Risk Assessment for Remote Field Sites/Wildlands

[Clusterfrack]

...Ticks... do a self-inspection and hopefully remove any before they get deeply attached. It's the little ones that are the biggest risk.

Yeah, that inspection sometimes needs to be done by another person. I've been in the woods when two different females got infested by ticks in the crotchital area and had to find a friend and a flashlight... Good lesson to pick a place to squat carefully. Brush offers cover, but also ticks.

[Cookie Monster]

For plants - in So Cal I would add Poodle Dog Brush. Gives a weird poison oak like rash.

Also Cow Parsnip - you rub up against a bunch and some folks get a dermatitis with sun exposure.

Also in riparian areas in the West - Stinging Nettle.

PNW - I’ve done surveys in Devil’s Club. That sucked. Pretty self evident though.

[Coyotesfan97]

There are also a couple of venomous lizards, the Gila Monster is best known. They have strong jaws and will bite, hang on, and chew. Best to avoid these too, they’re faster than they look.

I’ve lived in Arizona for fifty years. I’ve seen Gila Monsters in the desert twice. They are great to watch. They were just ambling along with zero aggression. We just watched them for awhile and they went on their way. If you see one in the Wild you’ve had a lucky day.

Their venom drips off their back teeth and the chew on things they’ve bitten to get the venom in. In the Game and Fish hunting class I took the instructor said if someone gets bit they picked one up. They clamp their jaws so removing them is hard

Don’t pick them up and you’ll be fine.

[Joe S]

Yeah, that inspection sometimes needs to be done by another person. I've been in the woods when two different females got infested by ticks in the crotchital area and had to find a friend and a flashlight... Good lesson to pick a place to squat carefully. Brush offers cover, but also ticks.

IMO, necessary, especially when dealing with the deer ticks, AFAIK, the most common Lyme carrier. They are quite small, and love to hide where they are easily hid by hair (crotch, armpit, upper nape of neck).

That's been my experience, anyway, living in Lyme country.

[RoyGBiv]

Let's not forget the little creepy-crawly guys. There are a zillion of them so I can barely touch the surface. Most can mean discomfort, a few are more serious.

Anaphylaxis

Even if you are not prone to this from a single bite or sting, getting into a nest of something that stings or bites can be trouble. While I don't carry an epi-pen in the woods, I do have Benadryl cream and pills. Paid off for me once while trimming trees and getting in trouble with a nest(?) of biting tree ants. If I was alone I would have driven to the local fire station immediately, which was on the route to the nearest hospital.

ETA. Ticks will definitely find their way into hard to reach places. And they also like to lay low until late night when you're asleep, and you can feel them tickling you on their way to dinner.

[Salamander]

Anaphylaxis

Even if you are not prone to this from a single bite or sting, getting into a nest of something that stings or bites can be trouble. While I don't carry an epi-pen in the woods, I do have Benadryl cream and pills. Paid off for me once while trimming trees and getting in trouble with a nest(?) of biting tree ants. If I was alone I would have driven to the local fire station immediately, which was on the route to the nearest hospital.

ETA. Ticks will definitely find their way into hard to reach places. And they also like to lay low until late night when you're asleep, and you can feel them tickling you on their way to dinner.

Agree. Benedryl is a standard part of my med kit for backcountry work.

Once while on a short summer walk with a friend in the Chicago suburbs, the mosquitos got really bad, as in swarming. Annoying for me, but after a while she started having trouble walking. Knew what it was right away, it had happened before, and she had an epi-pen. I had to help her back to the car, she was fine not too long after that because she was prepared.

[PNWTO]

https://fronterasdesk.org/content/18...est-fires-2018

Great example of a lack of simple readiness.

[CDW4ME]

My risk assessment, whether going to Publix, Wal-Mart, or on a little hike (basically anywhere outside my yard).
If I had to defend myself against a risk (threat) what concealable handgun would I prefer in my hand? Glock 20SF or 22.5
Risk assessment complete, I'll be packing the 20SF

[fatdog]

Anaphylaxis .

A year ago I discussed this with my internist/family doc. I have had mild systemic (not just local site) reactions to certain stings in the past, all easily managed by 50-100 mg of Benadryl. Never been on an ER trip because of one. He agreed that because of where I go (remote) and the fact I go solo it would be a good idea for me to keep an EpiPen, even though I have never had a really severe reaction.

He told me that the first "bad one" can come without a known prior history of that sort of severe sting reactions, and that the fact I have had milder reactions in the past is an indicator that I could get a bad one some day. Fortunately my insurance covered it, $15 copay to me, it gets stuffed in the first aid section of my daypack now with the Benadryl.

[GJM]

This is why you take comm gear and survival gear with you. When flying and snow machining in very cold temps in AK, we made sure to have redundant comm gear and a -40 sleeping bag and bivvy sack, so as to be able to survive.

A Minnesota snowmobiler was rescued from the Bighorn Mountains late last month after being stranded for three nights in sub-zero weather.

David Madsen, 65, of Hawick, Minnesota, survived the unplanned outing by digging a snow cave under his snowmobile.

Madsen wasn’t reported missing because he had left his room at the Bear Lodge Resort at Burgess Junction atop the mountains for a solo day trip. It wasn’t until his motel bill went unpaid three days later that staff reported him missing. By then, Madsen had finally been located by snowmobilers T.J. Larsen, of Gillette, and Jordan Zink, of Sheridan, who just happened to find the stranded sledder.

https://billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/live/