Cleaning and Water Purification

Cleaning up after cooking

The easiest thing to do is to bring food that is already in waterproof pouches, and which cooks and rehydrates when you add water to the pouch. Prepared backpacking food is like this, and some store bought food can be cooked this way.
To cook this food, you boil water in a pot and then pour the water into the bag. The pot stays clean.

If you cook in a pot, clean out as much food as you can after with your utensils. Wipe it out if possible. Then take untreated water and your scouring pad and soap, and clean out all the food. Finally, put more water in it and boil it with a lid on, thus purifying more water to drink and sterilyzing the pot.

Purifying water

To start with, use a cloth to filter large particles from water that you get from a lake or stream. Put the cloth over the top of a pot and dunk the pot in the water to fill it (without contaminating another container).

Backpaker magazine had this to say about water purification recently: "The contest between iodine and filters is really about convenience, taste, and ease of use, because neither eliminates all of the risk--only boiling does that."
The booklet Wilderness First Aid says "However, neither of these chemical systems [chlorine-based or iodine-based] works well against parasitic types of water-borne infection such as giardia....Simply bringing water to 150º F...is adequate to kill [bacteria, viruses, and parasites]."
Everyone should plan to boil the water they use to drink and rehydrate food. As soon as the water is fully boiling, it is safe to cool and drink.