>>997132So I caught flak for saying this shit on some bullshit thru hiker thread. Now everyone on this thread seems to primarily agree wit me. Anyways, here's my two cents.
I thru'd the AT a few years ago. I started w/ aqua mira- that got punctured a few days in, so I switched to iodine I found in a hiker box. I never felt super on board with treating water. As you said, humans have been drinking the shit straight from streams much longer than we've known about the existence of ionic compounds and micro-organisms.
Anyways, I slowly tapered off with the iodine. Nothing super empiric, but I'd put a little less every time. I would carry 2L and I always had my iodine on hand, but never used it for the 2nd half of the hike. I would only drink from sources close to the tops of mountains, I preferred ones where I could see it bubbling out of the ground. Never drank water that was downhill of roads or anywhere near cow pastures. Just use your common sense.
Now my gut is a fine tuned machine. I can eat a lot of things that'll make other people sick. I almost never have diarrhea. I think it's just a matter of populating the microbiome in your gut with the right things and teaching your gut to be stronger.
