# What do you people think about just drinking straight out of a river or stream?



## Jackangus (Sep 1, 2016)

Just went on a 24 hour hike/camp with a neighbour I have known for a short period of time. Also, he brought his kids, and I brought my kids too. To my horror he did not bring any water, just empty bottles and said he was just going to drink out of the river and streams, and fill his bottles from the river. Which he did, and did not boil it. He told his kids this was fine and they drank the water. He filled up from at least two streams and one river.

One of the first things I was taught in the army was, no matter how clean you are told, or think the river is, you ALWAYS boil water before you drink it. Or decontaminate it some other way. You don't know what's in it. There could be a dead carcass upstream, or animals crapping in the water, or humans for that matter. 

He thought I was crazy taking water with me, and I think he took offence I did not take him at his word that all the water was so clean.
There was no way, me and my children were just going to drink out of some river or stream, without boiling it first. I think it is quite irresponsible teaching your kids that's fine to do that. It was a 24 hour hike/camp, not a life or death situation. 

What do you good people think?


----------



## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

I think if your friend doesn't mind getting the trots while out hiking he should continue his practices. Chances are the water he and his kids drank was fine, especially if he gathered from a strong running source. But why take the chance?


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Your 24 hour hikes should be utilized as practice and teaching excursions to your children for the life and death situation. In a SHTF scenario, death and other pollution will have water supplies contaminated.


----------



## Jackangus (Sep 1, 2016)

Sasquatch said:


> I think if your friend doesn't mind getting the trots while out hiking he should continue his practices. Chances are the water he and his kids drank was fine, especially if he gathered from a strong running source. But why take the chance?


Exactly what I was thinking. I wasn't going to push the issue and try to persuade him otherwise. He is very stubborn and he was not going to change his mind.
I did think it was funny that he categorically said it's clean, and you will never get sick from this water. How could he possibly know that for sure? Just cause he has drank from it many times before, does not mean he will never get sick from it.


----------



## Stick (Sep 29, 2014)

I used to tear around in the high Sierra for a week or so, never took water with me. Face down in the crick, hold your breath and drink, but haven't done that in decades. One day a few years back I was setting up a sluice box in a creek at about 9,000 feet in Wyoming, working a gold claim. Nice, clean, cold, fresh snow melt, high altitude water. A smoker at the time, it took all morning to move enough rocks to get some water into the sluice, as it was kind of low. Took a break and watched the water running, classified a bucketful of material, ran it through, and the wind changed, and the most god awful stench of a dead cow elk only fifty feet away on a gravel bar, hidden in the willows. Upstream, if I had had a drink of that water, yucko. I filter it all. Always.


----------



## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

I'm with the OP 100% What your friend did was reckless, he was taking a huge chance on his, and his children's health for no reason except maybe to show off? Always lean on the side of safety.


----------



## Jackangus (Sep 1, 2016)

Moonshinedave said:


> I'm with the OP 100% What your friend did was reckless, he was taking a huge chance on his, and his children's health for no reason except maybe to show off? Always lean on the side of safety.


Very well said Sir.

I can completely understand starting a fire the hard way, with a bow and drill, or building a shelter. Something like that, when you are out with the kids for a 24hr camp. There's a reason for something like that, practice makes perfect. 
There seems no reason to drink out of a stream or river without boiling. You don't need to practice filling a bottle straight from a river and drinking it.

When I said there could possibly be a dead carcass or something in the water upstream, he said, "it only takes a few meters for the water to filter the harmful stuff away, water is amazing stuff" I knew there was no point in saying any more. 
The guy was genuinely annoyed that I did not take his word as gospel. I wont be going anywhere with this neighbour again. Very reckless, and very stubborn. It's a shame his kids will learn all these potentially harmful habits.


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

locals may get a pass drinking water from a local source... strangers could get sick because their body has never seen the local bugs

word to the wise.... never act like a local even if you are a local... there may be a dead cow/dear/beaver/un soldier just upstream from you


----------



## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Not recommending it. There is a difference in people. Those of us that do not live in a city never have treated water. Our systems are use to water that may not go well with our friends in the city.


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

If there is any chance that an animal crapped in it, don't drink straight from it.

From what I've read, you can develop a tolerance toward the two common parasites found in un-sterilized water, cryptosporidim and giardia.
Building that tolerance is unpleasant, but possible.

What your neighbor did was risky, but not likely life-threatening.
When I was young, I found a very small stream running down a granite outcropping, and drank from it. I suffered no ill effects.
I would never risk that again unless my life depended on it, however.

Next time, take a few Sawyer minis. They screw directly to most water bottles and don't add any additional steps/time to Capt. Risky's water collection process.

Or, you could take W. C. Fields' approach to water. "Never touch the stuff—very unhealthy. Fish f___ in it.”


----------



## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Jackangus said:


> ........... he said, "it only takes a few meters for the water to filter the harmful stuff away, water is amazing stuff"...........


Let me know exactly where this stream is. I want to find it, bottle it and make $billions selling_ Amazing Self-Filtering DiHydrogen MonoOxide_.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

this real life scenario is why I put a 48-72 hour timer on the start of dysentery after the taps go dry .... this guy spends time in the outdoors and believes in the wild & free .... now imagine thousands of dumbazzes running around pooping and drinking at the same spot ....


----------



## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

The guy is a total idiot. With the cost and ease of carrying a Life Straw why take the chance. Especially teaching the young kids to do something so dangerous/stupid.

I hope you taught you kids the right way??


----------



## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

gee isn't that what all the water filters/purifiers are for?:vs_bulb:


----------



## Salt-N-Pepper (Aug 18, 2014)

I would never, ever do it, period. There is ZERO reason to take the risk when lightweight water filters are cheap and available.


----------



## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

I drank from ground springs as a kid. Knowing what I know now I would have second thoughts without a filter.


----------



## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!
Enough said.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

Back in the old days in the tip of the mitt during deer season the were plenty of cold water spring feed streams back in the woods. We would dig a hole in the shallow stream and let the sand settle then fill our jugs for drinking water, coffee and wash water. Nobody ever got sick. What did the early explorers and Indians do? Do you think they boiled? No they didn't. Did they have fancy filters and life straws? No they didn't. Would I do it now 40 years later with all the pollution people have caused in the last 40 years no not any more.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

hawgrider said:


> What did the early explorers and Indians do? Do you think they boiled? No they didn't. Did they have fancy filters and life straws? No they didn't.


Well, from what I understand, if you grow up drinking "naturally" your body builds up resistance to the microbes in the water. I also don't doubt the early folks had more experience in where to drink & how to collect the water. Also, what was the life expectancy back then?


----------



## Maol9 (Mar 20, 2015)

******* said:


> Well, from what I understand, if you grow up drinking "naturally" your body builds up resistance to the microbes in the water. I also don't doubt the early folks had more experience in where to drink & how to collect the water. Also, what was the life expectancy back then?


We had a year round spring that came out from under a rock face. The water ran over rock 10 feet down to a pool were the intake was sand filtered and piped down to the two cisterns. They gravity fed two houses, filled the concrete pond, stock tanks and the barn. The over flows fed a stock pond on the mountain and another down by the creek. We tested it twice a year, nothing ever showed and nobody ever got sick.

Knew a guy when I was in college that drank creek water at 13,000+ feet in CO and got a bug that only is transmitted through human fecal matter. I forget the name of it, but he was pretty sure he was going to die. Without modern medicine he might have too.


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

hawgrider said:


> Back in the old days in the tip of the mitt during deer season the were plenty of cold water spring feed streams back in the woods. We would dig a hole in the shallow stream and let the sand settle then fill our jugs for drinking water, coffee and wash water. Nobody ever got sick. What did the early explorers and Indians do? Do you think they boiled? No they didn't. Did they have fancy filters and life straws? No they didn't. Would I do it now 40 years later with all the pollution people have caused in the last 40 years no not any more.


Your method of digging a hole is valid, as it uses the surrounding soil as a natural filter while the water trickles in from the walls.
Employing this method next to a stream, ~3-4ft away, would produce a much safer result than this man's drinking straight from the moving water.

The early explorers and Indians certainly knew about boiling water. There's historical evidence to support that man has been boiling water and food since the Neanderthals.
Filtering has been common since the mid 1700s.

Keep in mind, the life expectancy wasn't great back then either, so comparing what they did to what we do now is not quite equitable. Many of the same issues we would deal with now, they dealt with then. We just have a ton of pollution now too. :-/


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Maol9 said:


> We had a year round spring that came out from under a rock face. The water ran over rock 10 feet down to a pool were the intake was sand filtered and piped down to the two cisterns. They gravity fed two houses, filled the concrete pond, stock tanks and the barn. The over flows fed a stock pond on the mountain and another down by the creek. We tested it twice a year, nothing ever showed and nobody ever got sick.
> 
> Knew a guy when I was in college that drank creek water at 13,000+ feet in CO and got a bug that only is transmitted through human fecal matter. I forget the name of it, but he was pretty sure he was going to die. Without modern medicine he might have too.


Proves the point that water from a spring, which has been filtered by the Earth, is much safer than just drinking from any old river or creek.


----------



## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

I have drank directly from springs and streams in the high mountains. It was years ago when I was young and foolish. I wouldn't do it today. I wasn't completely reckless, as I knew there was nothing above me to pollute the water. I never got sick. I HAVE gotten sick drinking well water.


----------



## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

I knew guy that shat for 3 straight days doing that, the porcelain looked like it spray painted with mud, terrible idea.


----------



## homefire (Apr 20, 2017)

Boy am I glad I'm not a well, stream, river, or water at all.


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

sideKahr said:


> I have drank directly from springs and streams in the high mountains. It was years ago when I was young and foolish. I wouldn't do it today. I wasn't completely reckless, as I knew there was nothing above me to pollute the water. I never got sick. I HAVE gotten sick drinking well water.


A friend lived in Hebron CT, had a well, made ice cubes from the water.

I had them in a Coke one day and got sick from it,

he had the well water tested, it was loaded with fertilizer from the upper field rain runoff.

It was a shallow well dug around 1850.

Friend had a artesian well dropped in, down about 800 feet IIRC.

Another friend ended up with Giardia while training with SF in the Rockies,

they tried to get rid of it with Flagyl, it almost killed him, but the bugs did.


----------



## Jackangus (Sep 1, 2016)

Chipper said:


> The guy is a total idiot. With the cost and ease of carrying a Life Straw why take the chance. Especially teaching the young kids to do something so dangerous/stupid.
> 
> I hope you taught you kids the right way??


I made sure my kids new boiling was the way to go. He had a life straw with him, just never used it.
I have no idea what he was trying to prove. One day he will get sick, or worse still, his kids will get sick.
As much as I hate the trots, it's more the nastier parasites I was worried about. Some of those things can ruin your life, or even kill you. All for what? being lazy to use a life straw or boil the water.


----------



## rstanek (Nov 9, 2012)

We have an underground spring that trickles out of a hillside, we drink from it , but we know what's on top of the hill and the water we drink is only exposed for about 5 seconds from where we drink, any water that is exposed for any length of time, ( creek, river, pond, etc.) I consider contaminated and must be boiled and filtered.


----------



## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

rstanek said:


> We have an underground spring that trickles out of a hillside, we drink from it , but we know what's on top of the hill and the water we drink is only exposed for about 5 seconds from where we drink, any water that is exposed for any length of time, ( creek, river, pond, etc.) I consider contaminated and must be boiled and filtered.


This lil guy could be up there


----------



## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

If he truly believes 'just a few meters and the water will filter itself,' hand him a glass of water directly from the sewer. After all, I'm sure it's been more than 'just a few meters' so it should be OK to gulp down.


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

Not even the fur trappers in the 1840 would do that as they knew they could get sick from Beaver Fever. They picked one stream to kill all the beavers on completely so they could use that water and not get sick. 

Amebiasis: caused by protozoa. Campylobacteriosis: caused by bacteria. Cholera: caused by bacteria. Cryptosporidiosis: caused by protozoa. Giardiasis: caused by protozoa. Hepatitis: caused by a virus. Shigellosis: caused by bacteria. Are all possible . 

I have camped in some real remote areas and although thee were no people for several hundred miles there were still caribou in the area thus caribou poo and a couple dead animals in the river. 

Too many easy and cheap ways to make water safe - simple Life Straw solves so many potential problems.


----------



## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Jackangus said:


> Just went on a 24 hour hike/camp with a neighbour I have known for a short period of time. Also, he brought his kids, and I brought my kids too. To my horror he did not bring any water, just empty bottles and said he was just going to drink out of the river and streams, and fill his bottles from the river. Which he did, and did not boil it. He told his kids this was fine and they drank the water. He filled up from at least two streams and one river.
> 
> One of the first things I was taught in the army was, no matter how clean you are told, or think the river is, you ALWAYS boil water before you drink it. Or decontaminate it some other way. You don't know what's in it. There could be a dead carcass upstream, or animals crapping in the water, or humans for that matter.
> 
> ...


Thinking somebody forgot to join Boy Scouts back in the good old days. 
https://www.clorox.com/dr-laundry/disaster-preparedness-purifying-water/


----------



## Guywithagun (Apr 11, 2017)

If I had the choice of having a glass of water from a random river or stream (unfiltered) or drinking properly filtered piss.. well call me the golden survivor then..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

homefire said:


> Boy am I glad I'm not a well, stream, river, or water at all.


Well, technically speaking, you're more water than not water. :vs_closedeyes:


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Jackangus said:


> He had a life straw with him, just never used it.


Well, now we know he was just being an ass.
He'll get the hint someday.


----------



## mooosie (Mar 26, 2016)

When I was a kid I used to drink water out of a creek that wasn't much more than a drainage ditch. Never a problem. I was a hundred miles north of the Arctic circle in Alaska hunting and we drank water that bubbled up out of the ground and got buckets full to drink out of the squirrel river but we couldn't drink out of a little feeder stream because it was contaminated with beaver poop! So much for civilization ruining the water!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Maol9 (Mar 20, 2015)

Yep Beaver Fever can ruin yer life...

Trust me on this!


----------



## loftisray (Dec 27, 2015)

Hey I drank out of the hose in the front yard


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## loftisray (Dec 27, 2015)

Oh yea Boy Scouts . Never drink un boiled water. Later we got tablets, modern-scouts filter straws. In the 70s Our scoutmaster brought a microscope to a camp out and showed us lake water under the microscope. Believe me your buddy would never let his kids drink that water. Oh yea the swim test sucked! I remember...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Tennessee (Feb 1, 2014)

When I was young growing up in Tennessee I always drank out of the local streams! Never got sick but I would not recommend it now.


----------



## pdxadventure2015 (May 7, 2017)

I like the SteriPen for just such instances. It's tiny, solar chargeable, and creates drinkable water in less than a minute. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## NotTooProudToHide (Nov 3, 2013)

Ive done it before when I was younger. Now that I'm a bit older and wiser I would either use a life straw or filter/boil the water.


----------

