[pct-l] Re: Giardia exposure

["Greg Hummel" <ghummel@hydrogenburner.com>]

O.K., if a large portion of the population never treats the water they drink in the wilderness and never have a problem with Giardia, where are they? 

 

Speak up if you never treat your water and don't get sick. 

 

I didn't treat any water (with the exception of some particularly putrid stuff) and didn't get a Giardia infection in 1977, but then no one can tell me if the Giardia problem existed then.  No one treated their water in the 70's with anything more than iodine and/or boiling.  Did a large number of hikers suddenly start to get infections in the 80's to bring around the recognition and subsequent filters?  I must have had my head in the sand or be getting old, because I don't recall.

 

I am not real careful when hiking in the high Sierra and often drink unfiltered water where I believe or know that no campsites are above me.  Am I one of those that have a natural resistance to Giardia?  I could run a self experiment at the risk of infection, but chose to continue on my existing course.

 

Have any recent (1990's) thru hikers or section hikers gone "filter-free"?

 

Greg "Strider" Hummel