Hiking Waldo Canyon, Colorado Springs, CO

Keep Your Hiking First Aid Kit Up To Date

Always carry a hiking first aid kit designed for the type of trek, and the number of people in your group and their experience level. Make sure you check that you have enough supplies for your group before heading into the great outdoors. Toss out old supplies or out of date medications and restock with fresh items as necessary. The key thing to remember about packing a hiking first aid kit is to plan for the worst and expect the best. It's better to bring some of the items back home than it is to need them and not have them available.

Never be complacent and always take a hiking first a id kit with you. The one time you don't will be the time you need it. In order to avoid an emergency when you’re out to enjoy a most memorable hike, make sure you prepare ahead and pack a hiking first aid kit.

Be Familiar With Your Hiking First Aid Kit

Regardless of what you bring in your hiking first aid kit, make sure you know how to use it. Take the time to learn basic wilderness first aid for the major maladies of the trail. This knowledge should include recognition of hypothermia and hyperthermia, dehydration, fever, infection and shock. Reading up on wilderness first aid or even taking a course about it can be very helpful. Medicine for the Backcountry by B. Tilton has a good reputation. If you are going into the backcountry, it’s a good idea to have a small first aid pocket guide along. There are quite a few available and most will educate you on how to stabilize a fractured limb, how to stop bleeding, and how to treat burns, insect bites and other injuries. Wilderness Medical Institute in Colorado offers classes around the country but there are other organizations too.

Before you go, learn about any possible hazards at your destination, such as poisonous plants, snakes and insects. With a life-threatening injury, nothing is more important than getting the victim out of the wilderness fast. This need alone may justify also carrying items like a cellular telephone or a signal flare in your backpack.

First Aids for Hiking: Already Made For Your Convenience

You can also find pre-constructed hiking first aid kits which we highly recommend for the beginner hiker. These may contain a more complete assortment of first aid items and a comprehensive first aid guide book or even a backcountry first aid guide book. There are a variety of hiking first aid kits available for day hikes or backpacking treks. Your hiking first aid kit should be tailored to your trekking terrain, weather, the ages of hikers, and your group's special medical needs. Many kits may include splints in the even of a broken bone, but experienced wilderness hikers forego carrying them, pointing out that a couple of broken tree limbs can serve the same purpose if they are needed.

Keep an open mind and use common sense and all that nature provides if you become challenged with a medical emergency out in the wild.

Build Your Own Hiking First Aid Kit

It is very easy to assemble your hiking first aid kit by looking around the house for a few common items and then supplementing your kit with a few extras to complete it. We’ve created a list of some important safety items to consider when putting together your own hiking first aid kit. We recommend that you add more items per your hiking group’s needs.

Adhesive bandage strips
Antibacterial hand cleaner
Antiseptic ointment
Cold pack
Cotton swabs, and cotton balls
Elastic-roll bandage
Emergency blanket
First Aid Guide book
Gauze pads
Lip protector
Moleskin (for blisters)
Scissors or pocketknife
Sterile wipe
Tissues
Tweezers

Also make sure to pack any needed medication like aspirin, antacid, asthma inhalers, allergy medication, or antihistamine, such as Benadryl, which can help treat reactions to allergies or insect bites and stings and for a severe life threatening reaction pack an epi-pen.

A Hiking First Aid Kit Is Essential

A hiking first aid kit should be an essential part of your outdoor gear and readily available for any hiking mishaps. While having a great time you must remember that hiking is a sport where you can easily get injured. It is a good idea to keep a large general kit for all recreational activities, as well as a smaller more specific one tailored to the event at hand. For instance, you don't need the same first aid gear for a softball game as you might carry on your back for a hike up an incline to a ridgetop. You will want to make sure your hiking first aid kit is lightweight and that it doesn't take up much space in your backpack.

When finding something to carry your hiking first aid kit in, think outside of the box. We recommend you keep an ID, emergency contact numbers and any medical instructions on your person at all times. You might want to have a few Band-aids handy in your pocket, since small puncture wounds are probably the biggest risk faced on wilderness trails and having an adequate supply of Band-aids to last the length of your journey is possibly the most important part of packing a hiking first aid kit. It’s a good idea to also keep aspirin or meds in a capsule attached to your carabiner, or to a lanyard about your neck with your compass and whistle.

You would then keep a more involved hiking first aid kit, such as a larger lightweight container (ziplock bag, soapbox, or soft sack) in your pack, which should contain more significant emergency items. It should offer convenient access and never be buried in your pack

Hikes with Kids: Build Memories

The child that grows up indoors, spending their free time sitting in front of a TV, or interacting with a video game or a computer, will become a much different adult than a child who has the freedom to roam and explore meadows and woodlands, discovering for themselves how immense and fascinating our earth is. When you are hiking with kids, the world expands in a child's imagination as they spend time in a forest, or climb a hill or mountain. Children need to play and get dirty, and be subjected to a wide enough array of bacteria so that they can also develop healthy immune systems as they grow.

One of the kindest things an adult can do for a child is walk or hike with him or her in the outdoors. Go hiking with kids, now

Hikes with Kids: Preserving The Outdoor Natural Habitat

When hiking with kids, make sure to stay on the trail at all times. Not only can children get lost, but going off the trail can damage fragile plant life and cutting across switch- backs creates a pattern of erosion. Teach your kids to treat the outdoors kindly. Be sure to pack out everything you pack in (carry a trash bag). Keep in mind, when hiking with kids, some of our trails may be marked with a Forest Service trail number, which means we may not pick or dig up wildflowers or other plants, may not cut on living trees or plants, may not remove moss or take souvenirs. As nature lovers, we are welcome to look and touch and take photos, but we must leave everything in place, to treat the forest as a living museum.

Hiking with Kids: Encountering Wildlife

You can be sure that when you are hiking with kids, they will be very excited to see wildlife on their adventure. This can make for a memorable experience and a great photo op, however you need to make sure to follow all safety precautions when encountering wildlife. Hiking with kids at dawn or dusk may increase your chances of meeting a bear. Use extra caution in places where hearing or visibility is limited: in brushy areas, near streams, where trails round a bend or on windy days. Avoid berry patches in fall. Reduce your chances of surprising a bear by making noise—talk or sing.
Make sure children are close to you or at least within your sight at all times. Leave your dog at home or have it on a leash. Here are some great books on how to react when encountering wildlife while hiking with kids.

Hiking With Kids Is Loaded With Teachable Moments

Hiking with kids can present a great opportunity to teach some basic outdoor survival skills. You can have them help navigate by using a map and compass to find your way. Children love being an expert. Have them identify birds, rocks, plants and wildlife along the way or use guide books to help identify what you observe. Teach kids to be aware of their environment and appreciate earth’s suttle details by looking for signs of wildlife (feathers on the ground, claw scratches on tree trunks, animal tracks or droppings, bird holes in dead trees, fur along the trail, slugs, water striders on lakes, frogs in pond). May we suggest some good hiking with kids resources to get you and the kids up to snuff on your adventure.

Hiking with Kids: Use All Five Senses

Enjoy the woods while hiking with kids! The idea of getting dirty, exploring new trails, and searching for wildlife, appeals to the inner child in most of us. Granted, kids can take longer than their fitness-focused adult counterparts, but that is usually because they have different goals. Kids seek adventures and their curiosity and imagination could probably teach adults a thing or two about trail appreciation. They are a lot closer to the ground. They will point out fungus, moss or insects that you will never see. Encourage their natural imagination. Set out on your hiking with kids excursion and the world becomes an exciting and magical place, where dried-up riverbeds become dinosaur grounds, ordinary mud becomes quicksand, and tree roots turn into crocodiles. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses.

Kids are hands-on learners, so appeal to sights, sound, scent, touch and taste. Feel the texture of leaves or moss, smell the mud and listen with eyes closed to the sounds of wind. Lie on your back to observe clouds and make pictures from them, or taste the rain. For younger kids, tape together two empty toilet paper rolls and tie a string for first “binoculars.” They help to focus on just one bird in the bush or one fuzzy caterpillar. Older kids might like a scavenger hunt with items such as “Catch a smell. What is it?” Here are some fun games to help you enjoy your experience in the wilderness when hiking with kids.

Packing For Hiking With Kids

The first thing to consider when hiking with kids is how much should kids carry on their backs? Adults generally use 1/4 of body weight as a guideline, but we think this is too much for kids. Most kids find it much more enjoyable carrying a 10 pound pack or less. They can get most of the stuff in at 10 lbs, and the adult ends up carrying almost all of the food.

To start with, a school backpack will suffice for a beginning hike with kids. Let them pack a flashlight, their own water, a favorite snack, lightweight jacket or long sleeve shirt. If you have a child that’s of the indoor creative sort and not the kind to be outdoors roughing it, let them take a comfort creature of their choice that they will be responsible to carry throughout the hike. This will allow for a smile and cooperation on their new outdoor adventure as they show their plaything a good time and ultimately will make hiking with kids a successful day out.

If you’re wondering about hiking with kids that are infants or toddlers, don’t count them out yet. State of the art kid carriers, which are both adjustable and comfortable for family hiking events are available, and are very common practice for the well seasoned hiker.

You will want to prevent blisters when hiking with kids, so pay attention to their feet and stop immediately if they say their feet hurt, they may have a hot spot. If you put Moleskin on that hot spot soon enough and a blister won’t form. If a blister has already formed, never put Moleskin directly on it. Instead, cut a hole in the Moleskin the same size as the blister. That will keep the boot from rubbing the blister and inevitably keep the kids on the trail.

Hiking Colorado: Hiking with Kids

Hiking with kids should be kept simple and open-ended. A good planned hiking excursion is one that appeals to a child’s sense of exploration and adventure. It helps if you are familiar with the trail before you go hiking with kids, so that you can plan short scenic rest stops for munchies and water breaks and fun destinations to explore along the way, like waterfalls and caves, or even wildlife trees to observe. This will keep the children’s interests alive and their energy levels excited with anticipation. Encourage imaginative games that work into the context of a hike. Take a child's friend along; they'll be more likely to stay entertained. Make hiking with kids a family tradition so that when your child grows up, they will have experience and knowledge to pass on to friends and family for generations to come.

Types of Hiking Backpacks: Internal Frames vs External Frames

Lightweight Hiking Backpacks
Hiking lightweight is not a new concept. Lightweight hiking backpacks, also called daypacks, weigh less than three pounds, and are suitable for shorter hikes. They often come in hydration styles which feature internal bladders and drinking tubes. The mesh outer pockets are a great idea for lightweight backpacks. You can stuff any wet articles of clothing in them and dry them in the sun later. Most lightweight hiking backpacks don't have frames. We’ve come to the conclusion that lightweight hiking backpacks are less about high-tech materials than they are about simple design. If there's a new fabric or lighter/stronger frame material it's been tried before, often without significantly lowering the weight. Although some manufacturers may use the newest and coolest of material developments and some may be remarkably traditional, that, when it’s all said and done, they all share the same lay out: single compartment top-loaders with no access zippers, molded back panels, multiple pockets, etc.

Internal-frame Design Hiking Backpacks
Almost all trail and hiking backpacks feature an internal-frame design as an option. The body-hugging nature of internal frame hiking backpacks enhance your balance and freedom of movement. This is ideal for many hiking backpacking activities, such as mountaineering, skiing, scrambling and hiking in rough terrain. An internal frame pack generally fits better. This means you will stay balanced because the load moves when you move and doesn’t sway or shift. Many people who use packs in light to medium applications value the comfort, versatility and balance of an internal frame pack. More people buy internals than externals.

External-frame Design Hiking Backpacks
External frame hiking backpacks cost less and are often purchased by beginners. External frame packs are better for carrying extra-heavy loads because they shift the pack’s weight to the appropriate areas of the body where large bones and muscles can manage the load more efficiently. External frames act as extensions of bones and muscles although you may have problems with the pack’s balance.

Proper Packing Methods Can Lighten Your Load
The use of all types of hiking backpacks can be made more comfortable by proper packing methods. Hard objects against the body will quickly become uncomfortable and spare clothing and other soft items should be used as padding between those types of items and the body inside the pack. Whether you are carrying an internal or external frame hiking backpack, you should load it with balance and the convenient location of gear in mind. Carry clothing, cooking essentials and food in the main compartment. The heaviest gear should be stowed toward your back and centered in the pack to provide proper balance. Midweight gear should be carried toward the top and outside portion of the pack. In order to make sure you keep essentials handy, carry sunglasses, guidebook, map, compass, water bottles, snacks, and camera in the outer pockets. If you consistently pack your essential items in the same compartment each time, you will avoid frustration during your hiking adventures.

The best reason to buy lightweight hiking backpacks is to spur you on to lighten the rest of your load. You will find yourself moving farther, faster, and in less pain. A lighter backpack can not only help propel one up that hill, save your back from bearing the burden, or help ones knees on the backside of that hill, but also can help one enjoy the overall venture even more.

Make It Uplifting
Well, now you’ve got your work cut out for you. It’s up to you how you want to feel after a day of hiking extravaganza…will you live to see another glorious upright adventure or will you find yourself ailing and bent with your hands on your hips, tail between your legs, stumbling back to civilization. Since you don’t want to miss out when nature summons you to her beauty, take your time in finding hiking backpacks that will be uplifting.