Old timer at the campsite told me to boil creek water for 10 minutes, not 5

Last weekend I was camping up near the Trinity Alps and ran out of clean water. A guy in the next site saw me filling my pot and said you gotta boil it for a full 10 minutes, not the 5 I always heard. I figured he was just being overly cautious since I've done 5 minutes for years without getting sick. Well I did the full 10 and the water tasted way different, less like dirt and minerals. Now I'm wondering if that extra time actually kills more stuff or just changes the flavor. Has anyone else been told a different boil time and noticed a real difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren30719d ago

Man the first time I boiled creek water for 10 minutes I burned my tongue so bad I couldn't taste anything for two days, talk about a learning curve. But yeah after I stopped being a moron I noticed the same thing, that extra time really does mellow out the flavor. Five minutes gets the job done for killing stuff at lower elevations but up in the mountains where the water's got more sediment and minerals in it, that extra five minutes lets all that gritty junk settle out. My buddy who's a geologist says the longer boil time helps precipitate out calcium and magnesium carbonates which is what makes mountain water taste like licking a rock. So the old timer was probably right about both safety and taste even if it means waiting longer for your coffee.

roseb4719d ago

Honestly that calcium and magnesium thing explains so much. I grew up thinking mountain water was just supposed to taste like pennies and dirt, turns out it's just science being gross. @wren307 your buddy the geologist is officially my new favorite person because now I finally know why my camping coffee always tastes like I brewed it in a toolbox. Tbh my dumbest moment was trying to speed things up by only boiling for like 3 minutes because I was impatient and then wondering why my stomach felt like a washing machine for two days. Worth the wait next time I guess.