Contaminated water can cause Peyronie’s decease.
Contaminated water can cause Peyronie’s decease.
It really comes down to where you hike and where is your water source.
Even when hiking in Nepal and Thailand, i often don't treat water I find in the backcountry.
If I know there are no houses above me and the water is flowing and coming out of the ground, I drink it. Straight!
The AT is getting so overcrowded and people must shyt somewhere right?
So, I would suspect a lot of water sources along it's trail more than other trails.
And when I do treat water, it is not with an expensive, heavy, time consuming filter. I use tablets.
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams
Well, I'm a coward. I filter AND treat all my water. Period. There are enough things that can go wrong without dealing with a preventable illness. Besides, I hate throwing up more than about anything else in the world.
For the cost of a few dollars and a bit of time you have water that may be cleaner than if you just drank from the source. But what is that filter or tablets? It insurance that if statistically you are the unlucky bugger that draws from a contaminated source your trip won't end with jets out the rear end and technicolor yawns out of the top end or worse. It's the same reason that aussies or people that walk here carry a PLB. Statistically your chances of being bitten by a snake are very low, but if you are on a remote trail, and are bitten, then there is a good chance you will die without one. It's insurance, just like taking out car, house and contents or life insurance.
"He was a wise man who invented beer." Plato
It's all a conspiracy. Really?
Water nasties are real. They exist.
Giardasis is an actual infection diagnosed by medical professionals accurately.
Claim there are individually adjustable risks - low, med, high, etc - to drinking untreated unfiltered unpurified water but to unequivocally headline an article with that title is medically irresponsible.
Well, in a way the article is right.
Getting the craps isn't that bad for most people, if not on trail at time.
I seen a fkt sidelined by giardia once. The person still made it 100+ miles stopping every 30 min to crap.
Most people Will get over it by themselves with time
But your right as well
A few weak individuals can die
People have died from cryptosporidium outbreaks in municipal water supplies
A few out of tens of thousands. So there's your risk.
Google 1993 Milwaukee outbreak of crypto. 400,000 sickened, 100 died. Maybe 900,000 exposed.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 02-04-2018 at 02:01.
When I was in high school we went on canoe trips down several different rivers in Texas and when we needed a drink we just dipped a cup in the river and drank. The rivers often passed beside cow pastures, the water was brown and full of particulates and had the occasional dead animal floating downstream. I never got sick. Would I do that today? No way. I would treat the water and not trust to luck.
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.
Consider this scenario.
There are three glasses of water on the table.
Glass one was filled directly from an unopened bottle of Poland Spring water.
Glass two was filled with water from an unopened bottle of Poland Spring that had then been run through a used.Sawyer Mini. That Sawyer Mini had been carried on an AT thru hike for the past 5 months.
Glass three was filled with water from a fast flowing mountain stream in Maine or NH.
Assuming your decision is based on health considerations alone, would you prefer to drink from one of the three glass over another? If so, which glass would you reach for?
obvious, right?
But which glass would you select after the one filled directly from the unopened bottle of Poland Spring is gone?
I always got a kick out of watching 'em pump and filter and play with their chemistry sets. With my Peyronie’s I find I can hit the g spot every time.