Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Water Treatment

In the past few years we have filtered and have also used the MSR Aquatabs Water Purification Tablets (Sodium dichloroisocyanurate). We have had no issues using the tablets alone but have heard they are not active against the Giardia cysts now. We typically stay on the MMWT and spend a night at Outpost and two at Trail Camp and source water out of the populated areas.

Feedback and suggestions? Information?

Just stick with your filter, that's all you need.

Treating water seems to create a lot of discussion amongst backpackers and hikers. It all comes down to personal preference...
Only place I've ever treated water on the main trail is from the pond at Trail Camp, after that first time I just get water elsewhere along the trail.

Almost as controversial as the Solar Toilet Discussion...

My comment would be to look up Some Guy's Safe Drinking Paper...

Ain't no way the water coming out of the mountain at Bighorn Park could possibly be contaminated...

Ain't no way the water coming out of the mountain at Switchback 23/24(?) could possibly be contaminated...

I don't drink at Trailside Meadow any more because of the number of WAG Bags I've seen while using the Alternate Route up to Consultation Lake...


On the North Fork Side, I'll drink from the cascade just below LBSL, Clyde Meadow and (if it's running) the cascade below Iceberg Lake.


If these sources aren't enough, you either need to get in better shape, or slow down, so you don't sweat so much water out!

Dogs, poop, and water treatment .

Just finished JMT: dipped and sipped from Merced River to North Fork, with sole exception of chemically treating from a few stagnant pools in some very low streams. SB 23 and the Bighorn Park spring were good to excellent as compared with typical sources. I don't think SB 23 is actually a spring: more likely runoff from the cirque just above which seems to hold snow even this year.

Nobody really knows. So you get lots of anecdotes, both good and bad.

Probably you don't need to treat but there's no guarantee. And there's something about a GI illness that strikes fear into people out of proportion to the actual danger of the illness. It gets people right in the gut, so to speak.

I treat but figure it's mostly just placebo. But who knows?

I always treat my water...kindly.

Now you do.

Thanks. I read Bob Rockwell's paper about a zillion years ago. Pretty much everything I've read points to the water being very clean. But even Rockwell didn't say drinking untreated water is risk free. People do get sick from the water sometimes.