View Full Version : Anyone have trouble with H2o in the Smokies?
JoshStover
12-21-2009, 23:25
I was wanting to know if anyone else has had a problem with water in the Smokies. I was just released from the hospital yesterday and found out why I have been sick for the past month. I was diagnosed with Giardia. The only place I have drank any untreated water recently was from the stream in front of the Kephart shelter. Several other people were dranking right from the same stream and I wonder if they got it as well....:-?
Pokey2006
12-21-2009, 23:42
I was wanting to know if anyone else has had a problem with water in the Smokies. I was just released from the hospital yesterday and found out why I have been sick for the past month. I was diagnosed with Giardia. The only place I have drank any untreated water recently was from the stream in front of the Kephart shelter. Several other people were dranking right from the same stream and I wonder if they got it as well....:-?
I'd be careful of water in the Smokys just because there are so many horses on many of those trails.
Sir-Packs-Alot
12-22-2009, 04:56
I'd be careful of water in the Smokys just because there are so many horses on many of those trails.
I second this motion (or "third" in your case ... behind the effects of the Giardia itself) ! Between horses and 1600 bears that live within the park's bounds (as well as lot's of other mammals) - the GSMNP section of the trail should be regarded as a treat/filter/boil (or else) area. Despite some controversy & lots of folks drinking it straight from the source - I always treat water everywhere I hike ... somehow. Sorry for your misfortune. Hope you feel better soon!
JoshStover
12-22-2009, 05:26
Thanks Sir. I am already feeling better after some IV meds. I will most def be using some type of H2O treatment on my thru next year.
If you get water in the mountains where you can see it come out of the ground you should be ok. If you are drinking from a stream you should treat it. I treat all water if I'm in flat land country where there is livestock.
An old AT hiker named Bert Garner taught me this is the 50's and I have never got sick from water. As far as I know anyways.
MintakaCat
12-22-2009, 06:14
Aquamira. Doesn't weigh much, doesn't take long, could make a big difference.
JoshStover
12-22-2009, 06:20
Aquamira. Doesn't weigh much, doesn't take long, could make a big difference.
It wont make a Big difference, it will make a HUGE difference if it prevents me from getting this CRAP, again. Trust me, there is lots of crap....
Hikes in Rain
12-22-2009, 07:26
Josh, as a former medical technologist and current water resource engineering manager, I treat just about any water I consume. I'll be the first to admit I'm probably a little over the top with it, since I do usually treat water from piped springs, but water-borne diseases are debilitating (as you found out) and even deadly (anyone ever read about the cholera epidemics?), and whether or not you get infected is just a matter of statistics.
As folks have pointed out, treatment options vary, and most of them are effective.
garlic08
12-22-2009, 09:21
The Smokies, as I remember, was the first place, and one of the very few places, I treated any water on my AT thru. I did not trust what I saw there--too much human presence. I carried Aqua Mira for that. Sorry to hear about your illness and I wish you a speedy recovery.
Lone Wolf
12-22-2009, 09:23
I was wanting to know if anyone else has had a problem with water in the Smokies.
never had a problem finding it and never got sick drinking it. damn good water in the smokys
Pokey2006
12-22-2009, 10:47
If you get water in the mountains where you can see it come out of the ground you should be ok. If you are drinking from a stream you should treat it. I treat all water if I'm in flat land country where there is livestock.
An old AT hiker named Bert Garner taught me this is the 50's and I have never got sick from water. As far as I know anyways.
Before you drink water coming right out of a mountain, look up. If there's a trail, especially a horse trail, or a privy uphill from the water source, you might still want to treat it. I treat almost all of my water in the Smokys, except when I know for sure nothing is up above.
Hikes in Rain
12-22-2009, 10:50
I'd add a campsite to that mix of uphill "dangers". Sometimes, particularly in limestone areas (which i don't think includes the Smokies, but I'm not sure enough to make a definitive statement), rock forms solution pipes that are more like small or not so small caverns. No filtering action happening with those. What hits the water comes out untreated.
Rasputen
12-22-2009, 12:17
never had a problem finding it and never got sick drinking it. damn good water in the smokys
Yep! Have been hiking the smokies for many years and never sick. I never treat the "spring" water but do treat any water where I can't see the source......
Graywolf
12-22-2009, 15:26
I'm just curious, where did Gardia come from anyway?? Mankind has been here for 1000s of years and we have only been filtering water for a couple of decades... I wonder about all this water treatment stuff sometimes...
I think gardia has always been here but we have been drinking chlorinated water from our faucets for, again, several decades, which killed our resistence to the damn little bug...
So please tell me, what happened!!!!
OTOH, I always drink from springs, only carried aquamira once and still havnt got sick (knock on wood). But there are some people that is immune to the little sucker, I am one of them..
Graywolf
Hikes in Rain
12-22-2009, 16:12
Well, people are living a lot longer now, too. Coincidence? Nah, don't think so! We were loaded with parasites in Ye Olden Times. Civil engineers designing and building wastewater treatment plants and water treatment and delivery systems have saved more human lives and contributed more to extending human life span than all the medical profession put together. Civil engineers are the folks who tracked down how cholera is spread, and figured out how to stop it from doing so. Google "cholera and Broad Street well"; it's kind of thought provoking.
Yes, Gardia has always been here. But I think natural selection had more to do with "resistance" than drinking clean water free of parasites. Most, if not all people got it. If you weren't strong enough to withstand the attacks, you didn't pass your genes along!
If you get water in the mountains where you can see it come out of the ground you should be ok. If you are drinking from a stream you should treat it. I treat all water if I'm in flat land country where there is livestock.
An old AT hiker named Bert Garner taught me this is the 50's and I have never got sick from water. As far as I know anyways.
All water comes from rain. That which comes up from the ground in the form of a spring is just rain which has soaked into the ground farther up the hill. The purity of a spring is not guaranteed just because the water passed through a bunch of dirt, sand, and gravel. Who knows? it might have just been a stream which wandered between moss covered boulders.
Bottled spring water is regularly tested for purity, and that isn't just to guard against intentional contamination from outside sources.
JoshStover
12-22-2009, 20:57
The Smokies, as I remember, was the first place, and one of the very few places, I treated any water on my AT thru. I did not trust what I saw there--too much human presence. I carried Aqua Mira for that. Sorry to hear about your illness and I wish you a speedy recovery.
Thanks garlic. Im already feeling better. They have me on some super duty antibiotics and a few other types of meds.
JoshStover
12-22-2009, 20:58
never had a problem finding it and never got sick drinking it. damn good water in the smokys
I always thought the same thing. I have drank the water untreated many times before and had zero problems. Im just VERY thankful that this happened to me on a section hike and not my thru next year. I could see it being a trip-ender on a thru hike...
Ox97GaMe
12-23-2009, 00:59
Most water sources on the AT in the park are probably pretty safe to drink without treatment, but the park recommends (and has signage at all shelters) treating the water. All the shelters on the AT (except Davenport) are on the ridge, and the springs are close to the top of the ridgeline. Therefore, there is little risk of contamination from uphill sources.
The example that was listed; Kephart Shelter, is in the valley. The water source for the shelter is often the large stream that flows beside the shelter. That steam starts below the AT near the Sweat Heifer trail junction. It is in the watershed that includes Newfound Gap parking area, US441, Icewater Shelter, and Hughes Ridge Trail (Horse accessible). There are likely to be all kinds of bad things in the water at that shelter.
JoshStover
12-23-2009, 01:04
Most water sources on the AT in the park are probably pretty safe to drink without treatment, but the park recommends (and has signage at all shelters) treating the water. All the shelters on the AT (except Davenport) are on the ridge, and the springs are close to the top of the ridgeline. Therefore, there is little risk of contamination from uphill sources.
The example that was listed; Kephart Shelter, is in the valley. The water source for the shelter is often the large stream that flows beside the shelter. That steam starts below the AT near the Sweat Heifer trail junction. It is in the watershed that includes Newfound Gap parking area, US441, Icewater Shelter, and Hughes Ridge Trail (Horse accessible). There are likely to be all kinds of bad things in the water at that shelter.
There are most def bad things in the water by Kephart! I know that there is ATLEAST Giardia in that stream and who knows what else is chillin' in that water...
Hikes in Rain
12-23-2009, 13:25
Johs, I'm glad to hear you're feeling better, and wish you a full and fast complete recovery. Nothing like Giardia or one of it's partners in crime to make you feel like you've been pulled through a knothole backwards!
all water in the smokies looks great but a lot of it has a very shallow water table where all the waste isnt really getting filtered out by rocks etc. i remember double springs shelter - the water looks beautiful but theres one of those 'open privy areas' next to it . all of that is running right into the spring - i think its like that through a lot of the smokies
Mr. Underhill
12-23-2009, 19:54
Even many of the mountain stream water sources start from beaver ponds and such. Even after filtering, the water tastes fine but has a slightly brown color when held to the light. I always filter except for those rare places where you can see it bubbling out of the ground.
I was on Gregory Bald this summer in the Smokies what I saw made me know treating water is the best course of action. The wild hogs had made a "hogwaller" right there at the source. So not only was it muddy but full of animal excriment.
FUN FUN FUN
Beas
Tennessee Viking
12-23-2009, 22:41
Since you were at Kephart, you were around prime horse trails. The AT is up at the ridgeline far from any horses, but I would still treat or filter.
double d
12-24-2009, 03:43
never had a problem finding it and never got sick drinking it. damn good water in the smokys
You can be right a 1,000 times, but the one time your wrong......you'll pay for it, just like Josh did!
Lone Wolf
12-24-2009, 07:16
You can be right a 1,000 times, but the one time your wrong......you'll pay for it, just like Josh did!
sure, whatever. i'll still never treat or filter water
sure, whatever. i'll still never treat or filter water
My guess is that at least 1 out of 1000 times a filter causes more problems than it solves.
How smart do you think it would be for me to take out the filter that has set unused in my (heated) closet for over a year, then run fresh mountain top spring water through it?
A filter is nothing more than a leaky storage cylinder for concentrated pathogens.
And people want to carry them around with their food and stuff.
Mr. Underhill
12-24-2009, 15:08
After a trip I always run a diluted chlorox solution through the filter, disassemble it and let it dry in the sun for a day. This seems to work for storage.