[pct-l] audio books and batteries

[Sandra Smith]

Regarding battery recharging and iodine as a water treatment, I may  
have some additional suggestions because of where I live (in the  
Olympic Mt foothills, a couple of miles past the end of the power  
lines).

First, power.  Realgoods.com  has a variety of small and flexible  
solar photovoltaic devices that would more than recharge an iPod.  I  
carried one about 1.5' by 1.1' which just rolled up to charge a 7"  
screen Toshiba Libretto, a full W95 laptop computer, so I could do  
the work I needed to and still hike.  Worked fine, but newer flexible  
panels are even better.  Now I carry a Treo SmartPhone, running the  
Palm operating system, which is several things in one phone-sized  
package:  good cell phone, PDA with contacts, calendar, note-taking  
(even reads MS Office documents), MP3 player, camera (quality is not  
great but does nice short movies...for those 'educational' special  
sessions at the kickoff maybe?!), eReader for electronic books, and  
with an exterior tiny bluetooth GPS receiver from Semsons a nice GPS  
device with large color maps.  It can also get internet if you want  
to pay for it and can get reception from where you will be.  Handy  
for looking up services and checking the weather!   With my altimeter  
watch, these 2 devices do just about everything I want on the trail,  
and weigh less, together, than one paperback book--even in the heavy  
aluminum case I have on the Treo.  I read Crime and Punishment while  
hiking the Oregon PCT...but one could get a couple of dozen  
electronic books (which I either get free if they are classics, or  
pay for at eReader.com) into the Treo. Audio ones will take up more  
memory, but the Treo has a SD slot for music, photos, videos, etc.

However, if sound quality for both music and audiobooks is the  
deciding factor, I'd go with the iPod....in a waterprooof and  
shockproof case!

As for charging, you can go directly from the 12-volt portable and  
rollable photovoltaic (solar) panels, and charge as you walk in the  
sunshine.....or you can charge batteries and then use the batteries  
as backup, just as was already detailed on the listserv.  However,  
going from charging device to batteries to your iPod or Treo or  
whatever  means you lose some of that precious electric energy with  
each conversion.  The Treo's batteries are easily removed, so I just  
carry a spare...charged....and that way always have a backup for  
clouds, long distances, etc.  But the iPod would need to be charged  
daily.

Regarding iodine and chlorine as water treatments, I read some years  
back, in a doctoral dissertation on giardia, that halogens (chlorine,  
iodine) are not very effective destroyers of giardia cysts. They kill  
the living organism just fine, but the cyst form is quite protected.   
Boiling (or even REALLY hot water) destroyed the cysts physically, by  
denaturing their proteins, but the author of this dissertation said  
that few other water treatments besides filtering really prevented  
the cysts from being infective.

However, those of you who have HAD giardia, and did not get it  
treated, may well be immune.  We got it from our own water system  
years ago, never were treated (what was the point?), and never had  
problems again.  It appears that almost the entire population of old  
St Petersburg in Russia was immune due to exposure since infancy.  I  
drink water right out of the streams in the Cascades, Olympics, and  
Alaska mts, when human contamination is very unlikely, and never get  
sick.  But I carry a virus filter in parts of California and in well- 
traveled areas.

Sandy from the Olympics