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?"

[Michael Palozzola]

O something I forgot to mention about the phones. When forming a search and rescue party emergency services can use your cell phone (even without signal) in order to narrow the grid. If your phone is on, it will continue to attempt and connect with a tower, the towers within range may not be your carrier or too far away to establish a full connection but your phone is still pinging the towers so it is possible for emergency services to triangulate a ruff location by comparing which towers took pings from your phone and seeing where those towers overlap coverage, giving them at least a general direction and starting place to search. I read about this in i think it was backpacker mag a few months back.

[Swamp Hunter]

He was hunting in the Dupuis WMA. They sent out a rescue party sometime after dark the same day. Apparently every hunter must be checked out by 9pm I think at Dupius. But BCNP is much different.

They must have found his car first. Somehow he was shining a flashlight from up in the tree and they were shining the lights back but they were on the wrong side of a deep pond and neither wanted to cross it.

 

The PLB sounds like a life saver. Im just stuck in my old ways. I dont mean to be argumentative.  Works on satellite sounds good.  It sounds like a good idea. Im wondering if anybody would be tempted to use it when its not a life threatening situation?

 

Last year 2 rangers came into my camp at Bear Island. Nice guys. They asked me the condition of the trail because I was just using it. They said they have a call from someone stuck.  It was about 10PM.

I said do you really go out to help people that are stuck all the way up here near Rat Camp?   He said no, not usually, but a cold front was coming in and they could freeze to death.

 

Well they didnt find them in the dark but they did rescue them the next day. Things are changing and maybe they will respond very quickly to a PLB, I dont know.  I am just trying to say dont count on it. Anything can go wrong in the swamp. Be prepared to spend the night. 

[Swamp Hunter]

Good to know about the phone..

 

One last thought. NO WAY do I depend on my GPS. I am aware at all times which way is north. I always place the midday sun (south) over one of my shoulders. At no time am I ever unaware of my directions for very long.

 

People that I have hiked with ask me how do I do it? I dont know it just comes naturally.

 

Now the GPS is cool. But I dont use it for direction. I use it to locate a certain head or landmark but not for direction.

[Michael Palozzola]

I understand completely about location not direction with the GPS. If you have your nose down looking at a little screen all day how are you going to get anywhere or see anything anyway.

And no you weren't being argumentative just thorough, anyway made me look up a bit more about them anyway to answer your questions :)

I'm sure people will use it improperly and I'm sure their will be repercussions for it, (side note about misuse of the emergency services: Woman is at a restaurant somewhere in FL, calls 911 because the restaurant hasn't given her enough shrimp in her dish and they refuse to give her more without charging her. 4 hours later they dispatch a squad car to find her still at the restaurant waiting for the police. They promptly arrest her for "improper use of the emergency services.")

And I never go out and DON'T expect to spend the night. Even if you have a PLB AND its working correctly AND the signal is received and help is dispatched quickly, they still may not get to you that day for any of 1000 different reasons.

[Kim Gass]

Don't depend on it. Your phone may well be dead. I met some paddlers who had phones that went dead after three days out.  They had no other locator device like a marine radio. Fortunately they were not far from a launch and in no trouble at all.

Far better to have a dedicated device.  I have not had to activate my PLB but know several people in the boreal forest who have had to for a variety of reasons..heart attack, hypothermia, arterial bleed.  

The weather was good and in one case rescue was within half an hour. A SAR team was on practice about five hundred miles north of Thunder Bay and their victim in the same area.

I like the GPS for detail of a small area. But its a mistake to use it all day for everything.. you came to the Everglades for real life,..not a small screen.

The key is indeed always knowing where you are. Mangroves are no excuse.

[Swamp Hunter]

Kim who does the PLB alert for rescue in the interior of the Big Cypress Preserve?

[Kim Gass]

5-watt transmitter sends a 406MHz signal to the subscription-free COSPAS-SARSAT (Search and Rescue Satellite) system to pinpoint your location anywhere on the Earth's surface

The nearest SAR team is deployed.  My unit is good anywhere in the world.

PLBs are for lifethreating situations only. And they are not a subscription device.

REI has some info (and a sale) on the McMurdo Fast Find 210

[Swamp Hunter]

Thanks. Will a SAR helicopter come out at night?

[Kim Gass]

Don't know. You might ask the local Coast Guard Batttalion. Here boats will come at night for SAR, but there is only one or two helos for 400 miles.

[yakmaster]

I carry an EPIRB. But I love my SPOT. EPIRB is 911 only. If it ain't life or death, don't hit the buttons!

With SPOT I can send multiple types of messages, all is good...not lost, only locationally challenged,...lost but OK and/or....SEND HELP! Also, your friends can track you onGoogle maps.

My SPOT connects to my delorme gps, but now they can hookup to an iphone or android, so you can send (though not receive) texts even when out of cell coverage.

The delorme has great aerial maps, but I prefer the computer desktop from Garmin. So I use the Delorme to show me where I am & where to go...& my garmin to log where I've been...& plenty of AA's!

[Kim Gass]

I carry a SPOT too for homebodies reassurance. But somehow I got to thinking while paddling up the Blackwater River that if something really bad should happen I would not want homebodies to know right away.

I would prefer to be plucked out and later after all was sorted out..."s'plain" to the homebodies what happened. I really don't want them worried when there is not much they can do about it.

[vivian]

I also decided on the mc murdo fast find PLB because I did not need or want the SPOT subscription fees. My family is happy and relieved. Although I have always left detailed trip plans behind with them. Like Dale I am old school and only relied on charts, compass, experience to explore for many years. But now use GPS, aerial maps and mobile technology. If it all fails I can still get through with skills.

My first aid kit has the basic wound care, allergy, flu remedy, stomach ailment itch relief and yes moisturizer cream plus a 12 gauge flare gun to ward off two leggeds :-)