my whole life, the heavy metals just make us dense in the head 🤣
You never know if a bigfoot took a dump/pee upstream!
Yes, since Americans have very little resistance to various bacteria that you find in streams, lakes, etc.
5 minute boil? Really, look this stuff up bro.
Tons of experts….. somebody walked,ran, rode, “hiked” this shit drinkin from the damn stream.
It’s pronounced Appa LATCH ian.
Born there, appa LA tion to my people.
❤️