WATER WATER WATER...Does anyone drink creek water?

[Sourdough]

OK, I get the impression that there are very few creeks in America/Canada that one can drink straight from the creek or lake.

We have 700 threads about treating or filtering water......So if you do that PLEASE do not post that here.

What I want is to hear "ONLY" from people who live or hike and do "NOT" filter or treat the water. Just the Facts please.

For example:

39 years drinking Hope, Alaska creek water straight from creek, and never got sick.

or:

Bob Marshall wilderness area for three weeks never treated/never filtered never sick.

The location where you drink the water straight from the creek/lake:)

[trax]

Jeez hope, I used to but reading the threads here has scared me off. If I was still up north I still would, but not around here.

[Sourdough]

Jeez hope, I used to but reading the threads here has scared me off. If I was still up north I still would, but not around here.


Yea, they have me so intimidated....I may never leave the Homestead....:eek:

[Stony]

i (we) drink regular out of fast running creeks in the hills & mtns the past 20 years.
not from lakes or ponds due to beavers, muskrats and birds.

as long as the creeks don't run through fenced pastures or are sluggish you should be ok.

[Sourdough]

i (we) drink regular out of fast running creeks in the hills & mtns the past 20 years.
not from lakes or ponds due to beavers, muskrats and birds.

as long as the creeks don't run through fenced pastures or are sluggish you should be ok.

Are you in a state or providence. just roughly where is the water drinkable...??

Any I would open this to anyone anywhere but the water has to be drinkable today not 60 years ago.

[ride_gnu]

I have spent every summer for the last 5 years in the interior of BC drinking straight from any stream or lake that looked clean enough to drink from and never had a single problem. However if the water looked overly stagnent than I would boil it.

[DOGMAN]

I drink from lots of creeks and springs here in Montana. If I am high in altitude, above were the cows are, and not on a well-traveled horse trail I drink right out of the creek. Been doing this for years and I've never gotten sick. If it is fast moving, and has a decent flow, I drink straight out of it.
The Solution to pollution is dilution!

[wareagle69]

i do my freind
at first it was a mental thing, putting my canteen into a fast running part of a creek and adding my katadyn pills to it, now i have found streams around me that i just dip my blue cup into and drink deeply, have a natural spring close by that we pull our wtaer stores from.
a misconception of water i put in the same classifaction as bears,ssems folks think that if they see a bear they are dead (funny thing is bear is thinking same thing)
everone thinks you have to treat all water and i rarely do. would state lots of facts about this but am quite bored with this, i say everyone stays scared of the big bad outdoors, leaves more room for me

[edr730]

We keep a cup on several locations on the creek. I've never gotten sick. Others had used that same creek their entire lives for all of their water. I don't do that in populated areas.

[wildWoman]

I've done so on all my camping trips all over Canada. I also drank the lake, spring and creek water around the village where I lived for 7 years before we moved here. The creek by my old home was happily inhabited by beavers further upstream and supported a healthy moose population. Never had the slightest problem.

We've been drinking the lake water here for the past 3 1/2 years and will now get a filter. The water seems to be fine, except in late winter/spring. We had slight stomach problems the first two springs and last year it was really bad. Can't get the poop samples tested during break-up, so no idea if it was giardia or what. But it was bad enough to make us decide on getting a filter (which we still have to do before March!).

[preachtheWORD]

Throughout my childhood I drank from creeks - even from creeks in cow pastures - and never once got sick. However, everything I hear now says it is unsafe.

If you are going to drink from creeks on a regular basis as you hike I would strongly suggest that you drink only from the springhead - the place where the water actually springs from the ground. You may have to do some digging to get all the way back to the source. Springs often run just under the surface for quite a distance, creating a streak of "swampy" ground. You need to get above this to get the cleanest water.

In my area - the Appalachians - springheads are fairly common. They may not be in your area. In places with poor water quality unrelated to microorganisms or man-made pollutants (alkalai water, etc) even the groundwater might not be fit to drink. But with a little research you could find this out and enjoy springwater with confidence.

[Sourdough]

OK this thread is about Where (as in location) you drink the water. Not anyones thoughts about it.

If you drink it location please, just a state is good enough. or an elevation if you think that is relevant.

I would like to see this as a census question to every American.

[endurance]

Do I on a regular basis? No. Would I if I had a choice between not drinking for four hours after I ran out in 90 degree heat or filling my bottle and taking my chances? I'd take my chances unless the source was dubious. I agree with the majority that fast moving mountain streams that aren't overrun with beaver, sheep, or upstream towns are reasonably safe bets. Worst case scenario is you get sick and need to get treatment. Unless you're in the tropics or below a sewage treatment plant or in a third world country with no treatment plants where Hepatitis is a serious risk, you're not going to die from Giardia or Crypto. Are they pleasant? Hell no! Will any healthy adult survive them? Yes.

[dolfan87]

Not that there is a whole lot of it. but in the winter, when we do get a significant amount of rain, the mountains (more like large hills) will have little streams that I have drank out of with no problems.

I live in northwest AZ, right off the Colorado River.

[Ag Nettogrof]

I have for many years drank water from all 3 forks of Little River on Lookout Mt. Ga. above the population where the rivers are still wildland. Also the Kisselburg and Gamble branch and various springs in the same area, And south of the three forks where they merge to form the main river in Maye's Gulf known nowdays as Little River Canyon in Ala.

In McLamore's Cove, between Pigeon Mt. and Lookout there numerous streams that originate from springs that come from under the mountains that is some mighty fine drinking water.

Over toward the eastern part of Ga in the Chestatee WMA I have used the water fresh out of the fast streams and springs on the sides of the ridges. But I haven't been there in about 11 or 12 years so I would have to look everything over first.

All in all there has only been two times I fell ill from water. Once was in Henderson NC from their city water that tasted more like clorox and gave me a really good case of the overnite runs. and second my 2 nephews and self was walking back from fishing one day in July, about 102 degrees, came to a large pond (that had an occasional cow in it but looked clean) near home. We were so hot decided to go for a dip. Stirred up the bottom real good. All three of us got sick (2 ended runs) from that. But we survived I reckon.

Ag...

[Riverrat]

Not a state, but in New Brunswick I drink from the brooks near my home...no problem yet.

[Ole WV Coot]

I know of several in Southern WV & Eastern KY that are still good. Lots of old wells on govt property now used as parks & lakes. These are all up high and a couple of springs we used in KY during the summers when the well ran dry and are still good today. The water tastes better, no chemicals just water and I can't recall anyone getting the least bit sick.

[Geronimo!]

Drink from some of the streams of Starved Rock in Utica, IL whenever I go there. Haven't gotten sick yet.

[pgvoutdoors]

I've been on a few fishing trips up in northern Quebec on the Gouin Reservoir (a series of lakes, not a man made reservoir). The water looks a bit like root beer from all the Pines surrounding the area, but it tastes great. No problems there but most other places I travel I boil or treat the water first.

[Swamp Shuck]

I drink from any of the small creeks on my farm in Wisconsin. I was raised on a farm though so I've been exposed and developed an immunity to most parasites. I wouldn't drink from them if there were any mines in the area.

shuck

[trax]

Hope, after all the responses you've got so far, I figured I better give a little more serious answer, southern Manitoba--not a chance...northern Manitoba--yes I do drink creek and river water.

[Sourdough]

Not much feedback from the west coast of America.....???? I am encouraged not happy but encouraged that all water is not damaged. I wish there was a way to do a much more through survey.

[Dennis K.]

I do.

Pecos River basin, Santa Fe National Forest. Above the tourist campsites - Never downstream from them. Usually on my summer trips there - Windsor Creek, Ponchueala, Cave Creek, Beaty's Cabin, Pecos Falls. Never had a problem.

My Grandfather has been drinking from those creeks for 40+ years, no problems that I'm aware of.

Not sure I would recommend that course of action to others, though.

[backtobasics]

Not much feedback from the west coast of America.....???? I am encouraged not happy but encouraged that all water is not damaged. I wish there was a way to do a much more through survey.


I've drank non filtered water from creeks in the Nevada desert many times with no problem during the years from 96 to 98. I just did my best not to think about whats up stream. But when i could choose I chose spring water right from its source. The area i was in had many springs. I have also drank from the creeks in the Sierra/Nevada mountain range. Like some have said here I may stop that practice after reading all the threads on water.

[ryaninmichigan]

Baraga County U.P. Michigan. Been drinking that water all my life. Even in teh middle of summer nice and cool. Lots of springs here in Michigan too.

[Ted Foureagles]

Yep. Central Colorado, mainly the Sangre de Cristo Range. I've never had a problem in the Sawatch Range, but carry a filter as a matter of course when I'm there, due to runoff from old mines. The snowflake/elk ratio up here is pretty high and, of course, dilution's the solution to pollution -- more or less.

}}}}

[The Engineer]

When I was a kid we would take a drink out of whatever source of water was. I had never been told or even warned that i could get sick and never did. A couple of years ago a coworker got sick from Giardia after drinking from a stream while hunting on top of the Continental Divide. I guess if the water is bad, it's Bad and there is only one way to know, Take a drink.

[Stony]

hopeak,
one reason for no feed-back from the west coast or western provinces is that they do not want to give their locations.
as to my first post: i was talking about now, not 60 years ago.

[Sourdough]

hopeak,
one reason for no feed-back from the west coast or western provinces is that they do not want to give their locations.
as to my first post: i was talking about now, not 60 years ago.


Must be that they don't have there shooting lanes cleared......

[Alpine_Sapper]

Texas/Louisiana - Not a chance. I treat it all, just to be safe.

[Gasquagu]

I have before without any problems, but I don't regularly.

Where I have has been, as said many times in the thread, from elevations above most sources of contamination. I can't give a set number of feet above sea level because I don't know, and there are mountains that lie lower than neighboring mountains that have water sources lower than some contamination on another mountain. Generally where the water naturally comes out of the ground as a spring, especially if there're rocks and sand at the spring head.

I've done this in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, as well as the Appalachian mountain range along the eastern slope of the Shenandoah valley, on back near the West Virginia line. I would hesitate in West Virginia proper due to the number of high coal mines. I've also had clean drinks from elevations in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming.