17 Things I Keep In My First Aid Kit

I recently re-packed my first aid kit that I take backpacking, and I thought I would share what I carry in mine.  This is not necessarily meant to be an educational post, since what you will carry in your first aid kit should be fairly personal and customized for the duration of your trips, the places you go, and the kinds of ailments you might reasonably have to treat in the field.  It should also reflect your know-how.  A shaman might need less or different things than me, because I don't know how to forage for special medicinal herbs. 

Water, Water Everywhere... My Backcountry Water Treatment Dissertation

 

"Water, water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink" - an oft quoted excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, expresses the desperation of a ship's crew adrift at sea, surrounded by salt water but out of clean drinking water, and without a breeze to blow them to land.  The poem is much deeper and darker than that, but the quote comes to my mind when I think about drinking water during backpacking.

This will probably be my most controversial post to date - simply because people are generally passionate in believing that whatever method they've chosen is the best and everyone else who does something differently is loco.  I will describe to you how I gather and treat water in the backcountry currently, as well as methods I've used and discarded in the past.  It's really easy to argue about water treatment methods, which ones work, which are the best, etc.  Everyone has their own preference, this post is about mine.