Do not take his or anyone's word for it. Some people are resistant/immune to it. Get your own filter and use it ALWAYS.

I carry a micro-pump filter all the time now if I am in the back country hunting. I contracted giardia from rinsing my tooth brush off in a high mountain stream. Man that bacteria can flat out hammer you! I barely made the 12 mile back pack out. By the time I got to the hospital I was terribly sick. Be safe guys, take a means of water purification.

I grew up in the mountains, and was a member of the Big Bulls school of thought for many years. Then I got giardia. You're really rolling the dice when you don't purify water out there.

It's like that moron who thought bears were his friend and went around selling his unique line of b.s. for years. Then one day the bears ate him. They ate his girlfriend, too.

(P.S. Don't think I'm calling Big Bulls a moron, 'cause I'm not. I've read too many great posts by him in the past. I just think he's a little off base on this one.)

You've convinced me. Now what level of filtration do I need? how many microns...?

Good question that will lead to another, and another. After going through it all for years, and having a broken filter pump that necessitated using my iodine back-up, I only carry and use iodine. Polar Pur is an amazing product.

But I am also a gearhead. I like looking at the latest filters. I am staying with bottled water and iodine for now. As you can see, many here like filters, but they are mechanisms that can break. Carry iodine at least as a back-up. It's small and light.

This is the one I use for work (I work for the FS) and hunting:

longevity series

I have used this one before and I really like it alot except it broke on me:

simplicity

Here is the one I use made by MSR:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...results1.jhtml

"What filter? How fine a mesh?" Just go to a backpacking store and rely upon their direction. Giardia is probably the principle bug which backpacking water filters are designed to remove, therefore all quality backpacking filters will readily check giardia.

Relative to one comment, you don't have to buy a "high end" water filter system to obtain entirely acceptable service. Just talk to the people at the backpacking shop (REI is a good one, phone them up and talk to them over the phone if there is not a shop nearby). Then again, the Wal-mart special might not cut it.

Relative to yet another comment, having a back-up to a filtration system -- iodine tablets -- is probably a good idea and know how to use them properly.

While I haven't tried the AquaMira product, it is a 2 part system, versus the Katadyn MP1 product:

[link]http://www.katadyn.net/micropur.html[/link]

Chlorine dioxide can take up to 4 hours to remove cysts from water, but that is cold/turbid water. Otherwise it's the same 30 minute wait time as iodine (which will not kill cryptosporidium) and tastes a heck of a lot better.

Regards,
Steve

Thanks for that. I'm going to get some, if only for the flavor. I didn't know about criipto . . .cryptospr . . heck, I can't even type it, let alone say it. It must be bad.

Learned from this forum again!