Are you looking to tap it for all your water needs or just to fill your canteens? When I was last in the Lakes I used a spring like you describe for a couple of days, I just dug out a shallow hole where it was bubbling out and waited for the silt to be carried away, then filled my bottles... Bingo
Needed to be dug again in the morning but 5mins work for fresh waters a good deal to me.
And yes 'a Muddy Hole' is the technical term
I'd like to be able to use it for all my water needs whilst camping there for a weekend. I won't be using it as my everyday water supply. It rises at several points close to each other, and the ground is
very boggy. The bog goes down to knee-depth - I know, I've tried it
Last time I was down there I managed to get some water from it by dangling a collapsible bucket under one of the tiny falls, but this isn't practical longterm, and contained a lot of silt. In the end we decided to use it as grey water, and used the tap water I'd brought from home for cooking and drinking - we had young children with us so needed to err on the safe side.
Next time I'm down there I'd like to use it for making a brew, but would need to strain it in some way to get rid of the creepy-crawlies and the silt. How is that best done? Would muslin or similar be the right thing to use? Remember this is a camping trip, not a survival expedition so if its going to cost too much in monetary and time terms, then I'll just carry on taking my own tap water.
Thanks for all the info so far copper_head, very interesting.
G