At Home in the Wilderness

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As the last step, you should boil the collected stream water for 20 minutes to purify it. (Many wilderness experts recommend cooking the liquid for only five minutes, but that shorter processing will not kill some of the spore-stage bacteria that can infest drinking water.) You can accomplish this task by seither heating the water over a—fire or—if you don't have a suitable pan or a concave stone-dropping red-hot rocks, one by one, into your wooden water container until the liquid has been fully purified. (Caution: Use only rocks found on high ground. Stones from lowlands or waterways may contain trapped moisture and explode when heated.)

Always remember, though, that while long boiling neutralizes any biological contaminants, it does not destroy chemical pollutants.

Stone and wood catches: A depression in a rock—sometimes called a kettle—or a shallow hole in the nook of a tree or stump may contain water. Such pockets are numerous in both forests and deserts, but these are generally undesirable catches because the water doesn't last long before it either evaporates or is contaminated by bacteria.

If you do want to drink from a pocket of water in a stump or a limb cavity; first make sure the tree is not poisonous. Also, check to see that no animals live in the water, that a profusion of algae doesn't grow there, and that it hasn't picked up a bad taste from wood tannins and resins. (Rock kettles, too, can contain toxins if the collected water has run down over higher poison—containing stones. This is especially common around old mining areas.)

Soak up the water from the catch with a piece of cloth or some dried grasses, wring it out into a container, then filter and boil the fluid as described in the last section. (A second reminder, though: Never use plants that may be poisonous, for either collecting or filtering water.)

Lowland catches: These are merely areas where the soil is soft and damp. To collect the moisture, simply dig a hole until water begins to seep into it, and gather your liquid with a piece of cloth or dried grasses. Again, wring the absorbing material out over a container—repeating the process until you've accumulated the water you need—then filter and purify it. The work will often go more smoothly and efficiently if you dig and draw from more than one hole at a time.

In some areas, particularly sandy bottomlands, ravines, and dried riverbeds, the water is usually pure and—in an emergency where purification is impossible—can be drunk as it's gathered. At the opposite extreme, though, I advise completely avoiding catches containing ocean, cave, timberland, or farm water . . . any of which may well contain chemical pollutants.

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