Originally Posted by
staehpj1
Yeah, I know guys who don't filter in much of the Sierras. It sounds like there are quite a few who do likewise in the Cascades and Olympics. I paddled tandem in a canoe down the St Johns river in Maine with a guy who just dipped a cup in the river to drink. In neither of those cases do I know of anyone getting sick. In the Sierras I only did it from springs where I could see the source. I do know a few folks who got giardia in the eastern US, at least one got it kayaking without intentionally drinking the water. Giardia can be really miserable and it can drag on for a long time. At least that is what my friends who have had it say.
I have always been intrigued by the steripen, but for some illogical reason can't bring myself to trust it. I should probably get over that. Also I like the idea of filter because it gets rid of particulates and in some cases improves the taste of the water. I've filtered water that looked pretty nasty (and I am guessing probably tasted nasty) and it wasn't bad after filtering. If you filter where the water is crystal clear that wouldn't be an issue, but for me that hasn't been the case
So, given that, I have to wonder,,, How do you steripen users manage with nasty water, the cloudy dirty stuff with tiny bit floating in it? Do you never need to filter nasty water. Do you keep it for a while in a container to let the sediment settle out? I have done the settling out in a bucket thing (before chemical treating or filtering) when canoe camping and it worked pretty well, but it rules out filling a bottle to use immediately. I'd expect that it kind of needs to be done in camp or during a pretty long break, because riding would likely keep it stirred up. Or does it still settle well enough while riding? On a canoe trip filtering a day's worth of water ahead of time is fine, but on a bike a full day of water is a lot to carry.
We're lucky enough to live in paradise, I guess. Or maybe lots of experience. We plan our hikes, rides, and our water loads so that we never have to use water like that. We even try not to camp by lakes, though that's frequently unavoidable.
Steripen has a water anecdote: a hiker was counting on water from a stock trough, probably somewhere south of the Sierra. When he got there, out of water, he found that an animal had drowned in it, or died in it anyway, some time in the past. He Steripened it twice and drank it, even though it still smelled and looked awful. Didn't get sick. If there is particulate matter in the water, Steripen advises filtering it through cheese cloth before sterilizing it. We carry a little cheese cloth for that purpose, but have never used it. Worse is the ground rock in glacial rivers. Can't filter that with cheese cloth and it immediately clogs water filters, and you can't drink it straight either without risking intestinal damage. It helps to know ahead of time where the water issues are.