RE: Cool Clear Water
 

As much as I hate to agree with ole BJ. LOL He' s sure right about drinking in creeks, streams or lakes,not a good idea, if you' ve gotten away with it up till now it' s only a matter of time. I' ve rarely had that problem myself but I' ve been called a camel at hunting camp. Generally I can go all day on 20oz. and this is mostly in Sept. never been sore either, I' ll cover from 5-15 miles every day on foot. Mind over matter, or I' m stupid, it' s one or the other.

Seriously though, you can get those water purifying tablets a little bigger than an aspirin, just fill your water jug with creek water add a couple tablets (I heard water taste like crap but does the job) and you' re good to go. You can also buy one of those water purifying contraptions in a small enough version to fit in your day pack. Problem solved.

Like Bullkllrs idea too. elknut1.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

I' ve had the flamin squirts before and now I don' t even consider drinking right out of the stream, river or any other untreated water source. I carry a camelback and a filter. The camelback is in another larger pack and it completely silent and is easy to get to. I drink a lot of water in the morning in camp and empty my cambelback during the day. Its not that the streams, etc. are so dirty its just that for generations we have been drinking clean sissy water and now our bodies can' t handle it. Its the same with drinking the water in another country. The natives can drink it fine but you try it and you' ll be sorry.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

I am in the Town water treatment bussiness and have been for 21 years.
No matter how clear the water is its a crap shoot, could be litterly, if you drink untreated water. Gotta agree with Elknut 1, it' s only a matter of time if you keep drinking untreated water.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

Carry along one of those small water filters! Take it from someone who' s had dysentery! Not a fun experience! [:' (]

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

BJ, sounds like volume and weight are the enemies. Couple of thoughts:

1. In addition to your quart and " dip and filter" (empty or full at the start?) bottle take along a second container of water and drink it all in the first half hour to an hour as you are riding/hiking to your sunrise spot. Yeah, you may whiz like a race horse but you are starting the day out well hydrated. If you are like me you have to have that coffee in the morning. Folks that supposed to know say that you need a glass or two of water to offset each cup of coffee -- so this " race horse" water helps do that.

2. Sounds like once the quart is gone you may only reach one of your springs in the course of the day and load up your " dip and filter" bottle. Most of these I' ve seen are definitely less than a quart so it gets quickly used up too. As a solution, you might consider carrying more than one " dip and filter" bottle OR carry a water filter (not as handy I know) and refill your quart container so your refilled water containers have enough capacity to run you the balance of the day. If you don' t want to carry more than a quart at any one time later in the day you can always use the " race horse" technique and filter or " scoop" a quarts worth PLUS some extra and then just drink the extra right on the spot. The " scoop and drink" filters are quick and simple but they lack the capacity to let you cruise long range before needing another watering hole.

It' s a trade off, $ vs weight vs room in the pack vs the body complaining when its dry. Your call. Depending on whether you are up in your hunting area prior to the season the " stashing" water idea may have merit.

EKM

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

Howdy B.J.
Enjoy your posts, you sound like one hard-out dude.
To answer your question, I' m from down in New Zealand, which is the last stopping place before you head down to the Antartic and just South East of Australia. We inherited some of your fine Elk as a gift from President Roosevelt.
Unfortunately our Government doesn' t like imported animals in our Back Country and has a policy of extermination. This sounds good for hunters, as you can shoot as many as you want, at any time of the year, but it' s not really as the herd has been virtually exterminated and the quality of trophies has declined.
50 years or so ago we produced some very fine trophies. (A few over the 60 inch mark.) Nowadays you are a very lucky man to shoot a rack over 40 inch.
Our season is opposite to yours. Our Elk (We call them Wapiti.) are about to start bugling any day now. Whats left of them live in a very remote and very mountainous part of the South Island. Hunts are balloted in the prime areas during the Bugle period (24th March to 21st April.)
I' ve been lucky enough to draw a ballot and can take up to 6 hunters.
This will be the 9th time I' ve hunted the region.
Access is by helicoptor, but once you are there it is real hard physical hunting, and the weather is usually very cold and wet. Get the picture, you have to be really passionate about hunting Elk to come here, and sucess is hard-won.
Anyways here' s an offer for you, come down and join us, and help us find the owner of the 63 inch cast that was found in the area. We can fit one more in the helicoptor. We share the costs around and all up it' s about 500 bucks. This isn' t a commercialised trip, just three of us who have done a bit of hunting together over the past 20 years or so.
The Block we have is called " The Wild Natives River" but the natives left there at least a 100 years ago.
And hey I can guarantee you can drink the water here without a worry in the world.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

Thank you for the invite, but why on earth would I go gallavantin' halfway ' round the world to hunt elk? I like yer name for ' em though. Wapiti means brown butt in Shoshone. Elk is a european term thet means moose. Elk ain' t moose last I checked, so asides from bein' chicken hearts, them europeans don' t know their critters. Now ifn' you invite me on a free rocky mountin' sheep hunt, you got my attention. Don' t know if I like the helicopter thing neither. No sir, thank you kindly, but I' ll stick to my mules an' the rocky (by god) mountings.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

Actually it means white butt.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

Yer right. The eastern dialect throws me a lil' , an' since thet Brigham Young an' the Californy volunteers ' bout wiped out the western tribe at the bear creek massacre, my cipherin' of western lingo is a lil' rusty. ' Sides, they allays looked more orange then white to me.

RE: Cool Clear Water
 

A couple years ago I saw those pint or quart, squirt bottle lookin, water purifiers in some ad somewhere. Suggested it to my wife for xmas. She couldn' t find any. I haven' t seen them anywhere since! Did they find out that they didn' t work so well, or am I just looking in the wrong places? I don' t like the purification pill thing, usually carry a few of those fruit juice in foil pouches.