Shortly after Two O’clock I arrived at Little Paddy Creek. That’s very near my first planned campsite for tonight. I was glad it was early because I really wanted to make it to ‘Paddy Creek Trolltunga,’ several miles further on the trail. Though to do so will mean carrying extra water all the way back up onto the ridge. While I was heating water for my lunch, I topped up my fresh water and packed some dirty water for later. Above is a picture of my water filter in action.

Taken fresh from the creeks and springs, the water isn’t ‘dirty.’ Though it may be contaminated by dead animals and animal (or person) waste, so I always filter or boil the water I drink, and I also treat my filtered water with bleach. You know, to get rid of 99.9% of all known germs. When I’m carrying ‘dirty’ water, I’ll either pour it straight into my cook pot for boiling or filter it as normal.

It’s not a good idea to let your water filter freeze, which means I have to keep the filter in my pocket or with other non-freezable gear (like my camera and cell phone). I needed a way to stop water dribbling out of the open ‘dirty water’ end. So, I made a stopper out of a hose connector and some hot glue. it works very well.