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Putting Together a Basic First Aid Kit

By Carl Street, Pupbrothers.com

Hikers by the millions journey along wilderness paths each year, relishing their adventure hiking unscathed. However, accidents do occur unfortunately. A few hiking tips can help to calm the panic and lessen the severity of most of them.

First step - Preparation

If you plan on hiking longer than about 2 hours, you'll want to do some planning. Know where you're trekking. Bring along a first aid kit. It should consist of, at the very least, these valuable items:

- Roll bandages and gauze

- Adhesive band-aids of different sizes

- Anti-bacterial spray or cream

- Ibuprofen or aspirin (according to your stomach sensitivity)

- Moleskin (for administering to blisters)

- a Swiss Army knife or the like

- a pair of tweezers

Besides the aforementioned, these things can come in very handy in certain situations:

- Burn cream

- Anti-itch cream

- Hydrocortisone

- Sun block

While everything but the kitchen sink is pretty much available, you have to be realistic. As a rule, you want to bring along the least weight as you can - ultralight hiking. Only carry stuff you're probably going to use along the way, or would badly need in a crisis. Things such as particular scrapes or scratches, while under normal conditions are thought to be no big deal, can turn into a major injury if not attended to.

Bring along adequate drinking water, plus a little more for washing out wounds or scrapes. Don't use stream water, unless there is no other choice (or if you have a hiking water purifier). Natural sources of water most often team with bacteria, despite what the TV ads will tell you. Don't forget, animals travel, live, and relieve themselves in those same streams!

Snakebite kits can be invaluable if you're hiking in a region where poisonous snakes are prevalent. In reality though, that's less locations than you might think. Even in regions they inhibit, most snakes are only hazardous if (almost) stepped on. Still, it doesn't hurt to take the precaution.

Spider bites are rarer still. Hardly any venomous spiders habitate in regions where they're easily visible or contacted. Simply refrain from crawling around dark or damp places. While there are no absolutes, the chances are you're safe in most areas.

Aside from a sick stomach, headaches, or related issues on your hike - mainly from an overdose of sun or poor hiking food or water - the most frequent setbacks are cuts. Cuts that are untreated can pretty readily turn infectious, particularly if caused by a plant instead of a rock. That's the reason anti-bacterial items and bandages are at the top of the list.

Cuts are easy enough to treat. Wash the cut, administer disinfectant and cover with a bandage. For bigger cuts, that require a roll bandage and gauze, you might have more critical problems. You will have to judge how deep the cut is and if the bleeding is of the arterial or venous variety.

Bleeding that is venous flows more even, and oftentimes bluer. Arterial cuts come in spurts (as the blood is pumped by the heart) and typically is redder. Venous bleeding normally can be clamped and the wound will close on its own. Arterial involves unique clamp and release methods.

Common sense and discretion are your best first aid. Know the surroundings and don't take stupid risks. Your hiking club and especially yourself will appreciate that you did.