Back in my high school days, I signed up for a stint in the Youth Conservation Corps here in Wisconsin.

We did marsh and stream habitat improvement, wildfire control, and tree pruning to 20 feet(Mostly pine for lumber.). Having attained the age of 18 when I went in, I was the only person other than the camp counselers who was allowed to use power tools. We rebuilt large sections of the Mecan river in Washara County near the town of Wautoma, Wisconsin. We also built small bridges over the streams and elevated wooden foot paths going through marshlands for tourists so that they would not trample the habitat.

That period was the first time I ever drank spring water coming up out of the ground and then flowing into the river. Whenever we worked at a site that had one of those springs coming out of the ground, we would lay down wooden planks to avoid the soft dirt and mud until we came to the outlet which was always surrounded with sand. We would fill our containers with the spring water or lay on the planks and drink directly from the source.

Once you have had a taste as clean as pure water coming out of the Earth, there is no water that ever tastes better even if it is the same water commercially bottled.

We never drank from the streams themselves and no one ever became ill from the water.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Geeze, if I was drinking water downstream of a grazing area, I'd boil, filter AND purify the water.

"I'd boil, filter AND purify the water."

That's the worst thing about it; you never know what's upstream <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Regards, Vince