Just Got Back

Just got back from another weekender hiking/camping trip this time my son and my grandson(7 years old) went with me.

I wanted to experiment with some new gear and experiment with some new campers at different ages.
Also gives us some family time and leaves the woman back at home.

We selected a remote hike in only camp site in one of the most remote areas in my area. Everything had to be packed in and out.
Hiked in and to our surprise we had the whole site to ourselves, this site has about 6 very remote camp sites. setup tents for my son and grandson.
I was going to experiment with a military Basha tarp, it setup very fast with just small stakes and paracord. Pretty nice since you can fit this shelter in your pocket. Size seemed a little small but it was cozy and dry.

Showed my son and grandson how to start a fire by flint(rock) and steel with charcloth and fiber as tinder. That went well.
Had to cook hot dogs for the grandson. This I found is one of the hardest things to plan for is food for a seven year old in the wild.

A couple hours later after I ate the hotdogs I began having terrible debilitating stomach problems, not food poisoning, I just can't eat hotdogs.
I learned just how fast and debilitating stomach sickness can be, fortunatly I always carry my medications, and after 5 hours I got rid of that situation.

It is things like this that start the dominoe effect and become survival situations. A sudden illness, or a loss of mobility(like a badly sprained ankle) can trigger these events added with bad weather or miscalculations.

As luck would have it I was called out to a Search and Rescue in the same park I was camping in, so I took a couple hours another long hike and got the patient taken care of that had fallen from a horse and had head injuries. The biggest problem there was the horse riders did not know where they were to direct the rescue crews, they only knew they were on the horse trail. In this area there are about 30 miles of horse trails.

Meanwhile back at camp, the evening went well, the basha tarp in a pyramid make up got a lot of condensation inside from my breathing. The Basha is waterproof and not very breathable. So that could be a problem of sleeping in moistture.

Problems to watch out for:

You have to watch younger children they don't seem to drink enough water to keep hydrated.
You have to carry more stuff to prepare for younger children, and they don't like to pack it.
Waterproof tents and tarps are not always a good thing.
Water is heavy to pack, 8 lbs a gallon, If I was by myself I could treat river water and save the weight, but people new to hiking don't trust treated water because it looks a different color than they are used to.
Plan your meals carefully with weight, spoilage and palatability in mind.

In any event my son has decided he wnts to go on more of a "Survivorman" trip with me. I will be looking forward to that in the near future.

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SURVIVAL..........it's all in your head

You should have taken some pictures. Sad

Oh well...sounds like you had fun. Very Happy

I going to go on an overnight trip with my dad sometime this fall/winter. Very Happy

As soon as the weather cools off. Smile

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Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. - Prov. 27:17

Good to hear about your trip, and glad you had fun!

	tfisher wrote:
	I learned just how fast and debilitating stomach sickness can be, fortunatly I always carry my medications, and after 5 hours I got rid of that situation.

Sounds like overall it was an excellent trip, TF. Carrying medicine for every day ailments is something that I've rarely seen addressed. Maybe someone can find or start a thread dealing with this.
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Update: I just checked, and I see you have discussed this in the "Situations & First Aid" secton. Very Happy

It was a great trip and I learned that when the group is counting on one individual for outdoor skills and that person gets sick things go down hill fast.

Just as an experiment I wanted to see how much water my son brought for himself and my grandson. they only brought 1 pint each.

I brought 2 quarts so they are not in any danger. I also had our water cache about two miles away. In any event I had to hike the two miles back with them(still sick) to get more. this time they both had 2 quarts each.

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SURVIVAL..........it's all in your head

Sounds like you had a good time bro !

Hey Ted i'm glad you had a good time with your family, and yes it would of been cool if you had some pics but it sounded like you had a great time!

I totally agree with your statement, if the training indivivdual gets stuck up with something everything goes downhill.

Thats why the leader or expercienced person should always have a posative attitude, it wil keep the group going strong Very Happy

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"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic