H2O, straight up

imported
#1

I went from Georgia to Pennsylvania without filtering or treating my water. There were a few times when the water was sketchy in VA and hard to find in MD which scared me a little. Other then that I had no problems finding drinkable water. Anyone else out there go it al’natural? What were your concerns, how did you handle them? – For those who made it to Yankee country are there are real concerns I may face up there? (*Yes, I know that this method is a gamble but 1000+ miles and I’m okay, friends who supposedly filtered and treated got sicker than I did.)

~hamockhngr~

#2

I started with polar pure, switched in Damascus to good ol’ clorox ( I carried a small 0.5 oz eye-dropper bottle of it the rest of the way). How frequently did I treat water? Maybe a quarter the time! Only when I pulled from suspect sources like lakes and ponds which were stagnant. (Look out for the water source at Kinsman Pond shelter in the Whites! Fair warning!) Never once in 143 days did I get the trots or any other suspect illness attributed to lil’ floaties. My buddy I was hiking with was a bad influence, but as it turns out, I did OK. In the future, I’m not gonna carry much for water treatment. The above two options are so lightweight, it’s worth the weight for peace of mind because there are always a few bad sources out there I’m sure. More, I think, if you’re behind the crowds. I was always ahead, so I jumped the gun in assuming that the water was in better shape. I don’t think you wanna hear the stories of what some folks do to water sources!!! -Sweeper

Sweeper

#3

Hey Sweeps/Sue. I removed a diaper from the rocks in a spring on the way to Damascus. Between the lake and town there was a saddle gap with a spring on the right with rocks around thepool. Nice dootie diaper…and one of those liner thingies? We posted a note and told the outfitters to call the Ridge Runners and clean it up or close it. No bugs for us, but we did use a Hiker all the way. Lots of warm beaver water up north. One guy asked us if he could get Giardia again. Again? You meen you want it more than once? I can only think of one spring up north and that was on or near Saddle Back that was cold and high that we didn’t filter. We had enough problems with food fiber and didn’t want any more. We saw bleach used by our buds Twig and Neo. It worked and is lite. Two drops to a quart and wait nearly an hour as recommended.

Bushwack