To Filter or Not to Filter? That is the question.

[TimL]

This is a little off the subject but I have a Platypus that I used all summer and the mouth tube has some green stuff mold/fugus/I'm not sure what growing in the tube section. I must of not let it dry before packing it after a trip. Anyone know a good method or substance for cleaning this stuff out?

[minx]

yeah can get a new mouth piece, you can remove the mouth piece to scrub it. hot water and bleach are effective.

[sk]

yeah can get a new mouth piece,

 

this is waht I was going to say. where is the yucky emoticon when you neeed it?

[TimL]

The green stuff is actually in the tube connecting the mouth piece to the bag.

[erik]

The green stuff is actually in the tube connecting the mouth piece to the bag.

 

EWWWW HE SAID BAG.....

 

tim, YOU need to always drink filtered water.

 

[sk]

The green stuff is actually in the tube connecting the mouth piece to the bag.

 

you might be able to clean the tube with a small bottle cleaner (look in the diper section at the grocery) but realy tim, if I were you I would just start fresh.

[Dru]

Soak that fucker in a mix of bleach and water overnight then squeeze a bagload thru it and the greenies should flush right outa there. In fact if anybody wants a Nalgene I got one for ya that I cleaned that way. Just ignore the skull and crossbones drawn on the side

[ChrisT]

I bleached my platypus tube and it was fine

[allthumbs]

Soak that fucker in a mix of bleach and water overnight then squeeze a bagload thru it and the greenies should flush right outa there. In fact if anybody wants a Nalgene I got one for ya that I cleaned that way. Just ignore the skull and crossbones drawn on the side

 

no thanks - keep your piss bottle, hoser

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

This is a little off the subject but I have a Platypus that I used all summer and the mouth tube has some green stuff mold/fugus/I'm not sure what growing in the tube section. I must of not let it dry before packing it after a trip. Anyone know a good method or substance for cleaning this stuff out?

 

REI has a non-bleachy, non-tasting cleaning solution for water bags and such. Not too spendy, and you only need a couple drops at a time, so it lasts forev'. Comes in a little white bottle, maybe 4 oz., with a green/earth-tone label. It's saved the Doctor's Camelbak and Platypuses from some serious mank on a couple occasions. It's nice for thermoses and stuff, too, so you don't have soap residue hangin' around. Highly recommended.

 

[TimL]

Thanks DFA!

[Winter]

One of my friends drank untreated water from a drainage ditch in Ghana and came down with amoebic disentary. Man he looked like shit.

 

I thought there was a debate over whether filters even worked for tiny viruses that slipped through the microfilters. PUR was putting out warnings, recommending that people treat filtered water with iodine if they thought there was a risk of virus.

 

[j_b]

personally I don't treat water above the snowline and I carry a little water from the car to take me there. If I stay below the snowline I treat it but I never carry the filter.

[obsydian]

personally I don't treat water above the snowline

Have you ever seen those little black snow worms crawling over the glacier? Don't know what they are called, but watching them crawl around will sure make you filter.

[nolanr]

Nothing bu t iodine in the Cascades. Once in a while I'll drink right from a creek. Or I'll put snow in a paritally full nalgene and make slushies. I go minimalist w/ the iodine, give it 20 to 30 minutes. I only use 1 tablet instead of the recommended 2. Never had any problems. When I was a young squirt me and my brother used to drink out of the creeks all around Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, never got sick but I wouldn't do that anymore. Iodine taste doesn't bother me at all, I'm used to it. It did dye the tube on my platypus yellowish, no worries though.

[j_b]

The Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail

by Robert W. Service

 

To Dawson Town came Percy Brown from London on the Thames.

A pane of glass was in his eye, and stockings on his sterns.

Upon the shoulder of his coat a leather pad he wore,

To rest his deadly rifle when it wasn't seeking gore;

The which it must have often been, for Major Percy Brown,

According to his story was a hunter of renown,

Who in the Murrumbidgee wilds had stalked the kangaroo

And killed the cassowary on the plains of Timbuctoo.

And now the Arctic fox he meant to follow to its lair,

And it was also his intent to beard the Artic hare...

Which facts concerning Major Brown I merely tell because

I fain would have you know him for the Nimrod that he was.

 

Now Skipper Grey and Deacon White were sitting in the shack,

And sampling of the whisky that pertained to Sheriff Black.

Said Skipper Grey: "I want to say a word about this Brown:

The piker's sticking out his chest as if he owned the town."

Said Sheriff Black: "he has no lack of frigorated cheek;

He called himself a Sourdough when he'd just been here a week."

Said Deacon White: "Methinks you're right, and so I have a plan

By which I hope to prove to-night the mettle of the man.

Just meet me where the hooch-bird sings, and though our ways be rude

We'll make a proper Sourdough of this Piccadilly dude."

 

Within the Malamute Saloon were gathered all the gang;

The fun was fast and furious, and the loud hooch-bird sang.

In fact the night's hilarity had almost reached its crown,

When into its storm-centre breezed the gallant Major Brown.

And at the apparation, whith its glass eye and plus-fours,

From fifty alcoholic throats responded fifty roars.

With shouts of stark amazement and with whoops of sheer delight,

They surged around the stranger, but the first was Deacon White.

"We welcome you," he cried aloud, "to this the Great White Land.

The Artic Brotherhood is proud to grip you by the hand.

Yea, sportsman of the bull-dog breed, from trails of far away,

To Yukoners this is indeed a memorable day.

Our jubilation to express, vocabularies fail...

Boys, hail the Great Cheechako!" And the boys responded: "Hail!"

 

"And now," continued Deacon White to blushing Major Brown,

"Behold assembled the eelight and cream of Dawson Town,

And one ambition fills their hearts and makes their bosoms glow -

They want to make you, honoured sir, a bony feed Sourdough.

The same, some say, is one who's seen the Yukon ice go out,

But most profound authorities the definition doubt,

And to the genial notion of this meeting, Major Brown,

A Sourdough is a guy who drinks ... an ice-worm cocktail down."

 

"By Gad!" responded Major Brown, "that's ripping, don't you know.

I've always felt I'd like to be a certified Sourdough.

And though I haven't any doubt your Winter's awf'ly nice,

Mayfair, I fear, may miss me ere the break-up of your ice.

Yet (pray excuse my ignorance of matters such as these)

A cocktail I can understand - but what's an ice-worm, please?"

Said Deacon White: "It is not strange that you should fail to know,

Since ice-worms are peculiar to the Mountain of Blue Snow.

Within the Polar rim it rears, a solitary peak,

And in the smoke of early Spring (a spectacle unique)

Like flame it leaps upon the sight and thrills you through and through,

For though its cone is piercing white, its base is blazing blue.

Yet all is clear as you draw near - for coyley peering out

Are hosts and hosts of tiny worms, each indigo of snout.

And as no nourishment they find, to keep themselves alive

They masticate each other's tails, till just the Tough survive.

Yet on this stern and Spartan fare so-rapidly they grow,

That some attain six inches by the melting of the snow.

Then when the tundra glows to green and * heads appear,

They burrow down and are not seen until another year."

 

"A toughish yarn," laughed Major Brown, "as well you may admit.

I'd like to see this little beast before I swallow it."

"'Tis easy done," said Deacon White, "Ho! Barman, haste and bring

Us forth some pickled ice-worms of the vintage of last Spring."

But sadly still was Barman Bill, then sighed as one bereft:

"There's been a run on cocktails, Boss; there ain't an ice-worm left.

Yet wait . . . By gosh! it seems to me that some of extra size

Were picked and put away to show the scientific guys."

Then deeply in a drawer he sought, and there he found a jar,

The which with due and proper pride he put upon the bar;

And in it, wreathed in queasy rings, or rolled into a ball,

A score of grey and greasy things, were drowned in alcohol.

Their bellies were a bilious blue, their eyes a bulbous red;

Their back were grey, and gross were they, and hideous of head.

And when with gusto and a fork the barman speared one out,

It must have gone four inches from its tail-tip to its snout.

Cried Deacon White with deep delight: "Say, isn't that a beaut?"

"I think it is," sniffed Major Brown, "a most disgustin' brute.

Its very sight gives me the pip. I'll bet my bally hat,

You're only spoofin' me, old chap. You'll never swallow that."

"The hell I won't!" said Deacon White. "Hey! Bill, that fellows fine.

Fix up four ice-worm cocktails, and just put that wop in mine."

 

So Barman Bill got busy, and with sacerdotal air

His art's supreme achievement he proceeded to prepare.

His silver cups, like sickle moon, went waving to and fro,

And four celestial cocktails soon were shining in a row.

And in the starry depths of each, artistically piled,

A fat and juicy ice-worm raised its mottled mug and smiled.

Then closer pressed the peering crown, suspended was the fun,

As Skipper Grey in courteous way said: "Stranger, please take one."

But with a gesture of disgust the Major shook his head.

"You can't bluff me. You'll never drink that gastly thing," he said.

"You'll see all right," said Deacon White, and held his cocktail high,

Till its ice-worm seemed to wiggle, and to wink a wicked eye.

Then Skipper Grey and Sheriff Black each lifted up a glass,

While through the tense and quiet crown a tremor seemed to pass.

"Drink, Stranger, drink," boomed Deacon White. "proclaim you're of the best,

A doughty Sourdough who has passed the Ice-worm Cocktail Test."

And at these words, with all eyes fixed on gaping Major Brown,

Like a libation to the gods, each dashed his cocktail down.

The Major gasped with horror as the trio smacked their lips.

He twiddled at his eye-glass with unsteady finger-tips.

Into his starry cocktail with a look of woe he peered,

And its ice-worm, to his thinking, mosy incontinently leered.

Yet on him were a hundred eyes, though no one spoke aloud,

For hushed with expectation was the waiting, watching crowd.

The Major's fumbling hand went forth - the gang prepared to cheer;

The Major's falt'ring hand went back, the mob prepared to jeer,

The Major gripped his gleaming galss and laid it to his lips,

And as despairfully he took some nauseated sips,

From out its coil of crapulence the ice-worm raised its head,

Its muzzle was a murky blue, its eyes a ruby red.

And then a roughneck bellowed fourth: "This stiff comes here and struts,

As if he bought the blasted North - jest let him show his guts."

And with a roar the mob proclaimed: "Cheechako, Major Brown,

Reveal that you're of Sourdough stuff, and drink your cocktail down."

 

The Major took another look, then quickly closed his eyes,

For even as he raised his glass he felt his gorge arise.

Aye, even though his sight was sealed, in fancy he could see

That grey and greasy thing that reared and sneered in mockery.

Yet roung him ringed the callous crowd - and how they seemed to gloat!

It must be done . . . He swallowed hard . . . The brute was at his throat.

He choked. . . he gulped . . . Thank God! at last he'd got the horror down.

The from the crown went up a roar: "Hooray for Sourdough Brown!"

With shouts they raised him shoulder high, and gave a rousing cheer,

But though they praised him to the sky the Major did not hear.

Amid their demonstrative glee delight he seemed to lack;

Indeed it almost seemed that he - was "keeping something back."

A clammy sweat was on his brow, and pallid as a sheet:

"I feel I must be going now," he'd plaintively repeat.

Aye, though with drinks and smokes galore, they tempted him to stay,

With sudden bolt he gained the door, and made his get-away.

 

And ere next night his story was the talk of Dawson Town,

But gone and reft of glory was the wrathful Major Brown;

For that ice-worm (so they told him) of such formidable size

Was - a stick of stained spaghetti with two red ink spots for eyes.

 

 

 

[dave]

I've been drinking untreated mountain water in the cascades, sierra, canada, new england, for probably a minimum of 90 days a year since the late 1980s with no ill effects. Draw your own conclusions. Read what they have to say on the CDC website, rather than some hooey on the package of your $200 filter. Most people end up asymptomatic after drinking bad water.

[snoboy]

I lived for 5 years in a house where our water was drawn from a "mountain" creek. Untreated. Never had a problem, neither did any of my city friends.

 

Granted that is a small sample. I also drink from creeks mostly. I am more scared melting snow at ski cabins to tell you the truth!!!

[Geek_the_Greek]

In fact if anybody wants a Nalgene I got one for ya that I cleaned that way. Just ignore the skull and crossbones drawn on the side

 

Whatever - wipe off the skull and crossbones and you're good to go! It's just piss.... Think of it as a cultural experience (didn't Ghandi drink his first piss every morning?). If you're not worried about the effects of crypto, then a little urine residue shouldn't hurt ya one bit. Ok, wash it out until it doesn't smell any more.

 

(Come on people, doesn't anyone practice oral sex?)

[Dru]

In fact if anybody wants a Nalgene I got one for ya that I cleaned that way. Just ignore the skull and crossbones drawn on the side

 

Whatever - wipe off the skull and crossbones and you're good to go! It's just piss.... Think of it as a cultural experience (didn't Ghandi drink his first piss every morning?). If you're not worried about the effects of crypto, then a little urine residue shouldn't hurt ya one bit. Ok, wash it out until it doesn't smell any more.

 

(Come on people, doesn't anyone practice oral sex?)

 

 

DAn I never knew you combined golden showers with oral sex. I'd rather you HADNT told me that.

[allthumbs]

Jeez Greek. Suitable name. Gandhi was also known for his horrendous halitosis. hmmmmm

[Geek_the_Greek]

Mmmm..

I was more thinking that you probably drink more urine by gettin down (call it what you want) than from a bleached out nalgene....

 

I guess I was setting myself up for some quality replies!

[gregm]

Jeez Greek. Suitable name. Gandhi was also known for his horrendous halitosis. hmmmmm

 

yes, and he also very rough feet from walking around barefoot. that why they called him a

 

SUPER FRAGILE CALLOUS MYSTIC HEXED BY HALITOSIS

 

get it that's a joke hee hee. say it out loud.

[ChrisT]

[Dru]

Mmmm..

I was more thinking that you probably drink more urine by gettin down (call it what you want) than from a bleached out nalgene....

 

I guess I was setting myself up for some quality replies!

 

Ya you should get your chica to douche first.