Info on gear, conditioning, and preparation for hiking/climbing.
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climbingaggie03 wrote:I've gotten giardia in the states, from a beautiful, clear, running stream.
Brian C wrote:I have also gotten giardia from seemingly clean alpine water here in CO. I simply carry a bottle of iodine tabs and they work great. No moving parts or batteries to let me down.
How do you guys actually know what caused you to get giardiasis? Just because there was only one water source you didn't filter doesn't actually mean that you got giardiasis from it, since there are many other ways of getting it. Like poor camp hygiene or a good ol' front country contamination. I don't mean to call you guys out, I just want to know how you can be so sure where you got infected by something that takes a long time to show up.
ezabielski wrote:How do you guys actually know what caused you to get giardiasis? Just because there was only one water source you didn't filter doesn't actually mean that you got giardiasis from it, since there are many other ways of getting it. Like poor camp hygiene or a good ol' front country contamination. I don't mean to call you guys out, I just want to know how you can be so sure where you got infected by something that takes a long time to show up.
Can never be 100% sure. For me it was a day hike and the only non-tap water I had ingested in the timeframe and a relatively high-traffic area so potential germy contamination was likely.
pmeadco wrote:Well, since people are talking about "no problems", I can say that I often drink untreated water with no problems. If I'm up high and the water is coming off a slope that has no beavers, no standing water, and no significant human activity then I take my chances and draw water right out of the stream. Never had a problem.
I spent a lot of time on the Appalachian Trail hearing this same story from thru-hikers saying they feel fine if they see the water coming out of a spring. Then I found this battlefield monument on an unmarked side-trail in Maryland:
If you can't read the fine print, the marker says "Two days after the battle, 58 Confederate dead were dumped down the well..." I have never touched unfiltered water again, even if it comes straight out of a spring. If in doubt, I double up with a filter and tablets.
"If you're not sure where you are, but you haven't taken the time to stop and look at the map, you're not lost, just lazy." -Darran Wells
TK wrote:I spent a lot of time on the Appalachian Trail hearing this same story from thru-hikers saying they feel fine if they see the water coming out of a spring. Then I found this battlefield monument on an unmarked side-trail in Maryland:
If you can't read the fine print, the marker says "Two days after the battle, 58 Confederate dead were dumped down the well..." I have never touched unfiltered water again, even if it comes straight out of a spring. If in doubt, I double up with a filter and tablets.
I don't want to Google "how long does it take a body to decompose", lest I end up on some FBI list. But I am pretty sure 153 years is a sufficient amount of time where it makes sense to worry about other contamination first. That's a quite interesting side trail monument though.
Steripen is lightweight and works great unless the water is very cloudy, works best in dark conditions so you can see if the light is actually on and being effective and while the batteries still work and works best in water that has no sediment or particulate matter in it that you don't wish to consume (ie rat hairs, dead bugs, bird feces, etc). The light bulb is also somewhat fragile and if it breaks you don't have a viable unit any longer.
On second thought, steripen has several shortcomings and costs 3x as much as say Sawyer filters, which actually filter the water, weigh less and have fewer things to break and don't use batteries or glass bulbs.
ezabielski wrote:How do you guys actually know what caused you to get giardiasis? Just because there was only one water source you didn't filter doesn't actually mean that you got giardiasis from it, since there are many other ways of getting it. Like poor camp hygiene or a good ol' front country contamination. I don't mean to call you guys out, I just want to know how you can be so sure where you got infected by something that takes a long time to show up.
I drank the untreated water while I was out rock climbing for the day and I hadn't drunk any other non tap water for 3 months on either side of that. I guess it's hard to be 100% sure but between that and my symptoms showing up about a week and a half after that day climbing makes me pretty sure that I got it from drinking the stream water. It seems like too big of a coincidence to have gotten it from some other source.
TK wrote:I spent a lot of time on the Appalachian Trail hearing this same story from thru-hikers saying they feel fine if they see the water coming out of a spring. Then I found this battlefield monument on an unmarked side-trail in Maryland:
If you can't read the fine print, the marker says "Two days after the battle, 58 Confederate dead were dumped down the well..." I have never touched unfiltered water again, even if it comes straight out of a spring. If in doubt, I double up with a filter and tablets.
I don't want to Google "how long does it take a body to decompose", lest I end up on some FBI list. But I am pretty sure 153 years is a sufficient amount of time where it makes sense to worry about other contamination first. That's a quite interesting side trail monument though.
That might be enough time for decomp, but I don't want to test it and become patient zero. This was quite a monument to stumble across on a little side-trail, especially since it wasn't in any of my books. My trail journal for that day starts "Been walking alone for 12 days. Took a wrong turn and stumbled onto a dead guy after breakfast."
"If you're not sure where you are, but you haven't taken the time to stop and look at the map, you're not lost, just lazy." -Darran Wells
I see lots of good praise for the Sawyer Squeeze. Is the Sawyer a good substitute for a pump (Katadyne Hiker Pro) on multi day trips with two people? The weight and bulk savings would be great but need to make sure it should hold up. REI guy told me to buy 2 so we can each have our own and just attach to the hydration hoes. Any other suggestions for a single Sawyer on trips like this?
Steve Gio wrote:I see lots of good praise for the Sawyer Squeeze. Is the Sawyer a good substitute for a pump (Katadyne Hiker Pro) on multi day trips with two people? The weight and bulk savings would be great but need to make sure it should hold up. REI guy told me to buy 2 so we can each have our own and just attach to the hydration hoes. Any other suggestions for a single Sawyer on trips like this?
I've used the Sawyer on multi-day trips. I did carry several of the squeeze bags. Always have a secondary method of purification (tablets, liquid, etc.) - but this goes for ANY trip. Always have a backup.
