In this episode of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast, Dive into the essentials of water management in the wilderness, from finding and pre-filtering to boiling and purifying, using practical methods and tools for ensuring safe drinking water, emphasizing the critical role of a metal container and the importance of pre-filtering to extend the life of commercial water filters.
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast with your host, Chris Speir. This week, we dive into one of the most critical aspects of wilderness survival: water management. Whether you’re out on a leisurely camping trip or facing a dire survival situation, understanding how to find, filter, and purify water is essential.
Chris kicks off the episode by discussing the absolute necessity of water for survival. It's not just about quenching your thirst; water is vital for replenishing fluids lost through sweat, especially when you're active outdoors. He shares practical advice, assuming you're camping near accessible water sources like lakes, rivers, or streams.
Pathogens are a major concern when it comes to drinking water in the wild. Chris highlights the risks posed by viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, including common culprits like E. coli, Salmonella, and Giardia. These pathogens can lead to severe health issues, making proper water treatment crucial.
Boiling water is presented as the safest method to purify it. Chris explains that boiling kills all biological pathogens, ensuring the water is safe to drink. He also emphasizes the importance of always carrying a metal container for boiling water, cautioning against using double-walled insulated bottles which can be dangerous when exposed to heat.
Pre-filtering water is another essential step before purification. Using a handkerchief, Millbank bag, or even a coffee filter, you can remove sediment and debris, making the water clearer and extending the life of your commercial water filter. Chris shares his experiences and tips on pre-filtering, highlighting how simple tools can make a big difference.
For those times when boiling isn’t an option, chemical disinfection can be a lifesaver. Chris talks about using iodine, bleach, and other chemical treatments to make water safe to drink. He provides clear instructions and tips to ensure effective disinfection while acknowledging the distinct tastes these methods might impart to the water.
Natural filtration systems like the tripod water filter and coyote water well are also covered in this episode. Chris walks listeners through the process of setting up these systems using natural materials. These methods are invaluable for filtering large quantities of water and can be easily assembled with items found in the wild.
Commercial water filters come in many shapes and sizes, and Chris reviews some of the most popular options. From pump filters to gravity systems and the highly regarded Grayl Geopress, he explains how each works and why they are essential additions to your camping gear.
Finally, Chris addresses the safety of drinking rainwater, debunking myths about "forever chemicals" and explaining how to collect and use rainwater effectively. He shares his personal preference for rainwater and how it can be a reliable source of hydration in the wild.
Throughout the episode, Chris provides practical advice, personal anecdotes, and a wealth of information from his book, "Primitive Camping and Bushcraft." He encourages listeners to practice these methods, join the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Facebook group, and engage with a community of like-minded outdoor enthusiasts.
Thank you for tuning in, and remember, mastering water management is key to enjoying and surviving in the great outdoors. Stay hydrated, stay safe, and see you next time!
So welcome back to the Primitive Camping
and Bushcraft Podcast.
My name is Chris Speir
and I'm going to be your guide to
mastering the great
outdoors. So have you ever wondered
about the best ways to find, filter, and
purify water while going
camping? And a lot of people
are going to be like, oh yeah, just bring
a life straw. Well, I
guarantee you that eventually
that life straw will clog up. It's
happened to me before and
I'm sure it will happen to
you. Now I hope everybody had a great 4th
of July and last week
I was gone. I was out
of town, wasn't able to actually get one.
A podcast is actually
published. But today
we're going to discuss water. Water is
crucial for survival. We
all know this and it's one
of the things that, you know, everybody
knows you have to have
water. You get thirsty, you're
already dehydrated. You've been working
out in the heat, you're
going to sweat out a lot
of your fluids, your clothes is going to
absorb a lot of your fluids and your
sweat and everything.
So you have to have water to replenish
these fluids in there.
And so water is crucial for
survival. And while this guide don't go
into depth about finding
the water source, because
I'm actually assuming that you're camping
near a creek or
you're camping near a lake
or a river or something to that effect,
you know, we're going
to assume that you have
access to water sources in those places,
even puddles, you
know. Any drinking water
deprived from surface or groundwater can
potentially be contaminated with
waterborne pathogens.
So pathogens are one of the biggest
things about water. And
so whenever we get out into
the woods and we start looking at just
drinking water, you can't
just go and take your metal
container and scoop it out. So and if you
notice right here, if you're watching the
video, I actually have a metal container.
Now this particular
container was, let's see
how they do it, making the noise of it
and stuff like that.
But this particular metal
container I picked up at five below for
like $3. All right.
It's stainless steel. It's
not, it's not aluminum. It's a stainless
steel container. It has a
plastic lid and it really
does a very good job. It's 24 ounces.
That's not a lot, but I
have two of them. I have
one that I keep full of water, drinking
water, and I have one
that, that's always full and
ready to boil. So surface and groundwater
can carry pathogens
and fecal contamination.
And that is one of the big things such as
viruses, adenovirus and
rotavirus and hepatitis
A or norovirus bacteria, such as E. coli,
salmonella, or
cholera, and protozoa, such
as cryptosporidium and Giardia. Now say
all these things 10
times fast and you'll have
a tongue twister and you know, but
surface water can
contain all these elements. You
got a, you got had a beaver or a
nutri-rat or a moose or a,
you know, any kind of animal
peeing and pooping in the water and
they're in the water
cooling off or, you know, trying
to find some, some, something to eat or,
you know, they're
drinking and then they pee
and poo right there and then it flows
down and you go by
which metal container filled
it up and you just drink pee and poo, you
know, and not to mention the fish pee and
poo and you know, that kind of stuff. So
one of the big things is
Giardia. Giardia causes
like Giardia, Giardiaces, Giardiaces,
Giardiaces. I can't never
say that. And so, so Giardia
is bad and it's basically a beaver fever
and that's what most
people called it. And because
apparently a lot of people are like me
and can't go
Giardiaces, Giardiaces, say that
10 times too fast. It's the most common
waterborne illness in the
United States. So now I want
to talk about this, I'm talking about
it's the most common
here in the United States
and it's leading to severe symptoms of
gastroenteritis, cramping, dehydration
and diarrhea. So if you're
having diarrhea and you're, it's all,
it's all a chain effect.
And so you got abdominal
cramps, which is you're going to have the
hot diarrhea. Diarrhea is
going to cause dehydration
cause you're going to be pooping out more
than you could drink.
And then you'll start
throwing up, you'll start having cramps.
You'll see it's just a
bad, it's just a bad day in
the woods and that's a bad day in life is
what that is. So the,
the perfect thing for
that is going to be boiling your water.
All right. Now in my
book, I don't go very in
detail about actually cutting out a pot
out of a log and
dropping stones and stuff. I'm
assuming that you're going to be carrying
the good old metal
container with you. And
you know, most people when they head into
the woods do have some
sort of metal container
to bring with you. And I, I've actually
argued in this book that,
you know, next to a knife,
a good belt knife or sheath knife or
Morin knife Garberg in
this instance, you know,
a good knife is, I mean second most
important to a metal
container. And you know, these
two are synonymous. If I'm going out into
the woods, I will have
a metal container and
a belt knife. These two items right here
will be on me anytime I
walk into the woods. Anytime
I'm going camping, anytime I'm going
hiking, I will have those
two items on me regardless
of anything else. I will have a metal
container and you know, and that's
because boiling your
water now I'm for South Mississippi. So
if you hear me say
bowl bowl, we're going to
bowl the water. You know, I just say I'm
boiling the water, but
boiling your water is going
to be the safest method to purify your
water and render it safe
to drink. And you know,
that means it's killing pathogens,
anything in that water
that's biological, like any
of the items that we listed while ago,
the Giardia, the
adenovirus, the rotavirus, the
hepatitis, the norovirus, the bacteria,
the cholera and the
protozoa, anything like that
is killed off at 165 degrees and water
boils at 212 degrees.
Great. So that's why they
say boil your water because we know at
212 degrees at sea level
at 212 degrees is going
to be above the 165 and you know, it's
going to be safe to drink.
Now, obviously boil water
for at least one minute or more. Whenever
you're a 65, 6,500 feet
or below, you're going
to bowl it for at least a minute. And
then for three minutes,
anything above 6,500 feet
to ensure safety. Now that the reason why
there is because you're
going to have a temperature
variations of when the water will boil.
So here's South
Mississippi where I'm a hundred
feet above sea level, 212 degrees is
where it's going to start
boiling. So we've already
been through the importance of a metal
container and always, always,
always have a metal container
with you. I mean, these little plastic
Nalgene bottles are
great, but you cannot boil your
water in them. Well, technically you can,
but that's for a
different, that's for a different
topic. So technically you can, you can
boil some water in an
Nalgene container. But you
know, I need to, that's going to be a
very expensive video,
but I need to probably do
a video on that. So, but anyway, always
have a metal container
for boiling your water and
you know, even a aluminum can that you
found can boil some
water and it could be used in
a pinch. And you know, human trash has
touched every surface of
the planet. So I mean, there's
garbage anywhere. You should be able to
find you a aluminum can,
especially in the South.
Rednecks around here love their beer and
it all comes in
aluminum containers. So avoid
insulated or double, double walled
containers. Now these things
right here are real popular,
they're like real sporty and real
outdoorsy and they're
double walled and they're useless
because once you put that double walled
into fire, it's going to
explode. It's going to,
you know, it's, it's going to explode.
It's going to crack open
or send hot, nasty stuff
all over towards you and don't use the
double walled
insulated. Get the single walled,
non-insulated. All right. So single wall,
good, double wall, bad. All right. So now
we, we know to boil our water to kill all
the bacteria, viruses
and all that good stuff.
So let's talk about pre-filtering the
water. Now pre-filtering
removes any kind of sediment or
debris. Now when you're pre-filtering,
you're not making it safe
to drink. You're not, you're
getting all the grit and the grime and
the nasty out and, or you
making it, if you pre-filter it,
you know, an example of pre-filtering is
going to be using a
handkerchief or a shimog or something
to that effect. A Milbaint bag or a
K-Cuff coffee filter would work too. And
all these are pre-filters.
All these are getting the sediment and
the grit and grime out of
your water. And if you're using
a commercial water filter, which we're
going to get to here in
a little while, you know,
it actually extends the life of these
filters because it doesn't
clog it with any kind of debris.
Now using a handkerchief or a Milbaint
bag, I didn't bring the
example with me for the video,
but let's see here on page. I got it here
in the book. I went over
extensively with a Milbaint bag
how to do it on page 114. You know, a
Milbaint bag resembles a
Christmas tree and they're easy to
use and they get a lot, if they pretty
much all the sediment out
of your, your drinking water.
Now it takes a little while. You're going
to have to soak it. Now I
got the process here. You're
going to, you're going to go step by step
one. You're going to soak
it for a little while too.
You're going to roll it out, wring it
out. And then three, you're
going to fill it up with some
water and then you're going to hang it
above the pot that you want
filtered. Now you can also,
if you're using that water to actually
cook your food or anything
like that, you can forgo all
this and you'll just have, might have a
little grid or whatever in
there. But the Milbaint bag
is a great addition to your kit and it's
a great addition to your
backpack if you're heading out
into the great outdoors and it's
lightweight and plus it can be used for
other things as well.
Now you can use it for like a forging bag
or something to that
effect. You can store stuff in
it, stuff like that, but it's actually a
real good item to have with
you whenever you're going out.
But the main thing to have, we just
always have a good cotton
handkerchief. And the reason why
you want it to be cotton is because
cotton wicks water. You can
use this to actually wick water
out of a stump or a log or something like
that. I'm sure you've
seen the YouTube videos where
they got some dude going out there with a
clear container and then
they fill it up with nasty
disgusting water and then they set it
down and they fill up
another clear container and they
set it down right there and they put the
little cotton swab, not
swab, but the handkerchief or
the cotton paper towel or something
cotton and it wicks the water
from the nasty to the clean.
And you know, kind of like a siphon, it
siphons it over. Once it
gets to the top over there,
gravity starts pulling it down and it
just kind of just siphons it
straight up. So the good old
handkerchief is great for that. It's
great for helping you wick
water out of locations into
another location. Time consuming,
extremely time consuming, but it is worth
its weight and gold to
have one. And then plus not only that,
you can use it in other ways
too to go ahead and get your
water filter and get the sand and
everything out of your water, stuff like
that. Now, another item
that people overlook a lot of times, and
I mentioned it a while ago,
would be the K-Cup water filter
or a standard water filter, coffee
filter. Now, you can use a regular coffee
filter to do the same
thing and filter your water as a mill
main bag. It takes a long time, takes a
little bit longer to do it.
Everybody knows how long it takes for
coffee to press through, you know,
especially when you want
your coffee right now. Where did I put my
coffee? But you can use a K-Cup, you
know, for the cure egg
and they have the reusable water filters
and you can, or the coffee filters. Now,
the screen has a mesh screen in there and
it is very, very fine
screen. And it will get a lot of
your grit and grime out of the water. So
if you're just
scooping it up, pouring it in,
it's going to get a lot
of mud out of your water.
Now, another item that we use for getting
our water ready to drink
is going to be chemical
disinfection. Chemical disinfection is,
it is my last go-to
source. I, you know, I prefer,
I did too many years in the military
where I drank iodine
infused water, you know, and then
on top of that, people will argue with
me, but they use bleach or,
you know, chlorine and the
regular water that you drink at your
house. If you live in the United States
and you live near a city,
your water is pumped straight out of some
kind of pond or lake or
river and it is screened. And
then they pump chemicals in it to kill
all the bacterias and
everything. And, you know, and, and
a lot of people argue with you again. And
it's kind of sad that
people argue and don't actually
look stuff up and don't do the research,
but they're like, dude,
just go buy some bottled water.
Well, all most bottled water companies
are just straight up tap
water. Look at Nestle, you know,
that was out of that place up in
Michigan. And, you know, and look at all
these others. The only
one that I have found that is true, true
filtered reverse osmosis or
whatever like that is that
Ozoka Ozarka water, you know, that's the
only one that I found that
is at a cheap price, a decent
price, but it is pure water and it don't
have any additives. Like
when you get your bottled water,
who wants additives put in there? Who
wants sodium bicarbonate? Look at the
sunny. The sunny water is
one of the most popular brands out there.
Why do you got to add
sodium bicarb to the water?
It helps improve taste. Who cares? It's
water. It ain't supposed
to have no taste. You know,
that drives me insane. But chemical
disinfection is going to be
one of the things that got the
iodine tablets. There's supposed to be no
taste or color, but I'm
telling you right now, you can
taste the iodine in the water. And I
always could in the military is like,
it's just got a weird,
different kind of taste to it. Now you
can use betadine, you can
use Clorox, you know, and I got
in the book here, I have a page where I'm
not going to go into
detail here on this podcast,
but in the book, there's a whole section
on how much drops per gallon
of each the betadine and the
regular household bleach you could put
into your water, into a
gallon of water and actually
chemically disinfect it. Now the iodine,
I mean, there's a give and
take here. Some people think
that the iodine works better. Some people
think the bleach works
better. Either way, it doesn't
matter. You're adding a chemical to
through to the water and you just make
sure you pre-fill there.
So, all right, so now we're going to look
into natural
filtration systems. All right,
so at the beginning of this podcast, I
told you I was in a
situation where I had to have
some water and my water filtration system
clogged up. And we had
a pot to boil our water,
which is great, but we were drinking out
of a stagnant pond. And
whenever we drank the water
straight up boiled from the stagnant
pond, which had otters swimming in it,
you know, I mean, like
crazy, all kinds of otters and raccoons.
And, you know, it was just
nasty. It was straight up
everything you needed to catch Giardia. I
mean, this pond was it. It was the
epitome of a Giardial
infection. I mean, and probably 13 of the
other ones are listed. But so we had the,
we had the straw type water filters.
Everybody knows the one I'm talking
about, the blue straw,
life straws or whatever. And we get out
there and we start
drinking up and lo and behold,
they clog up. And we wouldn't, we would
just drink it straight
out of the creek, you know,
or drink it straight out of the pond. And
so in South Mississippi,
you get a lot of tea steam
where the leaves decay and start turning
the water brown or
dark, dark, dark brown,
almost black colored. And it's weird, it
can be almost clear, but
it's almost black. It's weird
to say. And especially in the, in the
woods, you know, on some of these rivers
and lakes and stuff.
But one of the things was the filter
clogged. We needed a way
to, to, to filtrate our water.
And I couldn't, I could remember in one
of my survival books,
the, the tripod water filter.
I just happened to have three of the
handkerchiefs and then there was some
grass over there. My
brother who was with me, he took a, he
took all the logs out of the
fire and he scraped all the
charcoal off of the logs. It was an
arduous or lengthy process. And so we
collected that. And then
we put it right up the, right up the
stream or the embankment from us was
sand. And so we got some,
some nice sand out of there. So we had
all the elements that we
need to make this tripod. And
so we put it in there. And so in the
books, it's always said put
grass on the top, which I don't
understand why I never really understood,
but I was like, Hey,
whatever, if it's going to catch
the big stuff, because the top layer is
going to catch the big
stuff anyway. And if, if,
in my opinion, I would put sand to
charcoal and that sand that that's the
way I would do it. But
you know, in, in the book here, I just
went ahead and went along
with the other different things.
So, so what we did was we put the, we
built this tripod and we put a layer of
a layer of grass up top and then our
charcoal and then our, our, well,
actually this particular one,
we did our sand then charcoal. But
whenever we, our water came out, it came
out like a milky black,
you know, like just, it was horrible
looking. And I was like, man,
something's wrong with this.
There's something wrong with it. And so
we reversed it was like,
what if we put the sand
on the bottom? Cause you know, swimming
pool filters are nothing
more than sand. And I was
like, well, what if we filter? I mean,
yeah, we, you know, filtered
it through the sand and then
we boiled the water. And so what we did
is we ended up swapping
it. We put the charcoal in
the middle and then put the sand at the
bottom. And so the sand
filtered out all the black charcoal
particles. And then the water was
actually the taste and flavor was
improved with the charcoal.
And that was actually pretty good. It had
kind of like a nutty nutty
flavor to it. It didn't taste
horrible. It tasted better than the stuff
at the house coming out
of the tap. And you know,
or some of the bottled waters that you
got from there, from
the store. So, all right,
we're getting close on our time here. But
anyway, there was a, there's
a picture of the tripod water
system that we used. Everybody's seen it
in the survival books and
camping books and stuff like
that, but I actually ran it through and
used it and it actually
worked. So let's get to one more
real quick and then we'll wrap this thing
up for today. There were
actually two more. And there's
another one. It's called the coyote water
well or gypsy water well.
You know, people like, oh,
you can't use the word gypsy. I'm like,
get over it. Get over it. It
is what it is. If people don't
like what it's called, I'm sorry. That's
what it's called. Get
over it. Grow up, move on,
find something else to listen to. God, it
drives me insane. And anyway,
the coyote water well is also known as a
seep well or a gypsy
well. And from pioneers to
modern day survivalists, this type of
well has helped several,
it's helped me several times.
And as I was on day trips and stuff like
that, because it's real easy, it's a,
that the premise is extremely easy. You
dig a hole three to
four feet away from the
water source and then you just let it
naturally filter up with
water and you come back about 45
minutes later and dip your water out and
just drink it. And that's
it. So the natural soils
and clays and sands and everything acts
as the water filter,
filtrating it from all your
bacteria is an harmful contaminants. Now,
is there a possibility
that a something could have
peed right above your hole? Yeah, it is
possible. It is extremely
possible. But would you take your
chances drinking it out of this or
drinking it straight out of
the Creek, which one would you
take? I would take my chances drinking
straight out of this than I
would on the Creek. But then
again, I'm drinking straight from the
Creek for two. Doesn't bother
me either way, but you know,
just to be safe, it was, it would be
easier to boil your water if
you can. But I have done it
this way without boiling my water and I
have had no ill effects. All kinds of
people saw the videos
of me doing that and they're like, Oh,
this dude's going to have,
he's going to be in the bathroom
for a month. He's going to die. And I'm
like, no, I'm not. Now, the
last thing I want to talk about
is commercial water filtration systems.
You got your saw, your
squeezes, you got your grills,
you got your catadons, you got your life
straws, you got pump
filters, you got, they come in,
there's a dime a dozen. Well, they're
actually, there's a dollar a
dozen or whatever, you know,
but they're pretty expensive. They come,
they range from cheap
to pretty expensive.
And you know, you want to always have
something or some kind
of solution with you. Now,
what I've used is a gravity filter
whenever I know I'm going out into the
woods for a long time
because it has a bag that hangs up into
the tree that you fill up and then a
little spout and you
put your little life straw in there and
then it can either, it can
either cap onto another bag or
you can funnel it in there somehow and
collect that water into another
container. And then that
is what you're going to use to drink. And
so it's so easy to go and
get six liters of water,
hang it up into the tree, connect that
thing into another water
sort or water collection system,
something to hold your water like a pod
or a bag, and then just go
fishing or do set up your camp
or something like that and your water's
being filtered. You don't
have to worry about anything.
And you know, and then you come back
later and you got over a gallon of fresh
water ready to drink
right then and there. So gravity filter
systems. And let me tell
you, I will tell you this,
the one from Membrane Solutions is cheap
and effective. It is
extremely, it's a lot cheaper
than the other brands out there. But if
you was to look at the actual
specifications, there's no
difference between them and some of your
other more expensive water
filtration systems out there.
And that is Membrane Solutions. Actually
on my website, you can
click over on my website and
I think I got a link over there to where
you can get it. The best,
my favorite all around thing
is the grill water filter. And the grill
is easy. It's 24 ounces of
water and it's the Geopress.
You fill it up with your dirty water up
to the little fill line and
you push that thing down in
there. And what you're doing is you're
pushing the water through
a system, through a filter,
and it fills up the innards of your
filtration or your water bottle and you
have fresh, clean water
within a few seconds. So that's not too
bad. So the last thing I
want to cover is rainwater.
And a lot of people argue with me all day
long about rainwater,
saying rainwater is not safe to drink.
People. So rainwater is safe to drink.
Many will argue that
rainwater has forever chemicals making it
unsafe to drink. If that
were truly the case, now listen
to me here. Then all water on earth would
be unsafe to drink. Tada.
It drives me insane. You
cannot drink rainwater because it has
forever chemicals. Well, if
that's the case, all water
on earth has forever chemicals in it and
all water on earth is unsafe
to drink and all water on earth,
we're all going to die. Everyone else is
going to die. It drives me
nuts. But anyway, building a
rain catch, using a tarp, collecting your
rain. If you want to, you
can boil it. If you want to,
you can do whatever. But rainwater is, I
will drink rainwater all day, every day,
well, and not filter it and not have it,
not have to worry about filtering it or
boiling it while everybody
else goes down and filters
and boils theirs. I will drink rainwater
all day, every day. So,
but anyway, that's it. So,
in this episode, we went over the water
management, how it's
critical for survival
and comfort in the wilderness. We went
over a lot about water today and we're
going to break it down
even more going forward. You know, I
apologize about not posting
last week, but it is what it
is. It was the Independence Day here in
the US July 4th, celebrate
the holiday. I wasn't here.
And so, practice these methods, practice
any and all these methods.
Go buy Amazon, pick up a copy
of primitive camping in Bushcraft. The
water section in this
book and the fire section,
this whole book is slam full of stuff to
get you to think. It's not a
book of, "Hey, you got to do
this. You got to buy this. You got to
have this product." That's
not what this book is. This book
is all about getting you to think about
using other things, doing other, you
know, you don't have to
determine or rely on one thing. So,
practice those methods
before heading out to make sure
you're prepared, you know, build you a
filter, learn how to do the
filter, learn how to use your
water filters before you go, stuff like
that. So, we went over fire starting
techniques last week.
So, next week we're going to go over food
and food is going to be a
real lengthy one because
there's a lot of it. So, then once we get
done with food, we're
going to go into cooking and we
will have done our 30,000 foot flyover
and then we're going to turn
right back around and we're
going to start at the very beginning and
we're going to go detail
by detail through everything
in this book. And join the Facebook group
and over on Facebook,
primitive camping in Bushcraft.
We have like 6,300 of us now. It's done
went up a hundred in the
past week or so. And, you know,
join the community. Get involved. Start
leaving comments. Start having a
discussion. Let's talk
about primitive camping, Bushcraft,
regular camping, hiking,
backpacking, survival, anything
you want to talk about. Let's get it
done. All right. Well,
thank you so much. And I really
appreciate every one of you for stopping
by. I'll see you in the next
podcast and the next video.
God bless you.