I just got back from a hiking trip in the mountains, and wanted to share my experiences: The good to encourage their use and the bad to save you from learning the Hard Way. A prepper win (or six) and a prepper fail (or three).
Who’s counting between friends like us? Oh, wait, I am… I’m ahead!
Flying is a prepping buzz kill!
I had to be very selective in what I took; first because I was flying and did not want to check luggage, and second because most preps have weight and hauling lots of them up mountains is not a winning idea. I was hiking with an old friend I’ll call Doc (because she is one) and her three month old puppy.
Here is the Podcast version of this article so you can listen as you read:
Prepper win: A filtering water bottle wins the prize!
The biggest prepper win was a filtering water bottle. The theory is simplicity itself: You take off the top (that has the filter attached below the drinking nipple), fill the bottle with water, then squeeze the water through the filter to drink it. The actual use is … just that easy, albeit you have to squeeze pretty hard to get the water through the fine filter. Given the filter size, it would not work against prions (such as those that cause Mad Cow or Chronic Wasting diseases) nor against most viruses (such as those that cause hepatitis). I trust them to filter out bacteria and protists.
The filter is attached to the nipple, so you squeeze the bottle full of water to run it through the filter and out the nipple.
Since the big risk in the area we were visiting is the protists Giardia, with bacteria such as disease causing strains of E. coli also possible, with viral contamination being a very low threat and prions not in the habit of being spread by water anyway, I was good with this method. (Pro tip: Since bacteria causes Monteczuma’s Revenge, one could put a drink in the water bottle, chill it with ice from an otherwise-suspect source [ice is frequently the culprit in Monteczuma’s Revenge], and have a cold drink on the beach with much greater safety!)
A pristine-looking alpine lake….almost certainly harboring a gut-wrenching parasite known as Giardia.
The reasons this bottle was a winner: 1) Having some way to purify stream water allowed us to carry much less water with safety and to drink freely. Restricting water intake increases the danger of heat illnesses and/or altitude sickness. 2) This method was dead easy to use, so there was no temptation to do stupid and try and talk ourselves into the “but it looks so Cleeeeean!” nonsense. 3) Unlike a Life Straw (another option I considered), this method made it easy to share clean water even with the dog.
Prepper win: Insect repellent
There weren’t supposed to be mosquitoes… but the mosquitoes didn’t get that memo. There were also biting flies, and maybe ticks carrying Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. We frustrated all of the above.
Prepper win: Dried Bananas win an honorable mention
Taking some light-weight calorie source was a no-brainer, and frankly I got lucky with this one as I’d just tossed a mix of dehydrated fruit in a bag without deep thought. When muscle cramps hit, we went for the bananas with their potassium and the problem receded. Also, they’re pretty tasty, very easy to make, and nearly free since we get the bananas for $1 a bag when the store’s overstocked.
From the “Didn’t need it but was glad to have it” department:
Prepper win: First aid kit targeted to local hazards
Doc had a first aid kit (shocking, right?) but looked over mine and decided to take it instead. We both had protection for the likely hazards such as scrapes, bites, and sunburn, but I’d added protections against the two less likely but more serious hazards specific to hiking up mountains: more serious traumatic bleeding and a wrap to support a sprained ankle. If pressed for space and weight, I’d have let the little scrapes bleed and the bites itch and brought the ankle wrap, since getting back off the mountain under your own power is Mission One in hiking.
Prepper win: Emergency beacon
I can take no credit for this one as Doc regularly packs one of those satellite linked “Push the button and help will come” beacons. Sure, in a serious widespread crisis it would be useless; but many emergencies come to one or a few people at a time. Why not keep the option open for professional help when its available? If one of us had slipped off one of those (surprisingly exposed) ledges and broken a leg, the other sure would have appreciated some help getting the wounded one out. Check service availability before trusting one of these, but they work anywhere the comms satellites see, which is most of the planet.
Prepper win: Compass and maps
I and Doc – excuse the bad grammar, but since I was leading it was more my fault – managed to lose the true trail on one hike as it took a sharp bend. When the false trail petered out, we weren’t lost, knowing where we were on the map to within a few hundred yards, but it did give me a warm fuzzy to have a good quality (non-electronic) compass and good map on hand. Telling direction was surprisingly hard in the tall trees despite it being a sunny day. We bushwhacked a bit and came across the trail, and it occurred to me that it would have been really unpleasant not to know which trail it was and which direction on it we should go. Had we been in doubt, that map/compass combo would have been invaluable.
The magnetized needle floats in a chamber so it doesn’t tend to stick if not level, the numbers are big, and the dial is luminescent for night use. A cheap, unreliable compass is pointless.
A trio of losers: Things to do better next time
Prepper loss: Ponchos are ‘one size fits all’ but they don’t fit the mountain
We didn’t need the emergency poncho I had been carrying all week, but an hour after we got back from our last hike, we sat in comfort watching one of the very brief but very intense summer thunderstorms roll through. It was clear to me that I wouldn’t have wanted to be out there in that poncho due to the vigor of the wind and all the rocks and branches it would have in which to be tangled. A properly sized raincoat and rain pants wouldn’t have needed any more space and would have been both safer and drier.
The insect repellent was welcome. The poncho would have been entirely inadequate, had we been out an hour later.
Prepper loss: TSA-friendly cutting tools
Without checked luggage, I couldn’t bring any of the usual cutting tools from my first aid kit: pocket knife, multi-tool, or regular scissors. How the heck would I have cut my bandaging materials to size? Doc had it covered, as she’d driven to the party, but I definitely need to get some blunt-tipped but good quality bandaging scissors for such circumstances.
Prepper loss: Shoes tested on the appropriate terrain
No, I was not stupid enough to go on a hiking trip with shoes I hadn’t broken in with actual hiking! I thought I was golden, as I’d hiked many miles in the pair I brought. However, those were Missouri miles, on Missouri hills — relatively short and not terribly steep, at least for long. When I turned for home after the first couple of thousand feet of elevation gain, I discovered that steep and steady downhills brought my toes mashing forward in the toe box. A couple of toenails are an unpleasant color and I might lose them. Doc tells me she had the same issue when she started mountain hiking, and moving half a shoe size up solved it.
You wouldn’t think a pair of shoes this worn would still have a surprise inside … but steep downslopes need more toe room.
My take-home:
Practice is good, but practice under the same conditions as you’ll play is better. Prepping is good; but using some preps and experiencing some conditions similar to those you might face in emergencies is better. No better time to learn than the present!
I recognize the dive compass. Why don’t you give them a plug by make and model?