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[ Up ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Food ] [ Hannah's Water ] [ Hannah's Story ]
Hetch Hetchy, July 2004
Hannah's Water
In general I'm a nice guy and try to "enlighten" people
before trips rather than during since it just seems mean to pull out my
10 gram alcohol stove at dinner while someone is boiling water with a 1
pound plus liquid fuel monster that is not only complicated but loud as
heck. With this in mind I told Hannah not to bring her water
filter and her stove. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea.
Actually, the stove worked great and she loved it so I gave her one (I
have extras) but the water situation is a bit more complicated. I
use chlorine dioxide in the form of two little bottles with droppers
made by McNett. It only takes 7 drops of each liquid to treat 1
liter of water so before the trip I shook the bottles and guesstimated
that I had enough. Then, while a Lake Vernon on day 1 I realized
that one bottle had twice the liquid as the other. Shit!
The next day I stopped treating my water and offered the bottles to
Hannah, feeling quite sheepish since I told her not to bring her filter.
When she asked me to carry them since her pack was already so heavy I
almost exploded, not out of anger but from surprise as the total weight of
the bottles was probably 1 ounce! I put them back in my pack,
never to use them again for the rest of the trip. On day 3, when
Hannah really needed them, Henrik and I were minutes ahead of her, out
of earshot, so she drank some really questionable water.
Now this made me feel even worse since I hadn't seen Hannah since
1997, when I graduated from Cal. We met at Cloyne, a student-run
cooperative where we both lived and I spent many an hour hanging around
the room she shared with Michelle Rappaport, doing nothing in particular
but developing the kind of friendship that makes you wish you had kept
in touch. Fast forward to June 2004 and the trail in Point Reyes
from the Palomarin Parking Lot to Bass Lake. Who do Emily and I
run into but good ole' Hannah. After catching up we continued onto
our favorite lake while she headed out. In the following weeks
this trip was planned and executed.
I do know, because she told us, that Hannah had the runs on the
morning of the 4th day, about 16 hours after drinking the questionable
water. But at the time of writing this text, I don't know if she
has been otherwise affected. If so, I am sorry! In case you
are wondering, starting at lunch time on day 2, I drank water straight
from the rivers and lakes and have suffered no ill affects.
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