Originally Posted by
Alan R McDaniel Jr
Not so much any more, but in the past we had a lot of "Hikers" down here in South Texas. Some of those guys (the ones who knew where they were going) could hike about 50 miles a day. Every one of them had a gallon jug, or a big coke bottle on a string, or some kind of container used as a canteen. They were cheap (free) and could be discarded if the hiker had to hike real fast to stay ahead of the "Hiker Patrol". Those guys had zero food, and took water from windmills, water troughs and cisterns. It wasn't always the cleanest and the didn't have filters (except their internal ones).
Unless you can draw water straight off the standpipe, the water from ranch cisterns and troughs is a protozoa paradise. We were about 70 miles, as the crow flies (or as the hiker hikes) from the river. Some guys could make it in two days easy, others a week. The more experienced could make it to clean water in pretty good shape. We'd feed them, work the ones who wanted to stay, and send them on their way. The ones who took a week to get there were usually pretty sick by the time they pulled up. There's no doctor to call so they could bunk out in the barn until their scours stopped and they got a little strength back.
The reason I bring all this up is two fold. #1. Even someone who has been used to drinking less than potable water all their lives can get deathly sick drinking water that looks good. And 2. There are still people in this world who can cover 35-50 miles a day on foot through rough brush if they know where the safe water is and do not succumb to the temptation to drink anything questionable.
Oh, and always drink up stream from the horses.
Alan