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oreamnos
7
Apr 23, 2018
An ultralight discussion should have when to use No filter. It's the only one I use in the Pacific Northwest, drink from streams and lakes without problem (not stagnant pools but a fellow hiker does with no filter nor illness. But maybe that's our older immune systems.)
I realize giardia can be found anywhere in varying amounts, have heard that 90 % don't get sick but believe that's in lower concentrations. It would be helpful to see data or at least anecdotes, any of yougotten sick? Where and what conditions? Did you use a filter? Thanks.
Talkswithdogs
0
Apr 27, 2018
oreamnosI lived in a tepee in the mountains of Montana for 1 year, through all the seasons. We had to get our water from a spring-fed creeks but was also accessible by livestock. We had seven English Mastiffs and two of us the water was always boiled for us and the dogs. Apparently the dogs got into the creek and drank, and my boyfriend drank the water as well. My boyfriend start having bloody stools, the 4 dogs start vomiting what look like pure blood and pooping out pure bloody diarrhea. It was during the snowy season we had to snowmobile in and out so I could not take the dogs to the vet. I did talk to him and he said it sounded like an E coli. I actually thought my dogs are going to die because they were losing so much blood and they were acting very lethargic and despondent. I've used colloidal silver for 20 years and it has always worked for everything I've needed it to. But you have to have a reputable good colloidal silver. Anyway my boyfriend start drinking the collidial silver my dogs drink the coillidial silver and all recovered quickly. Just an fyi
MasterRo
86
May 4, 2018
oreamnosI conducted a test where I heated water from an Oregon Lake, but not to the boiling point, maybe 190 degrees based on bubbles and bench testing at home. I had the water in a meal. Not long after I consumed the water, I having the churning sick gut feeling associated with untreated water. Before the critters could multiply, I took 7 drops of Grapefruit Seed extract in a quart of water. No longer after that, I notice I started feeling better but I could still notice some gut discomfort so I did another 7 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract in another quart of water, and drank that. As I recall, this happened over a period of less than two hours. After the second quart of water, the churning stopped and all was well. No side effects from the untreated water and none from the Grapefruit Fruit Seed Extract water.
idoc72
1181
May 9, 2018
oreamnosFor the first two decades of life, I never used a filter or chemical treatment - and I'm talking a lot of outings, as I lived in a very rural area without much to do other than outdoors activities (hiking, backpacking, scouting, hunting, fishing, etc). I never got sick. Part of that is probably attributable to the geography of North-central PA, and it's plentiful springs. Part of it was good knowledge and water selection habits taught by my dad (clear, cold, flowing water at or near its source to reduce risk of animal fecal contamination). Part of it was probably luck.
I wouldn't generally recommend it for most people/situations, but there are still some times here in the PNW that I drink straight from the source - almost exclusively at higher altitude where the spring is coming right out of the rock. Almost all of the water sources I draw from are pretty low risk (especially for crypto), so my go-to system for UL backpacking trips is usually Micro-pur tabs. Taste really isn't a problem for me.
donnahikes
16
May 31, 2018
MasterRoIf you felt queasy and ill within 2 or even 20 hours after consuming the water it was not cryptosporidium or giardia.
donnahikes
16
May 31, 2018
oreamnosI have been hiking in the PNW my entire life and always drank directly from running water sources. I still do but I carry a Sawyer gravity-fed (and Aqua-tabs in my emergency kit) because I've typically got my kids with me now and the trails are much more trafficked these days. I have had giardia once but I got that from hiking in Mexico--I drank filtered water but unknowingly brushed my teeth one night with unfiltered water--so I'm not sure you can make yourself immune from it since I obviously wasn't. I just grew up being told where to get water and where not to get water and either those teachings were correct or I just got lucky.
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