staehpj1

If you are buying gallons, that means carrying more at a time than I want to with only the exception of the few places where there is no resupply for all day or longer. I don't recall the need to buy a full gallon of water and the water being bad enough that tap water wasn't okay ever simultaneously occurring when I was solo.

Like I said it has been rare that tap water wasn't okay. A few places it was obvious. In Jackson Hot Springs all the locals left the store with a cart filled with gallons of bottled water. That was a pretty good clue.

On the TA we did carry some gatoraid powder and when the water taste was a little off with a mineral taste we made a weak gatoraid mix (like half strength). We drank that until we got to the next water. We seldom needed to do that, maybe a couple times.

If you are travelling with a group or at least a partner it is easier to reach that threshold where a gallon starts to make sense, but it was even pretty rare for me when with a partner or group of three even in the dry American Southwest.

BTW, in the Sierras I did find a tiny filter worth carrying on the Sierra Cascades route. It was nice to filter ice cold mountain stream water for a quick cold drink when our bottles were hot. Most routes I didn't use it and usually don't carry one.