" My brothers call that mechanical pepper.  When you stick your finger in the water they all move away from it and leave a 1 inch clear area around your finger. I have never seen those more than a few feet away from shore."

see!  told ya that deet works



As far as filter life goes, especially for Quetico where there is usually a lot of pollen in the water when I go, I wrap a coffee filter around the inlet hose, which helps extend the filter life a lot for a pump filter.

I used a Katahdyn gravity filter last year (wrote a review of it on here) - after about day 6 it started running slow, and slowed up to a dribble by day 8 ot thereabluts, so I used both the gravity filter and the pump after day 8 (or maybe it was day 9).  The Katahdyn gravity filter setup allows access to the filter element, and I had wrapped a single coffee filter around it, but it really needed two coffee filters to cover completely, and that's what I'd do next time I bring it.

I'd take both I think, or at least take Iodine tablets or some other chemical treatment as a backup.  I didn't have any issue with needing to pump during the day (travel every day but one) as I'd bring an extra liter of filtered water along with me - carry the extra weight rather than take time to filter during travel. 

That would be for two people (it is nice to have the water filtering for you while setting up camp).  Solo, I'll just stick with my pump filter, as I only need about a gallon and a half per day at camp, and I don't find it to be that big a chore to sit down for a few minutes and pump the filter.  In part, that is due to having a system to make it as easy as possible - I get the water from the lake in a nylon bucket, and pump out of there from a comfortable seat on a log or rock, sitting on a pad.  gave up filtering directly out of the lake a long time ago as being awkward and uncomfortable.