mrchad9 wrote:If you agitate it (slide on it, mash it up, etc...) it has a strong scent of watermelon.

I've read a lot of books about the Sierra, so I don't remember where I read this, but I know I read somewhere that if you eat the red algae snow, it's harmless and will taste like watermelon. I've never been even remotely tempted to try this...

tahoecedar wrote:And now this year, I ran out of water on a hike and had been reading about how there was no giardia in the Sierras and so thought the water was safe.

It sucks what you've been going through. ...and the symptoms do sound like giardia. I read that the symptoms of giardia will last long after the infection is gone (wonderful, isn't it?). I can testify to that fact... I never had it diagnosed by a physician, but I'm pretty sure that that was what ailed me after drinking untreated water from the Merced River in LYV many years ago. My friend, who was new to Sierra hiking, also got the disease. We were day hiking Clouds Rest. I probably told him something like, "Yeah, it's safe. I drink this stuff all the time." He never hiked with me again.

Steve1215 wrote:.


And that gurgling....is in the large bowel, yes?



.

Well at least it sounds like it is only coming out the rear end.

I try to stay away from the lemon snow.

On topic, I boiled up some red-contaminated snow last week, made up some noodles and freeze-dried potatoes with it. Never felt the least bit queazy.

This seems to very common in the Boise, Pioneer, Boulder, Smoky and Lost river mountain ranges in Idaho. On a recent climb we found a pool of water in a dry creek bed that was blood red, and we wondered if it could be of the same cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_snow