LifeStraw Water Filter

www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw, two ounces
Hiking is one of life’s simple pleasures, but keeping a supply of clean, safe drinking water on hand complicates matters. With a gallon of water weighing more than eight pounds, carrying a day’s supply of water can be taxing. Water purification tablets work, but often leave a chemical taste. And pumping water through a filter sounds easy—if you have the forearms of Popeye.  Instead, try the LifeStraw, which was developed by a Swiss humanitarian (Vestergaard Frandsen) to help save lives in developing countries.  The lightweight, nine-inch straw filters out 99.99999 percent of waterborne bacteria and 99.0 percent of waterborne protozoan parasites (including E. Coli, Giardia and Cryptosporidium). It also filters murky and muddy water down to 0.2 microns—but doesn’t remove viruses, heavy metals, or salt. With the LifeStraw, you can sip directly from any lake, river or even puddle. The straw contains no chemicals and only requires sucking to activate. We admit we didn’t test the straw in typhoid- and rhino-infested swamps, but we did carry straw on more than two dozen day hikes and overnight trips in the Oregon Cascades. To use the straw, you just have to get close enough to the water supply to sip. Or you can fill your water bottle and insert the straw. Placid lakes and meandering streams are the easiest for this straight-forward hydration delivery system, with ice-choked waterfalls and flood-stage streams proving to be  more challenging. While we still had to boil water for tea and noodles, the LifeStraw gets our vote for a convenient, lightweight personal filtration system. The life straw is guaranteed for 422 gallons (1,600 liters) of safe drinking, but it’s recommended to be discarded after 1,000 gallons. While there’s a recommended expiration date on the container (three years), the company reports that there is nothing in the filter system that will degrade over time.