There can of course be so many nasty things in water to make you sick. . . and the Lake Superior water looks so pure and clean and so inviting on a hot parching day.CHUCKX53 wrote:Like I said, not something I would ever recommend.....Keweenaw wrote:
Years ago I remember a ranger saying that he just drank the water out of Superior directly, but recommended filtering.
Bob
Some things can make you sick fairly quickly, others take awhile and yet some take a long, long while.
Isle Royale is blessed with a long standing ecosystem that includes among other things, a special symbiotic relationship triangle involving the moose, the wolf and the tapeworm.
The tapeworm lives as the classically characterized adult parasite in the wolf’s intestines. In the wolf scat there are tapeworm eggs. These exist and live for a long time on foliage and in the water run off. The moose then ingests these eggs where they are then transported through the bloodstream only to become lodged in the capillaries. This is most commonly the lungs but can be most anywhere. It then begins to multiply eventually forming a cyst. The moose is then killed and eaten (along with one or more cysts) by the wolf thus completing the symbiotic cycle.
Unfortunately if you happen to drink some tapeworm egg contaminated water that has not been boiled or filtered properly, you are going to be a stand in actor for the moose not the wolf. You could remain without symptoms for several years only to one day succumb to a cyst in your lung or brain.
What are the odds? I’ve never seen anyone willing to wager. But I have read reports of people that drank directly and then days later exclaimed they were “lucky” since they did not become sick. Maybe not so lucky.
By the way, happy lighthouse hunting. Is there anywhere that your works are displayed?
~Ed
