[pct-l] Re: water treatment options in the desert

[csx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Shawnie)]

On Fri, 7 Feb 2003 12:58:25 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>It's all a matter of personal preference and comfort
>level.  For me, I just about abandoned chemical
>treatment once I hit the sierras.  There's simply so
>much clean water available that treatment is almost
>entirely unnecessary.  However, there's always that
>one case of a hiker who gets sick (probably from
>having something handed to them by a giardia carrier
>who didn't wash his or her hands).
>
>No, I'm not trolling to start this one up again, just
>offering my own experience.


I just read about the Press expedition.  They were the first white men to cross
the Olympic Mountains in Washington state.  They suffered from "Dysentery"
(diarrheas) for most of their trip.  They blamed the water.  But since no one at
all  had been in the mountains other than a hand full of Native Americans and
even they stopped crossing the Mountains after the genocide it could not have
been Giardia.

I suspect it was poor camp hygiene and or undercooked meat.  Less was understood
about germs back then.


The Press Expedition - Part II

Author: Jerri Brooker
Published on: May 28, 2002

 Related Subject(s): Press Exploring Expedition ,  Olympic Peninsula (Wash.) --
Discovery and exploration ,  Olympic Mountains (Wash.)

 Mystified that the Press Expedition Party took off in the winter of 1889, I
knew there had to be a reason. I learned The Seattle Press newspaper said the
party was starting in winter "in order to be over the first ranges and into the
central valley ready for work when spring should open." But the fact be known:
they were trying to gain the distinction of being the first crossing the
mountains. Since the press, lots of men were anxious to do the deed.
The Press Party left Seattle December 8 on a steamer to Port Angeles; they soon
began to build a boat to carry their supplies up the Elwha River. Wagon teams
brought their supplies to their first outpost, Philip Meagher's ranch. They
bought two mules, Jennie and Dollie, from a settler to aid in the trek.....

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/washington_state/92039 ....

-----
"I emerged from irrational thinking, ultimately,
 without medicine other than the natural hormonal
processes of aging."

John Nash
Nobel Prize Winner
Diagnosed with "Schizophrenia"