Outdoor Source Magazine

For those of you that are athletes out there, cramps can almost get to be a way of life. When you’re out running, the cramp that you get on your side is almost enough to cripple you.

When you’re out hiking more often than not you can get a cramp down in your calf — these hurt like the blazes. A cramp is a sudden, involuntary and painful muscle spasm. There’s 2 things that cause them:

• Heavy exercise
• loss of salt through excessive sweating such as in heat exhaustion

To relieve cramps in your calves and thighs, straighten out your leg so that your knee is not bent. If the cramp is in the FRONT of your muscle then bend your knee. Essentially what you are trying to do is make the muscle as long as it can possibly get. If you get the cramp back in your calf not only should you straighten your knee but you should also point your toes up.

In all cases, you should massage the affected area so that you can get the muscle to relax. Also, it’s a good idea to get some fluids into you — sports drinks are great or in a pinch water. The issue with water is that yes it helps to hydrate you, but it can just sometimes pass right through your body and not get absorbed by your tissues.

Drinking water purification.

There is probably NOTHING more life threatening than getting a severe illness while out in the wilderness. Water bourne illness can sap you of strength and can dehydrate you, both of which can prevent you from getting out of the woods safely.

Out in the wild, water is almost never pure and MUST be purified before drinking it. When you’re out on a 2 night backpack trip the chance that you will be able to carry enough water to get you through a 3 day/2 night tip is pretty low. Even if water in a stream looks really clean, it will probably contain some microorganisms or parasites that can make you extremely ill almost immediately. [yes, be very very afraid.]

ALWAYS filter water to remove particles of silt and other contaminants. We like the Katadyn set of filters, but anything in this price range (not cheap) will do a great job of filtering out over 99% of the ’stuff’ in the water. Don’t try to cut corners with these systems because you’re really playing with life and death here. These filters are not foolproof (thus only 99%), so you DO need to take additional steps.

Step 2 –> sterilize the water. We recommend that you use sterilization tablets. Yes, they make the water taste a bit like pool water, but believe me, you don’t want to get sick. After filtering the water, you put tablets (according to instructions) into the water and let the tablets dissolve for at least an hour (again, follow the instructions).

IF you still have any doubts about the water, boil it. The last time I was out on an overnight I:

• Filtered the water
• Used sterilization tables
• Boiled the water

just to make certain that I wouldn’t get sick. To cool off the boiled water, I put the water back into my water bottles and then put the bottom of the bottles into the stream that I was using for the water. This allowed me to cool the water off before heading out the next morning.

This does sound like an involved process, but waterbourne illnesses like Leptospirosis (from animal urine), Schistosomiasis (freshwater worm), Amebic Dysentery (from infected sewage), Hookworms and Giardiasis are NOT to be taken lightly. At one time, I did have some illness like this where I had symptoms similar to amebic dysentery (diarrhea with blook and an infected colon) and believe me, the pain and the misery for nearly 2 weeks is barely endurable. [no, i did NOT get this from water, i actually got this, along with about 20 other people in my town, from a local restaurant that has since been shut down.]

I saw a great discussion last night between John Stossel and RFK Jr on Fox News (the Cavuto show). The discussion centered on Global Warming, since RFK has attached himself to the Gore directive and the Inconvenient Truth.

It was a very interesting discussion. What I found to be very during this discussion was just how rattled RFK seemed to get. In typical Fox News fashion, Neil Cavuto was the moderator in the discussion and allowed each man to discuss their points and to rebut the others point of view. RFK when confronted with serious (and calm) questions from Stossel became distressed to the point of stuttering over his words and just had difficulty making his counter point and defending his point of view. His entire argument was centered around the 2,000 scientists that have all but closed the debate on the issue by proclaiming that global warming is a trend and that man is the root cause. No matter what Stossel said as a response, this statement was repeated as if he (RFK) was doing yoga and that was his mantra.

Mr. Stossel on the other hand made several clear points regarding the extreme views coming from some so-called environmentalists. His point was that the last 4 or 5 points that have been made have been so extreme and threatening to all of mankind that we had no choice but to listen. The problem with each of these points is that none of them ever came true — so why listen now. Stossel went on to ask RFK “how much good would changing a few lightbulbs do in the scheme of what is happening right now”. The response from Mr. Kennedy was as-expected complete disregard for Mr. Stossels point of view, which seemingly has become the strategy of the most extreme points of view.

A final thought on this — a lot of the more extreme environmentalists who are indicating a coming calamity are beginning to become almost like the old cartoons with the homeless guy (used to be called a bum) standing on a street corner wearing a sign that read “The End is Near” with everyone walking past him laughing at his extreme (and ultimately incorrect) view of the world.

If you find any ticks you need to remove them as soon as possible. A few things regarding removal of ticks:

- Crawling ticks can be easily removed by hand. They will not bite.

- Attached ticks may be removed with fingers shielded by a paper towel or tissue or by grasping firmly with tweezers crosswise as CLOSE TO THE JOINT OF ATTACHMENT as possible. Pull the tick steadily outward without twisting or jerking so that the mouth parts, which are imbedded in the skin, do not break off.

- If the mouth parts of the tick DO break off, consult your physician.

- Do not kill the tick while it is still attached to the skin (if you can). Dispose of the tick by dropping into alcohol or flushing it down the toilet.

- Apply antiseptic to the site of the bite.

Be alert for any symptoms which may appear after the bite (between 2 and 12 days). Symptoms may include: an expanding red ring around the bite; fever and headache followed by a generalized skin rash; chills; sore at the site of the bite; swollen, painful lymph nodes. If any of these symptoms occur, consult your physician immediately.

For further information on some of the diseases these nasty things carry, please consult WebMD at the links below:

Rocky Mountain Fever

Lyme Disease

Tularemia

Babesiosis

I don’t know how things are in the rest of the country, but up in the Northeast if you want to go outside and be near trees, you have to worry about ticks.

There are a couple of different types of tick that you need to be aware of. First, the American Dog Tick.

The female is dark reddish brown with a crescent shaped, light colored plate near the front of the body. The male is completely covered by a plate that is mottled in appearance (see the images below).

The American Dog Tick is commonly found on medium height grasses and shrubs on the leeward side of sand dunes, brushy or overgrown fields and open areas in or adjacent to woodland groves. This tick carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

The Black Legged Tick is also known as the Deer Tick. This is the one that’s been making the most news over the last several years. The Deer Tick is common in areas containing woodlands inhabited by deer but can be found in other areas as well. The Deer Tick is known to carry Lyme Disease, Babesiosis and Tularomia.

The female has a reddish body with dark brown legs, a dorsal plate and mouth parts. The male is primarily dark brown in color (and is smaller than the female). The image below is the female Black Legged Tick.

Keep in mind that not all ticks are capable of carrying and transmitting the diseases they are known for. They can carry additional microorganisms that can cause serious illness and even death in humans, so being carefull and doing a thorough search of your body is critical. Ticks climb (usually from 6 inches to 2 feet) on vegetation and wait near the end of a twig or blade of grass. When a person or animal brushes against the plant, the tick transfers from the plant to the person or animal.

Here are some precautions:

• Apply insect repellent, particularly to clothing from the waist down
• Stick to the center of trails where possible to avoid brushing against plants
• Light colored clothing makes it easier to spot ticks.
• Tuck your pants into your boots or socks and your shirt into your pants. You’ll look like a dork but they won’t bite you where you can’t see them (at least in public).
• Check clothing constantly while working or walking in areas inhabited by ticks. Check exposed body areas and clothing again after you leave the area and make sure you check your unexposed areas before retiring at night.
• Ticks usually crawl on clothing in an upward direction until they find a site on the skin for attachment. Common places for ticks to attach are the back of the neck, the scalp, behind the knees, arm pits and in the groin area.
 

Welcome to Outdoor Source Magazine. We’re just getting underway here but the goals are pretty lofty. This is going to be one section within this site, to support the development of a new outdoor activity magazine called, you guessed it Outdoor Source. You’ll be able to find out information from other folks that are interested in and use nature without abusing it.

Our goal here is to NOT be an angry political environmentalist — what our goal is is to share information about things to do and where to do them. We don’t want to limit ourselves to any particular area or country or even continent. The print version of the magazine is probably going to be targeted based on our ability to get advertising support which is the only way that we’ll be able to print and ship the thing.

As for our goals for the internet — that is to build a community of outdoor enthusiasts that want to talk about and comment on topics that matter to us as well as share information about what we all love to do, which is to get out, have some fun and not be a slug!