Originally Posted By sandia
I've made LOTS of VERY bad decisions about drinking untreated water over many, many years.

Yet have always been perfectly fine.

In general, you don't need to treat water at all, if you are minimally smart about sources.

There is MUCH scientific/medical literature debunking typical backpackers' ideas about treating water, and really nothing that supports them.


It may very well be that you are in the lucky 50% of the population that is carrying giardia and completely lacking in symptoms.

Congrats. I know personally far too many people who have had confirmed cases to ever risk it, myself. I will always filter, particularly in waterways that the pack trains cross on a regular basis, or where cattle are grazed. Which is a huge portion of the central Sierra Nevada, and primarily where I hike.

May your faith in "research" prove to hold true.
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