Canada Day Paddle & Gear Review

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians! Got to take the canoe out into the lake in overcast conditions to celebrate our nation's birthday on the water.
 

Also took the time to test out a new bit of gear - an ultralight water filtration system called the Sawyer Squeeze. It consists of a plastic dirty water bag and a 0.1 micron hollow fiber filter that screws onto the bags threads. It's been reviewed by backpackers before but haven't seen it done for the paddling crowd yet. Here is the bundle in the hull...

The two components of the system side by side. The bag has handy instructions printed right onto it in case you forget the order of things....

Basically you dip the bag into a water source, in this case the deepest sections of my cottage lake, and wait to fill up. The collapsible design of the bag with its narrow threaded opening means the bag won't fill completely, but I helped it along by blowing the bag full of air before submerging. Here's a shot leaning over the gunnels to fill up...

The filter screws onto the threaded opening and with a gentle squeeze water starts flowing through the filter system...

Pop open the flow valve on the top and you're good to go for a quick drink....

I ended up using the supplied 16oz bag and there is no way that this fills up to capacity when trying to submerge in a body of water. The kit I got contains a medium (1L) and large (2L) size bag but I don't fully trust their capacities either. Still, the threaded section is pretty standard so an empty plastic bottle would also work. I found it very convenient to keep in the boat and to quickly pause to stay hydrated. I can see the advantages of this over having to pump water on route. The manufacturer has openly said the bags are not very tough, so extreme squeezing cause the seams to burst, but so far most of the reviews I've read on the product have been positive. My quick experience here has confirmed this will be a key bit of gear in my kit. 

Also took some video of trying out this system to show how easy it is to use while bobbing up and down on a wavy lake. Here's the unedited footage...

 

July 5th Update: Bryan H of Paddling Light has also reviewed this piece of gear. Check out his more detailed analysis HERE