[rickkyw1720pf]

My favorite filter now is the Steripen, a lot of times I will hike in the red river gorge where there are a lot of streams, so to travel as light as possible I will take a steripen and a zip bag. I can fill the bag and purify the water in 90 seconds without stopping. I know some will say you have to depend on batteries but I have had more problems with filters have their seal go bad or getting clogged up by silt then having a battery or electrical problem. some of the new steripens have a hand crank to generate the power needed.

Edit: Worst case scenario you can always find a tin can around and boil water if your filter or what ever you are carrying fails.

 

[rickkyw1720pf]

KISS in my opinion. If you're talking about being local, go with the still only approach. I would only have a filtration system for travel, and even then you're going to need to boil the water anyways. The only way to kill cryptosporidium is with chemicals or heat.

The Steripen's UV light is highly effective against giardia and cryptosporidium but only take 90 seconds. And you don't have to wait for the water to cool down.