[pct-l] Water Treatment & ending my hike

[Ollen Mullis]

Earlier, Rainskirt wrote: " so you're saying you got dehydrated and eventually quit 

your trip (partly) because your filter didn't work???!!!" 



Well, yes, Rainskirt, you understand my situation correctly.  Now, I cannot say if I was 

officially or clinically dehydrated in a strict medical sense , but after running low on water 

and, therefore, not drinking much, I had gone all day without the urge to eliminate, and 

could not have spit on a gnat. Later that night, when I did need to go, my output (~5 oz 

carefully dispensed into an empty water bottle 'cause it was raining out) was the color of 

iced tea,  complete with some fine yellow powdery precipitate-looking thingies (lemon 

flavor crystals?).  



It gave me pause. 



Next morning, found a pool of water, ~1 foot deep, ~6 feet dia, not dead stagnant, but only 

barely flowing, slightly murky, with green algae/scum around the edges. Scooped out of the 

middle (or as far out as I could reach) and tried to filter it, but nothing would come out of the 

output hose (had a gravity filter, not a pump). 



What became important to me (hiking solo on my  first-time long-distance hike ) at that point 

was not collapsing/dying in the wilderness from lack of water, but I did not think it was wise 

to  drink that water as it came from that pool and risk gett ing some gnarly GI distress farther 

down the trail .  Was I overly paranoid?  Maybe... I really can't say .  There's a fair bit of 

noise/variability in the 'information' surrounding back country water and how one should 

handle it, making it a little difficult for a newbie to know what to feel comfortable doing.  



So I made my   decision (and, believe me, I've 2nd-guessed it ever since) and walked out to 

the nearest road and caught a ride into town from a pair of hunters.  I do NOT know why it  

didn't occur to me to try to get a replacement filter or some other means of water treatment 

at that point, but it didn't.  I admit I was a little rattled at that point. 



I think from the responses to my post (and I really appreciate all of them) I would feel OK in a 

similar situation next time (and I AM going back, probably next year, to finish!) with some form 

of rough filtration (bandana, coffee filter) to screen out any twigs/dirt/slime/scum and then hit it 

with AquaMira or KlearWater .  If a ClO2 treatment is sufficient to kill whatever nasties (if any 

were present) that would surely pass thru the coffee filter, this seems to be a fail-proof and 

lightweight treatment protocol I could feel comfortable using. 



I have little doubt that many of you more experienced hikers out there would not have let the 

situation I was in delay you or end your hike, but the best I can do at this point is to try to learn 

from the experience and take another shot at it next year.  I appreciate everyone's replies. 



Ollen 

Texas