Aqua Mira

I'm no gear head by any means. Strike up a conversation with me about gear and watch my eyes glaze over. I thought I'd share a few pieces of gear anyways, for anyone interested. I used Aqua Mira to treat my water on the TRT and also the second half of the PCT after the handle on my Katadyn water filter broke off in Northern California on the PCT last year. I used bleach for about two weeks on the PCT before I was able to purchase some Aqua Mira in Oregon. Aqua Mira is not sold in California. I heard that the reason is because it is used to make meth. Bleach may be the lightest way to treat water, I used 2 drops per quart, but felt a little uneasy regularly putting bleach into my body. Aqua Mira leaves a slight chemical taste to the water but almost becomes unnoticeable over time in my opinion. The active ingredient is Chlorine Dioxide, which we have in our tap water. I've never had any stomach problems due to water after treating with Aqua Mira. It's a light weight solution (1 ounce per bottle), and the two bottles (Part A and Part B) treat about 30 gallons of water. In a perfect world, it would be tremendous to never have to worry about getting sick from our water sources, and to be able to drink it untreated. I've never reached the point where I was willing to compromise successfully completing a hike for the sake of drinking untreated water. Many thru hikers don't treat their water, many get sick, many don't. Perhaps it's a genetic thing. One day, when I have decent health insurance, I'd like to attempt a hike without treating water. Until then, Aqua Mira works just fine for me.