Be Prepared, Hiking or Biking: Hikers' Hazards, Safety Supplies & Precautions

As the scouts say, be prepared. Save worry for yourself, your family, and potential rescuers. In some areas, hiking trails are marked as easy or difficult.

 Things to do

1 Find a friend. Do not travel in the outback or forest alone.

To join groups starting from cities, contact Hash house harriers with the name of the city. They often meet once a week or once a month, and may have groups for men, women, or families, or families with pets, or different language groups, and may make a charge to visitors, especially if they provide a meal at the end of the run. 

2 Check weather reports and suggested supplies for the route.

3 Pack your car with a sleeping bag and first aid kit.

4 Route References Registered

Inform in the USA a ranger of your route.

Leave a map of your route and estimated time of return for your family.

5 Pack food and drink. 

Enough for a week in case you get stranded. In containers which stop predatory animals attacking you for food. 

Black bears unable to reach backpacks. Photo from Wiki.

6 Print a map and have GPS finder.

7 Select Suitable Clothes For all weathers. Wear a ski jacket which enables you to be found in snow with a bleeping device. A helmet for cycling or motorbikes. Insurance. Anti-tick socks. Goggles for swimming and sun in the snow. Hats and caps which tie on so they don't blow off or get lost. I have a swimsuit with a hood so I don't need a swimming cap.

8 Have a suitable jacket.

9 Wear insect repellent and carry bite soother.

10 In snake-infested areas, sing and throw stones ahead to make snakes move away.

11 Carry a mini tent like an umbrella for shelter in winter or bad weather.

12 Carry hand warmers. (Sold in ski and hiking areas.)

13 Have spare clothing.

14 Have an empty water bottle and wet wipes in case you need a toilet and or can't move because you have hurt your ankle.

15 Do not hike when menstruating because blood attracts dogs and bears and other animals to attack you just as they would attack a bleeding animal for food.

16 Carry a sewing kit. 

17 Put a survival guide on your phone.

18 If lost without paths, go downhill to the river in a valley to get drinking water, find a road, or hail passing boats.

19 If stuck in one place, such as a beach or a clearing, or even a road, use clothes or branches to make a large sign to attract searching aircraft. 

20 Check on local safety sites.

Online you can buy whistles, torches and knives as well as waterproof clothes and pickpocket proof clothes.

Wiki has advice on what to do when lost.

You can also buy survival guides. In France you can get guides to edible mushrooms.

Useful Websites

California Hiking Safety tips - and tips for bikers and others

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30043

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11464643/Body-teenage-hiker-disappeared-popular-New-Hampshire-trail-four-day-search.html#reader-comments

https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Safety/s?k=Hiking+Safety

http://www.wiki-safety.com/postdtl/en/-C2079/2165/

http://www.romehash.com/ 

amazon.co.uk/s?k=anti-tick+socks

Temporary dental repair kit

https://dentemp.com/dentemp.html

Cautionary tales: Safety on road trips and Joshua Tree National Park, USA

Joshua tree picture from Wikipedia. The Joshua tree is so named because it reminded early travellers of Joshua in the bible raising his arms to the sky.

Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park, USA.

I was inspired to write this post by the sad story of a a single mother, Erika. who took a trip in the USA and was found later, dead, miles outside a damaged car.  Windows damaged. But also a damaged radio? 

The comments made some useful suggestions, mainly about not travelling alone, taking water, and one about a compass. Here are my collected suggestions.

1 Have a health and safety plan. Known to UK school trip organizers as Risk Assessment.

For example, a class teacher might not be allowed to take a class of  twenty or thirty children to nearby pond or river or field if the regulations require one adult for every thirty children. Another teacher, or two or three, would be needed, or a parent or another helper. You need a second adult in case a child falls and has to be accompanied to hospital. The ratio may vary with age. In some areas you need one adult for ten children for the reception class, but fewer chaperones for older children. Check your local regulations for what is required and what you feel would be a sensible precaution.

2 a Don't go alone.

2bTake another person.

3a Don't take children to remote places unless you are a group.

3bIn a group have a designed person with a minor at all times.

4 Take two cars. 

5 Leave behind a map of your direction.

Ask your friends and family before they depart to show you or mark their journey route on a map.

6 Have your water bottle attached to your body so it can't get left behind or roll downhill.

7 Consider a bubble compass attached to your body.

The cheapest compasses are only under five dollars, and I looked for a waterproof compass and found them under ten dollars.  I looked for scout compass because I thought they might be simpler to use and read than the ones used by professionals.

Phones may contain compasses which can be used in cities and built up areas. But make sure you have a spare battery. In national parks and deserts and on hiking trails you might be out of range of transmitters so you will also need a separate compass.

Thumb compass, left. A see through compasses can be placed over a map.

Simplest compass, with ring to attach to your clothes, so it is not dropped and broken, nor forgotten. 

8 Learn how to use a compass.

9 Have a map, with directions marked. 

10 Have two big car windshield (UK word windscreen) signs for emergencies, one saying help, the other saying who to contact if your car is found abandoned.

11 Looters will break a window. Glass falls inside. Angry looters or vandals might break more windows out of anger or for 'fun'.   Cars you left parked when you return may be vandalised and undrivable, glass on seats, footwells, hand rests. Happened to us outside Madrid zoo. We hired another car to take ourselves and our small son back to London. Our car was towed to a Spanish garage and given a temporary unmovable window. The car was sent by ferry to a UK port where we had to collect it. When my husband went to drive it off, he found it had no petrol. (Americans say gas.)

Teach children, adults, rangers, criminals, never break into or damage an empty house or car. Think of other people. Eventually somebody will come looking for their loved one in the house or car. It is distressing to the family, especially if the owner is found dead. Think of yourself; you might become a murder suspect or accused of tampering with evidence.

Finally, you can take a virtual tour of the park.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9283847/Mom-disappeared-setting-pandemic-road-trip-dead.html#comments

https://www.nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/safety.htm

https://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Compass

Bubble compass on amazon and camping shops

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=compasses

https://www.lazada.sg/catalog/?q=waterproof+scout+compass

ROSPA

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

https://www.rospa.com/

Joshua Tree Park, touring and virtual touring

https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm

https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/photosmultimedia/virtual-experience.htm

Author

Angela Lansbury

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