Neville

Howdy all,

I've hiked in Dinosaur Valley, Pedernales Falls and Enchanted Rock and have noticed water sources at each, but they just don't look like something I'd drink, even after I've filtered. I guess I'm just used to the running streams of Pennsylvania plus I've gotten spooked when looking at the Trinity River.

My question is that I'm planning on hiking Lost Maples and Hill Country SNAs this fall and I was wondering, does anyone filter water at these locations or do you bring your own in? I'm sure my concern is unwarranted, but I guess I'm looking for some reassurance.

Thanks

campermom

We used the water at LM for cooking ( pasta, rice, etc ) and no problems. Except when it was 17 degrees and it was frozen. We didn't stay overnight at HC so I can't tell you about the water there. It's probably well water since it used to be a ranch. We just use bottled water if it looks or smells weird. Compared to San Antonio tap, well,,,,,,a puddle would be drinkable. Just kidding.:ribbit:

Turn Key

I may be a bit confused here. Are we talking about "piped" water at these parks or water from other sources (lakes, creeks & rivers)? I know that Dinosaur Valley, Pedernales Falls and Enchanted Rock all have piped in water and it's either treated "on site" or comes from a city water system. Either way, it's safe to drink (even though I would agree that the water at Dino does not taste the best :rolleyes: ).

Don't really know why you'd want to but I assume you could use a filter bottle on any other water source and be safe. I can understand your concern if all you've seen is the Trinity River. Not the best example of a Texas river, particularly in the DFW area. I will add that a great deal of effort has been put into correcting this. Have seen some improvement in the Ft. Worth area over the last few years and am hoping that it will continue.

Hope this has helped and happy camping!

__________________

copuswalker

I have hiked both and have filtered water at both for drinking purposes.
Lost Maples has very clean water that many do not filter. The Sabinal river starts at that point and is cold and clear.
Hill country I have also filtered and had no problems. In fact at the rear of the park I hiked down to a little undergroud spring/waterfall. With all the horse traffic you may select the area you filter from.

The ranger at the park was a jerk when I went. Most will not recommend filtering even though everyone does??

As far as the Trinity, I would have to be dying to try it :eek: I won't eat fish out of it or Lake Livingston which is fed by the Trinity.

You will like both those spots and might consider swimming at L.M.
Campsite c is the pond area and should not be crowded this time of the year?? Good luck!

__________________
There are those that hike and those that don't and those that say they will but won't.

Neville

Thanks for the info folks. I guess I should have qualified my statement earlier. I wasn't talking about the potable water sources that the park provides, but rather the natural sources on or near the trails. I suspected that LM had good water but I wasn't sure about HC.


Thanks again!

WestTexas

Here's my take on water....

There's the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The good is water that is both potable and tastes good. The bad is the water that is neither. And the ugly is water that is potable but probably looks or tastes bad.

So how do you get to Good? For the most part, I've always used a hand pump filter like an MSR EX type pump, coupled with iodine treatments when I feel it's necessary (getting moreso than it used to be).

Why? Well, this type of pump has at least a ceramic filter and a carbon filter, some add an additional .2 micron cartridge filter. The combination of these two or three filters will filter out basically all of the bacterial-type nasties and chemicals, and give you clear, good tasting water.

But what about virals (the nasties we can get from icky stuff like human solid wastes, etc)?

Iodine has pretty much been the standard treatment for this, if you can deal with the bad taste. Some iodine kits add a second liquid which tries to neutralize the iodine taste (never really worked for me).

So here is what I do:

- If I'm pretty confident that the water is free of virals (or I'm willing to accept the risks), I'll just toss the intake hose from my MSR into the creek or pond and start pumping to fill my hyrdro bladder or nalgene bottles. To be honest, this is what I do about 95% of the time. (And I've done that in some pretty icky looking east Texas streams and ponds!)

- If I'm not confident, or it's the end or beginning of the day, I'll first use a collapsible water container and fill it up at the water source (pond, creek, etc). Then I'll throw my iodine into it. Now I've got viral-free water, that probably still doesn't look or taste good. So now I pump it through the MSR and the two or three stage unit will both clean up the water and the carbon will remove the bad taste.

Using that second method of iodine first, then pumping, will give you water that is pretty much free of particulates, bacteria, viruses and bad-taste. At least what is humanly possible while on the trail.

You can also boil, which is great for cooking, but for drinking I hate the taste of boiled water.

If I'm not packing in a lot of water, I'll pretty much plan for a couple of hours a day for filtering water and filling bottles / hydration bladders.

If you've got two or three folks hiking in a group, filling up that bigger collapsible water container at the water source and treating it with iodine one time, and then having each person pump what they need out of it, works really well.

Rgds,
WestTexas

copuswalker

Wow, You must have one strong arm after a few days hiking

I am confused as to why the iodine? It has always seemed to me to be common to just filter in the U.S. I used to use the Sweetwater anti viral and learned it was not needed. It also is tastless FYI.
Not trying to be condescending it's just that I have been taught it is not needed and so far they seem right:cool:

__________________
There are those that hike and those that don't and those that say they will but won't.

WestTexas

For the vast majority of water I filter, I agree with you. I can't find it now, but there used to be a great map online showing you graphically the areas of the world where viral infections from water were the most prevalent. For the most part, the US was basically safe. However, I don't know how old that map is, and I'd guess I'd have to hedge and say that if you think you're in a spot where someone could be dumping their raw sewage out of their RV, etc and you think there's a possibility of it contaminating the water supply you're about to pump, then treat it. To be very frank, I've only done the iodine thing one time, and that was really just to experiment with how well the iodine-laden water tasted after filtering it through the MSR's carbon filter. My uneducated guess would be that the possibility of getting virus-ridden water in the US is still pretty remote.
However, more and more I've been thinking that if I'm already filling up the big water container, how hard would it be to treat it first?
Guess I'm getting more risk-adverse in my old age.

rgds,
WestTexas

copuswalker

I can understand where you might see a need. I always wonder about the cow crap and fertilizers etc. here in East Texas snd other areas?

The sweetwater viral stuff is tasteless and relatively inexpensive. You may give it a try.
I know Katahdin came out with the water purification tablets that are said to be very effective and tasteless. Guess they are getting better with time!!

__________________
There are those that hike and those that don't and those that say they will but won't.

Motorman355

Now we are getting to the question I have always had. I use the Katadyn Hiker PRO Water Filter to filter out the protozoas and bacterias. Add a couple of drops of MSR SweetWater Purifier Solution to knock out viruses. But what does this do for man made chemicals in the water? Does the SweetWater neutralize chemicals?

WestTexas

The MSR Sweetwater Solution is for viruses and the biologicals.

From the MSR website: "It inactivates 99.99% of waterborne viruses and eliminates over 99.9999% of all waterborne bacteria and 99.9% of common protozoan parasites, such as giardia and cryptosporidia."

Doesn't do anything to the chemicals. You'll need to filter them. Your Katadyn Pro should do that. It has the .3 micron glass fiber filter media with the activated carbon core. Pretty much the same as my MSR.

So throw the MSR Sweetwater Solution drops in the water, pump it through your Katadyn, and you should have 99.9999% pure, clean tasting water.

rgds,
WestTexas

ploddinTod

Turn Key, Did your group use a filter bottle on your Rocky trip? How did it do? What brand did you use? I'm thinking that it would be very convenient on a hike where you are close to a water source. :yes: On a drier hike such as a ridgetop, you would have to suppliment it with a bladder or more bottles. :idea:

__________________
PloddinTod