Welcome to the AppalachianTrailCafe.net!
Take a moment and register and then join the conversation

To filter or not to Filter? - that is a common question.

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • To filter or not to Filter? - that is a common question.

      I noticed that as a group we get a little hung up about drinking from streams… To filter or not to filter is that the question… then the questions get focused on Giardiasis – but clearly we forget about Campylobacteriosis, E. coli Infection, Dysentery, Cyclosporiasis and the two biggies Cholera, Typhoid fever. Well there’s something we haven’t discussed. After watching several survival shows they are all about boiling water. Those on the reality show, that don’t filter or boil, quickly fail in about 4-5 days and get rushed to the hospital. And the complete list of symptoms is even more disturbing, some of it is fatal. WIKI

      If in Mexico, Don’t order ice in your drink? Remember that old one? Would it shock you several restaurants in my Philadelphia area are still on a well and one of them locally tests positive from time to time with E Coli in the ice? The drain field is too close to the well. So why can some of us drink from the streams and others languish in their sleeping bags for a few days with flu like symptoms? Why did American Indians avoid Beaver fever? Well they didn’t – they from time to time got sick too. Before the time of early American settlers digging wells in Philadelphia and farmers excavating springs for spring houses, in the depths of Pennsylvania there was the American Indian, and I chose this as the Lenape Indians covered the most of the northern part of the Government Trail, later named the AT. Before the walking purchase they did suffer from fevers, but from repeated exposures while growing up gave them some immunity, and turned them into carriers.
      • 7% of today’s Americans are carriers and the percentage is several times higher for outdoors people, children, and the world population in general.· It's easily spread.
      • Combine poor hygiene with the fact that a million Giardia organisms can hitch a ride under a single fingernail, and in no time your camp will be doing the Beaver Fever Quickstep.·
      • It's persistent. Cysts can live several months outside the body.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Studies have shown that a high percentage of Beaver, Muskrats, and Cattle are infected with Giardia, so it was assumed they were the primary source of the Giardia organism infecting humans. That is until the growing amount of data showing that Beaver living downstream from campgrounds have a high Giardia infection rate, compared with a near-zero rate for Beaver living in more remote areas. Here we were blaming the poor Beaver, and it now looked like we were infecting them!

      Sure enough; a 1979 study concluded that “humans are considered the most important component" in the spread of Giardia. More recently, an article in the 1990 issue of the scientific journal Environmental Management states that “waterborne transmission of Giardia is believed to be the least common mode of transmission overall.”

      When it comes to protecting your health from unsafe drinking water, you need to know as much as possible about the types of waterborne bacteria, viruses and cysts that exist and how to prevent them. When it comes to protecting your health from unsafe drinking water, you need to know as much as possible about the types of waterborne bacteria, viruses and cysts that exist and how to prevent them.

      Please read on for information about preventing waterborne disease.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • SYMPTOMS – Traveler’s Diarrhea (Mostly E-Coli)

      Most cases of Traveler’s Diarrhea begin abruptly. Typically, a traveler experiences four to five loose or watery bowel movements each day.Other commonly associated symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, bloating, fever, urgency, and malaise.The good news is that Travelers’ Diarrhea is rarely life-threatening. The natural history is that 90% of cases resolve within 1 week, and 98% resolve within 1 month.

      SYMPTOMS - Giardia and Cryptosporidium

      Diarrhea, abdominal cramps, gas, malaise, and weight loss are the most common symptoms caused by Giardia. Vomiting, chills, headache, and fever may also occur.
      These symptoms usually surface six to 16 days after the initial contact and can continue as long as one month.
      The symptoms of cryptosporidiosis are similar; the most common include watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, and headaches.
      These symptoms occur within two to 25 days of infection and usually last one or two weeks; in some cases they persist for up to a month.

      SYMPTOMS - Dysentery

      People afflicted with amoebic dysentery often suffer profuse, bloody diarrhea along with a fever, intense stomach pain, and rapid weight loss.
      Bacillary dysentery causes small, frequent stools mixed with blood and mucus. Cramps are common, and a patient may occasionally strain painfully, without success, to evacuate the bowels.
      Symptoms may range from mild abdominal discomfort to full-blown dysentery characterised by cramps, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, blood, pus, or mucus in stools or tenesmus. Onset time is 12 to 50 hours.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Are There Viruses In Our Recreational Lakes, Rivers, and Streams?

      I have done some digging and you might be surprised at the answer. CLICK HERE to see the report.

      There is mounting evidence from reliable sources that:

      “Waterborne viruses are much more prevalent than anyone –including the experts – ever realized. Viruses like noroviruses, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, rotaviruses, enteroviruses, adenoviruses, and astroviruses, as well as avian influenza (orH5N1, the so-called “bird flu”) are present in surface watersources such as rivers and lakes around the world including Canada and the US.That may be because there is more raw sewage entering our waterways than perhaps the average person realizes. A report released in 1999, for example, revealed that five cities in Canada dumped a combined total of 365 million liters of untreated sewage every day.”

      If you're visiting or living in an area with poor sanitation, be especially wary of the water. Prevention is easier than seeking medical treatment once infected.Do not drink untreated water from a spring, stream, river, lake, pond or shallow well. Assume it is contaminated with animal, bird and/or human feces. Disinfect with sanitizer’s or boil for 1 to 5 minutes depending on elevation.

      Not all filters are capable of removing many bacteria and viruses. Check manufacturer’s claims carefully and be wary of filters that are not capable of removing viruses. When in doubt, treat with Sanitizers after filtration. In many places, the food can be as risky as the water. You should be especially suspicious of salads, uncooked fruits and vegetables, unpasteurized milk, raw meat, shellfish, and any foods sold by street vendors. Avoid eating raw fruits and vegetables unless peeled in your presence. Practice good hygiene such as frequent hand washing and disinfection of cutlery, cutting boards, etc. Wash hands thoroughly and frequently using soap or after having been to the toilet.

      A simple rule of thumb is
      "Disinfect >or boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it."
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Finally, let me offer this gem.

      A lot of initial work to debunk the overwrought specter of Giardia lambia was conducted in the Sierra Nevada Range. This article by Dr. Robert Rockwell, makes a slam-dunk point that gets lost in the Giardiasis hype by looking at Giardia cysts concentrations in the waters of the Sierra Range and the water supplies for major California cities. The slam dunk point is that Giardia lamblia cysts are omnipresent, including in the Los Angeles and San Francisco water supplies. The San Francisco concentration of cysts, ingested by millions of people every single day, was higher than any source in the Sierra Range. Rockwell goes on to quote from Welch, Thomas R. and Welch, Timothy P.: Giardiasis as a Threat to Backpackers in the United States: A Survey of State Health Departments. Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 6, 1995:“Neither health department surveillance nor the medical literature supports the widely held perception that giardiasis is a significant risk to backpackers in the United States. In some respects, this situation resembles (the threat to beachgoers of a) shark attack: an extraordinarily rare event to which the public and press have seemingly devoted inappropriate attention.”

      Is the article flawed? Hmmm.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • From the Article another "Nugget of Truth"

      On a recent climbing expedition to Tibet, members of our party came down again and again with what was undoubtedly giardiasis. Our water came from glacial melt, but all our food in advanced base camp and below was prepared by Sherpa cooks. Much of the food they prepared—potatoes, rice, cauliflower, cabbage, onions—came from Nepal. We were continually assured that the cooks were practicing good hygiene, yet we had major intestinal problems that prevented many of the participants from getting high on the mountain.

      The take away here is: If you do get sick blame your friends for not practicing good hygiene on the trail!
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I didn't get into long term effects - and I am not
      sure what happens when you are a carrier. - I am most likely a carrier
      as I drink from some high streams & springs without filtering.

      I did not get into chemical contamination from tailings from mining or
      spills, even though that does exist on the trail as well - that will be a
      future idea to revisit.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I suffered from Giardia lamblia back in the early 1990's. It took them a while to identify it. I lost so much weight in such a short time, many thought I was dying (including me). I filter everything now. I have no intentions of repeating that condition. Even if it were to only lower my chances by 1% and even if my chances were almost zero of getting it if I did not filter, I am going to filter. If my only option was to carry a 40 pound filter, I would filter. Anyone that experienced what I did would likely feel the same. It was not fun.

      Okay... now that I have blurted out my typical "that is my experience and what I believe" type answer, I am going back to read your posts more carefully in the hope that I might gain a better understanding of the subject.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by BirdBrain ().

    • Interesting - what did the doctor do to treat it? What did you do?

      Also - there is a chance you might not repeat it, even if you didn't filter or getting it again might not be as bad at the first time.


      Also if anyone has read this far, there are 275+threads on filtering over on WB I am at a point where I don't want to post my best stuff over there. I wanted something more appropriate and not an article. And a work in progress the editor in the software makes me break these things up and I am fine with that...
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Wise Old Owl ().

    • Re: To filter or not to Filter? - that is a common question.

      when i was a kid i would drink straight from creeks. Not anymore, it only takes a minute or two with the sawyer to filter a liter. I am not going to risk getting the squirts.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • Rasty wrote:

      I rarely treat my water if up reasonably high. Down low and in the coastal area I either treat or filter.


      I find it interesting that I do this too when on the trail, on a old trip to Fort Indian Town Gap Austin at the time I think was under ten. We were up high and he asked to drink directly from a spring that was bubbling up and we were at some 4-5k feet above sea level - the water was like a fountain coming out of the rock and the tadpoles below were enormous. The water was very cold in contrast to the heat of the day and I said OK. Nothing happened to me, he had the trots for three-four days. I still drink from springs.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I consider where I hike & where I treat & filter. When hiking AT I treated some places with iodine tablets (Best available after I dropeed first need filter). In high piped springs I would often not treat the water. On PCT cattle were involved & I traeted just about all water by filtering. Now living just off AT in VA I don't treat the water I drink from the creek. I believe I build imunity to some of tem little bugs making my imune system stronger than drinkinging perfectly sterilized "clean" water.
    • Revisiting this topic after reading a new article. The article pretty much summarizes the myths about filtering and provides some scientific evidence around the issue. Choice is still yours, but I personally recommend washing your hands after the privy/cathole and not allowing another hiker to put their grubby paws in your open trail mix. Filtering is optional. Just look up hill and see if there might be a farm or beaver pond - if so, filter; if not, live on the wild side.

      https://slate.com/technology/2018/02...necessary.html
    • max.patch wrote:

      Mountain-Mike wrote:

      I consider where I hike & where I treat & filter. When hiking AT I treated some places with iodine tablets (Best available after I dropeed first need filter). In high piped springs I would often not treat the water.
      i could have written those exact same words. no surprise since MM and i hiked the AT the same year.
      Did y'all cross paths any that year?
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • I cant use Iodine - makes me very sick. But I came up with a portable filter. Some of the new Nagalene bottles come with a straw. Put a cotton ball (without Vaseline) at the bottom place the straw on top fill with some pebbles to hold that in place. then dump river round pebbles into it, then crushed charcoal from the fire and follow some sand on top to hold down the charcoal. fill with water spit out the first draw. Should be OK in spite of the black teeth!

      No need to carry a big filter right?
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Astro wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      Mountain-Mike wrote:

      I consider where I hike & where I treat & filter. When hiking AT I treated some places with iodine tablets (Best available after I dropeed first need filter). In high piped springs I would often not treat the water.
      i could have written those exact same words. no surprise since MM and i hiked the AT the same year.
      Did y'all cross paths any that year?
      no, we didn't meet til the internet.
      2,000 miler
    • odd man out wrote:

      I've been reading about two international hiking destinations. In Sweden, the conventional wisdom among people hiking the Kungsleden is no filtering is necessry. On the other hand in Nepal, those who don't treat are pretty much guarenteed problems.
      I would probably go with Sweden then. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General