On our last trip into the eastern High Sierra, we found ourselves camped at a lovely lake at about 10,000 feet that had all the amenities, minus one: the water in the lake wasn't as crystal clear as we'd come to expect.

And since we were using a filter to pump our water, we've learned that sediment or algae in the water can plug up the filter, and make pumping more difficult or even impossible. So we pre-filtered by putting the water through one of our bandanas first, and then pumping it through the filter. This is a great system, and gives you a much longer life on your filters.

So we pumped away about 6 p.m. in the evening, and then hung the soaking wet bandana up to dry in the sun. An hour later, we realized that we needed more water for the morning, and grabbed that bandana. It was bone dry.

We pumped away, and then put the bandana back up on the log to dry again. By the time it was getting dark, about 8:15, the bandana was dry again.

Not a lot of humidity up there.

The bandana is one of great small and light multi-purpose "tools". I've used it to collect sweat, hold things together, keep dust out of my face, as a bandage, and to prefilter water. When you have to dig for water, it works well to remove much of the fine sediment from the water. From there we just boiled or filtered it.

I like to use an elastic band and a coffee filter over the water intake on my pump. Does a great job at pre filtering and weighs almost nothing.

I've bought bandanas at several places, including REI (pricey) and the dye ran from them when they got wet, even after several washings. I would't want to drink that stuff!

Yeah, I've bought packs of cheap cotton wash cloths from the "Dollar Store" and they'll bleed dye until the cotton is gone. The red ones are the worst!

The one I have was given to me by the State of Texas...it's a promo piece for their wine industry.

And yeah, there are some good wines in Texas. Bandana isn't bad, either!