# Filtering MFS water?



## paor (Apr 21, 2008)

Hey all…it’s been quite awhile since I’ve been on the middle fork salmon. I may go in August on a self support kayak trip. I don’t remember if that water is very silty or not. I just have a backpacker style water filter and a small collapsible bucket to bring. Any thoughts on whether or not I should do anything different for filtering water?

Cheers.


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## Rightoarleft (Feb 5, 2021)

Here's what you do. Invite me and I'll bring a support boat to haul a reclining chair for you to sit in while you dip chips in fresh salsa and watch my gravity filter do all the work. Or, depending on flow, pack the front hatch with imported sparkle water and forget filtering altogether. 

Shameless grovel aside, August MFS is crystal clear up top and mostly clear near the confluence. Barring thunderstorms, there is no silt. It doesn't matter though. There are ample side creeks and seeps/springs, some of which will fill your bottle without leaving the boat. I don't drink from the main drain if I can help it.


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## paor (Apr 21, 2008)

Sounds magical! 

Thanks for the info…not my trip or I’d take you up on the offer!


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## IDriverRunner (Aug 18, 2015)

+1 for gravity filter
MF has crystal clear water most of the year.


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## Count Me In (Jul 13, 2021)

I was on the mfs when the norovirus got into the river. Cdc never found the source but it was in the river. Many people got it. I saw commercial trips w "sick boats." Didn't leave until winter came. I boil coffee water from the river, and fill directly from a handful of springs. If you need to filter consider using side streams to lower the risk of viruses. Spring locations have been discussed in past posts. Of course IC and the B. Have a great trip.


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## Conundrum (Aug 23, 2004)

I dip my nalgene in the river and run a steripen through it before drinking. Side creeks are colder.


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## djtechman (Jun 2, 2018)

Don't forget your Steri-pen too - this year we've seen lots of sewage leaks into the rivers. (See Lower Gunnison post in safety/alerts thread)
Cyclo cayetanensis can only be killed by UV light.


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## Jamo (May 27, 2021)

We just did it a couple of weeks ago. 14 people. For the group we used the gravity bag. For the three on my raft, we just used a plunger type to fill our water bottles. As mentioned before, the water is clear.


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## BGillespie (Jul 15, 2018)

I drank directly out of a lot of the side streams without issue earlier this month, but I'm also the person that eats questionable leftovers, soooo YMMV...


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Count Me In said:


> I was on the mfs when the norovirus got into the river. Cdc never found the source but it was in the river. Many people got it. I saw commercial trips w "sick boats." Didn't leave until winter came. I boil coffee water from the river, and fill directly from a handful of springs. If you need to filter consider using side streams to lower the risk of viruses. Spring locations have been discussed in past posts. Of course IC and the B. Have a great trip.


The info I got from the FS was that the bathrooms at both Boundary Cr and Indian Creek ( doorknobs, fixtures, handles etc.) tested positive and they thought that was the source of the 'spread'. Hence the arrival of handwash systems at Indian Creek (not at Boundary yet). Maybe I imagined that. I honestly can't imagine the volume of shit or vomit it would take to be in the water for the concentration to be high enough to infect someone. At least from what I have read about the Noro.


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## Idaho Jeff (Jun 8, 2015)

Eastern Idaho Public Health still has the findings available online. Easy to find with Google if the url doesn’t paste. Drinking filtered water from the river and ****** Cox in general were statistically significant risk factors.


GI Illness on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River


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## Idaho Jeff (Jun 8, 2015)

I prefer the censored version of my comment over the actual comment I typed.


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## Pine (Aug 15, 2017)

Its very clean water, but I would not drink it unfiltered. The source of Marsh Creek, the highest tributary, is the cow pastures near Stanley. The last thing you want to have on your Middle Fork trip is explosive diarrhea. The only scenario I can think of where you might have to deal with a clogged filter is if there is some kind of blowout on a side stream or silty run off from a fire somewhere. 

FYI - on all the other sections of the Salmon, including the Main, the water quality is actually pretty bad due to agricultural run off.


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## shady-eddy (Jul 21, 2021)

We were on the MFS last week - there are plenty still plenty of good flowing creeks coming in. I used a Grayl water filter bottle and carried a 6L dromedary in my kayak to keep some creek water I could filter all day long whenever I needed.


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## Dangerfield (May 28, 2021)

Did some research on Noro and only 12 of the little copies are enough to put you under. At the height of an infection around 3-5 days only 1 gram feces (28.3 grams per ounce) can produce *100 billion* copies of the virus (look down to the Clinical Features in the link below). I could not find any estimates of what's stored up in vomit, but it has to be way up there also. I searched without finding any info if virus can be excreted in urine so can't correlate every soul required to pee in the river and what that might add to the drama. Pukeing into the river between camps probably adds to the viral load. One thing to remember on any trip the further downstrean you are, the number of herd animals (humans) above you increase. Oh, on a full on outbreak on a river does everbody pull in their drag bag and enjoy a nice river wetted cool one up to their mouth? One would hope that dilution is the solution to pollution or in this case virus






Updated Norovirus Outbreak Management and Disease Prevention Guidelines







www.cdc.gov





Creepy shit.


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## Bootboy (Aug 25, 2020)

Count Me In said:


> I was on the mfs when the norovirus got into the river. Cdc never found the source but it was in the river. Many people got it. I saw commercial trips w "sick boats." Didn't leave until winter came. I boil coffee water from the river, and fill directly from a handful of springs. If you need to filter consider using side streams to lower the risk of viruses. Spring locations have been discussed in past posts. Of course IC and the B. Have a great trip.


River dookie….


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## paor (Apr 21, 2008)

Dangerfield said:


> Did some research on Noro and only 12 of the little copies are enough to put you under. At the height of an infection around 3-5 days only 1 gram feces (28.3 grams per ounce) can produce *100 billion* copies of the virus (look down to the Clinical Features in the link below). I could not find any estimates of what's stored up in vomit, but it has to be way up there also. I searched without finding any info if virus can be excreted in urine so can't correlate every soul required to pee in the river and what that might add to the drama. Pukeing into the river between camps probably adds to the viral load. One thing to remember on any trip the further downstrean you are, the number of herd animals (humans) above you increase. Oh, on a full on outbreak on a river does everbody pull in their drag bag and enjoy a nice river wetted cool one up to their mouth? One would hope that dilution is the solution to pollution or in this case virus
> 
> 
> 
> ...


My wife just got me a drag bag this year. I am now goi g to make sure I at least wipe down the cans with some sanitizer before drinking!


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## Rightoarleft (Feb 5, 2021)

I was also on MFS the year of norovirus. Having previous experience with the bug, I was on red alert. Norovirus doesn't kill you but makes you wish it would. I remember finding camps strewn with piles of unburied excrement. The scene told a story of groups of people so weak they purged where they lay. That was the trip I learned how to sleep on a tiny raft.

I also heard of noro going through the Grand Canyon. Picture a J-rig covered in pukers from Ohio running Hermit rapid in 104 degree heat. There are many reasons to avoid ingesting water from the main drain. Anecdotal evidence, all the GI illness I've seen on trips came from river water. Not the groover. Not the kitchen. Not the cooler. Rather, accidental consumption of raw water from the main drain. Are drag bags a risk? I don't know but I don't use them for that reason.


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## Dangerfield (May 28, 2021)

On a full on outbreak I am willing to bet normally non swimmers are diving in to rinse/wash and cool off their bung hole, whether or not soap in the water is allowed.


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## DidNotWinLottery (Mar 6, 2018)

I have drank from nearly every side stream without filtering, no issues.


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## Bobthegreat (Mar 3, 2019)

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