Re: [at-l] Back around the campfire

[tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us (Thomas McGinnis)]

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: [at-l] Back around the campfire
Author:  "Sam Teel" <steel@sfwmd.gov> at ima
Date:    5/21/99 4:39 PM
     
If I had had a purifier would I have been able to purify that mud hole 
water safely?  Would iodine or chlorine tablets worked?  I'm guessing 
I'll need one (purifier) when my daughter and I hike that little section 
(two days) of the AT around Hot Springs in July.  Any suggestions as to 
brand, model etc.?
     
Thanks,
Sam

        (Doning my asbestos suit): Well, thanks Sam. You've just hit on 
        every trail-related email list's favorite hot-button issue, next 
        perhaps to carrying firearms, hiking nude (June 21 is one month 
        off, folks! Time to start practicing!), carrying an umbrella, 
        or, for those on that OTHER list, whether the AT should be 
        extended beyond Katahdin. Prepare to watch the flames fly.
        
        Not engaging those other arguments, I comment as follows:
        Thousands of hikers hiked the whole of the Appalachian Trail 
        without the benefit of water filters, before the popular advent 
        of the things ten-plus years ago. I was/am one. I hiked the 
        Davenport to Hot Springs section last Labor Day with my two sons 
        and their mother. No filter.
        
        By popular anecdote, few throughhikers actually continue to use 
        the things past PA, if they (the hikers or the filters) make it 
        that far.
        
        The PUR factory personnel cleaning/fixing water filters at Trail 
        Days had PLENTY of business, and the pile of broken filter parts 
        on Friday and Saturday was better than a meter tall.
        
        To quote Warren Doyle at last year's "Gathering," carrying a 
        filter is "just silly."
        
        By the way, while I am a weight-weenie on most counts, my hiking 
        boots are full steel shanked, Norweigian-welted 
        six-pound-the-pair mothers, so keep in mind "YMMV."
        
        Sloetoe
        ever the iconoclast....
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