South Colony Lakes water safe to drink?

[shays_days]

Camping at SCL the night before Ellingwood Arete and feel like I remember reading somewhere that South Colony Lakes water is not fit to drink even with a filter. Is this true or am I making things up?

[sfreytag]

I used an MSR Sweetwater filter and drank the water last September with no issues. If you are still worried use a filter and combine with treatment drops.

[Monte Meals]

I use my MSR water filter regularly from free flowing mountain streams.

However, I do use Water Purification Tablets when drawing from lakes or desert seeps.

https://gazette.com/outthere/dog-killin ... 5b7f9.html

[Scott P]

I've never heard of it being unsafe, but no matter where you go it's always best to get your water as close to the source as practical. If I camped at the lake, personally I'd take it from the creeks feeding the lake rather than the lake itself.

[BKS]

Many of the camp spots are just below the outlet from the lower lake. The water there is swiftly flowing in a rocky stream bed that I’ve drunk on multiple occasions. Many many campers have gotten their water at that location. It is where the trail that goes onto the upper lake and humbolt crosses the creek. Getting water out of a fast flowing stream i think is preferable to a lake or non flowing pool.

I’ve gotten giardia out of a location in the San Juan’s, so I’m cautious about water source.

[shays_days]

Cheers guys, my climbing partner has a mild case of diarrhea already so figured I'd ask lol. We'll probably camp at upper to get a closer start to the route but sounds like there are a lot of options for freeflowing water. I think I was confusing this with Lonesome Lake in the Cirque in WY which I read recently has been too contaminated from traffic.

[mtree]

I've never had a problem with water around there. I use a filtration system... not sure what brand. I get the water from the creek just above the camp sites. After seeing what goes on around the camp sites, ain't no way I'm pulling water from below them. A buddy of mine swears by tablets. He uses lemon flavored ones. I've tasted worse.

[Trotter]

free flowing water taken from a lake outlet, is the exact same water as the lake... sounds like some people think it would be somehow safer.

[seano]

https://gazette.com/outthere/dog-killin ... 5b7f9.html

I'm pretty sure filters and tablets won't help you with cyanobacteria, since it's the chemicals they produce that are the problem. If you think about it, a water molecule is three atoms, while a virus or bacterium is made of millions, so separating them is easy. But a cyanotoxin is only a few hundred molecules, so it will go right through your filter. Iodine or chlorine also are not intended to break up toxic chemicals.

Chemical contamination is nasty stuff, be it naturally-occurring heavy metals, arsenic from old gold mines, or cyanotoxins. I haven't heard of any of those being a problem at South Colony, though.

[DaveLanders]

free flowing water taken from a lake outlet, is the exact same water as the lake... sounds like some people think it would be somehow safer.

From a chemical perspective this is true (assuming that the lake is evenly mixed). But it's more complicated than that because particulates will settle in still water. So if you're filtering water from a lake you don't want your filter intake to pull water from the bottom. This may be why the standard advice is to filter from a creek instead of a lake if you have a choice.

[bdloftin77]

Interesting and perhaps controversial article. I’m definitely still going to treat water, but perhaps stream water sources might not be as inherently risky as one might think?

https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/fi ... ssary.html

[Trotter]

Interesting and perhaps controversial article. I’m definitely still going to treat water, but perhaps stream water sources might not be as inherently risky as one might think?

https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/fi ... ssary.html

I'm fairly certain streams or lakes that don't have humans near them are perfectly safe to drink from. I am also very certain that you should treat water from any lake or stream that has humans camping nearby. Humans are gross, I was filtering next to snowmass lake once, and looked over to see someone had shat IN the water 3 feet from where I was filtering.

As someone whos gotten food/water poisoning while backpacking, I can assure you it sucks, and its worth the tiny effort to filter your water.

Also I read a study where most backcountry illness came from people getting themselves sick by not sanitizing their hands properly, after using the bathroom.