How careful with water?

[Timberline001]

All it takes is once........and you'll never have a problem carrying 10lbs of water with you ever again. I got sick from creek water back in 2003........I'm not sure my system has ever recovered. That's how bad it is.

Same!


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[seww]

I guess everyone has different immune systems, but I have drank from streams and creeks my whole life without having any problems. On second thought, I have had Beaver Fever since I was 14 or 15 years old.

That fever is harder to get over.. not sure it'll ever pass

 

[S.Clancy]

So where I come from, Northern Sweden, the water is clean and safe to drink, pretty much anywhere. With the spring run-off the water is bad, but that's it.

And over here in the US, we have to deal with giardia. I know a water filter will take care of 99% of the virus and parasites in the water for drinking.
But how much water do you need to swallow to experience symptoms?

If you wash your face and get a few drops in your mouth?
You wash your hands in the stream, they dry and you eat a sandwich?

I'm just inexperienced with this issue. And it sucks, I love water and hate to carry it.

Infectious dose of giardia is very small, like 10-20 cysts. I'm not sure about crypto. Bacterial infectious doses are generally much larger, like a couple million cells. The reason giardia is so low is they survive our stomach acid in cyst form.

 

[Rich M]

It's because we have no people, no industries and no cattle in the Northern parts. So, so far we've managed to avoid any contaminates. But it is changing, more and more people come outdoors and bring more fecal matter that is getting into the waters with time..

I'm in Idaho and going to try and hike and hunt this Spring/Summer/Fall so trying to educate myself to avoid getting sick.

Guardia often comes from beavers and such that live there.

There are a bunch of cheap filters and straws available. Beats 3 days of intestinal pains and poops.

 

[dieselchessy]

One bit for you folks who’ve bean there, done that, and are still living with it.
For me collagen pills daily, type 1 and 3, or pills with types 1,2,3,4,5 made the biggest improvement. I take 1/2 the daily dose each morning and it really seamed to help my gut linings heal. Guess I don’t eat enough bone broth and such to get it natural.

 

[fmyth]

Guardia often comes from beavers and such that live there.

There are a bunch of cheap filters and straws available. Beats 3 days of intestinal pains and poops.

Yep. Beavers and dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, coyotes, non-human primates, rodents, and raccoons. If there is a source of water you can bet one of the above found it way before you did. I wish I was only sick for 3 days. I thought I had the flu and was sick for over two weeks before I sought medical attention. I never suspected Giardia as I didn't drink any water from a stream or lake. I had no idea you could get it from swimming or in my case, riding a Seadoo in the city reservoir.

 

[Rich M]

Yep. Beavers and dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, coyotes, non-human primates, rodents, and raccoons. If there is a source of water you can bet one of the above found it way before you did. I wish I was only sick for 3 days. I thought I had the flu and was sick for over two weeks before I sought medical attention. I never suspected Giardia as I didn't drink any water from a stream or lake. I had no idea you could get it from swimming or in my case, riding a Seadoo in the city reservoir.

Crazy what's in the water.

Down here you can get an ameba, that gets into yer brain and kills, by going swimming. We lose a handful of folks every year, enough that I won't swim in the lakes, just ocean or springs.

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

The outfitter from the Boundary Waters told us giardia is heavier than the water, so if you take it from the top of a lake/pond it’s likely cleaner than a flowing stream.

If you’ve been out west on a normal or drought year, you’ll know it’s worth carrying a filter even if you’ve chosen not to use it before.

The advantage to being able to treat and drink from a “questionable“ or “downright nasty” water source rather than going 2500‘ back up/down the mountain can’t be overstated. We ended up melting snow up high last year to avoid coming down off the mountain, as the stream on the map wasn’t there.

I did end up getting sick on the last day of our trip and felt like crap for 2 days after. I’m guessing it had to be from water since we ate food that really couldn’t have gone bad the whole time.

I‘ve generally used a Sawyer squeeze/platypus gravity filter setup, it’s nice because all the water you use gets treated, even for making a coffee or rinsing off your spoon, and there is no cross contamination.

This year we took a Steripen as well as while they seem to work great, if you dip your Nalgene in a creek, treat it, and drink from it, the water in all the cap threads is untreated. I don‘t know for sure that’s what made me sick but I probably will buy one of those “cap cap” deals, even though they seem stupid in principle and name.

 

[Northern Shrike]

When I’m higher up in the mountains, I will often drink straight from streams and springs without filtering it, but as I get into areas where the animal activity is higher (beavers, moose, bear, etc.) I will filter or boil my water. I am more careful in the lake systems where there is a lot of animal activity, but I still swim and clean dishes in lake/stream water. I like the platypus or MSR gravity filters and the sawyer squeeze the best. I have talked to some of the old timers in my area who have never filtered water and didn’t usually carry any, just drank out of whatever source they had and never got beaver fever.

 

[seww]

When I’m higher up in the mountains, I will often drink straight from streams and springs without filtering it, but as I get into areas where the animal activity is higher (beavers, moose, bear, etc.) I will filter or boil my water. I am more careful in the lake systems where there is a lot of animal activity, but I still swim and clean dishes in lake/stream water. I like the platypus or MSR gravity filters and the sawyer squeeze the best. I have talked to some of the old timers in my area who have never filtered water and didn’t usually carry any, just drank out of whatever source they had and never got beaver fever.

I saw a small trickle of water coming out of the mountain side yesterday, at like 8k ft. Pretty sure that water was safe but I've started to filter pretty much all water here in Idaho.

Did take a big gulp of reservoir water this summer when swimming, but neither me or my son got anything. Probably just lucky...

 

[MattB]

I know someone who contracted giardiasis fly fishing a stream. Doctor suggested it probably occurred tying on a new fly and using teeth to pull the tag end. Who knows? No water had been drunk from the stream.

Sometimes you win the reverse lottery.

Pretty safe to say “More... more bad.” but it’s possible to get the wrong bit in a tiny exposure.

I don’t worry about swimming, wading or fly fishing, but I filter what I drink and use to wash dishes and utensils

I read about a person who believes they contracted it from spray while white water rafting. It doesn't seem like it takes very much when the conditions are right.

 

[BBob]

I read about a person who believes they contracted it from spray while white water rafting. It doesn't seem like it takes very much when the conditions are right.

The giardia/crypto testing lab I do work for has said it takes just one viable cyst and you've got it. Might take a cycle or two before your guts go absolutely wonky but it's coming. I've had it twice in my life and it isn't fun. The second bout took many months to recover from and possibly a year or even more before my gut felt normal again. I cannot say with any certainty in both instances how I picked it up.

 

[TaperPin]

What about high elevation? If there's a small stream or lake at 8000+ feet? Risks even up there or is it just better to be safe than sorry?

Yep, animals carry it everywhere.

 

[Naiche]

My daughter got giardia from water skiing. It was no joke. Sick for months before the Dr figured it out.