RE: [Philmont]: Water filters / purifiers

Do a test at your next crew meeting: give each scout two cups, one with
filtered water and one with Polar Pure water, then ask them to choose which
they'd rather drink. I'm betting they'll choose the filtered water hands
down (unless they're trying to outguess the purpose of the vote).

What have you proven? That if you have arrived at a point - at your meeting,
on the trail at Philmont, or anywhere - where both options are available,
the same "unweighted" vote will occur with a similar outcome.

The crews that choose to use Polar Pure have had practice in its use and
have comfortable familiarity with it's slight taste. Absent the discipline
to acquire that familiarity (be it by crew decision, circumstance, or
advisor decree), the vote to carry a filter and use it on the trail will
likely play out as above.

I trained my crew in the use of Polar Pure, but did not "force" them to use
it. In retrospect I should have required it for the duration of at least one
of our training weekends. My preference is to use Polar Pure. That of course
is irrelevant. The crew's decision was to carry and use a filter, and carry
Polar Pure as a backup. Water refills took a long time. The output hose fell
into the Cimarron River and had to be resterilized (fortunately we had
bleach with us). The pump handle broke off on Day 8, and the non-purgeable
cartridge on our PUR Guide clogged on Day 9 (we had coffee filters but the
crew couldn't be bothered to use them). Despite all this, the crew continued
to use the filter as long as they had a choice.

>Ched Hudson
ASM, Troop 994
Fairfax Station VA
Philmont 67, 04
  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of Robi Garcia
  Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 12:29 AM
  To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
  Subject: Re: [Philmont]: Water filters / purifiers

  We are continually amazed at the bizarre zeal to pollute your water with
thyroid-stimulating iodine when, for just a few ounces, you can instantly
have water that tastes like Arrowhead (a local brand in California).

  We have tried PolarPure on about five outings, and it consistently gets
rejected by all. We took some bottles on our last trek 24, and no one used
it. Same results from our trek in '02 and all the shakedowns in between.

  Main point of contention for the adults is the ability to remove solids
with a filter, as compared to "colorizing" them with PolarPure. Main
complaint from the kids is the taste, and the waiting. Then again, they'll
drink anything that the Staff sez is good...
   - r

  CoopWright@aol.com wrote:
    I am continually amazed at the number of folks that take filters to
Philmont because they are concerned about taste of the water.

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