[Erik the Nav]

http://www.yosemite.org/naturenotes/Giardia.htm A sierra hiker's take on how people get infected, water source contamination, and why he's never gotten sick in 50 years of sierra hiking without filtering. A bit long, but I thought Stefan would like to see it. And maybe some others of you. I think his conclusion is: "Sierra water is safer than San Francisco city water: if you are getting sick, it's from your camp cook's unclean hands." be interesting to see what you all think.

[Backpacker Joe]

Great article. Thanks. I never treat the water either. Been runinng around the cascades 25 years.

[#19]

Thanks Erik. Love an article that supports my side of an issue. Appears pretty comprehesive. I have often noticed how less likely someone is to wash their hands while hiking and backpacking. Seems like there is an unspoken philosophy of "it's OK to be less clean in the mountains". How many people ever wash there hands on a day trip? I'd think not many.

[#19]

Backpacker Joe, I'm with you on not treating water, but I have exceptions. One is the Enchantments. All those people and what is coming out of them daily, kind of creeps me. I spike the water with iodine in the Enchantments. I know you've spent a lot of time there. Curious if you drink that water straight?

[polarbear]

"Cysts are 8 - 12 mm long by 6 - 9 mm in diameter; so a million could fit under a fingernail. " I wonder if the units are mixed up. If the cyst were 7mm diamter: 1mm=.001meters .007meter x .007meters x 3.14 [pi] =0.00015386 sq. meters 0.00015386 sq. meters x 1000000 [1 million] =153.86 sq. meters Did I do the math wrong, or have fingernails gotten shorter since 1984? Even if the units were micrometers, 1.5386 sq. cm is a pretty long nails. Most nails that long would have nail polish on them--wouldn't that kill the giardias ?

[salish]

Erik, Great article, thanks for posting it. I'm another hiker who drank from streams and collected camp water in buckets from streams all my life (mid 1950's to early 90's) and never got sick. I've been boiling or treating, or filtering water for the past several years because of what I've read. I know of at least one other person on this board who does not treat the water he drinks, and has never been sick. Although I didn't see it in the article, or may have missed it, I would guess that those of us who have spent many years drinking from streams carry the giardia bug, as well as other bugs. I sometimes wonder if I should just leave my filter at home and just bring some iodine in case I can't find good looking water to drink. Anyway, thanks for the thought provoking article. Cliff

[lopper]

I've never used a filter and have had no gastro-problems in countless Cascade hikes and climbs since 1968. Dr Roberts' article explains some of the likely reasons. Thanks for posting it, Erik. For another take on the "what-me-worry" viewpoint, read what Yvon Chouinard has to say about the giardia/hand-washing topic (on page 3): http://outside.away.com/outside/sports/200111/200111hard_way_1.adp

[Malachai Constant]

I think they meant nanometers or perhaps microns

[Mike Collins]

If an organism were measured in mm lengths as the article states you wouldn't need a scanning electron microscope to take photos. You could use the macro lens on your camera or use the magnifier lens on your compass. The Giardia lamblia is a protozoan measured with micron references. Nanometers, or billionths of a meter, are used to measure viruses. Hepatitis B virus averages about 22nm in size.

[Backpacker Joe]

Yes sir I am an Enchantment water drinker! I'll filter the water if I'm ever in elsalvador! Here in the good ole USA, na! TB

[Erik the Nav]

Glad you all found it interesting. Not sure I'm willing to drop all treatment plans. And yes, I'd noticed the apparent unit of measure error, didn't help in an othewise seemingly thorough article. The Chouinard comment is a hoot, I liked it - I see the point, but I think I'm for adapting my environment to me, by and large. Not that I don't like getting out in the woods and dealing with it, but I spent a few years living without electricity and running water, and my take on it is it sucks. Hell, we adapt 'wilderness areas' to our uses by building nice comfy trails through them. Scariest place I've been for water was camping at "lunchcounter" on Adams. Zillions of people, meltwater coming off the snowfield they were camped on, no blue bag issue, no backcountry toilet -- yeah, wandered out of the way and got some (late season consolidated) snow, but I still boiled the hell out of it before wanting to drink it. Or maybe the wellwater when I was a kid.. we were all getting sick, checked the (30' deep hand dug) well and found a dead squirrel in it. I got lowered in with a rope to clean the whole well out - couldn't see stars looking up, I was disappointed. Fun muddy job for a kid, though. that's enough tangents for one post!

[Allison]

Interesting piece, and a good argument for no more filtering...if you aren't worried about Crypto, which has no cure.

[Dano]

I've been hiking for 25 years myself. I never used to treat my water but in the past ten years or so I've used a filter. I've NEVER been ill. Unfortunately, like many things in life, it's a different world today than years ago. The number of people in the field and on the trail is PHENOMENAL compared to what it used to be. This comes with a corresponding increase in the impact on the water quality. I (we all) have seen behavior of some people that was questionable. My thought these days is why would you NOT filter the water? It adds/subtracts nothing from the taste and provides that added measure of piece of mind. I'm also very mindful of not only the local area where I'm getting the water from, but also of what's likely to be uphill from the water as well. Because you know, you just can't drink enough water...

[Allison]

My big thing with it comes down to weight. There is nothing that I know about that has been proven reliable in killing crypto and giardia that doesn't weigh around a pound. Filters are good and reliable, and HEAVY. I'd love to not carry one but I see no compelling reason to stop just yet!

[kleet]

Thanks for the link to the article. Very interesting take on the subject. I fought against the notion of filtering or treating water for a long time. I hiked for probably 15-20 years without doing so and never got sick. Same with one of my hiking buddies who got out a lot more than I did. Then one day two years ago...he got giardia. His experience really opened my eyes. He was pretty torn up by the bug and it didn't seem like the thing I wanted to have happen to me. Plus, in recent years I've really noticed the increase in the number of hikers in the areas I frequent and some of their bad habits -- makes me a little squeamish about what may lie unseen in those idyllic bodies of water. Now to find out it may have been because of poor hygiene on his part?