[Upstream]

When I was young, foolish, and ill-prepared, I did. Now, even fishing the smallest streams, I prefer to filter from a tributary. And I wouldn't bank my health on being "absolutely sure."

[MikeSep]

Originally Posted by Silvercreek

No, I use a Steripen...

Steripen here too...

Sep

[Robspe7370]

I used to drink water from the spring at the Caps Mill by the Mitchell....never got sick....I know of a couple now that I would still feel safe from because gravity keeps the water pouring out of the rocks and not collecting in pools.

However, a friend of mine told me their sister drank froma spring in Rocky Mountain national park,caught Giardia, and had to get a few surgeries from the infection.

[Scud]

Yep. Ran into a guy at the archery range a couple of months ago who had most of his colon removed over this. Rare,
but not worth it.

[jc-l]

Yeesh. Well, we didn't know any better, so I guess we were lucky. I also used to go with my grandma to the Bedford Springs to fill up jugs with water. This was not uncommon practice at the time, and I never heard of anyone getting sick from that.

I'll also take a moment now to recommend an essential book: How to **** in the Woods. Actually, I don't know how extremely scientific it is, but it makes for a good conversation starter.

[adamr]

Steri pen for me. I got the water bottle filter kit. Screw it on your one liter bottle, submerge to fill, pop out the filter, put in the steri pen for nintey seconds. Good water, whole outfit about a 1/2 pound.

[FlyDoctor]

Originally Posted by jc-l

Yeesh. Well, we didn't know any better, so I guess we were lucky. I also used to go with my grandma to the Bedford Springs to fill up jugs with water. This was not uncommon practice at the time, and I never heard of anyone getting sick from that.

I'll also take a moment now to recommend an essential book: How to **** in the Woods. Actually, I don't know how extremely scientific it is, but it makes for a good conversation starter.

I think that the widespread expansion of Giardia occurred in the 1980s so maybe you were on the early end of that. There used to be a spring like that on RT211 going up to SNP. Had a really nice stone wall with a galvanized water pipe--folks stopped all the time to fill up water jugs of good spring water. The park service or the highway dept finally had to take out the pipe because of contamination a number of years ago. Like Dylan said, "the times they are a changin"--Larry

[flyvet]

I wouldn't drink from any untreated source anymore except in dire circumstances but it does bring up an interesting question about sources of ground water that does not have open access. In other words, a spring trickling directly out with no pool. I have lived and stayed in several houses that got their water from a cistern. They are very widely used. I guess it depends on how much filtration through the ground has taken place. I have also looked into some of the cisterns where we got water from and did see salamanders and other sorts of life in them. I guess some things are better not known.

[Fred Mertz]

and that was enough....

Before the drink, I thought I'd pass out from dehydration.
3 hours after the drink, thought I'd die on the toilet.

[FlyDoctor]

Originally Posted by flyvet

I wouldn't drink from any untreated source anymore except in dire circumstances but it does bring up an interesting question about sources of ground water that does not have open access. In other words, a spring trickling directly out with no pool. I have lived and stayed in several houses that got their water from a cistern. They are very widely used. I guess it depends on how much filtration through the ground has taken place. I have also looked into some of the cisterns where we got water from and did see salamanders and other sorts of life in them. I guess some things are better not known.

My aunt and uncle had a big water box (cistern) high up on the mountian I think was about 6x6x6 made out of cinder block and a cement slab top. They had so much water pressure that it regularly broke the line to the house plus they ahd to have a pressure valve to keep from blowing the lines in the house. My uncle used to annually toss in a gallon of chlorox to sterilize it and then flush the whole thing. My grandads "box" was just a bunch of rocks piled around an open hole in the bank across the creek from the house. He also had some fanicing aroun d it to keep the cows out but they and the chickens and sheep were contstantly getting in there. Don't know why we never got really sick, maybe we just never drank enough water down there. Of course we all drank out of a tin cup that hung on the wall over the sink--so much for being sanitary. Of course back then there were about half as many people in this country as there are today spreading disease and pollution--Larry