That seasoned hiker who told me to skip the water filter on the PCT - bad call

Met a guy named Dave at a hostel in Mazama who swore the water in the North Cascades was so clean you didn't need a filter. Said he'd been hiking 20 years and never bothered with one. I decided to trust him and left my Sawyer behind to save weight. By day 4 I was sick as a dog with giardia, stuck in my tent for 24 hours puking my guts out near a creek. Has anyone else ever blindly followed advice from a stranger on trail and regretted it?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_singh8722d agoMost Upvoted

Heard a ranger once say that "clear water kills" meaning just because it looks clean doesn't mean it's safe. Sorry you had to learn that the hard way, giardia is brutal.

miller.jason21d ago

I saw this YouTube video where a doctor talked about giardia and he said it can survive in even the clearest mountain streams. Something about how the cysts are microscopic and basically invisible. Dave's advice sounds like survivor bias to me.