Trail First Aid: what do you carry?

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
I had to be certified for High Adventure Trips with the Scout Troop. If you google Wilderness First Aid you should be able to find a local training option. It is a significant course, in both time and $, but it really allows you to think out of the box. I've been MacGyver'ing stuff my whole life, and found it liberating to be prepared for remote situations. I highly reccommend it if you like to go out beyond the black stump.
Thanks, I did look into it a while ago, and saw the time and cost commitment. Decided not to pursue it since most of my riding is really tame and close to home. Unless of course I’m riding Hartshorne solo…lol
 

kjarrett

Well-Known Member
the panic move is to try to lift your foot off the pedal to put it down.
gotta practice pushing the heel out.
isn't easy when going down to that side, at any speed.

Heal up quick there @kjarrett

it's only a flesh wound!

:insert black night gif:
Thanks! I actually had unclipped unexpectedly and didn’t react quickly enough. I run multi-release cleats but the tension adjusters were set too weak. I have been meaning to fix that. Did so today.

+1 for the Python reference 🤣
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
One thing I really need to renew is training. Back in Summer of 2020 one of the guys I was riding with had a heart attack. While we were riding at Rattling Creek, PA - which if you've been there you'll know is the middle of bumble-fuck-nowhere, PA. Luckily, it happened when we were on a gravel road accessible by rescue vehicles (if it had happened 15 min earlier, he might not have made it). Fortunately, one of our crew had more recent CPR training and his knowledge and ability to execute it kept him alive until the EMTs arrived. He was unconsciousness for about 20 min from the start to the ambulance leaving. An ambulance ride, then a helicopter ride to a cardiac center in Harrisburg (he regained consciousness by this time), and I saw him a year later after making a full recovery.

CPR training has changed a bit (a lot!) since I had training almost 30 years ago. What I learned afterwards from professional EMTs is how effing lucky he was. One guy who has performed CPR on dozens and dozens over many decades can count on one hand how many he was able to talk to afterwards. Fortunately, one of the group had up to date training. If he had been with just me, I don't know if he would have made it.

As far as a first aid kit... I do need to come up with a basic kit to carry. If possible, I'd like to make three kits that I can store on the bike, since I often don't ride with a pack or much in my jersey or shorts/pants pockets. Then something more comprehensive to keep in the car.
 

Bikeworks

Well-Known Member
Great thread! I'm an ER RN, so my list will be a bit different but some of you have terrific kits put together, especially @thegock with the inclusion of a pain med. I have some 4x4s and abdominal pad (vacuum sealed), injectable NSAID, Benadryl, steroid, and epinephrine, alcohol pads, bacitracin ointment, Tegaderm, some stop the bleeding stuff, and a couple of saline flushes. Anything more than that I have my FA kit back at the truck. Hopefully I never really need anything more than a dressing and the bacitracin.
 

Fat Trout

Well-Known Member
a roll of this kind of stuff is handy and any kind of bandage or even paper towels folded in a small zip loc. Will stop bleeds with compression and no fussing to make it hold (other than finding the freaking end of the roll to get it started lol). I carry this, some neosporin and now some benedryl after taking a bee to the face and having my lip and side of my face blow up!


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Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
We can do a group buy of standard WFA stuff if people are interested -- I live near a fully-stocked pharmacy that carries wound closure stuff, povidone, etc. The Sea to Summit stuff is reasonably priced for what it is (them going through the trouble of finding, buying, sorting, packing all the stuff), but:

3 3x1 bandaids (fabric, BandAid brand, natch)
2 butterfly strips
1 sheet of wound closures
2 wound dressings
3 gauze squares
3 alcohol swabs
1 small roll of fabric tape (like the stuff that @Fat Trout posted, but .75" or 1")
1 lidocaine/benzoalkonium swab
1 pack of povidone iodine (soaked swabs are preferred, but harder to find outside of surgical supplies)
1 pillow pack of Neosporin
1 blister of diphenhydramine (2 pills)
1 blister of aspirin (sub whatever you're allowed to take; if you have prescription stuff, put it in in lieu/extra; if you NEED painkillers, a normal dose probably isn't doing anything)

The above fits in a small sandwich baggie (or ultralight sack, if you're about that life) and will happily live in the bottom of a bag until needed. Honestly, it contains exactly what you are likely going to be capable of self-administering. If you're on a trip where more is likely to be needed, one person gets to carry the SAM splint, another has a few triangle bandages, etc.

I, uh, actually don't ride with pretty much any of that stuff anymore. There's a bottle of IPA, a few sheets of gauze, a couple of dressings, and a box of bandaids in the car.
 

ebarker9

Well-Known Member
I carry an EpiPen and, when I can remember it, liquid benadryl after having a pretty bad reaction to a bee sting at Mahlon a couple of years ago. The idea of suffocating in the woods is pretty unappealing. Otherwise, just the phone, but I pretty much always use live track through Garmin or Strava as well so that at least my wife has a record of where I am.
 

Cassinonorth

Well-Known Member
My First Aid Kit: a cellphone

Anything that doesn’t require a call for help, you walk that shit off.

Could be hours before you're reached. Not really a great plan all things considered.

Or the fact you could break your phone in a crash.
 

a.s.

Mr. Chainring
Could be hours before you're reached. Not really a great plan all things considered.

Or the fact you could break your phone in a crash.
🤔 One would assume a simple first aid kit would be pretty useless if one was so injured that they needing to be reached. :confused:

All joking aside, I only ever carry a first aid kit when I take my kids out riding. Mostly stuff for simple cuts and scrapes.
 

Cassinonorth

Well-Known Member
🤔 One would assume a simple first aid kit would be pretty useless if one was so injured that they needing to be reached. :confused:

All joking aside, I only ever carry a first aid kit when I take my kids out riding. Mostly stuff for simple cuts and scrapes.

Not saying its probable, but if SHTF you'll be happy you have something that can stop you from bleeding out. Ask me how I know!
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
Not saying its probable, but if SHTF you'll be happy you have something that can stop you from bleeding out. Ask me how I know!
Having been in a "SHTF" situation, I agree. Not that a first aid kit would have helped us, but it still reminded us about being prepared at least at a minimal level. Granted, in that case it actually was the cell phone that saved. In the pre-cell phone times, someone would have had to ride the gravel road back to their car, then speed down the hill into town to get help. The tricky part is the guy who had the most recent CPR training was also probably the fastest rider of us, so it would have been a double-edged sword on who to send for help.
 

Over the Bars

Well-Known Member
A few bandaids
A roll of gauze
A few gauze pads
Butterflys
Crazy glue
Ace slip on ankle brace
Duct Tape rolled around a pencil
Alcohol wipes

Could all fit in a small zip lock
 

teabagger11

Well-Known Member
I have a few little tubes of that skin glue stuff that I keep in my pack fortunately I haven’t had to use them yet
 
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