Rain Barrel...and Ultrarunning

Finally got the base built for my new rain barrel, and installed the barrel under a downspout:

[image credit Gary]

I attempted to purchase locally but could not find the exact one I wanted, so I got this one on line from Good Ideas, Inc.  They are in Lake City, PA, so at least it did not have to travel far to reach me.  It's the Rain Wizard 50 (note that I have no financial interest).

The back is flat, and from reader comments the plastic is sturdy enough that this model is not plagued with the complaint that when full of water the weight causes the back to bow out.

The purpose of the base I built from landscape timbers stacked 3 high is simply to raise the barrel enough so that you can easily get a watering can or small bucket under the spigot.

The link to Ultrarunning is admittedly tenuous--it's just that with the advent of an early hot spell here in south-central PA, I am reminded again of the importance of hydration when we run in the backcountry.  On a warm day I find I need about a bottle an hour (20 oz or so) and even then I am still drinking the rest of the day to catch up.  

Running with Wet Feet

Here in the Mid-Atlantic we are locked in a cold snap, perfect weather for doing some wet foot running.

My theory is that in trail races we often have to ford streams or slog through mud puddles, thus having the mental experience of running with wet feet is good.  Moreover, there's the actual physics of it, the hydraulics and friction and skin dynamics of running with wet feet.  I think there's much value in toughening one's feet.

So in yesterday's 10 miler I passed up an opportunity to use this perfectly good bridge over the Conococheague Creek...

 

...in favor of this:

 

 

I know I've blogged about this before, but even in the winter the water is largely out of your shoes within a mile or so, and within 2-3 miles, it's hard to know you even had your feet wet.  So, running with wet feet is not big deal.  Figure, in August when it's 90 F, your feet are pretty  darn wet in your shoes anyway just from sweat, so there's not much difference.

 

The one lasting effect yesterday when I got home (some 4 miles after the crossing) was frozen shoelaces.  Made it a bit tough to get my shoes off. 

 

 

Appalachian Trail Stomach Virus

Seems that some hikers along the Appalachian Trail just south of its midpoint are contracting a severe intestinal bug.  From my local paper, the Chambersburg Public Opinion, on 30 May 2013, "Viral outbreak on Appalachian Trail hikes toward Pennsylvania":

While the worst viral outbreak to strike hikers in Appalachian Trail history is traveling north from Georgia into Pennsylvania, health officials say there is really no reason for area residents to be concerned.

Bob Proudman, director of conservation operations for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, said an outbreak of norovirus among trail hikers began somewhere around the Tennessee-North Carolina border about four weeks ago and is moving north with the hikers.

Norovirus has a 12- to 48-hour incubation period, lasts 24 to 60 hours and may cause severe diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. 

Signs are being posted along the Appalachian Trail south of Maryland. Signs read "A.T. shelters and privies may have been used by sick hikers" and information includes ways to "help prevent spread of highly contagious 'stomach bug'":

        - Wash hands with soap and water.

        - Treat all water. Use best "leave-no-trace" practices.

        - (Alcohol-based) hand sanitizers may not be effective against the stomach bug.

        - Stomach bug has a 12- to 48-hour incubation period, lasts 24 to 60 hours and may cause severe diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.

        - People with stomach bug may be contagious for three days to two weeks after recovery.

I've previously posted about drinking Potomac River water--treated of course--here. The treating agent was bleach, but of course since I am not a public health expert you must take my story for what is is--a personal anecdote, and not definitive advice.

I've never succumbed to any such illnesses but I've had some severe influenza, which kinda gives me the idea.  We all tend to get complacent about basic precautions with our food and drink, so the bottom line is that it's time to assume it could happen to me, and take appropriate precautions.

 

First World Problems...and Ultrarunning

Via Southern Beale on 8 Feb 2013, "First world problems read by Third World people. Kinda made me feel like an asshole after I watched it."

Me too.  This short video is worth the 61 seconds it takes to play.



If the embed does not work, try this link.

I don't know anything about the sponsor of the video, Water is Life, other than their mission seems to be the provision of clean, safe, drinking water for the Third World.

I've previously blogged about this in the global sense, observing that if we had invested all of our war-making dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan into providing safe water sources for those countries, we would have not only made the planet much safer, but also done incalculable good...including cleaning up our trashed reputation across the planet.

Here's some of what I wrote.  Actually, as I re-read it, it's a pretty good post, and you oughta check it out:

And we'd be helping the least of these, my brethren. Rather than soldiers and tanks and Humvees and Strykers and Predator drones invading a country and slaying its people, it'd be a convoy of drilling rigs or trucks of solar panels and windmills and pipes rolling across the landscape. The result would be clean water supplies and millions of averted deaths. And at least an attempt to erase our global black eye.

The link to Ultrarunning is that safe drinking water in the backcountry is one of our priorities.  Indeed, probably more than any other group in this country, Ultrarunners think about water more than just turning on the tap.  We know about our personal water requirements, gear up to carry it, scope out potential water sources, plan for treating those sources if necessary, etc. 

In short, we don't take water for granted.

The spring at Tumbling Run Shelter along the Appalachian Trail in southern PA--possibly the best water in the world. 

[Photo by Gary]

 

 

Hydraulics

One final C+O Canal post (unless I look at my photos again and come up with another idea!).  Below is a view of Dam # 5, looking across to the WV side.  The water was high, but not nearly at flood stage (click photos to enlarge):

Next is a shot I was practically mesmerized by, a 30' tree trunk that was caught in the hydraulic immediately below the dam:

This tree trunk--15' of which was stood up vertically out of the water in this shot--was tumbled incessantly, both end for end and rolled.  It would disappear for 10-15 seconds, then pop back up, still caught in the hydraulic.  There was no escape.  Had this been a crazy kayaker, he/she undoubtedly would have also been trapped and drowned.

I love water, and although I am a decent swimmer, rushing water such as that above scares me.  The weight and the force are irresistible.

 

Water Project...and Ultrarunning

Image credit The H2O Project.

The other day I ran with the guys at work at lunchtime, and as I exited the gym after my shower, heading back to my desk, I was walking along the sidewalk beside the building on my way to my car.

Suddenly a door burst open in front of me such that I had to stop suddenly, and a workman dumped a full bucket of dirty water into the gutter.  I exclaimed, "That doesn't look good," meaning that I figured he'd had some sort of plumbing disaster.

He looked up and said in a serious voice, evidently thinking that my comment pertained to the water itself, "This water would be considered potable in many countries around the world."

I was quiet, realizing he was right, and also realizing that he wasn't trying to be funny.  He was sort of a blue collar prophet, I suppose.

I just Googled terms like "Water Purification Technologies Third World" and the like and got page after page of hits.  I scanned various sites but came away thinking that this was a still largely-unsolved problem.  Sure, Westerners could waltz in and install some super-duper device, but the key is making the technology appropriate for the site, cheap, dummy-proof, and sustainable.

So...I have a notion that would help billions of people on the planet, and maybe help repair the trashed image of the United States of America.  I'm sure that many others have already had this thought.

Why not a full court press, much like that which resulted in us putting a man on the moon, using the practically unlimited funds that we have been pouring into the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and all those other unnamed places where we spill blood?  The objective of the full court press would be to provide safe water all over the world.  How?: 1) develop an array of appropriate technologies, 2) field the right site-dependent solution, and 3) assist recipients in life cycle sustainment.

I just took a look at the Fiscal Year 2012 Defense Department Budget, which starts on 1 October 2011, and particularly noted all the cool (read "lethal") names that we've given to our biggest military hardware acquisition programs.  I see names like Predator and Reaper ($2.5 B); Ballistic Missile Defense ($10.6 B); AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense ($1.5 B); Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ($1.2 B); Tactical Tomahawk Cruise Missile ($.3 B); and the Virginia Class Submarine, which outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wanted to torpedo ($4.9 B).

I don't know enough militarily to say whether these particular weapons systems are good, bad, or indifferent; the point is simply that we spend billions of dollars on weapons system acquisition, and I just innocently wonder whether somewhere in the "guns" budget we couldn't find funds for "butter" (or on this case, water).

We could come up with some really cool names. One of the issues is that water pumping and purification takes energy.  Could we not develop some out-of-the-box solution to that problem using solar, wind, or even people power (i.e., the "Merry-Go-Round Powered Pump" or the like)? Or how about "Wind Into Water"?  Or "PureSun"?  Any solution would need to be scalable, meaning it would serve xx people, and to serve more you'd either have to upgrade to the next class of system, or add more modules of your basic system.

I'm not an engineer but if we can put a man on the moon (...oops, well, actually we can't do that anymore; I posted about that here).  But the principles of the best and the brightest engineers and project managers, full court press, copious amounts of development, fielding and sustainment dollars...we've done that before, and we did put a man on the moon.

We could generate literally thousands of new jobs and get some $$ pumping into our economy. 

And we'd be helping the least of these, my brethren.  Rather than soldiers and tanks and Humvees and Strykers and Predator drones invading a country and slaying its people, it'd be a convoy of drilling rigs or trucks of solar panels and windmills and pipes rolling across the landscape.  The result would be clean water supplies and millions of averted deaths.  And at least an attempt to erase our global black eye.

And the obligatory salute to Ultrarunning: we trail runners probably know better than just about any other Americans about how important hydration is.  The vast majority of citizens take the pure water from their taps for granted, and we don't.  In the backcountry, we worry about how much to carry, where we can refill, electrolytes, even the color of our pee. 

We get it. This notion of a full court press to deliver clean water to the third world is right up our alley.

Potomac River Water....Mmmm, Good!

This is an addendum to my run report from Monday for my 25 mile run along the C&O Canal.

I left out one key detail in my haste to post, but actually the delay has provided time to better analyze results. My plan was to resupply with water and food at my car somewhere in the middle of the run. That is, I first ran downstream and back, pausing at my car, then headed upstream and back. However, in the middle of my initial downstream leg I opted to lengthen that leg to about 2/3 of the run. That meant, even in cold weather, that I ran out of water.

I knew that I would run out of water by lengthening my first segment, and had planned for that contingency--by carrying a small bottle of liquid bleach. This is a recycled infant's liquid Tylenol bottle with a dropper. A couple years ago on the Ultralist I had read a post from a university chemistry professor stating that 7 drops of bleach will purify a standard 22 oz water bottle in about 20 minutes.

I've previously used this technique perhaps half a dozen times without any adverse consequences. On Monday the Potomac River was high and brown from recent rains. I climbed down to the riverbank from the canal towpath, filled a bottle, and added the bleach. I used 10 drops due to the murkiness of the water, which was the color of very weak coffee. Twenty minutes later I happily drank the water, which really did not taste bad, either from the bleach or funky water. Now 3 days later I still have no adverse consequences.

Your mileage may vary. LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I am not a water purification expert and therefore if you try this technique you do so at your own risk. But it certainly provides an extremely useful option for water resupply while out on long runs.