Is it safe to drink water boiled in a tarp?
I'm reading Dave Canterbury's book "Advanced Bushcraft" and he says that if you didn't have a container, one thing you could do if you had to is dig a hole in the ground and put your tent tarp down into the hole and boil your water in that. Rock boiling of course. You don't want to burn through the tarp though, so you would make some tongs with some sticks and hold the hot rocks in the water without touching the sides for a moment until the rock isn't as hot.
But tarps are made of different materials, would any of the tarps on the market leach anything toxic into the water?
Sounds good but look at bigger picture
No major problem jumps out at me with that solution. Tarp in hole in ground, rocks, cluster of logs or whatever is much faster than making a water holding container by digging/burning out a log. Also if you do this other method in just dirt or clay or random wood you need to consider the toxicity of that. Obviously you want to be sure stick tongs and "hot" rocks are not toxic.
Muddy water tastes terrible and clay or plants rotting in the water source may be toxic so try to filter out these first. There are many different ways to do that. Tripod with fabric holding sand, charcoal, "safe" organic matter like grass straw if you know your plants. Or just your T-Shirt. Whatever works. Also a gypsy well if soil/sand/clay looks fairly clean and non-toxic and EPA has not dumped toxic mine water on it recently. Many other ways to filter water. Move water with a bit of your tarp if that is all you have. Keep your canteen pure! But there are many things to boil water in like pot that fits on bottom of your canteen.
Cooking with wood is common, know your plants
I can imagine a situation where the raccoons or black bears knocked down your food bag with cook pot and ran off with it leaving you with just a tarp to cook with. Not that unusual for them to climb up on the branch cord is tied to chew on it or just break the branch. Raccoons have run off with fairly large items that did not even smell like food and we never found the items or saw the raccoon. They are evil!
Especially when using fresh cut wood around food and boiling water it is a good idea to be able to identify plant species and know what you are allergic to. Certain yew (pacific) and ash are especially toxic for many people, the dust and sap is often the major problem some will restrict your breathing or increase the chance you could bleed out if you get cut, synergistic with medication you are taking for heart. I.e. someone may say they have used this plant branch for years and never died, you use it to cook with, get a bad cut and bleed to death. So know your plants! Here is one of several lists:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis30.pdf
If you use this tarp method you could put a piece of bark at the bottom to prevent the hot rocks from melting thru the tarp but be sure the bark, sticks or other rocks don't have any toxins or allergens on them that you specifically have issues with. Try it out in your back yard with a triangle or square box of logs or bricks, stones with tarp in it, get some round stones from beside a river or lake collect some rain water in a pan or bucket. See how you like water that tastes like fire and smoke. If you get sick you will be near your primary doctor. I have been sick from impure water and food many times and never died. For Dysentery Imodium AD fixed in a few hours before I dehydrated very badly, Hepatitis A took months, Giardia and other parasites took a while and medication was painful. Tapeworm coming out from below freaked me out but not really a big deal, only concern was how much more medication until they were all out. But whatever, more motivation for me to not eat stuff that has not been cooked and purify water very carefully. Live and learn or pass on.
BTW if you are one of those people that feed your pets raw meat you probably know that you just need to treat them for parasites on a regular basis, not that big of a deal. Some people can do this with water. My sister had a strong resistance to water borne parasites when we were kids but I reacted more adversely to them and the medication to treat for them so learned to be careful. I pack a lot of water and keep the lip and lid to my canteen very clean. Hiking with the squirts is not fun! In a canoe you can more easily rinse out your shorts, sorry TMI.
Birch bark as far as I know is not toxic or an allergen for most people but not available in the south. Juniper bark may work or maybe cypress but I have never tried it.
I don't know about all the species of Birch but it appears by what is written at this web site that a person could overdose on the leaves of some Birch trees, perhaps the same if you boiled a lot of drinking water or cooked food in bowls make from Birch Bark. But I don't know.
http://www.botanical-online.com/engl...cinalbirch.htm
http://beforeitsnews.com/survival/20...3-2502108.html
all plants are mostly carbon and water, filter material basically
Almost all plants alive or dead have a high carbon content by dry mass (water removed) of between 45-50%. This theoretically has the ability to absorb impurities in water. But if you can remove or volatilize off most of the other elements in the biomass (wood, straw etc.) and create a low ash charcoal it can work better to remove impurities then use a washed sand to remove the bits of charcoal. Much more difficult than it sounds, your final water will most likely still taste terrible in my experience but trying to go a long way without water in a dry hot dusty desert land is not wise. If you find some water purify it as best you can and drink up. Or just stay on the East Coast with those folks in their limited view of reality, based on a lack of experience.
http://www.fao.org/forestry/17111/en/
Don't over read forum comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
riffecreek
I'm not 100% sure I understood your comment above right... but if you are saying the eastern part of the country is a cake walk to survive in, you must have very limited experience about the challenge of survival here or been here in the wrong times of the year..
That same water you really wish you had in the west will kill you here and will do it faster than one could image.. Snow, freezing rain, cold temperatures as low as 20 below was seen some mornings this winter.. The threats may be different, but they are just as dangerous..
No kidding cold can kill a person faster than the lack of water in many situations but this particular thread was about purifying water in a tarp if you had no better container. Obvious assumption it was not raining or about to.
My point about a pre filter before boiling water is that in many situations I have been in the water is very silty or has some nasty organic compounds in it like dead animals, feces etc or just rotting plants. If your end product, the boiled water, tasted better most people will drink more of it. Personally I have seen people who were close to dehydration or would be in a few hours turn down water because they did not like the taste or even because it was not cool. Can't fix stupid.
I'm not saying that camping in any region proves that you are a better survivalist than others but you do learn to be more adaptable by traveling to different regions. Some days or weeks in the high desert of the Western USA CAN be total cake walk. It all depends on the weather, time of year what gear you have etc.
No need to over read into what someone wrote. I have dealt with floods as well and abandoned gear to save my life, floods happen much faster in the desert. Probably more people die of floods in the desert than from heat. Also more from overnight cold than from daytime heat in the desert.
Distilling water is not highly productive, last resort
If you are on a raft in the middle of saltwater or there are miles of sand in all directions distillation maybe your only viable option. But try this out in you own backyard or at a campground. It is extremely ineffective ether with a fire or solar. If you know your plants and find some leaves that are non-toxic putting them in a large plastic bag (clear or not) or wrapping in water tight tarp and solarizing for hours might give you more water (a tablespoon per gallon or cubic foot if you are super lucky). This is obviously assuming you could find absolutely no fresh (non-brackish) water and obviously it had not been raining. May be best to collect leaves at first light in the morning and get as much dew as possible. Go to some marine supply sites and see how many of those passive units are required to sustain just one person, then you need to set them up just right have great sun. This or with a fuel/fire can work but once you actually try it like me you may find it is extremely difficult to live off especially in a hot, dry climate.
If you have a sophisticated fuel fire distiller and plenty of fuel that is great, no need to tend to fire. Hauling water or going to look for it may have been a better option in the first place. Rarely does a McGyvered system work effectively. But make one and show us, then haul it with you... or find those parts where you are surviving at.
