WorstWaterSourceEver

“Mine was Savage Gulf at Hobbs Cabin.

Stagnant, with lots of salamanders and creatures moving about in the water. Kinda gross, but I needed water bad!

(So I just leaned down and slurped up some, Sally-bugs and all!.. mMm.. protein.)”

“Bring paper coffee filters. If you filter twist tie one over the inlet. If not fasten one over the mouth of your bottle. Gets rid of the chunky stuff.”

“salamanders are the BEST! they're so cute :-)”

“My first ever backpacking trip in the Rincons east of Tucson AZ. It was April and the only water source had orange slime/foam/algae about an inch thick over the top. I had no filter but I had no choice so I drank it.

Actually much worse than that was Bull Springs in Wyoming on the CDT. We got there and there were cows all over, peeing and pooping in the spring. There was a grey, silvery film over the water and the whole area reeked. There were three dead cows - one old skeleton, one that was a few months old and one brand new one. A coyote, acting as if he were rabid, wandered about and peed in the stream too. We walked 16 miles to the next water source (making a 32 mile day) -- arriving about 9:30 p.m. Not a great day.”

“She wins.”

“While mapping deep within the Copper Basin of Idaho, we finally came down to and through a valley having a stream flowing through it. I was so hot, I took off my boots and socks, waded out into the water, then proceeded to splash water over my arms, face, back, etc to cool off. Well, I should've known from all the rangeland that this water was actually 99% urine from the livestock. When the water dried on me, I stunk like...well...I stunk pretty bad.”

“I agree.. Ginny has me beat.”

“Moral of those stories: Avoid ranching areas at all costs!”

“I drank tap water from compton CA”

“Buddur wins!”

“eeeeeewwww!”

“Seen that stuff they're drinking on Survivor?

I wonder if they'd let you bring a water filter as a luxury item?”

“I took a pee in Hetch Hetchy after finding out that the water flows into San Francisco. HEHEMOOOHAAAAHA”

“I encountered a train stopped at a siding near the town's sewer treatment ponds. A door slid open and a train-hopper emerged with a water jug. He ran over to the first sewer pond (the raw sewage pond) and filled his jug. He ran back to the train, jumped back in, and closed the door behind him.

I still do not know if he ever realized the source of his water.”

“The lake and rivers near me all feed into the California Water Project and eventually quenches Los Angeles and the other urban environs. All the public restrooms in town have signs posted that says:

"Flush twice. L.A. needs the water."”

“resturant in greyhound bus depot dwntwn LA 1973 waitress pours a glass of water from a stainless pitcher,the water was grey with chunks of ? floating it...it took 15 minutes for the water to settle so you could almost see thru the glass..needless to say i had a coke...”

“I've never had trouble keeping salamanders out of my water at Hobbs Cabin but check this out;
I was there once though and this guy goes down and scoops out a jug of water and he's gonna toss in an iodine tablet and then mix in some cool-aid to kill the taste. Just before he plops in the iodine he sees he had a salamendar in it. HAHAHA!! It was too funny!
He went back down to the spring to let the critter go and borrowed my filter.”

“The Hooghly River, Calcutta or The Bagmati River, Kathmandu or Yamuna River, Delhi.

Glacial Silt in melt water from Dhud Kosi River was a bugger, clogged my filter in 10 minutes.

Filtering Water out of yak and pony hoofprints out the back of Skiu Village in Ladakh.

McAlister River after a bushfire in 1998, it ran red with fire retardant.”

“Dollar Lake in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. The water is stagnant or something is dead in the small lake. Worst water I ever drank. I would rather be dehydrated.....”

“The water coming out of any tap in China - or any other water in China that hasn't been boiled. Next time I go there, I'll take a really good purifier, because boiling doesn't take care of heavy metals.

In the States, the Little Missouri River in TR Nat' Park, ND. So silty the rangers tell you to save your filter and just not try.”

“heh.. would have luved to see that guys face.. a sallyworm wouldn't hurt ya.. might even tickly going down... but no.. i wuld not have been repulsed.. would have tossed out the little critter... put in the iodine.. and waited 30 mins..”

“(see above)

Also, I got giardia, or something nasty once.

Pond Scum boogers”

“I wouldn't drink the water at Sage Creek in the Badlands for $1,000,000.”

“One time when I was backpacking in HNF I was on the Sycamore Loop Trail and there is a small pond near the third campsite.The water in that pond looked like well the water in the can after you had alot of fiber and flushed once.My filter stoped 2 times and even with the drops the water still tasted funney....I don't think I will filter water out of that pond again.......even with a filter....

Mike”

“what brand of water filter, Mike?”

“Don't get me started....:o)”

“There were a few times that I thought I had a bad water supply, but in looking through this thread,,,I have found that I can't complain.”

“While hiking in Oregon I filtered some water out of Dry Creek. After traveling upstream about 1/2 mile we walked through a meadow full of cow pies which the creek ran through. I added some iodine to the water bottle and took my chances.”

“Gordon:

FYI.

Most of that state project water goes to the central valley farmers. Most of LA gets its water from the CO River.”

“Tap water at cheap motel cabins in Murdo, South Dakota. Sulfur smelled like poop water.”

“Christ, haven't y'all heard of water purifiers? It's amazing y'all haven't come down with a case of the screamin' #&%!$s! I use one from MSR and have never had a problem, even with some pretty scuzzy H2O.”

“No such thing as a Water Purifier. Most of the major brands have been recalled or require the use of chemical treatments seperate from the unit.”

“Who is this clown? The point being.. that even with my MSR.. who wants to pump skuzzy water?

Hey boys.. it's ok.. just move dem sallymanderers out of the way..”

“Amphibians are extremely fragile and sensitive to water conditions. If that had been bad water the salamanders wouldn't have been able to live in it. I say drink up! Now algae and turbidity, that's a different story altogether.”