Water at Shelters
When water is indicated as being available at a shelter does this mean that the water is drinkable without a purifier? Thanks!
Trailfinder
This should generate a long discussion about purify or not, but basically the water at shelters is generally from streams, springs and seeps, no safer or more dangerous than water found elsewhere on the trail (except for more people nearby and thus greater chance of someone dirtying the source). If you purify water elsewhere, you will probably want to do the same with water at shelters. Especially after you see guys taking leaks between the shelter and the water sourceOriginally Posted by trailfinder
When water is indicated as being available at a shelter does this mean that the water is drinkable without a purifier? Thanks!
Frosty
No. Water near a shelter should be your most questionable water source. Dogs, tourons, privys and such are too close to it, in general.
However, if you see that it is coming right out of the ground and that the privy is a half mile on the other side of the hill, you could take the gamble.
Some like myself drink it all. Unfiltered. Untreated.
right there with you...
I like LW just drink and enjoy.Some like myself drink it all. Unfiltered. Untreated.(I have literally drank water straight from a beaver pond and had no ill effects.) Sue/HH
Hammock Hanger -- Life is my journey and I'm surely not rushing to the "summit"...:D
http://www.gcast.com/u/hammockhanger/main
Very cool HH!
P.S. Just cuz we do it doesn't mean you should trailfinder.
I totally agree with my colleagues, and confess that I just drink the stuff also.
Although there is no way to tell the quality of the water, you can make some judgement calls if you do not want to filter or treat your water. If the privy is close, or the water source is closeby the shelter, then there is likely a better chance that there will be contamination. Same goes for water running across the trail.
Water that is coming directly from the source *may* be more safe to drink untreated/unfiltered. During my first section hike through the Smokies, I filtered about 40% of the time and drank from the source the other 60%. Water sources near shelters were usually filtered, while other seeps and streams at the top of mountains we generally did not.
Some people have strong feelings about this topic. You ARE taking a chance by not treating or filtering. The choice is yours as to whether or not you want to play the odds. One thing to consider, giardia and crypto are just as big a problem in large municipal water supplies.
I for one trust water coming from a stream in the mountains more so than water coming from the tap in a major metropolitan city.
NO. It does not mean you can drink it, without filtering it.
I admit, I have, but as stated above you are taking a chance. I am in pursuit of a second college degree at this time, it is in environmental policy (which includes a lot of science classes), I do not believe I would drink water from very streams ever again without filtering, (because of what I have learned about, the true amount of damage we are doing to our environment) especially that along the eastern sea board (appalachian mountains) without filtration.
Although the water coming out of the side of a mountain is probably the safest fresh water to drink without filtration, there is never a garautee, that air borne contaminents did attache themselves to the water molecules in the air and permeate (seep) thru the soil still attached and coming out of the piped springs.
According to the an add in the back of the latest ATN, two environmental science people will be thru hiking the AT next year taking soil and water samples along the entire route, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Many water sources near shelters have a little sign saying that the water has not been tested, and may be containated.When water is indicated as being available at a shelter does this mean that the water is drinkable without a purifier? Thanks!
Whether you treat your water or not is a matter of judgement. It's also the subject of other threads here on Whiteblaze.
During my 523 miles hike, I saw one lost domestic dog wanders around, went to the slow moving springs, licking direct out of it, with 4 paws in it.... I have to wave the water out for a while and filtered it out. After seeing that dog doing this, I rather filter it, or maybe purify it everytime I need water, on my next attempt to thru hike next year.
Flash Hand
Down by the spring on a Hollow Log
Shells of a crawfish, bones of a frog.
Late last night by the dark of the Moon.
Down by the spring , It was Mr. Raccoon.
It starts with an S and ends with a T!
"I'd rather kill a man than a snake. Not because I love snakes or hate men. It is a question, rather, of proportion." Edward Abbey
If we knew what was in half the water we drank, we wouldn't be drinking it. Most of us ate a fair amount of dirt as children, and the way I see it that didn't kill me and neither will drinking water without filtering it every once in awhile. I do have to wonder about someone's logic when they put the privy above where the water is collected from. Who thought that was a good idea?
Do you have an example of a privy placed above a water source? I haven't ever seen that.
Last edited by orangebug; 10-17-2004 at 23:09. Reason: left out a "d"
I do not remember seeing a privy placed above a spring on the entire AT.
But I do remember seeing a privy (in 2000) so close to a stream you could spit in it from the privy (not that I would, just a figure of speech), that was Lamberts Meadow Shelter, just south of Daleville.
I wlaked up stream to get my water there, but you could a lot of people were getting from down stream of the privy.
That is one privy that should definitely be located if it hasn't already been moved.
High Point Shelter
Maybe at High Point Shelter in New Jersey? It's been a few years.
The privy at Matts Creek Shelter, just south of the James River Foot Bridge in central Virginia, seemed way too close to the stream for my liking.
GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014
I'd be surprised if the privy at Bryant Ridge is 50' from the stream that flows right in front of the shelter. Both the shelter and the privy sit up on the bank.
Pecks Corner comes to mind. It is up the hill aways, but still up above the water source. Cable Gap Shelter used to be that way before they moved the privy down below, or so I was told by a guy who had thru hiked the entire trail.
It was 2001 when I last visited the Pecks Corner Shelter. The privy was back near the blue blaze trail to the shelter, pretty far away from the shelter. The water source was downhill from the shelter, but again a fairly long 100 yards or so.
Maybe it has changed. I would be very surprised if they put the privy between the shelter and the water source.
Last edited by orangebug; 10-18-2004 at 16:48. Reason: grammer
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