Whats in YOUR First Aid Kit?

[Michael Palozzola]

Here's a question for any avid outdoors man. Whats in YOUR First Aid kit? Is it a store bought? a home made? a combination of both? What would you not be caught dead (no pun intended) without in the wilderness? And I'm not talking STRICTLY first aid but what is in your "Survival kit?"

[Kim Gass]

Somehow there is no substitute for common sense! I too leave a handwritten floatplan and instructions for who they are to call if I am overdue. The tech stuff is just an enhancement for my convenience and perhaps faster rescue.

[Swamp Hunter]

A little searching and I found that in the case of the Boy Scout that died in the BCNP, the rescue team arrived "roughly an hour and 10 minutes after Crompton’s first 911 call for help." http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/may/10/weston-teen-dies-while-h...    In my opinion, thats pretty good. I think they have a helicopter at Oasis but it doesnt say. It doesnt say if they used a PLB either but he was on the Florida Trail and easy to locate. I would imagine someone would have had to work their way to an open area without trees..Im not sure they would have come out at night but I dont really know.  The family filed a lawsuit alleging failure to bring proper communications equipment but the Boy Scouts deny any wrongdoing..http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/647249-family-teenager...

http://www.insideedition.com/news/6674/inside-edition-investigates-...

 

I guess it depends. Once they realize its life threatening, it appears you can be rescued in short time. Lost hikers/hunters will probably still take 24 hours. I agree about the floatplan. Someone back home needs to know your out there. Look how long it took to realize the hiker lost in the ENP was missing. As far as I know, they never found him.http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-09-09/news/fl-everglades-man-...

 

The PLB sounds great and thanks for telling me. Im just not used to depending on these electronic devices. I still carry 2 maybe 3 compasses in my pouch and one on my knife. And maybe Ill carry my celphone. I use Sprint/Nextell with the waterproof Motorola military phone... the same as the park rangers. But it seems my phone only works 50 percent of the time and surprisingly it doesnt work well at Oasis and when I worked in Bear Island, it didnt work at my campsite... 

[vivian]

Dale my iPhone on Verizon works on all the Florida trail from oasis to addition lands area. It does not have to be an iPhone or Verizon as my friend on AT&T plan also gets a signal. In fact the AT&T phone works at flamingo while Verizon does not. You can get one of those prepaid phones as some of my friends use for the trail from AT&T pretty inexpensive way to have emergency communication.

[Kim Gass]

AT&T is the ONLY carrier that works at Flamingo..Luckily there is still a pay phone at the store.

[Swamp Hunter]

I havent tested my phone on the Florida Trail north from Oasis but I lose reception inside the Loop Road Unit. I have reception into the addition lands where I tested it and near Rat Camp but no reception in 50 percent of Bear Island when I worked there last year. And no reception at the Goverment compound where I was staying. I had to drive to the panther gate on US29 to make a phone call. 

Have you tried your phone deep into the Gator Hook trail? That is where I  noticed I lost reception last week.

[Swamp Hunter]

 

To tell the truth, Im not sure I like all this luxury. It kinda ruins it. I liked it better before celphone and GPS before the WW was marked.. You had to be a real outdoorsman to survive the swamp. 

 

This is the Exploration Network and the new forum is Everglades Deep.  Now we are only pretending. We are only pretending to explore the deep swamp on foot and by canoe when the truth is every inch has been explored by powerboat, airboat, swampbuggy or oxen.  We are re-exploring for lack of a better word.

 

Its kinda neat to have areas that are walk only or off limits to all motorized vehicles but we cant go back in time. I dont want reception everywhere but I cant stop it.  Could we designate an area No GPS or NO celphone? LOL

 

Now I learn we possibly can have a helicopter anywhere within an hour?  Then maybe we are just pretending to be in danger too.

[Swamp Hunter]

Some day we will have Live Google Earth where your family can sit at home and watch youre entire trip live on a PC monitor.  Deer hunters will find game from Live Google Earth. In the future, park rangers will know where every hiker is at any given time.  Is this really what we want?  Is there any way to stop it? Is this Big Brother lol? Am I unnecessarily stirring the pot?

 

We are modern day explorers. We are losing are survival skills. Myself I dont like it.

[Michael Palozzola]

Could we designate an area No GPS or NO celphone?

We can burn all the books while were at it too?

Your taking it way to far, for starters there are VERY few places on the planet that have not been explored before, but so what? HAVE YOU SEEN IT BEFORE? No? Then who cares who has seen it prior? Do it for the sake of doing it, not to draw the first ever map of the landscape. If I wanted to go places NO one had ever been before, I'd move out of this country by far. I probably would have stayed in Ecuador or possibly even Australia. But you know what, done prior or not.. the hikes/climbs/dives that I did in those countries were still amazing experiences regardless if others had done the same trail or made the same venture.

Turn off your cell phone turn off your gps, they are a safety measure as long as you use them as such. They are a measure which has kept 100's if not 1000's of "Real Outdoorsman" alive and allowed them to make it back to their families in more then a body bag. What is wrong with having the opportunity of a medivac in a dire scenario? You get bit by a moccasin 1,2, 5 days in, no medivac, YOUR DEAD. Is that better then having the ability to call a life line?

[Swamp Hunter]

So I have stirred the pot lol. I have been enjoying the swamps for over 40 years and I will continue to do so as long as I can stand on my 2 feet. . I just miss the good old days and I dont like some of the changes. Obviously you werent around to have missed it. 

 

It was a wild and beautiful place in the 60's-early 70's.  Keep in mind that the Everglades stayed wild long after the West was tamed.

 

Please no book burning. I love my old books and you cannot find everything on the web

 

And please dont rely on your celphone, GPS and medivac. It may save your life someday.

[Swamp Hunter]

I dont mean this in a bad way Mike. Use whatever you want to make your time in the swamp more enjoyable but take the time to learn the old skills.

 

Leave the main trail and try to navigate.  Learn to travel at night by the stars. Walk out under the full moon and turn off your flashlight.  There is so much to see and so much to learn. I see something new every trip out.. I could never see every part of the Everglades even if I had another 45 years.

 

 

Suggested reading: "Forty Years in the Everglades" You might enjoy it. 

 

Your thread is 5 pages long and still going...

[Swamp Hunter]

Here you go. You can learn about how we fought to preserve the area you are now enjoying.  http://www.bigcypressswamp.com/stories/fourtyr.html

[Michael Palozzola]

I have nothing against learning the old skills, I actually prefer it. I just prefer to have the safty net which technology has made available. Why work with out a net when one is regularly available? It would be like a tight rope walker going.... "nah i got this take the net down." shit happens... accidents happen.

I SCUBA dive as well as everything else, and we have done COUNTLESS dives at night guided only by the moonlight and the contours of the sandy bottom, on those dives we only carry the lights to illuminate stuff throughout the dive while we investigate. You see so many different things without the lights (as you would on night hikes etc)

Speaking of old skills, do you know a GOOD and RELIABLE edibles of south Florida book?

I will definitely look into the book, unfortunately its not on amazon O_O