Trail Safety

[Jim Beidle <beidlej@yahoo.com>]

I thought I may as well weigh in, too. I've been
giving it some thought, and waiting to see if anyone
else'd come up with the same ideas. Since they
haven't, here's what I came up with:

Carry in a fanny pack the 10+ essentials (something I
do religiously on trail, mounted or dismounted). These
include; Area Map, Compass, Matches, Fire Starter,
Pocket Knife, Flashlight, Red Light Sticks, Water,
Water Purification Tablets, Toilet Paper (Doubles a
firestarter), Power Bars, Signal Mirror, Whistle,
Space Blanket, 50' Parachute cord, essentials first
aid kit, sunscreen. The whole bundle weighs less than
3 pounds, excluding the water. This is pretty much the
same list that hikers have come up with over the
years, and will keep you alive while you wait to get
found; or enable you to walk out if for some odd
reason you really can't wait--unlikey in connection
with an endurance ride. I credit the fact that I'm
prepared with never actually having to use this
stuff--it always seems the ones who don't have it are
the one's who get in trouble.

The other thing that I've been thinking about is
adequate people water. My recent experience at Santiam
tought me not to underestimate how much I need. The US
Army MEDDACC, as well as other medical authorities,
reccomend not less that 1 liter / hour for
*conditioned acclimitized* persons engaged in
strenuous activity. This should include a 0.1% saline
solution--Jerry & Cynthia reccommend V-8 Juice, while
the Army has field expedient recipes for making
salinated water for drinking. At Santiam I discovered
that I was no longer in the 'acclimitized' category,
having lived in Western Washington for nearly 4 years
now. On my "shoulda" list is refilling the Platypus
bladder in my cantle bag at the Vet Check.
Incidentally, it only took twelve miles to go from
reasonably hydrated at the VC to passed out at the
finish line in Central Oregon's 95+ degree heat.

So, Marv, there's some more considerations for trail
safety.

Jim Beidle


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