Water treatment reflections. Have you gotten sick?

[tlsharb]

Well, add me to the list of "been hiking in the Sierra since the late 60s and seldom filter water". The only time I do is when I am at low elevations and don't really know what's up above in the stream. Then I will get out the iodine. Of course one year, just to be a good example for the group, I used iodine almost every day. Then on the last day I actually read the instructions....."wait at least 20 minutes before adding the neutralizer tabs. Failure to do this will make the iodine useless" (or something like that). Sooooo, I basically wasn't treating the water all week since I put the two tabs in together every time. Have I ever been sick? Not once. My wife keeps saying, "your day is coming"; but at this point if I get sick, I'll probably conclude it had nothing to do with the water.
Of course, growing up in the San Joaquin valley, and eating all kinds of suspect Mexican food probably has given me a strong "constitution". So I would never advise anyone else on what to do, but I'll keep sipping from those crystal clear high Sierra streams.
ts

[gardel]

I agree with all those who note that our immune systems vary. My wife and I once got food poisoning after sharing the same dishes at a local restaurant. She was mildly uncomfortable for a day, while I was violently sick for two days, and didn't fully recover for two weeks.

To my mind, the potential negatives (two weeks or more of misery) are so huge, and the costs (30 minutes a day of filtering) are so low, it's a no-brainer. When the weather is nice, filtering can even provide a great excuse to linger beside a pretty creek or lake.

[Lumbergh21]

I'll finish with a quote from one meta-analysis that is freely available online, and while not a published source, it cites all of its claims:

Recall that San Francisco water can contain a concentration of 0.12 cysts per liter [24], a figure now seen to be higher than that measured anywhere in the Sierra. San Francisco city officials go to great lengths to assure their citizens that the water is safe to drink, and if true—as it most assuredly must be—this comparison alone is quite revealing.
Even Los Angeles Aqueduct water, with only 0.03 cysts per liter [25], has a higher concentration of Giardia than all but two of the 69 Sierra sites examined.

Those concentrations are for the raw water not the treated water out of the tap. The water systems using those sources are then required to provide treatment that achieves at least a 99.9% reduction in Giardia cysts prior to the first customer (disinfection continues to inactivate the Giardia cysts in the distribution system providing greater reduction the further out you go in the system). Yes, I work in the water treatment industry, mainly surface water treatment. I have never suffered any intestinal illness while on the trail, even though as a child growing up, I frequently drank untreated water. My uncle on the other hand got a real nasty case of Giardia that lasted for 6 months on one of our fishing trips. He never drank untreated water again. And, I rarely drink untreated water now.
I also agree with the post that we don't really have much data on the water quality in the Sierra compared to the quality of the water sources that public water systems use. Even then, many of us tasked with determining what is acceptable risk and how to evaluate the quality of a source are stonewalled by the lack of useful data and frankly end up making educated guesses with a big safety factor built in because we still know so little.

[cloudlesssky]

I haven't gotten the trots while on the trail but I've had odd flu-like symptoms occasionally. I've chalked these up to dehydration or a bug that I caught on my way to the mountains. I use a Sawyer squeeze filter setup with Micropur tablets as a lightweight backup in case the squeeze filter clogs (which has happened). I also carry metronidazole tablets in case those two fail. The latter two are much more compact and light than an extra roll of TP

[lambertiana]

I haven't treated water in any way for eight years now, never had a problem. I am choosy about my sources.

That being said, think about how a steripen works. UV light. Every high elevation lake gets a high dose of UV every day. UV is attenuated by water fairly quickly, but the water near the surface is probably sterile.

One of my backpacking friends always filters. He got a confirmed case of giardia, due to a large mouthful of water ingested when he wiped out while waterskiing at Bass Lake. I would never drink the water straight from any lake that has boat access, too many people take a dump right off their boat. Now he watches me drink the water without treatment and keeps saying that he wishes that he dared to do the same.

[longri]

He got a confirmed case of giardia... he wishes that he dared to do the same.

People are funny about their guts. When something goes wrong there it leaves a very long lasting memory.

I got lost one time with a climbing partner, trying to relocate our bivy site after dark in a convoluted basin. We were both dehydrated. The difference was that he had once had a very acute case of giardiasis, one that was bad enough to send him to the ER whereas I had not. So during our hours-long search for our camp (where his precious water filter was stored), I drank out of various lakes, streams, ponds, whatever, with great relish and complete abandon. He refused a single drop, preferring death by desiccation to even a remote chance of another visit to the ER in a week or so.

We are basically digestive tracts that have evolved brains to improve our chances of feeding them.

[rlown]

Or, longri, you are just a carrier now and not affected. And there are brain cells along the digestive tract.

[longri]

Or, longri, you are just a carrier now and not affected.

Maybe. But I've had a confirmed case of giardiasis in the past so I wouldn't bet on it.

I treat my water most of the time in the backcountry. I think that more often than not I probably don't need to. It's just that I have no way to know that with certainty. But if I can't treat from some reason, as happened to me halfway through a 10 day trip a few years ago, I'll go ahead and drink anyway. I'm sure not going to give up on my trip, much less die of thirst, for lack of a filter or chemicals -- not in the High Sierra anyway.

But I understand why those who have had a really bad case in the past (my giardiasis experience was relatively moderate in severity), the risk of a GI illness can seem like life or death.

[edited to correct grammar correction]

[Pietro257]

I'm old enough to remember when most backpackers kept a Sierra cup attached to their belt so they could reach down and get a cup of water when needed. My rule is: If crowded campsites are nearby and the deer population is high, filter the water; otherwise drink it straight, no chaser. I have never been sick from drinking water. Maybe I'm lucky or have an iron-clad digestive tract, or both.

[giantbrookie]

I don't think I've ever contracted anything from the water in the High Sierra. I had a stomach bug once on a trip along the Glacier Divide. It appeared to be a standard cold I was probably coming down with when I left on the trip. It started out with a fever and chills and no gastrointestinal issues and finished with a day on which I set a personal high for bathroom breaks that I hope I never come close to (on a hike from Knob L. to North Lake). Anyhow I doubt that one was water related. In the days before water filters I'd drink water out of streams if uncrossed by trails upstream but boil water at trailside destinations. Later the latter category became filtering water at said locations, whereasI still drink unfiltered out of those trailless mountain streams. On the recent off trail trip with my daughter I introduced her to the pleasure of doing this and it was one of the many things she really enjoyed and talked about later.