HTI Hydropack

This weekend I went up and took a Wild Edibles class from Hammer Stryke Self-Reliance in Mariposa, Ca. (I’ll do a separate post on the class later) After the class I was talking with the instructor about water when you are out in areas not equipped with a faucet. I mentioned that I was a big fan of HTI Hydropacks, and no one else had heard of them before. I first heard about HTI products right after (or during) hurricane Katrina, there was talk of using hydropacks in the nasty water in the area, and that the technology worked well. For those that want to skip the rest of what I have to say and check out the company and product, link here.

Basically, the hydropack is a sports drink mix inside of a reverse osmosis filter pouch. The pack comes with filter/mix and a straw. Take the filter/mix and throw it into water (lake/stream/puddle) and wait while the reverse osmosis action sucks up moisture making a nice flavored drink in the pouch for you. Once you have the pouch filled, clean of a section of the pouch and punch the straw through just like a kids drink. For more detailed instructions the link above has even more links to pdf brochures.

A few personal notes on the hydropacks. They say 10-12 hours to fill a pack, but the most I’ve ever seen one of mine take is 5 hours. Granted I usually throw a couple in whatever water is nearby when I set up camp for the night and retrieve them in the morning before packing up and moving on the next morning. Also, the packs are fairly resilient. I have had them in my backpack through a couple camping trips, leaving them packed in the bag between trips, and haven’t had one fail yet. Lastly, they are LIGHT! The dry packs are barely noticeable weight, so packing a few just for backup is a no-brainer.