My water filter failed halfway through a 4-day trip on the Colorado Trail

I was day 2 near the Collegiate Peaks section when my Sawyer filter started dripping like a broken faucet instead of flowing. Tried backflushing it three times and nothing changed, so I had to boil all my water using my tiny camp stove for the rest of the trip. Has anyone else had a filter completely die on them mid-route like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithjones1d ago

Same thing happened to me. Carry aquatabs as backup now.

the_david1d ago

Bumped into a guy near the San Juans who had his Katadyn completely seize up on him. He was cussing at it like it owed him money lol. @faithjones is right though, he had some aquatabs buried in his pack and that saved his trip. Said he spent a whole afternoon just filtering through a bandana first to get the big stuff out before dropping the tabs in.