Remember when you died of cholera? Dysentery? If you’re reading this, you didn’t die of those diseases.

Water filtration and cleanliness is what keeps those diseases at bay. Slate.com recently published an article about why you shouldn’t filter your backcountry water, basically accusing the outdoor recreation industry of perpetuating myths about waterborne pathogens that only occur in some water sources.

This is total and absolute bulls***.

But we live in a world driven by clickbait and sites like Slate that are looking for a quick buck and don’t care whether your health is permanently affected by their insane advice.

Here’s the thing: humans used to drink straight from streams and lakes and all other sorts of water sources.

Here’s the other thing: we quit doing that. On purpose. It wasn’t some uppity desire to drink bottled water. It was because contaminated water is a huge danger. Microbes evolved to take advantage of the fact that water is a great breeding ground and provides easy access to hosts.

Jump in My Podcast Delorean for a Trip to The Ancient World

We have written records as far back as 3rd or 4th century CE describing boiling and heating water in the sun to purify it. These records are from Ancient India and Egypt.

If we look at Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, we’ve got water treatment devices all the way back 15th to 13th century BCE.

The people who built the pyramids figured this out THOUSANDS of years ago. This shouldn’t be a modern argument.

Hippocrates, the Ancient Greek philosopher and proto-scientist, invented the Hippocratic sleeve, which was a cloth bag you could pour water through to filter it after boiling it.

The 8th century CE Arabian alchemist, Gerber, used wick siphons, basically a cloth or rope that transferred water from one container to another, filtering it. This relies on the principle of osmosis, where water is transferred from a more concentrated place (the side with water) through a membrane into the less concentrated place (the empty bucket/vessel).

Press Fast Forward on Our Podcast VCR: “Modern” History

In the 15th century, Italian physician Lucas Antonius Portius began experimenting with sand filter, inspired by Francis Bacon’s earlier attempts.

The first water filter used in a public project was installed in 1804 in Paisley, Scotland where a fabric bleacher began selling excess sand-filtered water to locals. By 1829, the practice was improved and standardized in London.

In 1854, John Snow (not the King in the North, but the Londoner and physician) began studying the Broadstreet cholera outbreak. He predated the understanding of germ theory and contributed his knowledge to discrediting the prevailing belief in “miasmas” or “bad airs.” He used a dot distribution map to plot cholera patients.

This map helped him identify the water source they were all using that was contaminated. He convinced the city to quarantine the well and the outbreak ended.

Backcountry Water Filters Today

Iodine tablets were developed by Harvard University in partnership with the US Army ahead of WWII. They’ve been used since the 1940s for emergency drinking water and you can still pick them up today, on the cheap, for emergencies.

Halazone, a chlorine-based purifying tablet, was also used in WWII because it’s more effective against e coli than iodine.

Portable water purifiers like we use on the trail today were originally developed for: you guessed it, the US military. Hand pump filters like you’re familiar with were originally developed in the 1980s to be included with packrafts in airplanes. They force water through a ceramic filter that destroys pathogens down to the 0.2-0.3 micron range.

That takes care of most nasties and for the one...

Patagonia’s Ron Hunter, manager of employee activism, joined Cody to talk about his life spent outdoors and why it inflamed his passion to protect wild spaces.

From the 1950s, camping in national parks on family road trips, to Yosemite’s hallowed Camp 4 in the 1970s, Ron Hunter has spent a lifetime in love with America’s public lands.

Now he helps in Patagonia’s fight to protect those lands. Bears Ears may be far away from his office in Reno, Nevada but Grand Escalante Staircase is in his backyard. He’s not a corporate suit or a lawyer, he’s one of us. A hiker, a climber, just a guy who loves the places we love and is fighting to keep them safe.

How You Can Join Patagonia’s Fight to Protect Our Natural Spaces

Step 1: Keep an Eye on Patagonia’s Blog: The Cleanest Line. For a full run-down on Patagonia’s public lands position, you can read the post that started the most recent controversy: There is Trump and There is the Truth, which is a response to the President’s reduction of two national monuments, an unprecedented action.

Step 2: Get in touch with your federally-elected officials and let them know this issue is important to you and that you support the protections these National Monuments had before the current administration rolled them back. If you’re in a state that’s directly affected by the current crisis (Utah or Nevada) contact your locally-elected officials and let them know this issue is important to you.

Step 3: Consider giving to one of the many non-profit organizations that are assisting in the legal fight to protect Bears Ears and Grand Escalante like the Sierra Club.

When we band together, every bit of change, every small voice raised in chorus adds up to a big difference in the long-run. We can win the fight to protect Bears Ears and Grand Escalante from oil derricks, dangerous mining operations and obstruction of public access.

It all started in an empty lot in his neighborhood, next door to a mechanic’s shop. Make-believe with childhood friends turned into study and discipline, which took Joe to college, then into the woods as a guide.

Joe’s Axe Recommendations

I asked Joe for advice on axes during the interview. Here’s what he recommended:

Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe

This was Joe’s recommendation right off the top of his head. It looks like a real beauty and would look even better strapped to your backpack. You can pick one up on Amazon.

 

Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe

This is the axe that Joe carries on most trips and the one he heartily recommended I pick up. When Joe tells you to buy something, you go get it. You can get one too.

 

 

 

 

The Budget Option: Fiskars Splitting Axe

Discontinued, but Recommended: Wetterling Outdoor Axe

As soon as I’ve got the axe in hand, I’ll record a video and get it up on my Facebook.

 

My Favorite Videos from Joe’s YouTube Channel

Joe camping with his wife and daughter (they explore an old stone building). Lots of fun family time:

Joe, Scott, and Griff spend the day learning some sweet outdoors skills. Also, you get to see Joe almost get hit with an axe.

Joe and Shawn James spend “8 Days in the Wild.” It’s a two-part series and an excellent example of long-form YouTube content.

Chris Penny is a lifelong Canadian outdoorsman. He’s been camping and playing in the snow since he was a kid in Ottawa.

Building a Quinzee and Urban Camping at the Bus Station

Chris told a story of building a quinzee that was too big to sleep in and the time he wouldn’t pay for a cab so he spent the night at an Ottawan bus station in sub-zero temperatures.

He also weighed in on my terrible “I’m gonna live forever” attitude and advocated for a more cautious approach to winter camping, especially in temperatures below zero.

When Chris was a kid, he and his friends would go into the woods near their homes and play “Get Lost.” It was a game where you attempted to get lost in the woods (they were surrounded by roads). He was kind enough to provide some pictures taken during these games for the show notes.

He also shot me a link to a video of him and his friends building that quinzee.

 

After a week of everyone in my office coming down with the flu, I got sick of fluorescent lights and coughing co-workers. So I ran away to one of my favorite places: Ouachita National Forest.

Winter Overnight at Winding Stair

I hiked a couple miles in and made camp under the rock shelf where I met Tucker and Carly on the Eagle Rock Loop episode. When I got to camp, my feet were soaked from the river crossing but I got a fire going and set up my tarp.

I waited too long to get my sleeping bag out, it needed longer to loft up to be at its most insulative.

This is what camp looked like before I tore it down in the morning. I used a stick to hold up my tarp since I LEFT MY TREKKING POLE AT THE JEEP. UGH.

Shot from near camp, looking at Blaylock Creek in the morning.

After the river crossing, looking down on the river that soaked my boots.

Winter Water Wisdom (Acquired from Dry, Warm Hikers)

You can use heavy-duty trash bags to cross without getting wet. You can also use Chacos or other water sandals and dry off on the other side.

The Year was 1850. Victorian high society was obsessed with the picnic. They translated all the baubles and sophistication of a Victorian dining room outside.

They were really into the juxtaposition of the formal dining experience and the informality of the outdoors.

Up until this point, picnics consisted of cold food: meats and cheeses, fruit, etc.

Alexis (uh-lex-E) Soyer fled the French Revolution and settled in England. He was an early-adopter of new technology, which ruffled feathers in the very traditional English culinary culture. He was using steam to pump and heat water, to drive spits, and move dumb-waiters.

“Now we’re cooking with gas.”

Then coal-extracted gas came around and Alexis put gas mains into his kitchen. People had been lighting cooking fires with gas for 40 years, but Alexis was the first to cook directly on gas.

Alexis invented several home kitchen products based on his commercial kitchen innovations, which he liked to name indecipherable Greek-rooted names.

The reason we’re talking about French chef, turned English kitchen revolutionary, is because he invented the first portable gas stove. He called it, humbly, “Soyer’s Magic Stove.” He spared us an obnoxious Greek name and took his new stove to market.

Picnics were no longer limited to cold cuts. A single-burner could prepare a warm meal for a bespectacled Victorian gentleman. Then explorers got ahold of the Magic Stove, Captain Horatio Austin was outfitted with Magic Stoves on his search for John Franklin in the Arctic.

The stove was used in soup kitchens during Ireland’s potato famine (or, uh, potato theft, if you actually care about what happened). Soyer donated money to have the kitchen built.

Working on the Irish potato theft was the beginning of the gas stove’s journey into the field. Alexis created a “field stove” during the 1853-56 conflict between the Russians and allied Turks, Brits, and French on the Crimean Penisula. Poor management of camps was killing more of the allied troops than Russians. To aid with sanitation and nutrition in the camps, Alexis created a larger, more efficient version of his stove, making it field-ready.

The field stove was so well-designed and received by the British Army that it was used until the modern era.

Modern Innovation: WWII and the Portable Gas Stove

Another Frenchman, Jue LaFare, created a portable gas stove in 1932 that looks remarkably like the Snow Peak Titanium Stove that I carry on backpacking trips today. It was collapsible and used small blue canisters of fuel.

By 1934, the canisters were used by officers in the French army. They were extremely concerned with the rank and file using the stoves improperly and distributed the stoves with English instructions since only officers were taught to speak English.

That brings us to WWII and the United States and that old stand-by, Coleman. In 1942, aware that the US would eventually be dragged into the global conflict, the US government approached Coleman about creating a portable gas stove for GIs.

They wanted it lightweight, smaller than a quart-sized thermos, and able to operate from sub-zero permafrost to the shadeless Saharan sands.

Coleman returned a design within 60 days. The GI Pocket Stove is what prompted this episode. Someone posted a picture of one in a backpacking group I’m in and I knew it had a story to tell. I’m going to keep an eye out for one of my own at army surplus stores.

The Pocket Stove can burn leaded or unleaded gasoline and pretty much anything else that’s flammable. Like an MSR Windburner, you pump a fuel reservoir and light the burner. It’s a simple tool, but indispensable on the battlefields of WWII and the backcountry today.

Followed Annette McGivney’s advice and went to Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. Learn how Patrick and I planned the trip and what gear was necessary for winter camping in the second largest canyon system in the United States.

Patrick and I had a blast. The Lighthouse is an amazing natural rock formation. Insert a dad joke about “hoodoo” here. 😉

In the episode, I talked about the Ten Essentials. You can print out a copy of the list to keep in your gear closet. Make sure you’ve got all ten systems covered by your gear before you head out on any camping trip.

The Ultimate Winter Weather Camping Hack:

The Zippo Handwarmer. Guys, I’m serious. This is a gamechanger for winter camping. I don’t know how I survived winter and fall camping without this gadget. It keeps your hands warm. It keeps your feet warm. It keeps your sleeping bag warm. It will change your comfort level dramatically for a negligible amount of weight in your pack.

Annette McGivney is the southwest editor of Backpacker Magazine and the author of Pure Land, available now. She explains her history with backpacking and the way that it helped her in her struggle with PTSD.

Pure Land: A True Story of Three Lives and The Search for Heaven on Earth

Annette’s newest book weaves together a love of the backcountry of the American Southwest, true crime, and deeply personal memoir. It’s a fantastic page-turner (in fact, I stayed up until 3 a.m. finishing it).

She’s online at AnnetteMcGivney.com and you can find more information on IAmPureLand.com about the nonprofit she established to help kids who are victims of violence find the same solace in the outdoors that she found.

You can find the Outside Online Book Club on Facebook. They’ll be discussing Pure Land as their inaugural book!

If you have kids and want to fan the flame of loving the outdoors in their hearts, Annette mentioned My Side of the Mountain as something that sparked that in her as a kid. Hatchet is the book that inspired me to follow Nature’s Call (right into my backyard).

Reminder: Not Our First Visit to the Grand Canyon

If you enjoyed Annette’s stories about visiting the Grand Canyon, Nature’s Call has told the story of the first people to Explore the Grand Canyon in Rowboats, the expedition of John Wesley Powell. Give it a listen!

Next Stop: Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Per Annette’s advice on the show, I’ll head out for Palo Duro Canyon, dubbed the “Grand Canyon of Texas.” As we learned on today’s episode, there’s no reason to ever leave Texas. I’ll record a trail diary while I’m there and let you guys know my thoughts on the park and how my first trip of the winter goes. I’ll be nice and warm in my Nemo Salsa, which I have fallen in love with, totally and completely, after picking it up at the last REI Garage Sale.

If you’ve got a recommendation of somewhere you’d like to hear a trail diary from, send it to me on Facebook or Twitter.

 

Kit Carson is more than a man; he’s a distillation of the American West. He’s the sort of guy where the idea of him eclipses who he was.

People started writing fictional accounts of his deeds long before he was dead. So-called “Blood and Thunder” Western stories could be had for a quarter back east. They depicted a stoic Indian-slayer, who stalked villages and murdered their inhabitants before morning light found the canyon walls.

The actual man was complex in his dealings with Native peoples. That complicated relationship is what we’re diving into today.

Reports of Kit’s Life are Greatly Exaggerated

Here’s the thing: you don’t need to exaggerate about Kit Carson. He is the stereotypical mountain man with everything you could want in his story. Action, adventure, fights with Indians, solo cross-country treks carrying important news, surviving winter in a buffalo robe with only his wits and his fire to keep him alive.

Kit Carson was the quintessential mountain man in the era when mountain men were dying and not being replaced.

Next Week on Nature’s Call: Annette McGivney

We’re very excited to announce that next week on the show, I’ll be interviewing Annette McGivney, southwest editor of Backpacker, and author of Pure Land, a new book about the murder of Tomomi Hanamure, a hiker, who was murdered while visiting the Grand Canyon. I highly recommend the book and I’m looking forward to interviewing someone who’s been backpacking for longer than I’ve been alive.

If you have questions for Annette or comments on the show in general, you call always reach out via Twitter: @naturescallpod or on Facebook. Don’t be afraid to talk back, we encourage it!

 

Patrick, Steven, and I go on a colossal road trip to our southernmost National Park: Big Bend. I learned that sometimes being prepared doesn’t mean that you’ll succeed. It was a difficult journey and we had to make a tough call between what was safest for the group as a whole and what was the most fun for part of the group.

Everybody survived Big Bend and had a great time, which meant the trip was a success. In the future, we’re going to go run laps together before going hiking to make sure everyone is ready for a trip of that caliber!

The biggest challenge in Big Bend National Park is carrying water: to have enough water for three days of hiking, we needed to carry close to 25 lbs in our packs.

Water in the Desert: A Beginner’s Guide

You can get by on a little less than a gallon day by eliminating water waste. Here are the corners we cut so that we were only carrying drinking water:

* Use hand sanitizer to avoid hand-washing with water you could drink later!

* Don’t brush your teeth (not a long-term option, but for a two to three-day trip, it’s worth skipping).

* Don’t cook (carry lots of snacks and foods that don’t require water to cook. We had a lot of jerky, dried fruits, etc.)

We carried 10L Dromedary Bags from MSR. These bags are bullet-proof. I wouldn’t worry about using them to cache water along the trail or (like we did) just throwing in your pack and carrying them. We had no issues with leakage on the bag itself or from the lid. They are awesome candidates when you need to carry a lot of water.

 

 

MSR has a line of accessories for the Dromedaries that are pretty nifty:

* Shower Kit (hang the dromedary and use this to shower off on trips where you don’t need to conserve water)

* Spigot Cap (to make sharing water from the big bag easier).

For you ultralight hikers, there is a less solid but way lighter option from MSR: the DromLite. This is made of a rubbery plastic, rather than lined-canvas like the regular dromedaries, but it is substantially lighter.