Filtered

I saw a Mr. Wizard type guy on TV and he showed the wick action of cleaning up muddy water. He said to put the muddy water in a container and place a clean towel from one container to another empty one that is at a little lower elevation. The clean water is sucked up by the towel and deposited into the empty container with out all the junk. If you boiled it or treated it for germs afterwards it would be perfectly safe. Chemical contamination is another thing entirely. So if the water has chemical pollution you couldn't do this. But if its just dirty or has leaves or debris in it, this would work.

Water Filter

 

Here is a camping tip - never send muddy water through your water purifier - it clogs it and doesn't work as well and won't last as long. Pour the water through a bucket of sand (hole punched out at bottom) or even "duff" from a forest floor. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with the stuff under the trees in a fir forest and see how clean the water runs out (we did this at outdoor school). Then send it through a purifier to get out microbes. Paper coffee filters work good too.... or let the water settle in a container, then skim off the top clear stuff.

Water Cleaning Tip