[at-l] Where germs live

[richehli at optonline.net (Richard Ehli)]

On Thu, 2003-06-05 at 10:01, Platy Hiker wrote:
...
> I guess the one useful thing we can get out of the article is that
> hikers should regularly give water bottles a good cleaning.  AT
> thru-hikers can make that chore easier by taking advantage of the
> plentiful hot-water supply available during town-stops.

A friend who hiked through the Wind River range in the mid 1990s experienced
this bio film problem. Within 3 days both filters carried by his party, one
new and one almost new, were completely useless. He complained to the
manufacturer, who suggested that he had probably taken water from a source
with a fast growing algae - a condition for which the manufacturer accepted
no responsibility. Since neither one of us had heard about this problem
before, I am wondering whether our ignorance was because this is a regional
problem, confined to western water sources.I never heard of anyone having a
problem with algae growth on my AT hike. Anyone know otherwise?

Beegfut