FIRST AID AND SURVIVAL DOWNLOADS

Ugh, it is tick season. As we all know, they are nasty little buggers that carry Lyme Disease and other viruses. Do you know how to protect yourself against ticks?

Download our Tick Field Reference Guide to learn more about:

• How to protect yourself.
• How to identify a tick.
• How to properly remove a tick.
• What to do if you have been bitten.

Tick Reference Card

(Click image to download)

You can also read our blog about Lyme Disease to learn more.

By Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

I’ve been chomped by a tick multiple times, as have most people who regularly tramp in the outdoors. It’s creepy — the tick drops onto your skin, burrows in painlessly, and sucks. Its anticoagulant can cause tick paralysis, and these arthropods carry all sorts of infections: Colorado Tick Fever (a virus), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (parasite), Tularemia (a bacteria), and the more commonly known Lyme Disease.

Navigation Basics: Map and Compass

Check out these great tips found on REI.com

Together they form the first of the time-tested Ten Essentials—map and compass, the indispensible twin tools of navigation. Even in this high-tech GPS era, nothing replaces the value of a magnetized compass, a paper map and the understanding of how both can help you find your way in the wilderness.

MYTH: Lightning can strike you only when the thunderstorm is in sight.

FACT: Lightning may travel up to 15 miles horizontally and strike out of the clear blue sky. Get into a protected area before the thunderstorm passes overhead and wait 30 minutes before heading back outside after the last thunder is heard or lightning is seen.

BACKCOUNTRY GRUB: WHAT’S SAFE TO EAT AND DRINK?

Christopher Van Tilburg, M.D.

In October, a solo climber on Washington’s 12,276-foot Mount Adams fell on Suksdorf Ridge, and broke his ankle. It’s just what every climber fears: being alone on a high mountain with a disastrous injury. Unable to walk, he dragged himself down the snowfields. After five days and nights, he was found at 6,200 feet suffering from frostbite and dehydration. He survived on creek water and an eclectic mix of creepy crawlers: ants, centipedes, spiders, mushrooms, and berries.

BE SAFE Outdoor Tip – Preventing Lightning

• A lightning bolt can travel up to 15 miles
• Seek shelter indoors or inside a vehicle
• In a tent stay as far away from the poles an wet clothes as possible
• Do not stand under a tall tree in an open field or on a ridge top
• Get out an away from open water
• Get off bicycles and golf carts
• Stay away from wire fences, metal pipes or other metal objects that could carry the lightning bolt to you from a distance