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Water

Make stream water safe — and know what a filter can't do.

★ Top pick Trail water

Sawyer Products SP129 Squeeze Water Filtration System with Two 32-Oz Pouches, Straw & Adapter

The Sawyer Squeeze is the default answer for a reason: a 0.1-micron hollow-fiber filter that screws onto its pouches (or a standard soda bottle), weighs about 3 ounces, and lets you drink on the spot with no fuel, no wait, and no chemical aftertaste. It nails the two threats that actually put North American hikers on the ground — Giardia and Cryptosporidium — plus waterborne bacteria. The honest caveat: like all microfilters it does not remove viruses, which is a low risk in remote U.S. backcountry but a real one when treating questionable water abroad. Match the method to the threat.

0.1-MICRON HOLLOW-FIBER · REMOVES PROTOZOA + BACTERIA (NOT VIRUSES) · 3 OZ

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Kills the viruses filters miss

Katadyn Micropur MP1 Purification Tablets, 20-Pack, Chlorine Dioxide Drinking Water Treatment

The Sawyer Squeeze strains out protozoa and bacteria but lets viruses through. Chlorine dioxide closes that gap by killing viruses and bacteria chemically. The honest trade-off: it works slowly — about 30 minutes for most bugs, and a full 4 hours for chlorine-resistant Cryptosporidium — so the real backcountry answer is often both: filter first, then treat.

CHLORINE DIOXIDE · 1 TAB/L · KILLS VIRUSES + BACTERIA · EPA-REGISTERED

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