Water - to treat or not to treat

[hogabum]

What do most people do?

Do you:
a. drink bottled water only
b. filter water
c. treat water
d. drink right out of the stream and take your chances.............

 

[dentonfabrics]

Uhhh....how about tap water? Tap water is pretty good in my town. I fill up my bladder strait from the tap, throw in some powdered Gatorade and ice cubes and I'm ready.

Bob

 

[Rivet]

Most of time (a) - about 4 liters worth.

Once in a while I'll bring a filter.

P.S. You may want to post this as a poll - then people can vote and a tally is kept.

 

[Tom Rankin]

What do most people do?

Do you:
a. drink bottled water only
b. filter water
c. treat water
d. drink right out of the stream and take your chances.............

'a.', 'b.', 'c', and 'd.' Depends...

If I don't know there will be water available, 'a.'

(I assume 'bottled' means in a Nalgene type bottle)

If I do, I have a filter and the aqua mira drops. If I bring the filter, I usually use it. It's heavier than drops. The drops usually taste ok, but the last time out, with fairly warm water, it tasted a little like chlorine. No biggie.

If there is a pipe, the water is typically safe to drink unfiltered. I've done this many times in many places, and never gotten sick. I also drank from a stream once in the Catskills and did not get sick, as we had run out of water. I do not recommend this. But, I am told that you will usually not get sick for 24 hours, so you will at least make it out, rather than be dehydrated. The choice is yours to make, given the circumstances.

 

[sapblatt]

Carry in 3-5 liters from home and filter when needed. Also have tablets. I would not drink unfiltered... seems like too much of a gamble to me. I have met a few people that had giardia and it just is not worth it. I do drink a lot in the heat.

 

[ripple]

I start out w/ 1 to 2 liters of tap water, then filter as I need to. I try not to hike w/ any more then 2 liters, the only time I carry more is when I know the next water source is farther then the 2 liters will get me.

 

[Rik]

I bring some in bottles, filter some, and depending on where I am drink some right from a stream. I'm not convinced this is any more risky than drinking from a tap. YMMV

 

[SAR-EMT40]

I filter my water. I know that the chances of contracting Giardia is pretty slim but if you get it then its 100%. I know people that have had it and it doesn't appear to be pleasant. I also know that the odds of getting it from a stream appears to be less likely (refering to the old thread) then getting it from unwashed hands, but I still filter, and I wash my hands.

I have never really worried about it and am even less worried about it now.

Keith

 

[David Metsky]

I carry either 3 or 4 liters usually. I'll carry iodine as a backup. There are two springs that I will drink out of (Edmands and Gulfside) without filtering, all the rest I filter or treat. When camping I filter or boil.

-dave-

 

[onestep]

On a day hike I'll take city tap water.
With that said, I will also try to drink raw (untreated) water at least once during the hike. I carry a plastic cup on the outside of my pack for that.

On a multi day backpack, I drink a LOT of raw water. I do take Aqua-Mira and/or a gravity filter for the really nasty stuff though.

Onestep

 

[Waumbek]

Dayhikes, I carry enough from the tap (deep artesian well water) at home. On backpacks if the load is not too heavy, I take the filter (always with iodine as backup). If the backpack load is up-there-heavy to start, I chuck the filter and go with iodine alone, although I carry home-made filters (sometimes coffee filters or even cheesecloth) to strain out the larger frogs and newts. I dip one very lightweight "contaminated" container into the water directly, then strain into the container that will get treated, trying to avoid getting the unpurified water on the threads on the outside. I adopted this regimen in about 1983, and that's when my last (and only) case of giardia was. I would never drink straight from any outside water source again unless I was on the brink of the alternative--serious dehydration.

Has anyone had experience with the new(ish) purification system that passes UV rays, I think, through the water and runs on batteries? I saw one the other day at EMS but thought I'd like to hear reports about it before I tried it.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

When I wwas in the desert, it was (a), but otherwise it is (c) and (d). I gave up on filters some time ago, and just use iodine. It is so much quicker. You don't even have to sit down! I don't really mind the tasste, and if you get water from a real swampy place, you don't even notice the iodine taste.

There are also a number of streams from which I will drink untreated.

 

[Gris]

I carry Aquamira drops, platypus baldder, extra platy bladder AND 32 oz "filter bottle." If hiking where I know there's lots of water (e.g., streamside) I just fill up the filter bottle every so often. Otherwise, I fill one bladder with tap water and look to fill/treat the other when first gets low. But I'm notoriously bad about waiting too long to fill the second bladder as well as remembering to drink enough during the day.

 

[twigeater]

I don't own a filter. I bring my own well or bottled water to start with, drink spring and other water "straight" on the trail, or treat with iodine. The equalizer works well for the taste, though it's never bothered me.
I may be sorry some day...

 

[DougPaul]

On a day hike, I generally carry enough (city tap) water from home. If I pass by a hut, I might plan on refilling. I carry iodine and use it on stream or pond water if I need to refill from nature. My frequent partner usually carries a filter, so we use it if need be.

For an overnight: boil, iodine, or filter--depends on time of year and what gear we brought.

I always carry tincture of iodine in a dropper bottle. (I don't mind the tase.) Lightweight, quick, easy, effective for most pathogens. If I was really worried, I'd boil or filter plus iodine.

Doug

 

[bobandgeri]

We try to drink lots of water on hikes, so carry up to 5 liters each depending on the length of the hike. Anything over 6 miles in non-winter months we bring a filter with is and have used it quite a bit, for ourselves and others. On hikes like the one we did Sunday (16 miles and no streams) it was very important - we managed to filter 3 liters from a large puddle in the middle of the trail. On that we ran out of water just as we reach the car, even though we also carried a bunch.

 

[Bluethroatedone]

Filter, Boil, use drops, Drink out of stream

I really do all of the above...recently been using jetboil as its the fastest...I honestly believe that if you strong imune system you can drink the water...so why do I continue to treat my water....who knows

 

[luv2hike]

We both fill up our bladders from the tap at home. If there are streams on the trail then we bring along the filter. If not, then we each bring one to two nalagen bottles of tap water depending on the miles and the temperature.

 

[dundare]

I never filtered water I drank in the Whites until about 5 years ago. My dad always said if its fast moving water in a stream, you can drink it. Its its slow moving or standing, then boil. That advice worked well for the hiking I did from 4-18 and then after a number of years off I started filtering or using iodine because it seemed a consensus on the net that you should.

However, since then I have read plenty of things that have caused me to reconsider the necessity of it, but like SAR said giardia sounds rough to have...

 

[DougPaul]

giardia sounds rough to have...

Been there, done that. Not on my "to be repeated" list.

Doug