The first time I tried filtering water from a stream, I knew that the distance I could hike in one day would never again be constrained by the amount of water I could carry. I remember the scene vividly: getting water out of a stream, surrounded by a sea of hobblebush, on West Hunter Mountain in the Catskills. Hiking was never the same for me afterwards. I’d been freed from the limits of my hydration reservoir.
I carried that pump purifier, a First Need weighing 17 ounces, for the next few years along the Long Trail, up the 100 Mile Wilderness, through the Catskills and the White Mountains, and down the Appalachian Trail, until I tried an inline filter and realized I could cut almost a pound of gear weight from my pack. That was the end of the pump, although I still keep it around for just in case we have awater main break (again).
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