[pct-l] glacial runoff

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Granite,

I don’t believe rock silt from glacial melt water is much of a health
problem considering the total amount consumed in one’s life is very
small.  There
is lots of gray/white rock silt in glacial melt which is why many Pacific NW
mountains have outflow creeks named “Milk Creek” or “Whitewater
Creek”.  Sometimes
I can’t see the bottom of a creek that’s only 12” deep.

Most often I find clear water not far away, but I have used the milky stuff.
I avoid silt-water not because I’m so concerned about the silt, but because
I just don’t like to mess with clearing it up.  Doing so, I usually use two
water containers: one to settle the silt before pouring the (mostly) clear
water into the other.

I do treat the water, particularly on Mt. Hood which is a very heavily
climbed peak.  Someone up above is bound to have piddled or pooped on the
glacier from which the water melted.  Much of the time I’ve used a pump
filter on silt-water. It does plug, however I use the *Katadyn* filter which
has a ceramic media from which the silt is easily scraped.  For chemical
purification I use Clorox, and I believe it is effective in spite of the
silt.  Maybe it even turns the gray silt white:  Do you suppose?

Enjoy your planning,

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

-http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

-http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Erik Turnberg <erik.turnberg at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hey all I have a question that I've yet to find a good answer to.  Is
> it ok to drink cloudy glacial runoff.  I've always just treated it
> with aqua mira and let it sit a little longer/used a little extra.  I
> don't filter it because it seems like that fine silt would clog a
> filter asap.  Recently though I hiked the wonderland trail around
> Rainier (great hike but snowy) and another hiker swore it's not
> healthy to drink the stuff and went out of his way to walk a half mile
> up the trail from the site to a clear water source.  Thoughts on
> cloudy glacial water?  Is the high mineral content bad for you?  Does
> it prevent chemical purification from even working?
>
> Granite
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