My water filter broke 12 miles into the Rae Lakes Loop... argued with myself about turning around for 20 minutes

So I'm hiking the Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon last month and my Sawyer Squeeze cracks right where the bag connects. Water everywhere. I'm 12 miles in, no backup filter besides some iodine tabs I brought as an afterthought. My buddy says just push through, use the iodine and boil water at camp. But I'm thinking about that giardia risk and how much that sucks to deal with on the trail. I ended up turning back alone while he kept going. Felt like a quitter at the time but now I'm not sure. What would you have done? Stick it out with the backups or bail like I did?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark7311mo ago

Usually those iodine tabs work fine if you give them enough time, but it's rough having to plan every water stop around a 30 minute wait... How many miles were you planning to do each day after that point? Like if you were pushing 15 plus mile days the iodine thing gets old real fast, but if you were just doing casual 8 mile days it might have been doable.

holly_williams1mo ago

Flip the bag upside down and let the universe decide your fate, maybe? Honestly though, I'd have bailed too - giardia is basically the trail version of a bad breakup that leaves you crying on a pit toilet for three days. Your buddy is either super tough or doesn't know the joy of explosive diarrhea at 11,000 feet (I had to learn that one the hard way). Iodine works okay but it turns your water into suspicious Kool-Aid and gives you that nice "I drank from a public pool" aftertaste. You made the smart call, even if it felt lame at the time.

danielwhite22d ago

Nailed it @holly_williams, that public pool aftertaste is exactly what I got last summer and it made me question all my life choices. I had the same thing happen on the JMT and ended up rationing my last clean bottle like it was gold.