I have noticed that many of the outdoors people I have met theses days, including hunters, hikers and campers are afraid of every darn source of water you can think of. Now I understand some live in areas where fresh clean water is scarce. But there are tens of thousands, if not millions, of artesian springs in Alaska. And I have found them all through the Rockies and in the Ozarks. Some companies bottle and sell spring water. I’ve drank from them (always at the source) for over 50 years.
I was filling my jugs from such a stream by a road near me as was many locals last year. Yet every single hiker and camper from out of state would not drink it unless they filtered it.
So what happened?
Why don’t folks know how to find clean water?
Is it because they think all water is contaminated like surface water?
And no I have never got sick from spring water that came right out of the ground.
Nope not one time of beaver fever in all those years.
Knowledge of minerals that can make spring water unfit to drink. How to locate it. Understanding how ground table water can be polluted from mining, factories sulfur deposits etc. That surface water has organisms that can make you ill. Knowing how to collect rain water, how to make a solar still, how to remove water from plants, what kind of plants are ok to extract from and what kind not to. Etc etc, are the skills I am talking about. Some dont even trust boiled water from a clear steam 6,000 feet up a mountian.
Put simply; being educated about water sources for drinking seems to be rare these days.
Why?
I was filling my jugs from such a stream by a road near me as was many locals last year. Yet every single hiker and camper from out of state would not drink it unless they filtered it.
So what happened?
Why don’t folks know how to find clean water?
Is it because they think all water is contaminated like surface water?
And no I have never got sick from spring water that came right out of the ground.
Nope not one time of beaver fever in all those years.
Knowledge of minerals that can make spring water unfit to drink. How to locate it. Understanding how ground table water can be polluted from mining, factories sulfur deposits etc. That surface water has organisms that can make you ill. Knowing how to collect rain water, how to make a solar still, how to remove water from plants, what kind of plants are ok to extract from and what kind not to. Etc etc, are the skills I am talking about. Some dont even trust boiled water from a clear steam 6,000 feet up a mountian.
Put simply; being educated about water sources for drinking seems to be rare these days.
Why?