[pct-l] Water treatment practices

[Tom Bache]

I'm curious about community attitudes to water treatment.  I wonder about
the fractions that always treat, sometimes treat, and seldom or never treat.
I fall into the latter category.

I do a lot of backpacking and day hiking around the calendar (live in San
Diego), and only treat on those rare occasions when I have to use water from
obviously sketchy sources.  In good places like the Sierras, I never treat.
I mostly go solo, so I don't know what others do.  However, I did see a lot
of people drinking water directly from the streams when I traveled up the
JMT/PCT, so I know I'm far from the only one.  I've never had any problems.
I'm one who believes the articles saying that the probability of problems
from giardia and other water-born bugs is grossly exaggerated, so I think my
good fortune is mostly due to being careful about my hands being clean
before touching food.

It is hard to beat falling on your belly for a l.o.o.n.g drink from a cold
mountain stream.  I suspect that a lot of people are denying themselves that
pleasure unnecessarily as they spoil the moment with tedious pumping and/or
taste-spoiling chemicals.  But perhaps I've been lucky or happen to be on
the right side of the human distribution of vulnerability to water-borne
bugs.

Since water-treatment practices have a significant effect on the hiking
experience, I thought it useful to have a thread collecting some community
experience and opinion.

Tom Bache
San Diego