HIKING H2O FILTER KIT...

[Shooter_G22]

CHECK THIS OUT PEOPLE...

   I have been working with the Kids team, on their hiking because i want to do maybe a hiking / mountaineering trip this summer...  if the good lord is willing and i can somehow wing it on the financial side then hopefully i can come up with a good hiking trip for them this summer... 
 anyhow...   i recently became a member of the REI co-op..  and they offer free classes or clinics on some pretty cool stuff like intro to GPS  and compas / Map reading   intro to rock climbing and backpacking classes and alto of good trash like that....  sooo anyway i have started attending a couple of these classes or clinics along with taking a few of the older boys on the youth team...

   come to realize that a lot of the the stuff or gear that  all these civilian outdoors men and women use are very expensive...

  comming from my military background and the fact that the "Marine Corps"  have allways gotten hand me down equipment from the ARMY  and we live by the motto "improvise - adapt and overcome" along with "Semper Fi - do or die" and $hit like that...lol.. 

well anyway all the gear that the boys use come out of my pockets and believe me when i say i am no where near well off... in fact I'm just a construction worker that in some months have to really struggle just to make ends meet...

  sooo with that being said...  we or should i say  "the team"  has really gotten familiar with the term "improvise"   lol...  so much like the Marine Corps...  we do what we can with the equipment we can come up with and we improvise and modify as much as we have to...  to be able to do the things we do on a construction workers budget we have to improvise and really take care of every piece of gear or equipment we can scrounge up...

anyway,

 this brings me to share our latest piece of gear that we have tried to come up with....

we took a backpacking 101 class the other day or was it "the fundamentals of backpacking..

anyway it was a good class/clinic that introduced some of the equipment needed to do a backpacking or hiking trip and it talked about things need to do such a trip...

the whole time in the class i was just thinking of all these thousands of miles i humped while i was in the Marine Corps...  and we never had any of the high tech or super light weight really expensive gear...   lmao...   

but then again we didn't do it for enjoyment or exercise or even a life challenge we did it to get from point A to point B  with all of our gear and weaponry to fight an enemy..lol..  and it wasn't like we could complain or suggest that our equipment was too heavy to hump it on our backs for all those miles and miles...   sooo you could just imagine the smirk i must of had on my face while sitting through this class....   and thinking man I'm surrounded by a bunch of sissy lala's that have way too much money in their pockets and must be crazy....   but then i found a very deep respect for the people in the class because all though they were probably very wealthy and maybe been sheltered all there life's they were willing to take a trip in the harsh outdoors and really ruff it forthe time on there trip...  soo i found a respect for them and began to understand that they would be willing to pay a little extra to have a piece of equipment that would be ounces lighter then something else that would do the same thing...  beside who am i to judge someone and think they must be crazy to want to do this stuff on there own free will, because there i was too on my own free will....  lol...
 
but i have to admit, some of the things that were being presented were a little too cheesy for me....  and i thought...  don't these people know that you could pick up something like that  at a surplus store and for a fraction of the cost... 

   and then i began to think of all the humps i ever did in the Marine Corps and i began to realize a suttle truth...  all though we humped for endless miles and carried everything on our backs we allways had water available... weather it was driving in front of us or behind us or flew in by heillo or already  a water station their by advance party...  it was allways readily available... and ready to drink and fill canteens...

and that occurred to me when the instructor in the class began to talk about water filtration systems... 

i had seen them be for and looked into getting one at some point last yr but never saw a real purpose for it...   but know that i was thinking of taking a hiking trip with the boys i realized that i would probably need some type of water system...   but i know if i would want to issue each kid a filter it was not possible for me to purchase each kid a filtration system that would cost me anywhere from $90.00 to $199.00 dollars...   but being the Outstanding Former Marine that i am...      i quickly found a solution to this problem and have come up with a design to create an improvised modified H2O Filtration system...! 
 
i went out and bought the two items necessary for this modified kit...  i will probably assign it a model number like in the Marine Corps once all testing is completed and issue it to boys as a part of their 782 gear...
  The parts i purchased matched up well and i am sure it will be "a great success" but i just need to go out to a pond or creek and get it tested and approved by yours truly...

soo here is what i got...  thought id share it with y'all just in case somebody wants to have there own....   now real modifications necessary other than putting to parts together to create some thing else...

first item is:

 1.    Siphon Pump Kit     ( Harbor Freight item #3878-0VGA )
http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=SIPHON+PUMP
       kit is the one at the bottom right corner...

2.   Aquamira Frontier Filter Emergency Straw Filter    ( Cheaper Than Dirt   item # CAMP-174 )
      Filters up to 20 Gallons 99.9% Effective             
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP174-1.html


those are the two items i purchased and it is sooo easy to put together all you do is assemble the siphon pump and then put the frontier filter emergency straw into the clear hose on the pump kit fits perfect no need to modify anything just put them together and wallah!!! a cheap and easy H20 fitration system that is under 20 bucks...   I'm a freaking genies   

[Pat B]

Great thinking....but that filter is only good for 20 gallons. Not a lot of water for a group. If each kid has his own filter it would be enough but an expensive deal. A home drinking water filter attached to the pump or to a gravity system is another option.
   I did buy a backpacking water filter pump to take on a Colorado elk hunt a few years ago and it paid for itself on that trip. IMO
 Something else to remember about filtering ground water for drinking. Be sure your output hose remains uncontaminated or the water you filter will be re-contaminated by it. Having only one or two guys in charge of drinking water might help prevent any contamination problems instead of allowing everyone to mess with it. Nothing will ruin a remote outing quicker than a problem with a diarrhea or worse.

[Shooter_G22]

yup,
  the filter is only good for 20 gal...   not a perfect solution but it is something that will work...

the modified kit is definantly not perfect but for someone that is going to keep in there pack as a just in case there is no water availiable solution.  paying 15 bucks sure beats paying 200 bucks...

as for the boys i was thinking of issueing the emergancy straw to them to put in the survival kit we have been working on...   each one of the boys right now have an emergancy survival kit that we have been working on and putting togather for some time now it has several things it it now includding feathers, hot glue sticks and trade points and paracord to make an emergancy servival bow and arrow along with a few things like power bar / trail mix, fire starter, compas and a few other things to boot... (been thinking of posting that topic up later)   

but for the trip i was thinking of maybe getting a few pumps and issue to either every kid or every other kid and and the filter straw to each kid soo that each kid has his own 20 gal filter...

but for my personal modified kit i looked at getting a better filter that they sell at REI.... and using my mod kit for a group kit...  and just let the boys use there kit every so often just to teach them how to use it and let them get the feel for it... and satifaction of useing their own gear...
but not let them use it all up...  just soo they will still have plenty of use for it later if they ever need to...

but in theiry if one had this kit and went on a hiking trip or in survival mode... the kit would be good for 20 gals for 15 bucks pretty good deal... considering 2 gal a day would be fair to say the 15 bucks could give you a water supply for 10 days...  not bad in my opinion...

as for the filter that i was thinking of useing is one that the guy in the clas said he used... it was a small filter that was maybe 1.25 inch diameter by about 2" long with a plastic niple on both side that could connect to a hose...  he said he just put that on the end of his hydro baltter hose and used it like a mouth peace and filled hydro blater pond or creek water and when sucked it throught the hose it would be filtered...    i on the other hand would attach this filter to the same pump as ealier and never put dirty water into a blatter or canteen or water bottle...

he said that filter would filter something like a million gallons sooo it would be the olny filter you would ever have to buy...   the way that works is after sooo many  hundred gallons the filter would require a back flush...  and then it would be recharged and ready to filter again... that filter alone is something like 50 bucks... its sold as a replacement filter for some other system...
but can be used as is instead of with the expensive kit...  soo thats probably what i will use for the team... still need to check on that...

but as for the modified H2O Kit from above i thought that would be worth sharing for anybody that would want to buy a cheap just in case filtration sytem to store up... or use for a personal kit... and then if you use up all 20 gals for 10 more bucks you can buy another filter straw and your good for another 20 gals...   pretty cheap pay as you go for someone that wouldnt use it a whole lot but still wants to have one...

   soo the up side is its a good solution and very cheap... and easy to assemble,   but the down side is that it is only good for twenty gallons for about 15 bucks...

  as opposed to 200 - 400 gallons  for a $100.00 - $200.00 
soo depending on how much your going to have to use it... yea.. consider  the expensive model...
but at least this way you have a cheaper option... as to befor a filter pump kit would cost you 100 bucks minimum even if you were only going to keep it for a just in case or small hiking trip...

 

 

[Justin Snyder]

I just drink the water. I don't care if it is green and the cows have been in it. As long as there haven't been people in it I'm good. Someday it may kill me, but it is more likely that I will die from something I got in a bottle at the grocery store.  Justin

[DanaM]

Shooter its too much for me to read

Justin animals carry many water borne diseases your playing russian roulette if your drinking from standing water. Hell even clear mountain streams are for the
most part contaminated with E. Coli and then theres always the dreaded Beaver Fever(Giardia) Your right on the bottled water they don't have to meet the same criteria that your local water plant has to

[stickbender]

     Shooter, sounds like a cool idea.  Justin, if that is how you feel, you just might want to buy a little bottle of water purification tablets.  I used to just put a hand full of water, in my mouth from the sloughs, in the swamps, and never got sick, but my dad, did once, he broke out in spots, and the doctor asked him if he had been drinking bad water......Anyway, you are taking a chance, of having to do the " latrine trot " all the way home.  Shooter, something you can put in their packs, is a magnesium bar with a sparking bar on it.  You can get them at Wally world, in the sporting goods section. About six bucks.  Also they have a combo whistle, compas, thermometer with F & C scales, plus a small magnifying glass.  About 4 bucks.  You can put them together, and for free, you can take an old hack saw blade, and cut it off at about three inches from the end, of the hook hole, and grind the back down to a one sided bevel, and do the same on the cut off end, for a chisel end, and leave the saw side alone.  You can use it to cut nocks, etc.  Now take the little chain on the magnesium bar, and put it through the hole in the hacksaw blade, and hook the clasp on the whistle combo, to the chain, and you have for about ten dollars, a very nifty, fire starter, and compass, magnifying glass, thermometer, kit.  You can use the hack saw blade to scrape off the magnesium into a little pile on some wood, and then scrape the hack saw blade along the sparking bar, and you will ignite the magnesium, for a very hot flame, to get even damp stuff to burn.  The sparking bar alone will start tender.  But you can put the whole thing in a little pouch, or old knife pouch, or they can do a hands on kit making project, and make a pouch for it, to fit on their belt, or as a neck pouch.  It sure beats the heck out of paying $20.00 for the " Swedish Steel " fire starter kit.  That is where I got the idea.  I thought what the heck, I have a couple of these magnesium bars, with striker on them, plus I have a couple of the little whistle combos......sooooo, and walla, a nifty little fire starter kit!   Now you have me looking for filters......cool Idea.   I hope the kids and their parents appreciate the effort and expense that you are going through for them.  It is good to see someone do this sort of thing.  Do you have a fishing kit in the pack also?  Assorted small hooks, and some medium ones, with split shot, and some Pro line, 20 lb line.  Strong as heck, and small diameter, and doesn't fray like spider wire.  I was thinking of making a bow string from it.  God bless, and good luck with the trek.
                                                                                        Wayne
 

[Shooter_G22]

stickbender,

  thanks for the tips... i have an abundance of ideas floating around in my head for for little suvival pack tools... and hiking iteams... i have wanted to post up a thread on it and put some pics of some of the iteams we have already put togather..   i have not put togather a fishing kit i might do that this week and do a little test run on some of the stuff and a little hike and bike trail that has a small little lake or very big pond in it... might do a little hiking training on it the trails this sunday and break out the fishing kit and see how practical it will be... and do some trial and error tweaking to get some thing that would be field expedaint and small enought to through into a pack...

i was allso looking at getting a recurve fishing bow take down from cabela's to add to my pack that way i could have a bow fishing kit and then maybe a few arrows with critter tips on them for some small game meat... but the only thing i dont like about it is it would be a fiberglass bow and maybe a little more heavy thatn i would like to have to hump...

but all things are in the works and little projects that we can work on and it should be fun exploring the options and seeing what we can come up with...

like i said we do what we can and improvise as much as posible...

thanks for the tips about the magnusim bar at wally worls i have one in my pack but i picked it up from cheaper thatn dirt and it was a lot more thans six bucks..  i'll have to look for t hem here at my walmart and pick some up for the kids...   i also thoought of picking up some whisle's and maybe a samll mirror for there survival gear but was looking at maybe getting them for a dollar store or hobby lobby or something like that... and 

[hawkbow]

I have drank from many streams and ponds, springs, rivers even boiled water from an elk wallow in the high country.. but I did get giardia once, while in the high country.. let me tell you brothers, nothing worse in the world than being far from civilazation and that sick.. had to use every survival trick i know to survive the five days it too for me to get out .. i now boil almost all water and use water purification tablets religiously... unless the water is coming out of the ground at a high spring.. better safe than sorry.. hope you enjoy your wild adventures Shooter.... what a great thing you are doing for those kids brother.. we need more warriors who are willing to help our youth find the great outdoors and all there is to enjoy...Hawk