[pct-l] Giardia Lamblia and Giardiasis

[Jeffrey Olson]

On my six week section hike last summer from Canada into central Oregon, 
and then from Burney FAlls to the McCloud River, and then from Kennedy 
Meadows to Kearsage Pass, and then again for a week in the Sawtooths in 
Idaho a month ago, I didn't use any water treatment.  I carried iodine 
tablets, but didn't use them.  I'll still carry them in case the only 
water has cow or sheep or horse poop next to it, or is obviously not 
flowing and/or stagnant. 

I think it is a combination of forest service information used by filter 
manufacturers that had a whole generation of hikers grow up scared of 
the water in the wilderness.  I never even heard of a filter prior to 
the late 80s.  Having hiked since the sierra cup hung off every hiker's 
waistbelt, I never met anyone that got sick until this summer, when I 
met a guy doing a long section hike who told his giardia story - he 
doesn't know how he got it, but surmised it was from bad hygiene, either 
his own or hiking partners.  None of his friends got it. 

I know that I did treat water based on "what I'd heard" - that cysts 
hung out in water year after year, little malevolent organisms waiting 
to infect me.  When I read this article, or one like it a couple years 
ago, and realized that they die, and that there has to be certain 
concentration, I lost a lot of that manufactured fear.  Of course, this 
is probably an example of hike your own hike - whatever feels safe... 

Jeff, just Jeff...