Hot answers tagged wilderness
14
Should I understand a water source to mean a spring/well, or any place
where hikers may collect water (streams, lakes, etc.)?
Yes. Any source of water - no matter how large or small - should be avoided when choosing a camp site. 100 meters is just a guideline, 200 meters is better. 200 meters and out of sight is great.
The reasons are several-fold:
...
4
There are a couple of reasons for this, as I understand it:
Your wastes (soap, Giardia in your poop, DEET, ...) will contaminate the water.
Lakeshores in high-altitude areas tend to be very delicate. People do a lot of ecological damage by pitching their tents right there. Unlike high-altitude areas in the Alps, the ones in the western US do not have huts, ...
3
An additional point that hasn't been mentioned, is when you camp next to a creek or stream the water level can quickly change, sometimes by quite a bit. It can be sunny where you are camped but heavy rain miles upstream from you, and the raising water level could wash away half of your camp while you sleep.
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