No camping between Alec Kennedy & Darlington shelters in PA

[HankIV]

Exactly. Most backpacking filters remove particles, bacteria, and viruses but not pesticides or other hazardous chemicals which may also be in the water in more civilized areas like the Cumberland Valley in PA. Also if the water's dirty or stagnant the particles can clog your filter.

Most actually don’t remove viruses. Which in most cases in the US is okay. Would not be okay there, for me.

[Daybreak]

You are correct on all accounts I got the but in the wrong place.

[JNI64]

Can you not boil prior to filtering for bacteria and viruses?
Chemical and pesticides you'd need a filter for such.

[JNI64]

But better be safe where there's cow poop there might be chemicals.

[Seatbelt]

you can't put gasoline through your filter and expect cleaning drinking water to come out the other end. It doesn't work that way.

No one is suggesting this, it has nothing to do with this discussion.
I did do some research about water filters and it is basically inconclusive considering the wide variety of types and filtering methods, construct, etc. Purity claims are sparse to say the least. I also did some research and found that farmland chemicals and pesticides that may not be "filtered" by a common backpacker's filter normally take a large quantity of ingestion over an extended period of time in order to do any serious damage to one's health.
I have not seen any AT guides that warn anyone to avoid drinking this water [as they do in some areas] because of contaminants, but there may be that I am not aware of.
My only contention in all of this was the belief that there is "NO water" between Boiling Springs and Darlington. Not first choice for sure but usable in a pinch.

[peakbagger]

Chemical contamination of water supplies is very rarely an immediate problem, its far more of a cumulative thing. Much of Maine and NH waters may look pristine but there are fish consumption advisories in both states due to long term mercury contamination from atmospheric deposition of mercury from mis west cola fired power plants. The coal power plant fleet is slowly going away but the contamination of the waters is going to be "forever" (or unitl the next glacier comes by and rearranges the landscape). No one hiking through Maine or NH is going to curl up and die due to low level Mercury pollution but its there are its best to avoid long term exposure or bio- accumulative sources. Same thiing with potential chemical contamination of streams in farm areas.

[Crossup]

Funny how people worry about the Boiling Springs section and also the Roller Coaster. Both are highly over rated for difficulty. I decided to play it safe and assume doing twice my normal mileage would not be easy, so I planned only to do the 14 miles needed. In reality even on a 95 deg day I ended up doing 26+ miles and could have easily made the next shelter south of James Fry but then I would have had to hike back as my exit was the Twirly Top Ice Cream store. I should add, I spent at least 2 hours in "town" getting lunch and visiting the ATC office so its not even a long day to do this leg.

[Seatbelt]

Funny how people worry about the Boiling Springs section and also the Roller Coaster. Both are highly over rated for difficulty. I decided to play it safe and assume doing twice my normal mileage would not be easy, so I planned only to do the 14 miles needed. In reality even on a 95 deg day I ended up doing 26+ miles and could have easily made the next shelter south of James Fry but then I would have had to hike back as my exit was the Twirly Top Ice Cream store. I should add, I spent at least 2 hours in "town" getting lunch and visiting the ATC office so its not even a long day to do this leg.

I agree, even an old, slow hiker like me made it from Kennedy shelter to Duncannon in a day and a half.

[HankIV]

I agree, even an old, slow hiker like me made it from Kennedy shelter to Duncannon in a day and a half.

Also agree it is easy. And mmmmm, Twirly Top!

[Crash]

Get a hammock then you have no problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Solemates]

Hey we are looking for a shuttle in this area in a few weeks. Anyone know some reputable shuttles?

[Seatbelt]

Brian 317-695-3572

[Captain Blue]

I used Michael's Shuttle Service

[email protected] ~ 717-497-6022