Hiking in the Western States? Bring a First Aid Kit
Mar 03 '01
The Bottom Line Hiking in the Western States requires things that you wouldn't necessarily take with you.
We moved here to Colorado Springs in October of 2000. We were, of course, awed by Pikes Peak and all the surrounding parks and wilderness areas. The flora and fauna are so different as to be almost alien to someone who knows how to survive with nothing for weeks in the Northeast US wilderness.
Unfortunately, lack of travel experience outside one's homeland; and confidence in your own skills can lead to some real problems when you're suddenly in strange territory. It caused us to make a lot of potentially dangerous mistakes at first.
First of all, weather here is completely strange to me. One day in winter can be sunny and 70 degrees, and the next ten degrees with a foot of snow on the ground.
When we first arrived, we had to wait for living space to become available, and had only what we could pack in our car on the 1700 mile trip. As a result we were BORED. So our first foray into hiking was Garden of the Gods Park.
This park is incredible, but since I'm not reviewing parks, let me move on. The trekking was easy, and there were plenty of people around. This lulled us into thinking it was easy here.
On our next trip it was Cheyenne Canyon Park. By the time we reached the top our car was overheating (high altitude messes with your fuel to air ratio and causes a car to burn hotter) so we were stuck for a short time. This was fine with us since it was near 80 degrees in October.
My husband noticed this great rock formation which looked like a bunch of round towers. People were bravely snowboarding down the slope below it, which was in itself odd since there was no snow.
Matt thought it looked fun so went running up to slide down. When he reached the formation above he grabbed at the face of it and abruptly fell backwards a few feet. Upon coming back down, he was having serious breathing issues from the altitude, and had cuts on every inch of his hands. The rock, it turns out, was granular; and had shards of glasslike substances throughout which crumble in your hands when disturbed.
So here's your first set of items. Alcohol or peroxide, cotton, and band-aids. (oxygen would be helpful, too...hehe. Please remember that acclimation to high altitude can take weeks before exertion is possible without minor to severe hypoxia. It can cause blackouts and other problems which could be deadly in a wilderness situation.)
Our next outing, we decided on a less "high" goal. We went to Palmer Park; which is actually an island of wilderness in the middle of the city. It was about 70 degrees and very comfy. We strapped the baby in the carrier, and all proceeded to hike on.
My hubby dear got the bright idea to take an unmarked trail up the rock faces which looked easy to climb with the baby on my chest and a 3 year old in tow. Turned out to be a VERY bad idea.
Before we realized we were in trouble, however, we come to the next western hazard and addition to your first aid kit.
My son fell flat on his face in the middle of a very well defined trail, and came up wailing with dozens of cactus needles sticking out of his hand. I couldn't believe there were cacti!! I thought they grew in Arizona! Well, we really wished we had a pair of tweezers then.
After about three hours we realized we were lost. It was 3:30PM. This is where the next addition to your kit comes in.
It seems in high altitudes, heat leaches off the Earth's surface much more quickly. So here we were lost in the woods with the sun at the tip of the mountains in the distance.
We finally found the road, but had no clue which direction the car was in. We didn't bring a compass because it never occurred to us that you could get lost in a CITY park.
We walked for about a half hour in the wrong direction before we had any idea where we were. By now the temperature had dropped by about 15 degrees and the wind had picked up. Luckily I had a blanket for the baby, but the rest of us were starting to get chilly
We turned around and made our way back down the hill for another half hour or so. The temperature had dropped another 10 degrees, and now, with the wind; we were definitely freezing. Next item: solar blankets. You know, the big silver ones.
Finally someone was kind enough to give us a ride to the car. By the time we got there the sun had just set, and it was nearing 45 degrees by the thermometer on the car. On top of that, I had a sunburn. UV exposure is 30% more up here. So add sunblock and aloe to the list.
In our adventures of the first few weeks here we learned to carry a lot more with us than we would have at home.
In summary, these are the items absolutely necessary in you kit for hiking out west:
Bandages
Alcohol Pads
Cotton balls
field rations or granola bars in case you get really lost
A flare for the same reason
extra clothing
tweezers to remove cactus spines
solar blankets
Sunblock High rated
Aloe
The last thing, which I've personally had no experience with; but have discovered that rattlesnakes are common here, is a snakebite kit.
I really hope this helps people who have the opportunity to visit Colorado. Taking these items will really make your experience here a bit safer.
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Epinions.com ID:
evajung
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Member: Eva Jung
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Country girl and green lady who loves trees and adores children
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