SLATE: Actually, Backpackers, You Don’t Need to Filter Your Stream Water

[Devonai]

Back when I was much younger and before the Army taught me to bring a few score pounds of water everywhere, I took a chance on a mountain creek on Carter Dome and refilled my canteens.  The water was flowing from a crack in a rock face and I hoped for the best.  Fortunately I did not suffer for my lack of planning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Dome

[KD5NRH]

Another option is my everyday one quart nalgene bottle goes everywhere with me, I found a nylon carrier sleeve for it and a 16 oz aluminum pot that just barely nests in it. All I need now is a fire.

The IMUSA .7L aluminum cup (Walmart sometimes has them in housewares, or imusa.com has free-but-slow shipping) is a perfect fit for the cheapest of the eBay Trangia stove knockoffs.  With the stove's carrying bag, it's a snug fit in the cup, and the cup just fits on the pot holder.  The bag is also just big enough to use as a pot holder on the (also aluminum) cup handle.  The stove I have seals well enough to carry it full, and a mini-Bic fits between the stove and holder.  Enough room left in the cup for tea bags, instant coffee packs and sugar packets.  Stuff your other supplies in the cup, use the stove to plug it, and you've got a pretty compact kit.

DO NOT drink hot stuff directly from the aluminum cup, unless you have a lip guard, though.  212F metal against your lip is a regrettable experience.

[BlueStarLizzard]

If I have the option, I'm going to use a filter, thankyouverymuch.

Given how cheap, lightweight and easily used the damn things are these days, there is absolutely no good reason to not use them, even if the risk of catching a nasty bug is a remote one. I mean, really, you can get water bottles with BUILT IN FILTERS so you're not even taking any extra time to fill up than you would if you weren't filtering.

[just Warren]

Next on Slate: Why you don't have to wash your hands after using the toilet.

[freakazoid]

How did people who traveled out in the wild do it in the way back when before these type of things existed? Simply start up a fire and boil every single time they got a drink?

[KD5NRH]

How did people who traveled out in the wild do it in the way back when before these type of things existed? Simply start up a fire and boil every single time they got a drink?

Way fewer people crapping upstream. 

[just Warren]

But way more animals.

[sumpnz]

They probably already had so many parasites a few more didn't matter.

[KD5NRH]

But way more animals.

Not everything a deer can get is dangerous to humans.  Plus, before today's relatively sterile civilization, folks had much stronger immune systems.

[230RN]

Quote from: dogmush on February 04, 2018, 11:36:02 AM

I thunk it really matters how far "backcountry" you are.

I've drunk unfiltered stream water in the back country, but I was OFF the beaten path.

There is always the possibility of animal crap, dead things, or non-human contaminations.

^^^

This. I used to drink unfiltered stream water in back country when I was a teenager and in my twenties, but that was half a century ago. I wouldn't do it today, unless it was a purely survival (i.e. drink water or die) situation.

^, ^^

Me too, and although I don't venture upcountry / outdoors anymore, at the last, I started to carry a small tightly sealed container of Clorox® along.  (Tightly sealed because of the altitude change.  "Open Carefully.")

Terry

[Hawkmoon]

DO NOT drink hot stuff directly from the aluminum cup, unless you have a lip guard, though.  212F metal against your lip is a regrettable experience.

So is 212F water ...

[K Frame]

My scoutmaster used to have a cup that had some sort of insulated rim that didn't get hot so you didn't burn your lips on it. Sierra cup?

[lupinus]

How did people who traveled out in the wild do it in the way back when before these type of things existed? Simply start up a fire and boil every single time they got a drink?

More used to dealing with such things. Consider locals drinking the water but tourists should stay far the hell away.

Or, you know, died from dysentery and such.

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[MechAg94]

More used to dealing with such things. Consider locals drinking the water but tourists should stay far the hell away.

Or, you know, died from dysentery and such.

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I seem to remember diseases such as dysentery and such went through some areas quite often.  That is another reason some people drank a lot of tea, beer, or wine.  Water could be deadly. 

How many of the old explorers/travelers lived very long?  We only hear about a few of them that are known.  I imagine there was a lot of knowledge/practices the knew or did that they would have assumed everyone knew in their time.

[MechAg94]

I was also thinking I have heard of people saying when men traveled into unexplored regions of the US they didn't encounter as much disease and people would sometimes heal from injuries that would get infected back in civilization.  I imagine there is more "stuff" floating around just about anywhere due to the number of people and cities scattered around the world.  There are few places you can go where people are not already living upwind or upstream.

[Ben]

How did people who traveled out in the wild do it in the way back when before these type of things existed? Simply start up a fire and boil every single time they got a drink?

I suppose there is also an environment/heredity/ Darwin aspect to it. People who drank crappy water and lived long did so because it didn't kill them, as obvious as that sounds. Why do dogs drink crappy water with a smile on their face?

The people who drank bad water and survived had bodies that were able to process it, I guess. Those who didn't, died. We've insulated ourselves with civilization, which means a lot of people who shouldn't be alive, are. I'm not trying to be callous, but without heating and cooling and vaccinations and inspected food and treated water, a lot of people wouldn't be alive. Because they are, and they reproduce, I suppose we're producing "less sturdy" humans.

Even "sturdy humans" will kick the bucket if they get bad enough water. Refer to cholera. There was an interesting Hell on Wheels episode on cholera, where they even kept it sorta historically accurate in that no one knew what to do, other than to try and drill for a new water source. Boiling their supply never occurred to them.

[Pb]

But way more animals.

Yup.  Giardia and Leptospirosis are transmitted by coon feces. 

I have read that locals' immune systems learn to deal with bad water to some degree, and they don't necessarily have the same bad reaction that visitors to to contaminated water.

Always take Imodium with you when you travel.  I carry it in my car first aid kit.