Dont drink the waterfall!

Many of you who know me know of my frequent "Marilee moments." Well, for your viewing pleasure today, I give you The Stupidest Marilee Moment Yet! You know why its my stupidest Marilee moment yet? Because I might actually have done myself some harm this time!

Today I went hiking up Adam's Canyon with four friends- S, A, J, and B. Granted, we went prepared! Each of us had a full water bottle and snacks with us! But as we hiked on, those full waterbottles didn't last very long, especially since it was at least 110 out there today! (maybe a bit exaggerated...) Actually, those full waterbottles only lasted us about halfway to the second waterfall.

After panting our way to the waterfall, we had lunch and goofed off in the water. Then as we prepared to hike back down, we started to remember the hour and a half hike in the heat we'd experienced on our way up..... and I particularly remembered how my own waterbottle had been full of hot water because I didn't have time to refrigerate it before we left, and then it slowly cooked in the sun as we hiked. I remembered that the last hot swallow of water had been 0% refreshing and dreaded the long hike down because I was already thirsty!

To be fair, the thought had popped in my head more than once in those five minutes before we started to hike down, but I didn't voice it because I thought it was a dumb idea. But then B says:

B: Lets just fill up our bottles here! The water is ice cold!
Me, S, and A: are you serious? that water probably has parasites or something!

no. He was serious.

J: I'm sure its fine! Look, no people can get up above the waterfall so there is nothing in the water from humans!
B: yeah besides Ive drunk river water before
A: ok yeah, but they always tell us its not safe, that people who get Giardia can end up in the hospital...
Me: And what about the animals? humans arrent the only ones who leave stuff in the water!
B: We drink the animal crap in the reservoirs anyway.
Me: I guess thats true... and I guess we might get dehydrated or something otherwise (we were all really, seriously thirsty)

While the girls debated a few minutes, B filled up a bottle and took a nice long swig of that river water. J was filling up the camel pack as well.

A: I guess he doesn't look sick yet... (ok we were all really thirsty and exhausted! So for some reason none of us thought of the fact that water he drank 30 seconds ago wouldn't make him barf immediately!)
Me: Yeah maybe it wouldn't hurt....
B: It tastes like mountain spring water!! and mmm mmm it is so cold and refreshing!

This is where the common sense I had vanished and thus turned this story into a Marilee moment. I filled up my bottle.

J: (to me) Stop staring at it! Its perfectly fine!
Me: what if it has floaties in it or something! I dont want floaties in my water! Then again I dont see any....
B: There arrent any floaties! Its mountain spring water! Just drink it!
Me: What do you think A?
A: I guess its probably fine, if you drink it I will.

So I take a long drink, and im not going to lie it was soooo good, especially after the long hike of having only hot water. It didn't even taste funny or anything, just ice cold like out of a faucet. A took a drink of it too. We offered some to S because it had been really good, and she hadn't been feeling well and I think she could have used water the most. But she was the smart one and declined, insisting that she didnt want to risk it.

Then we joked for a little while about how if all of us but S got sick then we would know never to drink from the river again. I think we were all a little bit nervous about what we had done, and needed to reassure ourselves through joking that we werent going to land ourselves in the hospital with Giarrdia.

The hike down proved to be about a half hour rather than an hour and a half (probably because it was downhill, duh why didnt we think of these things before?) and so when we got to the bottom I was wondering if drinking half a bottle of the water had been worth it, or if I could have waited a little longer... but too late for that now.

I got home and relayed our hike to my mom, briefly mentioning filling up our bottles at the waterfall, at which point she freaks out about how i'm going to get Giarrdia and go to the hospital and stuff like that! And I told her all of our reasons for thinking its safe, plus the fact that we could have become dehydrated (ok, why did we think that was such a big deal? people become dehydrated all the time and dont die!) and she said that there was no way of knowing it was safe, and that she just HOPED we hadnt gotten a horrible bacteria!

Well after that all my self reassurances that I would be fine vanished and now every little stomach gurgle I have convinces me that I have Giarrdia! I have been reading A LOT of stuff online about it and it says I will know within 24 hours... and that there is no sure way of knowing before then.... but that eating helps because it may absorb it. So pretty much ive stuffed my face since reading that. But this goes beyond a Marilee Moment! This isnt me being forgetful or scatterbrained! This is me maybe getting a bad disease because im dumb and didn't use basic common sense when people were peer pressuring me into drinking river water! AHHHH!

Anyways im sure you all cared about that VERY much. But now you know the dangers, and wont be dumb like me and drink it!