Forum Index > Trail Talk > Drinking the water at Twin Lakes (Monte Cristo)
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Elliott Haybaler
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Elliott Haybaler
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 1:13 pm 
Is drinking the water at Twin Lakes not advisable? I was up there this week and had just a great time. I would like to camp there, but that would be a difficult place to haul enough water for two nights. I have read so many conflicting accounts of drinking the water in this area (although the smart consensus seems to be not do so). I was just reading a Jeff Smoot account of filtering his water out of Glacier Creek or environs (he wasn't recommending drinking the water, I think he matter of factly brought it up.....he was talking with a local who had been drinking out of the same water unfiltered for 30 years). Not that filtering it will make it any less poisonous....... On that subject, I noticed a note on the bulletin board at Monte Cristo that said hikers should wash their shoes off upon returning at home. How can the Stillaguamish be such a great place to fish for steelhead if this area is so laced with carcinogens? (I'm learning a lot about this area right now, so off the top of my head I can't think of where the headwaters of the Stillaguamish are.....)

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Backpacker Joe
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 2:04 pm 
Bummer, I drank the water at Twin Lakes years ago. I think Im still breathing. doh.gif

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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greg
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 2:12 pm 
I drank it a couple weeks ago and I'm still here too, athough for some reason refrigerator magnets keep jumping onto me. BTW, that river ain't the Stillaguamish, it's the South Fork of the Sauk, part of the Skagit system. And the poor Stilly, it's not so great for steelhead anymore.

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Elliott Haybaler
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 2:23 pm 
So is the whole "don't drink the water" advice overblown? What if you were at Gothic Basin? I've heard of people drinking the water there, too, and apparently it's a bad idea. I'm not Chicken Little, I'm just curious is all. Besides, I would carry water into any of these places (even Twin Lakes, I guess) for camping, they are so great.

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jenjen
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 2:34 pm 
I've drunk the water at Gothic Basin, and I'm still breathing. (at least, I think I am)

If life gives you melons - you might be dyslexic
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Elliott Haybaler
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 3:07 pm 
I just did a search on this site and found some information on this subject. Sorry, guess I'm just another noob rehashing old topics. Maybe the moderators can delete this post.......

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jenjen
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 3:15 pm 
It's a good question. There's no need to apologize, and no need to delete anything. You even posted it in the right forum! wink.gif

If life gives you melons - you might be dyslexic
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Elliott Haybaler
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 3:17 pm 
Thanks Jen smile.gif

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Slugman
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 7:33 pm 
I was told that Silver lake water shouldn't be consumed but that Twin lakes is OK (I forget by whom, but it was somebody experienced in the area). All water has some bad stuff in it, it's really a question of how much. Someone here once mentioned a map that shows where mine runoff is located. Apparently one small stream can be unsafe to drink while several nearby streams are perfectly fine.

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Dayhike Mike
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 7:50 pm 
Hey Sluggy, think that was me... wink.gif Twin Lakes is fine. Silver is not so fine.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke "Ignorance is natural. Stupidity takes commitment." -Solomon Short
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jimmymac
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 8:40 pm 
Rumpus Doodle wrote:
...Maybe the moderators can delete this post.......
You've gotta be kidding! clown.gif

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-lol-
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 9:02 pm 

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Elliott Haybaler
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PostThu Sep 14, 2006 9:04 pm 
Thanks 2drx! That was a great link........

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Foist
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PostFri Sep 15, 2006 11:47 am 
is this all about whether you should drink it even with a filter?

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jenjen
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PostFri Sep 15, 2006 6:22 pm 
Yes. Old mining techniques left some nasty heavy metals that leach into some of the streams around those old mines. These aren't safe to drink out of, even after filtering the water.

If life gives you melons - you might be dyslexic
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