Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke which can damage the brain and other organs and can lead to death. Fortunately, if you recognize and treat heat exhaustion at the outset you can keep it from devolving into something much more serious.

Recognize the symptoms

The key is recognizing the symptoms, which include:

• Confusion
• Dark-colored urine (a sign of dehydration)
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Muscle or abdominal cramps
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
• Pale skin
• Profuse sweating
• Rapid heartbeat

React to the symptoms

If you recognize these symptoms in yourself or in a hiking partner, get them out of the heat as quickly as possible — into the shade, into water if it’s nearby. You also want to:

• Drink plenty of fluids, especially sports drinks to replace lost salt. Avoid caffeinated beverages and alcohol.
• Remove tight or unnecessary clothing.
• Douse a bandana in cool water and swab the victim with it.

Be aware that if can take longer to cool a victim of heat exhaustion if the relative humidity is 60 percent or more (which is typically is in these parts) and if the heat index is 90 or greater. 

Especially vulnerable hikers

Folks especially subject to heat exhaustion include:

• Children under 4
• Adults over 65
• People with health conditions including heart lung and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, sickle cell trait and more.
• People on certain medications, including diuretics, sedatives, tranquilizers, stimulants, heart and blood pressure medications.

Cool places to hike

For summer hikes when it’s especially hot we recommend:

• Trails with good tree cover. The canopy can reduce the temperature by 10 degrees.
• Trails along water. Cooling off periodically — even just shedding the hiking shoes and wading in — can help keep your temperature down.
• Trails at elevation. A good rule of thumb is that the temperature drops about 3.3 degrees F for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain. So if it’s 90 degrees in Raleigh (elevation 315 feet), it will be about 70 atop Mount Mitchell (elevation 6,684 feet). 
• Taking a bandana that you can soak periodically and wrap around your neck.
• Packing cold water. If you prefer drinking from bottles, the night before a hike, fill a water bottle half full and put it in the freezer; the next morning, top it off with cold tap water. It should remain cold for an hour on the trail, cool for another half hour. If you’re a bladder person, fill it with ice, then top off with water. Again, you should have cool water for a good hour and a half or so.

Above all, try to nip heat exhaustion in the bud before it becomes an issue by staying hydrated on the trail! This time of year we recommend an absolute minimum of 2 liters for hikes of 5 miles or less (and more under extreme heat or on an especially challenging trail). If you’re hiking in the mountains and going long, bring a water filter (or make sure someone in your group has one). 

Folks who are especially worried about heat exhaustion should check out the article Heat Exhaustion on WebMD.com, from which most of the information in this article was cribbed.

Enjoy your summer hiking by staying hydrated and staying cool.

Happy Trails,

Joe

Cool off with us

GetHiking! Classic Weekend: Lake James State Park and Fonta Flora Trail, May 31-June 2. Hike the state’s emerging Fonta Flora State Trail, which will one day link Morganton on the east with Asheville to the west. Plus: swimming in the cool waters of Lake James. (Note: Registration for this trip ends Friday, May 24, at 5 p.m.) Learn more here.

GetBackpacking! Refresher at South Mountains State Park, June 7-9. An easy backpacking getaway that’s perfect for the rusty backpacker and the backpacker just getting into the sport. Learn more here.

Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap north to US 19E. This weekend, June 28-30. This two-night backpacking trip proved so popular we’ve scheduled a second to handle the overflow. This weekend’s trip is sold out; find details on our June 28-30 trip, go here. 

Wilson Creek, May 31-June 2.There’s a theme to this trip: Going Solo. We spend the first night as a group, exploring, among other things, the aforementioned Gragg Prong. On the second night, we deposit backpackers in roughly 150-yard intervals to spend the night on their own. Great opportunity for backpackers interested, but uncertain, about going solo. Learn more here.

Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock/Citico Creek Wilderness, July 18-21. We hike in about four and a half miles on this trip, establish base camp at Naked Ground, then spend two days day hiking before hiking out. Learn more here. 

Standing Indian, Aug. 15-18. From our car camp basecamp we’ll have two and a half days of hiking: Friday, an 11-mile loop taking in the Appalachian Trail and topping out on Standing Indian; Saturday, a 7.5-mile hike topping out on Albert Mountain and also including the AT; Sunday, two short waterfall hikes before heading home. Learn more here. 

The post Heat exhaustion: Recognize, treat, prevent appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

The two-day SOLO Wilderness First Aid class is coming to Charlotte March 30-31, and the Triangle/Triad area April 27-28. More about both classes and how to register at the end. First, a repost of a blog we wrote about first taking the class in 2014, to give you a sense of what you’ll learn.

“Hey there, friend. Are you OK?”
The woman sat crumpled, cradling her left arm. She was in pain, but managed to tell us she’d been mountain biking, hit a rock, found herself here by the trail, her left arm aching. “Then you guys showed up.”
“I’m Jake, this is Joe and that’s Jackson,” Jake told the woman. “We’re here to help you if you need help. Would you like us to help you?”

* * *

My weekend at the Nantahala Outdoor Center was teasingly painful: two days in the Southeast’s premier outdoors playground and not once did I hike, bike, or paddle.

On the other hand, it was the most enlightening outdoors-related weekend I’ve spent.
Saturday and Sunday, I attended the Wilderness First Aid certification clinic held by New Hampshire-based Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities. SOLO, as it’s commonly known, has been offering courses in wilderness medicine since the 1970s. The Wilderness First Aid course is intended to train the first people on the scene of a backcountry incident with the basic skills to deal with a range of injuries and illnesses. In my class of 15, most were taking the class because they take people into the woods: there were four women from a nature park in Birmingham, Ala., two river guides, the head of the outdoor adventure program for a private school in Tennessee, the coach of a high school mountain bike team in Georgia’s fledgling interscholastic mtb league, three women who work with troubled youth in outdoor settings. I lead weekly hikes that range from mellow after-work strolls to day-long plunges into wilderness areas.
We were there because we needed to know how to deal with everything from dehydration to amputation should the occasion arise.
And what to do when you find a mountain biker injured by the side of the trail. Or in this case, a fake mountain biker with a fake injury.

* * *

“We’re going to ask you a few questions,” Jake, who heads the private school outdoor program, told Laura Jane, our downed mountain biker.
The MO for our clinic was: classroom instruction followed by a scenario in the field. Listen, hands-on, repeat.
In the Patient Assessment Triangle, our first responsibility was to make sure there were no immediate dangers in the vicinity, first, to us (we’re not much help if we’re laying next to the victim gripping our arm), to any bystanders, to the victim. Then ask if they need help. Assuming an affirmative, we then dive in with a quick patient exam: make sure their airway is clear, that they’re breathing properly, that they have good circulation. Check the length of the body for any “deformities” (breaks, fractures, anything not looking quite right), then assess the environment to see if the victim is safe staying put for further examination and treatment.
In Laura Jean’s case, her “chief complaint” was her injured left arm. Was that her only issue?
“You need to watch for distracting injuries,” instructor Allan Ange had told us in the classroom. “It may be the most painful issue to the patient, but there could be other, more serious issues to deal with.”
In the end, Laura Jean’s injury was indeed her injured left arm. Whether it was broken or fractured was the concern of qualified medical personnel down the line. Our job was to get her to those qualified medical personnel. Our main objective: fashion a splint that would immobilize her arm, prevent additional injury, minimize her pain.
I’ve included a photo of a splint I made. You probably looked at it and broke out laughing, then thought, “I hope I never break a leg on a hike with this guy.”
In fact, I got a “Nice splint!” from co-instructor Lara Christy. My handiwork met the splint criteria summed up in the acronym BUFF — Big, Ugly, Fat, Fluffy. Use whatever you have on hand (in my case, hiking poles, rain gear, cord, and some layers), don’t worry about looks.
Much of what we learned was captured in acronyms. There’s MOI (methods of injury), SS (signs and symptoms), LOC (level of consciousness) and the related AVPU (which is not the convenience store clerk on the “Simpsons” but stands for Alert Verbal Pain Unresponsive). Some of the acronyms were forced, but they stuck.
We learned to diagnose a variety of common backcountry injuries and illnesses and how to deal with them, at least until qualified medical personnel was available. Perhaps most importantly, we learned that, despite what we learned, thinking on your feet and reacting to the situation is paramount. Sometimes, there are no good options, only less bad ones.

* * *

A week or so after getting certified, on an early morning run at Umstead State Park, I came upon another runner who had slowed and may have been weaving slightly (or he may have been avoiding a rutted trail). It was already in the 80s, the humidity was ridiculous. Prime conditions for heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
“How’s it going?” I asked as I caught up to him.
He perked up. “Great! How about you?”
We ran together and chatted for a half mile or so as I looked for signs and symptoms: pale skin, panting (more than the conditions might warrant), incoherence.He seemed fine.

But if he hadn’t, I was prepared to help.

* * *

MEDIC out of Charlottesville offers SOLO Wilderness First Aid classes throughout the region. The course runs two days and the course fee, which is subsidized by Great Outdoor Provision Co., is $195. You can find a complete list of class dates and locations on their website.

The next two classes are listed below, along with a link to where you can learn more.

Charlotte, Discovery Place, Saturday-Sunday, March 20-21. Learn more here.

Saxapahaw, Saturday-Sunday, April 27-28, Learn more here.

The post Come to the rescue with Wilderness First Aid appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

* * *

My weekend at the Nantahala Outdoor Center was teasingly painful: two days in the Southeast’s premier outdoors playground and not once did I hike, bike, or paddle.

On the other hand, it was the most enlightening outdoors-related weekend I’ve spent.
Saturday and Sunday, I attended the Wilderness First Aid certification clinic held by New Hampshire-based Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities. SOLO, as it’s commonly known, has been offering courses in wilderness medicine since the 1970s. The Wilderness First Aid course is intended to train the first people on the scene of a backcountry incident with the basic skills to deal with a range of injuries and illnesses. In my class of 15, most were taking the class because they take people into the woods: there were four women from a nature park in Birmingham, Ala., two river guides, the head of the outdoor adventure program for a private school in Tennessee, the coach of a high school mountain bike team in Georgia’s fledgling interscholastic mtb league, three women who work with troubled youth in outdoor settings. I lead weekly hikes that range from mellow after-work strolls to day-long plunges into wilderness areas.
We were there because we needed to know how to deal with everything from dehydration to amputation should the occasion arise.
And what to do when you find a mountain biker injured by the side of the trail. Or in this case, a fake mountain biker with a fake injury.

* * *

“We’re going to ask you a few questions,” Jake, who heads the private school outdoor program, told Laura Jane, our downed mountain biker.
The MO for our clinic was: classroom instruction followed by a scenario in the field. Listen, hands-on, repeat.
In the Patient Assessment Triangle, our first responsibility was to make sure there were no immediate dangers in the vicinity, first, to us (we’re not much help if we’re laying next to the victim gripping our arm), to any bystanders, to the victim. Then ask if they need help. Assuming an affirmative, we then dive in with a quick patient exam: make sure their airway is clear, that they’re breathing properly, that they have good circulation. Check the length of the body for any “deformities” (breaks, fractures, anything not looking quite right), then assess the environment to see if the victim is safe staying put for further examination and treatment.
In Laura Jean’s case, her “chief complaint” was her injured left arm. Was that her only issue?
“You need to watch for distracting injuries,” instructor Allan Ange had told us in the classroom. “It may be the most painful issue to the patient, but there could be other, more serious issues to deal with.”
In the end, Laura Jean’s injury was indeed her injured left arm. Whether it was broken or fractured was the concern of qualified medical personnel down the line. Our job was to get her to those qualified medical personnel. Our main objective: fashion a splint that would immobilize her arm, prevent additional injury, minimize her pain.
I’ve included a photo of a splint I made. You probably looked at it and broke out laughing, then thought, “I hope I never break a leg on a hike with this guy.”
In fact, I got a “Nice splint!” from co-instructor Lara Christy. My handiwork met the splint criteria summed up in the acronym BUFF — Big, Ugly, Fat, Fluffy. Use whatever you have on hand (in my case, hiking poles, rain gear, cord, and some layers), don’t worry about looks.
Much of what we learned was captured in acronyms. There’s MOI (methods of injury), SS (signs and symptoms), LOC (level of consciousness) and the related AVPU (which is not the convenience store clerk on the “Simpsons” but stands for Alert Verbal Pain Unresponsive). Some of the acronyms were forced, but they stuck.
We learned to diagnose a variety of common backcountry injuries and illnesses and how to deal with them, at least until qualified medical personnel was available. Perhaps most importantly, we learned that, despite what we learned, thinking on your feet and reacting to the situation is paramount. Sometimes, there are no good options, only less bad ones.

* * *

On an early morning run this morning at Umstead State Park, I came upon another runner who had slowed and may have been weaving slightly (or he may have been avoiding a rutted trail). It was already in the 80s, the humidity was ridiculous. Prime conditions for heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
“How’s it going?” I asked as I caught up to him.
He perked up. “Great! How about you?”
We ran together and chatted for a half mile or so as I looked for signs and symptoms: pale skin, panting (more than the conditions might warrant), incoherence.
He seemed fine. But if he hadn’t, I was prepared to help.

* * *

For more on SOLO, go here.  For more on SOLO Southeast and its courses offered through the Nantahala Outdoor Center, go here.

* * *
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The post Wilderness First Aid: I’ve fallen off a cliff, and can’t get up appeared first on GetGoing NC!.