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Water along trail to Bishop Pass and Agassiz?

PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:04 pm
by hgrapid
Several hikers from Reno are planning a hike to Bishop Pass and Agassiz 13,891' on Labor Day weekend. We have filters, and want to know the availability of water along the trail, so we don't have to haul all our water up from the trailhead.

Does anyone know the availability of water up there?

Seems like there are a bunch of lakes along the way.

Thanks!

PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:52 pm
by mrchad9
Why bother with a filter?

Haven't used one in a couple years... so far so good. And that's actually the area I first gave up on them.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:56 pm
by The Chief
Totally Agree!

What are the filters for?

PS: There are plenty of uncontaminated water sources all up and down that trail.

There are zero reports of any type of potential contaminants in that area.

Got a good buddy that just spent the last month on that exact trail fixing the rockfall mess. Never once used a a filter nor did anyone on the crew. Stated just this past Sunday that USFS and LADWP bios and hydro's did survey's three times along that water trail since this past June. Found nada.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:59 pm
by JHH60
I got sick from water while in the Colorado backcountry when I was 17. It was on an Outward Bound mountaineering class and we all had been drinking water from the streams without any problems for several weeks, since the instructors assured us the water was pure and none of them ever had a problem. Then one day, near the end of the solo part of the class, I and several other students got terrible diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite, and weakness. We spent the next few days prostrated in our sleeping bags with fever, dragging ourselves out once every hour or so to crap and find leaves or pinecones to wipe our asses (toilet paper wasn't consistent with OB "leave no trace" philosophy) instead of climbing. Turns out a local rancher had taken a herd of stock through an area upstream of where the sick students had done their solo.

The Bishop pass trail gets very heavy traffic, both human and pack animals, and while the water might be fine 99% of the time, I know from experience that if you're in the unlucky 1% you will be very miserable for days. Iodine tablets or a filter are cheap insurance.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:49 pm
by RickF
I've been up to Bishop Pass a dozen or so times over the past 20 years, reliable water sources are always plentiful. Long Lake, Saddlerock Lake, Bishop Lake, and all the creeks in between. We camped at the tarn at Bishop Pass last Friday & Saturday, plenty of good water in the tarn.

p.s. The drainages along Bishop Pass trail get lots of human and pack animal traffic, I always filter to be on the safe side.