BarryBobPosthole
04-13-2017, 09:49 AM
So here's a curmudgeonly rant.
If I were to list all of the things I have taken a drink from, and by that I mean for hydration purposes, I am sure that a doctor would run away screaming with his hair on fire. I've never had the beaver fever, never had the all day dirty hurries, never had internal parasites (that
i know of) although I did get wormed one summer when my Mom thought I was skinnier than I should be. So I'm lucky. And dumb.
I've drank from:
Farm ponds - the grossest of the gross. As a kid I swam in every one I came across and that was every neighbor farm, visiting at friends and family farms, and so on. And when you walk a couple miles in an Oklahoma August to fish a pond you found you didn't know was there, and its a long ways to the water hose at the pumphouse back home, I will admit to laying on my belly and sucking in a big larrupin mouthful of water. Yeah, stupid. But it was good. So good I shucked my britches and cooled my outside off as well.
Lakes - I drank from many of them. Strip pits, reservoirs, you name it. And from Canada to Texas.
Rivers and creeks - drinking ice melt water in the Rockies is as dangerous as it is tasty. Six or seven days at a time in the backcountry was a fairly common thing for me when I was in my twenties and thirties. About, oh, day three I was sipping icy water from streams.
So none of that matters at all. But according to todays rules it was mighty stupid. Which brings me to my question. I would not think of taking those risks now. But is it the risk that is overblown or is it that my luck was that phenomenal? I will admit to being a risk taker. I didnt ask for that personality trait. I couldnt change it if I wanted to. But to me its fact that there is as much fly shit in the mix as there is pepper. Sorting the difference is the challenge.
So thats a long bit about nothing.
BKb
If I were to list all of the things I have taken a drink from, and by that I mean for hydration purposes, I am sure that a doctor would run away screaming with his hair on fire. I've never had the beaver fever, never had the all day dirty hurries, never had internal parasites (that
i know of) although I did get wormed one summer when my Mom thought I was skinnier than I should be. So I'm lucky. And dumb.
I've drank from:
Farm ponds - the grossest of the gross. As a kid I swam in every one I came across and that was every neighbor farm, visiting at friends and family farms, and so on. And when you walk a couple miles in an Oklahoma August to fish a pond you found you didn't know was there, and its a long ways to the water hose at the pumphouse back home, I will admit to laying on my belly and sucking in a big larrupin mouthful of water. Yeah, stupid. But it was good. So good I shucked my britches and cooled my outside off as well.
Lakes - I drank from many of them. Strip pits, reservoirs, you name it. And from Canada to Texas.
Rivers and creeks - drinking ice melt water in the Rockies is as dangerous as it is tasty. Six or seven days at a time in the backcountry was a fairly common thing for me when I was in my twenties and thirties. About, oh, day three I was sipping icy water from streams.
So none of that matters at all. But according to todays rules it was mighty stupid. Which brings me to my question. I would not think of taking those risks now. But is it the risk that is overblown or is it that my luck was that phenomenal? I will admit to being a risk taker. I didnt ask for that personality trait. I couldnt change it if I wanted to. But to me its fact that there is as much fly shit in the mix as there is pepper. Sorting the difference is the challenge.
So thats a long bit about nothing.
BKb