View Full Version : Would you filter?
shaggy2004
12-15-2009, 22:58
I feel like this subject must have been covered but I only found one short thread a couple of years old.
So basically I'm planning to hike the PCT this year and am wondering if a filter is something I should strongly consider taking along. I hiked the AT thru in '04 and almost thru in '06 and only used aquamira. All shorter hikes I've done in the east since then have been with aquamira. I've drank some pretty nasty looking, cloudy, beaver pond water but have always been careful to follow the instructions (maybe throwing in a few extra drops) and let it set plenty of time and have never had any ill effects.
My problem is that I have absolutely no idea what to expect on the PCT. I'm mainly concerned about the southern section, of course, where I envision water sources as cattle troughs thick with unknown putrid matter and an occasional dead animal floating around for affect. I'm sure I'm blowing that out of proportion but I really am curious what to expect and whether or not I should be including a filter in my pack.
I've gotten very used to the light and cheap aquamira method and would very much like to stick with it if at all possible. I feel like if I had a filter I would maybe only use it a few times... but then again I guess it only takes one bad source to make you sick and put a big kink in your hiking plans.
What did you guys do/What do you think? :-? Thanks a lot.
superman
12-15-2009, 23:08
I carried the MSR mini.
Chance09
12-15-2009, 23:33
i'm same question is running thru my head on a daily basis about the PCT next year, only i use bleach not aquamira
taildragger
12-15-2009, 23:44
Aquamira.
Filtering can be nice at smaller sketch water sources (cuts down on the floaties)
I used iodine on PCT. Then again, I don't treat all my water.
If you do not treat all your water and/or prefer a more minimalist system, chemicals are the way to go.
If you absolutely want to treat all your water and do it quickly, go with a Steripen. It may not work well on some of more cloudy sources that have floaties. (Use a bandanna). Uses batteries and some users report it as being fragile (Some; not all. :sun)
Want something that is mechanical and not electronic and can filter out the floaties? Go with a filter/purifier.
garlic08
12-16-2009, 00:08
Many PCT hikers carry AquaMira, and some use it occasionally. A bandanna will remove the floaties. PCT water is generally good spring water when you can find it. It's been a few years, but I don't remember any really bad sources. The CDT is a different story.
frisbeefreek
12-16-2009, 00:35
I carried a filter up to Kennedy Meadows. Waste of weight. Switched to Aqua Mira.
I drank a surprising amount of tap water in the desert - Either caches or towns. Other sources, like the tanks, are relatively clean, and can be easily treated (like Rodriguez Spur Tank, which had dead rodents this year).
Pay attention to the SoCal water report and you'll avoid the really sketchy stuff.
TwoForty
12-16-2009, 01:56
Aqua mira plus a homemade filter to filter out the floaties. I'd recommend a bandana and a rubber band for that though. One example is if you take water out of the tank about 15 miles north of Warner Springs, you'll get all sorts of rusty flakes of metal in your water.
Also, consider taking a very small cup to scoop up water from the seriously tiny sources.
I used Aqua Mira the whole way. There was only one time the entire trail where I used a bandana to filter water. Save the weight and leave the filter at home.
mweinstone
12-16-2009, 09:53
skill sets needed to determine wheather water is safe and what treatments are needed :
understanding water systems and basic pond ecology and all methods of filtering, gathering and storeing.
systematic apraisal of each water sourse .
an understanding of all of the water related heath concerns and treatments
an intuitive and keen primitive gut sence/sharp nose for when water is bad.
i take looking around a source for signs of contamination, along with all my other saftey protocals before drinking wild water, as seriously as saftey checking a weapon before storeing it.
Most of the cattle troughs have a pipe where the water is dripping. That water is clean. Even Rodriguez Spring has a nice clean flow of pipe water if you don't mind walking an extra quarter mile or so to find it.
The nice thing about filters is you can pump the water from a tiny puddle you might not be able to scoop water from with a bottle. Or get it out of one of those guzzlers.
And yeah, it's true. You drink a surprising amount of tap water.
I'm going with Aqua Mira filtered through a bandana (when necessary).
Filters always clog and frustrate me. I've never had one not clog on me.
shaggy2004
12-16-2009, 12:45
Thanks for all the input. I guess I'm continuing to lean toward aquamira... now supplemented with bandanna filtering when necessary. I just hate the thought of cluttering up my pack with something I'll rarely use (not to mention the extra weight).
...mmm dead rodents you say? Sounds like rat tea or something. I guess I've been spoiled by the beautiful, flowing springs here in the southern Appalachians.
Thanks for all the input. I guess I'm continuing to lean toward aquamira... now supplemented with bandanna filtering when necessary. I just hate the thought of cluttering up my pack with something I'll rarely use (not to mention the extra weight).
...mmm dead rodents you say? Sounds like rat tea or something. I guess I've been spoiled by the beautiful, flowing springs here in the southern Appalachians.
MMmmmmmmm, rat tea (with a touch of lizard carcass!). I can't wait!
I'm with the majority consensus on this. I carried a gravity filter for the first 700 miles on the theory that between weird fire tank sources and potentially low flow sources that there might be a lot of places I'd rather filter, but in fact it wasn't that bad. In the Sierras I rarely treated, and used A.M. thereafter; I recall one place (from a prior year) in WA where the water source was a sort of scummy frog-infested pond, but even there you can deal somehow.
Keep it simple, take Aqua Mira. But keep in mind that (last I checked anyway) it's not available for sale in California, you'll need to get it via mail drops.
Jester2000
12-16-2009, 15:05
I carried a Katadyn Hiker Pro, along with a bit of iodine as a backup. I found that there were water sources where the filter made it much easier to collect the water.
I remember many sketchy water sources that I will probably think of as wonderful if I ever hike the CDT, including a few where I filtered and then bombed the water chemically.
I'd like to also note that (at least in 2008), I saw many, many people with filters, which doesn't seem to match the overall consensus on this thread.
Finally, at least as of 2008, Aqua Mira could not be legally sold in California, so if you're going to go that route, keep in mind that you'll need to have it shipped to you if you need more.
I know people who got Giardia on the trail so you'll at least want to tread some of your water.
I used the Antigravity Gravity Filter made around the Aqua Mira Frontier Pro filter (you can make your own) for SoCal though it can clog easily so I had to learn a few tricks to keep it from doing so. I changed to Aqua Mira drops at Kennedy Meadows carried it all the way to canada. I used a half dose compared to the directions and waited at least twice as long (something I learned from an UL hiker a few years ago).
I hiked with a guy who used a Steripen and seemed to like it. Others I know carried both a Hiker Pro filter and Aqua Mira for use in different situations. Overall though, I think most people got rid of their filters after SoCal, but not everyone.
I started with a filter, and switched to chemicals pretty early on. Not worth the weight/time to filter, for the most part. I can only think of one water source that I knew for sure was likely suspect. Mostly though, the sources seemed clean. I often didn't treat water once I got up into the mountains and was just fine.
Were I you, I'd carry my preferred chemical, and use it as needed.
I did'nt filter or use anything..... that's just me......
I did'nt fliter or use any thing the whole hike.....that's just me...:sun
Several people have chimed in about not treating water. Echoing Miner, I can think of at least 20 hikers who got Giardia or some kind of GI bug on the PCT this year. Nearly all of those folks either weren't treating water or were doing so intermittently. My advice: save yourself the trouble and treat everything that's not piped straight from the ground.
I filtered until kennedy meadows in 2008, dropped my filter there because everyone told me sierra water was pure. got used to not pumping and no chemical taste in the sierras, decided I didn't care after that. Carried chlorine but never used it. In 2009 I started with aqua mira but ended up trading it to someone for some food in town, and a few back-up chlorine tablets just in case. If you pick and choose your water sources, avoid places with lots of PEOPLE (not so much animals), and take from inflow pipes and such with tanks, you can get away with no treating. I did it two years in a row and didn't get sick. Of course, you still can, but I think it's worth the risk. Perhaps just carry a little chlorine or aqua mira for super sketch sources that you NEED to drink for whatever reason but otherwise you don't need a filter.
As was suggested earlier, use a bandana to get macro-floaties and such.
Even better than a bandana is a paint strainer or part of a pair of pantyhose. I used my bandana to wash my feet, so I really didn't want to use it to filter my water. Eww.
Jester2000
12-17-2009, 11:55
I filtered until kennedy meadows in 2008, dropped my filter there because everyone told me sierra water was pure. got used to not pumping and no chemical taste in the sierras, decided I didn't care after that. . .
I forget which year it was (I think 2007), but an alarmingly large number of people got sick in the Sierra one year from what was believed to be a waterborn illness. The water source was believed to be somewhere between KM and the side trail to Whitney, and I suspect it was Cow Creek.
People weren't just feeling ill; they were hospitalized. Many of the hikers had had no contact with one another, and many had not eaten at KM.
I saw a fair number of people who were perfectly aware that they shouldn't eat red snow, but were just fine with drinking melt that came from those very same snow fields. Which doesn't make much sense to me.
I don't know the odds are of contracting a waterborn illness when not treating water in some way, but I prefer not to leave something I've saved, planned, and left my job for to chance.
shaggy2004
12-17-2009, 14:55
Thanks again for all the responses.
Just to clarify, not treating at all is not an option that's on the table for me. On my AT hikes I treated 99.9% of my water. I honestly can't think of more than maybe 2 or 3 exceptions... those being springs near where I live and have hiked many times and know to be clean. I'm probably over obsessive about it.
So yeah, I will always be treating pretty much every water source... just wasn't sure what the best way was to go about it.
yadda yadda yadda, sick sick sick.
I don't know the odds are of contracting a waterborn illness when not treating water in some way, but I prefer not to leave something I've saved, planned, and left my job for to chance.
Yeah, I don't look down on people for treating or anything, I just don't treat water, myself. I understand the desire to not want to get sick.
However, not having any specific information about this 2007 outbreak, I can't say anything concrete. But I will say that just because people didn't eat from the kennedy meadows store does not mean it wasn't foodborne. Who's to say they all didn't share from a bag of chips? Not to mention there's a single bathroom at kennedy meadows, a place that isn't exactly hospital sanitary. And going back further, as it usually takes 5-10 days to come down with intestinal illness symptoms, they could easily have all gone into lake isabella and gotten something there. Or even tehahchapi if they were fast enough. Or really, only one person had to contract it from some outside source! And then everyone else somehow had contact with that person. Illness is hard to control and understand. I'm not saying it couldn't have been the water. However, there's no easy way to rule out any other source, either.
Not to mention I drank cow creek water both years untreated/unfiltered and didn't get sick, nor did anyone else I know. It could easily have been just that year, sure, but I doubt it. My money is on person-to-person transfer for an outbreak like that. But obviously, I don't actually know.
And I wouldn't get off trail for anything but the most serious of illnesses (acute stuff requiring surgery or rendering me comatose or borderline comatosa), to be honest. I'd hike through giardia, which if these people had to be hospitalized, this probably wasn't. And if it wasn't giardia, it was most likely a virus. Which often filters and even some treatments won't catch with the amount of time your average thru-hiker lets it sit.
At any rate. I don't think anyone is wrong to do what they want to do, no matter what their strategy is. I just do what I do. :)
Jester2000
12-17-2009, 16:05
My money is on person-to-person transfer for an outbreak like that. But obviously, I don't actually know. . .
. . .At any rate. I don't think anyone is wrong to do what they want to do, no matter what their strategy is. I just do what I do. :)
I hear you on the do your own thing aspect. I was just putting some information out there to counter the whole "I was told the water was pure after the desert" comments.
I specifically mentioned that there were people involved in whatever weird outbreak happened that had had no contact whatsoever with other people who had gotten sick in the same timeframe, which was, from my understanding, in a 5-10 day period after passing the KM to Whitney area. It was a low water year, and everyone was getting water from Cow Creek. On the other hand, all of those people might have had contact with the same person, say, a local who hangs out at KM or one of the employees.
Now, what I didn't mention, and what may be important to the argument that filtering/treating isn't all that important, is that some who got sick filtered, some treated the water chemically, and some drank it straight. Some who drank from Cow Creek were affected and others weren't. Of course, many people carry filters or chemicals and use them improperly.
It was a bit of a mystery.
I agree that it's difficult to nail down the source of illnesses, and I've said many times on whiteblaze that I believe that the majority of illnesses that people believe they got from water were actually transmitted from another person.
I, too, was not there, but had many friends who were, and they think it was the water. But who knows?
But one thing is clear to me. It's a lot more complicated than, "all of this water is safe," or "as long as you're away from humans you're fine."
Wait. Did you yadda yadda me?!?
yadda yadda yadda, evidence, points-of-order, opinions
Wait. Did you yadda yadda me?!?
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely impossible to really say. I read a study (or at least something LIKE a study, don't know how scientifically sound their method was) once that showed the rates of sickness in backpackers were equal no matter what your water strategy was (filter, chemicals or nothing). So I don't know what gets people sick but it seems like it's almost random chance no matter what you do.
I feel you, though, to be fair, you're definitely right. The risk is equal to become sick throughout the entire course of the trail. This year I didn't treat the water in the desert and after having seen all the trail's water beforehand, I actually now think the desert water isn't any worse than anywhere else on the trail. So really, if you're concerned about it, there's no reason to stop treating in the sierra anymore than anywhere else. Except maybe in that you're closer to the source of all water, which has a soothing effect on my mind but probably doesn't affect contamination that much compared to how close you are in the desert.
And yes, I definitely yadda yadda yadda'd you. TWICE!
Jester2000
12-17-2009, 17:55
. . .And yes, I definitely yadda yadda yadda'd you. TWICE!
Hahahahahahaha!
warraghiyagey
12-17-2009, 19:48
Never filter. . . . . . . . pretty much. . . . . never gotten sick from trail water. . . . if I ever do I will seriously consider still not filtering. . . . . unless I die from it. . . . then I will likely still not filter. . . . . I've yet to see anyone on the trail who has been healthier while filtering water. . . but seen them waste a lot of time and energy doing so. . . .
mweinstone
12-17-2009, 19:49
i thaught you left?
warraghiyagey
12-17-2009, 19:53
i thaught you left?
I did. . . . I'm gone. . . . .
can we filter out all the bull**** posts?
I'm generally a person that errs on the side of caution, plays by the rules type of guy, but in the Sierras I mostly stopped treating my water, as I could see it coming right off the snow (but indeed, I avoided places with pink snow (http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plaug98.htm)). It's just hard to resist the urge to drink this stuff direct from the source like that. I mostly treated outside the Sierras, unless there I could get it from a seep or spring coming directly out of the ground. Not meaningful data at all, of course, but FWIW I didn't get sick.
can we filter out all the bull**** posts?
That would take more than a filter I'm afraid.... :D
Try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclave
As for those who say they never get sick, I'd like to bring up Scott Williamson who has probably thru-hiked the PCT more then anyone else has since he does it everyyear for more then a decade. He knows the trail and the water sources (and their reliability in different rain yearly conditions) better then anyone. He chooses to not treat his water relying on his past knowledge, but he also will admit to getting sick from the water numerous times over the years. But its a tradeoff he is willing to do.
However, when I hiked, I looked at it this way, if he can't avoid getting sick, then what chance did I have.
Chaco Taco
12-22-2009, 12:15
I carried a Katadyn Hiker Pro, along with a bit of iodine as a backup. I found that there were water sources where the filter made it much easier to collect the water.
I remember many sketchy water sources that I will probably think of as wonderful if I ever hike the CDT, including a few where I filtered and then bombed the water chemically.
I'd like to also note that (at least in 2008), I saw many, many people with filters, which doesn't seem to match the overall consensus on this thread.
Finally, at least as of 2008, Aqua Mira could not be legally sold in California, so if you're going to go that route, keep in mind that you'll need to have it shipped to you if you need more.
Good piece of info to know.
Im a big fan of the Hiker Pro as well. Still have mine and will probably use it if I hike the PCT
Lucy Lulu
12-22-2009, 18:05
I did not filter on the AT and was fine. I used Aqua Mira at the beginning of the PCT, and then quit. I got Giardia somewhere before Aqua Dulce on the PCT, and it kicked my fanny! I did not use Aqua Mira after my recovery, but the water was better (quality I thought) through and after the Sierras.
On a side not, I used a filter on the CDT (to filter out the larger animals), and still got Giardia. I admit I may have been a little lax at times though.
EllieT, were you diagnosed with Giardia or self-diagnosed based on symptoms?
Lucy Lulu
12-22-2009, 19:44
Diagnosed...it took several days to get test results back.
handlebar
12-22-2009, 22:05
I filtered in SoCal and from sources that looked "iffy"----ponds, large streams. I also carried aquamira as a backup or supplement if the water source was particularly bad. I got a lilttle lax up in the N Cascades and actually came down with Giardia (dx based on the smell) at Manning Park. Based on the incubation time, I probably got it coming into Skykomish where I took water from a stream that I thought might be questionable, but I was lazy and didn't filter. I wasn't the nicest person to have to share a seat with on the bus to Seattle or a hostel room there. My doc prescribed some meds and said if they cleared it up, it was Giardia. Other than the foul smell, I didn't really find it debilitating.
That said, I plan to filter and or treat with AM on the CDT where there are numerous cows and some really nasty sources. When I come upon a pristine spring or snowmelt stream (away from pink snow), however, I'll probably just drink "au naturale'.
See, you can tell from the variety of people who come down with "giardia" (usually self diagnosed but sometimes even with a stool sample inspected by a doctor) and their treatment methods that it's almost pure chance. I guarantee I drank most of these sources that gave these people giardia, often in the same year, but I've never been sick myself. There are many factors involved, and often a filter or treatment will not save you. The important thing is to realize it may happen to you, no matter what you do. Be willing to work with it and don't let it cripple you emotionally/mentally as well as physically.