Lesson from the weekend

I was on an overnight backpack at a state park this weekend, and managed to take a tumble. The tumble put a small cut on my arm - no big deal. However, it was also a face plant, and my glasses abruptly abandoned ship - putting a small cut on my forehead, bruising the bridge of my nose, and generally left my face looking like I had contradicted my wife and she didn't take it well.

Treating the very minor injury was no problem, except that I realized there was one thing missing from my first aid kit: a small mirror. I had to guess where the bandaid went, until I caught up with the two people I was hiking with, who repositioned the bandaid.

I ordered a mirror today. I never really thought about having to use my kit to treat my face - it has mostly been used to treat others, or cuts and scrapes on my arms and legs.

Before you post the obvious, my adult children already pointed out that I could use the camera feature on my cell phone by flipping the camera. They're right, of course - but I don't like relying on electronics: first, I'd have to dig it out of my pack; second, the battery might have run down; third, in the heat of the moment, I might not remember that trick. A mirror, tucked into my first aid kit, would be right at hand if needed. (I suppose you could also argue that it doubles as a signal mirror - but not so much in the woods of Ohio.)

Great point, Glenn. I usually hike with my wife, who always brings a mirror. But on my own, I am usually without one, I've tried using the surface of my sunglasses...not very effectively.

I've been thinking of grabbing a compass with a mirror (as well as learning how to use it properly). Usually I don't want to know what I look like, but in situations like yours it would be worth it.

Sorry to hear you injured yourself with that fall. Hope it heals up fast. Head wounds always bleed so much.

I’d look for the reason of the tumble. Sometimes when one falls they tripped over something but I’ve noticed that after 400 miles on any shoes with EVA midsoles my shoes become unstable. Change to a brand new pair and the problem disappears for me. Even if they still look good they aren’t. When it comes to gear I buy new shoes more than any other equipment.

Another issue is brain to ankle synapses. I used to ride a bicycle in hot weather and hike the other seasons. When doing so my synapses definitely slowed to the point of taking tumbles. When actively hiking often that doesn’t happen. The brain tells the ankle to stiffen in time to prevent, or tells me to hop, skip or jump back to balance. Girlfriend fell nine times one year. I gave her an exercise standing on one foot and tapping the other foot around it in a semi circle back and forth as far as she could reach, then changing to her other foot. That had a profound difference on her balance. The terrain we constantly hike is steep and rocky and she has only fallen once this year and has caught herself and prevented any other falls.

I hope you recover quickly and keep the rubber side down.

Thanks, Arizona. The actual details aren't that dramatic. When I walked back a few paces on the otherwise-normal dirt path, I noticed that there was a 2-inch tree root that ran parallel to the path about 3 inches above the dirt. It was embedded in the side of the trail, and about the same color as the dirt. The only thing I can come up with is that my boot landed on the root and slid off, toward my other foot, and threw me off balance.

The damage wasn't too bad, and I never lost consciousness. However, I do think the 80+ temperature, 80+ humidity, and the fatigue they created probably combined to make me less alert than I normally am. I also think it allowed me to make a rookie mistake.

I rested for a while in a shaded clearing, deciding whether to hike out or continue. When I decided to hike out, I realized that I didn't need to carry the extra 2 quarts of water I had picked up to take to camp. So, I took a couple of healthy swigs from the container and dumped the rest. That's when I realized that the water was in my dirty-water reservoir, and hadn't been filtered yet. I was using a 1-quart "clean" bottle and 2-quart "dirty" bottle with a Hydroblu (Sawyer clone) filter, so there was no way to filter all 3 quarts. Despite different color caps and the size difference (which should be obvious tip-offs about which bottle is which, I missed the visual clues. Again, fatigue can really cloud your brain.

Oh yeah, tree roots will do it all by themselves, tripping or making one slip, been there myself a time or two. Loose gravel over a hard surface makes me slip and do very uncomfortable splits at times. Ouch! I guess on some days this is a contact sport to some degree. Lol

And I can certainly see why a head injury will discombobulate one so the water bottle issue could happen to anyone so that’s a good thing to take note of. Your choice to turn back was a very good idea. I regretted pushing on once.

I've always carried a compass with a mirror, with just that in mind. These days, many people don't seem to carry a compass, but that strikes me as foolish, considering the failure potential of electronics.

I agree, Bill. But if you don't know how to use it, it makes no sense to carry one.

It's a pretty basic skill, and also pretty easy. The instructions that come with typical "orienteering" compasses have all the information needed for direction-finding. I don't recall ever actually using the sighting mirror for its intended purpose.
And the weight is insignificant. I just weighed mine. The Silva Landmark 27 weighs 0.7oz., and the Suunto (don't know the model, but has larger 2"x2" mirror), weighs 1.1oz. Neither was expensive

Reminds me of my dear grandmother's favorite joke. The Hungarian mountain climbers are afraid they are lost, and their leader pulls out the compass and their maps and spends quite a while taking sightings and writing down notes. When he is finished he announces with great pride: "I know exactly where we are!"

"Do you see that tall mountain over there?" he asks, pointing to a distant peak. "We are right on top of it!"

(She was Czech...)

Years ago there was a couple from Arkansas who went hiking in Big Bend which is a pretty expansive place. The woman was a reporter if I’m recalling correctly. So they go off on a day hike together and promptly became lost. She later related in her multiple part story of the five or so days they were lost that the map they had with them was not very detailed and was something like an inch of it for the area they were walking. I have a friend who lives in Texas and enjoys hiking there. We were discussing the lost people and I told him that if they would have simply taken a good sighting compass and chose two distant landmarks about 90° from each other and marked the vectors right at their car they would have been able to get back by dinner time that first day with that information alone. They would not even have needed a map though they should have made sure and had a good detailed map as well.

Those who do venture off from their vehicles should have and know how to use a compass for triangulation. One really needs to start out using it, not when they become lost. Vehicles become hidden in the landscape as do camps and anything one might find. Some landscapes are particularly confusing. I think most here know all this but we’ve come across quite a few that only use the compass to orient their map. Shooting an actual bearing is something foreign to them.

In the Mountaineers 10 Essentials navigation is #1 for an important reason.