It’s been a long day on the river. It’s late Sunday afternoon. You’re tired, sore and ready to make it through the last mile of your journey. You round the next bend when your boat rams into a submerged tree trunk. You cringe hearing the crumple of the boat on impact. Pain shoots through your arm and shoulder. Seriously injured and out of range when it comes to a cell phone, you face a situation you’d hoped would never happen.
Fortunately, you’ve prepared for an unpleasant turn like this one. Equipped with a well-stocked first aid kit and know-how, you know you’ll make it back to the shuttle for pickup even if you are a little late. One of the most important things in a paddler’s gear is a well-stocked first aid kit. Items like wound dressings, assorted hardware, cleaners, splints and medicines make the difference between an enjoyable trip and a painful, life-threatening one.
Of course the supplies in a first aid kit are only as good as the person who knows how to use them. Before you go on your next float trip, it’s a good idea to get some medical training, especially if you plan to be gone for a few days or more. Just because a person owns a lot of pots and pans doesn’t mean they’re a professional chef. Basic first aid and CPR courses through the Red Cross are a great place to start. In addition to basic first and CPR training, physical fitness is an important part of float trip preparation too. One of the most common injuries among paddlers is overuse injuries, especially on extended trips your body isn’t prepared for. You wouldn’t expect to run a marathon tomorrow without proper training would you?
When it comes to a paddler’s perfect first aid kit, the following list is exactly what you’ll need. First, be sure to equip your first aid kit with bandages (self-adhering and stretching), gauze pads, dressings in a variety of sizes, Band-Aids as well as medical tape. Because wounds are the most common injuries you’ll also want to have cleansers, especially when you’re paddling and swimming in bacteria-infested water. Pre-soaked iodine pads are ideal. Easy to pack, use and mix with water, you can administer an iodine bath in seconds. Be sure to bring plenty of these since cleaning wounds is an ongoing process. Antibiotic creams like Neosporin are also good for protecting cuts from infection. And don’t forget latex gloves for your own protection.
Whether it’s a headache or pain from an injury, you won’t want to be without painkillers such as ibuprofen or acetometaphin when you’re out on the river either. Other medicines like topical creams, anti-itch creams for bug bites and other scrapes are also useful and greatly appreciated by the injured in the middle of nowhere.
What happens when you or a member of your party has a twisted ankle or pulled muscle? Granted you could make a paddle shaft splint, but a packable splint and some heavy-duty bandages to hold it in place is a better bet. And of course if you really want to make yourself a hero, have some tweezers for pulling out splinters, scissors for cutting gauze and bandages, survival blanket for creating emergency shelters or keeping warm, twine or cord for any repairs, pins for slings and plastic bags for everything else. And while it may sound obvious, don’t forget to store these supplies in a waterproof container like a dry bag or box. There’s nothing quite as worthless as wet bandages.
