Over the weekend, I went on a camping trip with my 5-year-old son in a group of five adults and nine children in western Pennsylvania. We had a very good time, with one bad incident, and I wanted to talk about the various preparations that helped with both.

While preparing for this trip, I rethought and restocked my first aid kits. I've generally felt better prepared having the largest variety of stuff for all situations – all sizes of bandaids, a variety of antiseptics, painkillers, medications, etc. But after reading several of the various first-aid kit threads here, with peoples' pictures included, I've begun to believe I'll be better served by covering the basics more thoroughly. I ditched most of the bandaids, keeping knuckle and fingertip ones and a couple large regular ones, and stocked about 10 4x4 gauze pads instead, as well as a second roll of tape. I also got a deal on some Kerlix sponge pads (pharmacy's going-out-of-business sale) – basically a 4x4 gauze but about 3x as thick.

A story my sister-in-law told (about 20 years ago) of how one of my nephews got garden lime into his eyes while playing in a storage shed, and how she and the neighbor (a nurse) cleaned his eyes out with 5 bottles of saline solution has prompted me to always have some around in home and car FAKs, and in smaller FAKs, I try to always have at least some of those small individual use eyedrops.

So, for the trip's bad incident: Roughhousing among all those boys led to one, an 8-year-old, cracking his head on one of the only rocks in an open field. The adults were used to random loud screeches over the course of the weekend, so it was only his second, long one that caught our attention.

The only mom on the trip (not that child's mom) was closer and started running to him, and I looked up and saw red across his forehead and started running toward him, too. She got to him first and pulled his hand off his forehead to see the wound. I caught up and whipped out a bandana to cover the wound. She carried him back to the tarp-covered “hovel” we had set up, and sat him down in a chair. With the blood wiped clear, he had a roughly quarter-sized, deep gash showing in his forehead.

I handed the first Kerlix to the woman to apply pressure. I was surprised how quickly the bleeding stopped, for such a (comparatively) large wound, since some real small head wounds will just gush for a long time. The boy's dad was here by this point, and I think it helped that the two of us applying first aid weren't his parents, because the dad looked a bit shocked by it all. When he saw the wound, he said, “What do you think – could we just bandage it up?” I think he was voicing his wishful thinking, because it was pretty obvious that was going to mean stitches.

I didn't bring any saline, because we had to pack in everything (1.5-2 miles from the cars) and we'd ridden with the dad of the injured boy, so no car FAK. I broke open all of the single-use eye wash vials, and we covered the boy's eyes with a camp towel so the liquid wouldn't get in his eyes, and I tried to use them to irrigate the wound. So, lesson No. 1 – these things only put out about 6-8 drops of liquid, and there's nothing like a squirt of pressure to irrigate with. Basically, I was dripping liquid into the wound, with no real way to wash anything out. We talked about what else we could use to irrigate the wound, and we rejected using the artesian spring water we were drinking (clean, clear water, but occasionally floating objects when the water in the collection basin is disturbed). The father suggested we boil some water and let it cool, then use that to irrigate the wound – and for about three seconds, I thought that sounded like a great idea. But then I realized what we needed to do was get him ready to travel to the ER, now that the bleeding had stopped and he'd calmed down. So, we decided we'd done as much cleanup of the wound as we could practically, and it was time to bundle him off. The mom asked for butterfly bandages, but I said I didn't have any. Lesson No. 2: Be sure of your inventory. Later, I found I had about half a dozen in the kit. So the mom smeared some neosporin on a fresh gauze, covered the wound, and we taped it on securely.

The dad and another adult accompanied the boy on the walk back to the cars, and proceeded on to the hospital. Lesson No. 3 – know how to get to the hospital from where you will be. This camping location is somewhere my family has been going for more than 30 years, when we used a deer hunting lodge my grandfather had helped build longer ago than that. The cabin is long gone, but we camp near the site. My cousin (the injured boy's dad) has been going by himself or with a couple friends for more than a decade, and recently they started bringing their sons, and in all that time he'd never learned where the hospital was. Luckily, his friend who was driving had a GPS and found the directions to the Warren hospital. They found an empty ER, and got him taken care of in just over an hour, (8 stitches) but it was still 1:30 a.m. before they returned to the camp site.
So, my plans for the future: Stick with lots of gauze and tape for flexibility of wound care. Get needle-free syringes for irrigating wounds. Have a much more accurate inventory of my kits, and know where each item is (less stuffing items where they fit easily).

A couple questions for opinions/suggestions: would you use butterfly bandages on such a wound to help close it up for the transport to hospital? What antiseptic/wound care medications do you carry/recommend (alcohol swabs, iodine, betadine, green soap, etc.). Does anyone regularly carry any of the more involved wound care products in larger kits (ADB pads, bloodstopper/Israeli bandages, etc.?). Any better suggestions than syringes or saline bottles for irrigating wounds?

Now, on to happier topics, and things that worked well.

Last year was the first time my son and I joined this group for their annual trip (I hadn't been to the site since I was a teen), and one of the “must-haves” my cousin suggested for my packing list (it had been years since I'd camped, too) was gloves. Gloves have never been on my list for camping, but since they regularly gather dead wood for a fire ring, break branches to feed the fire, etc., they all carry them. Well, they will always be on my list now. I never got a blister, splinter, cut on my hands, and they were great for campfire cooking duty, too. I prefer full leather gloves – Costco's got three-packs for about $20, and I now have them in the cars and several packs.

Headlamps: Wonderfully practical, even the cheap ones. I used a Rock River headlamp I got from Target several years ago - .5-watt LED, runs on two AAA batteries, and has low, high and off. Great for doing everything around the camp. I love my flashlights, but for camping, I think a headlamp's about 4 (or more) times as useful.

Teaching kids about the "Hug-a-Tree" program: I spent about 15 minutes with the kids in our group, trying to run them through the very basics of what to do if they got lost, and tried to tell them the rough outline of Hug-a-Tree. Results were mixed, as ages ranged from 4 to 9, and attention spans wandered. I got them to repeat that if lost, they should stop and find a tree or big rock to stay with. I also showed them ponchos vs. contractor bag ponchos, how to make a poncho out of a garbage bag, getting their face all the way through the hole, and supplied a bag to whichever kids didn't already have a poncho or garbage bag, and had each practice making their own to carry in a pocket. We practiced whistling in sets of three (very popular) and that's as far as the group was ready to go. My son has a "Hug-a-Tree" pack and has been great about carrying it with him every time he left the camp site or clearing, even if it was to play in the woods within site of the tents. It's a fanny pack with a whistle attached to the outside, and inside has a 2xAA LED flashlight, a .5L aluminum water bottle, an AMK updated space blanket, and blaze orange disposable poncho, and a headlamp. We've practiced at home in our back yard - just very simple roleplaying. "Oh no Sam, you're lost, what should you do?" Then he goes to a tree, sits down and blows his whistle in threes. "Oh no, it's raining - now what?" He pulls out the poncho and puts it on. "Now you're cold" - and he wraps up in the blanket. Of course, then I have to take a turn getting lost, and he calls out the orders, but he remembers what to do now. The one thing we didn't do that I'd hoped to do was to have the boys practice, one by one, sitting in the dark and quiet for a little while. Originally, I'd thought 10 minutes, but then thought 2 minutes would be more than sufficient for this age range. Have an adult walk them out of sight of the campfire, step behind a tree, and have all lights out, just to see what real dark is like, and what the night sounds like, with the reassurances that there's nothing there to hurt you, and if you hear a noise and blow your whistle at it, if it's an animal it will leave, and if it's a person, they'll come and help. Didn't do that one though - perhaps in the future. I want it to be a lesson, not a traumatic initiation.

Another glitch I need to overcome: I had to dig through a bunch of Rubbermaid containers, packs, random bags, etc., to pack up for this trip because we don't camp regularly. After a late night of packing, I got what I needed together, but at the site, I did a lot of searching for stuff I needed, because I couldn't remember where I'd put it. To the point of, I couldn't find the blaze orange drysack I had my son's clean clothes in, and so I couldn't find the sweats I'd packed, and we had to borrow a pair of jeans from one of his older cousins. Of course, the next day, I found the blaze orange drysack at the bottom of my pack - where I'd looked at least three times. I need to organize better and more consistently, and develop a place for everything and everything in its place.

Dutch oven: I decided to bring one on this trip, because it's car-supported, although the walk to the camp site from the cars is about as far as I'd want to carry one. I brought a 14-inch oven that I hadn't cooked in yet, although I did season it per the suggestions on http://www.camp-cook.com/forum/ (actually, a link from that forum to http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8779 – look for the post by “Chef”).

Each adult had responsibility for one meal, so I got Saturday night, and I used the dutch oven to make biscuits Saturday morning to supplement breakfast, and helped with Sunday morning breakfast with sausage gravy and biscuits. Saturday night, I made a peach dump cake.

I'm still very new to cooking with a dutch oven, so the group was basically serving as guinea pigs for me. I made the biscuits with a homemade version of Bisquick – premixed at home, carried in gallon-sized Ziplocs. I used this gentleman's preparation method for biscuits: http://www.cowboyshowcase.com/dutch_oven_cooking.htm. I added the water to the Ziploc, squeezed and massaged the bag until it was workable dough, then poured about 1/8-inch of oil into the bottom of the dutch oven. I used a big metal spoon to portion out biscuits, and rolled them around in the oil. I didn't bother cutting out perfect biscuit shapes, and no one complained about that. I tried to use the charcoal briquet recommendations for above/below heat (yes, I actually packed in briquets, and was roundly mocked for it).

I'm just not yet comfortable with my heat guesstimations to do it with the (ample) supply of hot coals we had on hand. It turned out that using the recommended number of briquets, cooking time was very slow, and all other portions of the meal were done before I was ready. I ended up shoveling coals from the fire on top of the lid to supplement the heat, and the biscuits were still a bit pale when I decided they were “done enough.” I got compliments, but the cook's never satisfied with the product.

For the dump cake, I again used the outline of directions from Floyd, using 4 cans of peaches in syrup, 2 boxes of spice cake mix and a couple cans of 7Up to moisten the cake mix. End result – lovely smell, but far too juicy – I should have drained all but perhaps one of the cans of peaches. Also, the cake mix ended up being more like a pudding than cake in consistency...not sure what went wrong with that, either. For those who've made dump cakes, are you getting a cakey topping? How much liquid are you adding to do that, or are you making it more like a traditional cake mix to get those results? Again, I had to supplement the briquets with coals to get the cake to progress – it seemed to be achingly slow to get done.

Sunday morning, I started the biscuits first and HEAPED coals from the fire above and below. I followed the general directions by taking it off the bottom heat after a while, then doubled up heat on top (as much of the coals as the top lip would hold), and this batch turned out nicely, a bit golden brown on top. Sausage gravy was done on the Coleman propane stove in cast iron skillets, and the second batch turned out great – but by that time, most people were full. Oh well.

One technique that works nicely with the dutch oven is rotating it every 5 minutes or so. I do clockwise ¼ turn for the oven itself (lift it by the handle), then ¼ turn counterclockwise for the lid (turn the handle loop with a lid lifter). This keeps any hot spots from burning above or below and evens out the heat nicely.

Overall, it was a great camping trip, and we all left a little heavier, and one now has a Harry Potter scar to show his friends.

Dave

Glad the little guy came out OK

Re dumpcake, we do a different one. Couple of cans of crushed pineapple spread over the bottom of the DO, couple of cans of cherry pie filling spread over that, couple of boxes of white or yellow cake mix spread over that. Couple of cubes of margarine melted and drizzled all over the whole thing. Bake 'til done, usually getting a little brown and hard feeling on top. Cleanup is easier if you line the DO with aluminum foil first. In a lasagna sized pan, just one can of each and one box of cakemix...

Great report! Wow, so many things--I'll just say that it's great that you were doing some education of the kids. Kids love to learn. It's just a matter of presenting things in a way that doesn't bore them or turn them off and they'll soak everything up.

Great report! Sounds like a good learning expereince for all.

To flush out wounds I carry a small (3.5oz) small bottle of generic Nasal Saline Spray. You may have to enlarge to spray hole a little to get a stream rather than a mist, but you can't beat the size and cost.

-Blast

Good idea. How hard to you have to spray it to clean those deep cat claw and fang holes???

Good report.

Your educational stuff reminded me of something my father did with us everywhere, when we went to a beach on the ocean. He would pick a time early in the week to show us the power of the water. I can remember standing in ankle or knee deep water, getting our feet buried and then being moved by the water down the beach. He had us observe where we were, then about 15-30 minutes later, we looked up and were at least 10 yards down the beach. His message was always to be respectful of the water and not in fear of it. Respect for it keeps you out of situations when you should be in fear.

When you go back, the stuff you taught last time can eb gone over, and you can also expand. Teach a little more, even one thing, each time, and you will end up with children who will know quite a lot. Moreover, the chidlren you teach will not be abel to help themselves. They will teach other children. And lessons learned this way are not easily forgotten.

Nice.

in this case, no. initial bleeding irrigated the wound. then you irrigated as best you could. you controlled the bleeding. you wrapped it shut to help control further bleeding and to protect the area from further injury and microbial invasion. you're set for the trip.

other circumstances might dictate boiling water, butterflys or steristrips, but in this case you done good.

my $0.02.

if you have a clean sandwich or ziplock type plastic bag, reasonably clean water, some iodine or betadine swabs, and a needle, you can pressure-irrigate a wound. Put the water and a couple of iodine swabs in the water, let sit about 10 minutes, put a pin prick in the bag, and squeeze.

Jeff

the smallest size bottles of contact lens saline solution i've found are 4 oz. and that's what i use.

for a grossly dirty wound, and if you're carrying a hydration bladder, you can always clean the distal end of the hydration bladder tube (or remove it), and squeeze the bag for a pressure wash - just don't pretend you're pressure washing the driveway! you don't want to drive the dirt where it doesn't belong.

$0.02 more.

Nasal Saline Spray and contact lens saline solution => thanks for the great ideas guys. I've been looking for something smaller for my kit and am kind of embarassed that I didn't think of these first!

Hey Dave,
Wow, your sone is 5 already? Time flies (and work is still crazy - lurkers - before Dave moved to Ohio, we used to work for the same company, but in different departments)

Anyway, that spring water would have still been fine for a wash - cleaner than the wound

the Kerlix 4x4s are nice. Another good one is what they call abdominal wound pads, which look to be little more than a sterile Maxi-pad

In that stituation, I would NOT have put on any antibiotic, as the MD is just going to have to clean it out. Irrigate the wound, slap a 4x4 on it (BTW the J&J 4x4s are a lot thicker than the average 4x4) tape it down, or wrap it down (roll of gauze, then tape that, so you don't have to worry about hair), and transport

Hi Charlie - nice to hear from you! How's the leg?

Thanks for the thoughts on nasal saline/smaller contact saline solution bottles - don't believe I've ever seen those before (but then again, I was never looking for them).

Also, very good improvisation idea on the bag/iodine wipes/water/pin for flushing - I'll keep a couple of the Ziploc bags around stashed almost everywhere.

I wanted to chime in with a few other good/bad gear reports for the weekend - I had to sit around for a while and laundry list what I expected to add, because I kept forgetting an item as soon as I thought of another.

Anyhow, in no particular order some of the things I liked using:

Nitrile gloves: While I didn't think to break them out to treat this head wound, and it would have been a nice idea because our hands were day two grubby from the camping scene, I've added nitriles to all my first aid kits. Costco has two 150-count boxes of nitrile gloves for about $15. I group several to about 8 pairs together inside a sandwich bag and force all the air out - they roll up real small. I also use them all around the house - painting, gluing projects, when I cleaned out the Coleman stove with Simple Green - I've kept lots of nasty stuff off my hands for pennies per project - money well spent.

Carabiners: I have one climbing-grade carabiner I bought years ago, and I used it this trip to attach my hydration daypack to one of the loops on my bigger backpack. And - smaller, cheap, non-climbing ones for attaching random things to other random things. You may not need them, but for a buck or so, it's awful handy to be able to attach something to something else without fumbling with knots (if you're like me).

Bungee cords: for same reasons as the carabiners, but for things like sleeping bags and mattress pads. I once bought some really nice-looking straps of various lengths that have velcro, but they're basically useless for the bags - the velcro won't actually keep something that big secure.

Double-wall mug: I have a couple stainless camping mugs, with 4 and 8-ounce measure lines and no lids, that I used. They really beat my single-wall stainless mugs (which nest around a 1-liter Nalgene)...coffee or cocoa in a single-wall will burn your hand until just before it's cold, while the double-wall is comfortable to handle before you can drink the beverage. Sitting and balancing food and drink, double-wall's the way to go. Of course, several of the other guys use larger, beat up plastic mugs with lids that they attach to the outside of their packs with carabiners through the handles, which are probably an even better idea.

Wok bowl: Wok bowl I've been searching for a while online to find a photo - I bought these (I think) in EMS - or maybe Campmor.
I really like these bowls - the handle's sturdy, no folding or fussing, and especially when you're handling food and drink in your lap, I appreciated the solid hold.

GI Spoon: http://www.imsplus.com/ims44.html My friend told me long ago of the British SAS tradition of cooking up meals in a communal pot, and that each member of the group gets a spoonful in turn. So, the game becomes the search for the perfect "racing spoon" - not too small so you're shorted on food, but not so big that you can't get every drop of food. I think this may be a contender for perfect racing spoon - narrow at the tip, broad and deep as it nears the handle. Sturdy. A good size for spooning out biscuit dough into a dutch oven. Thumbs up.

Light My Fire Spork: Spork Mixed results. Handy - such a cool-looking gadget. Nice to be able to eat a main course, then flip over with the spoon for dessert. Somehow, though, I don't enjoy having fork tines hanging out the other end while I'm eating with the spoon.

Gerber Strike Force: I tried a couple different firestarters, and while I love the Boy Scout flint and steel for its size, Strike Force was putting out a bigger stream of sparks, shooting farther, lasting longer (landing and sputtering as opposed to disappearing after they hit).

Contractor and yard waste bags: Big, handy, sturdy. Work as ponchos, etc., plus they are great for cheap insurance against wet, dirty, nasty gear that you have to stuff into your backpack. I will now always stash a few of these as well as a few various-sized Ziplocs any time I pack - because you never know.

Nalgene bottle insert: Nalgene insert
These look like a fantastic idea, and when I carried a Nalgene daily in the city, it was a nice addition. Camping, I found that it was always knocked through, floating inside the bottle. And camping, I didn't care if I had a tiny dribble of water on my chin. Nice but not at all necessary.

Purell: Yes, it's nice to be able to kill the germs when I've just been rinsing grubby hands with plain water. But it was really great to be able to use it as a firestarter - and it sustained a flame for quite a while. I was able to stack fresh charcoal briquets on top of the dutch oven, nest them next to ones that were nearing the end of their burn, and with a squirt of Purell, get a flame to sprout on the new ones and get them to light reliably. Nice double duty product.

Dave

And a couple more odds and ends:

OBG: So you just have a bit of melted butter over the top of dry cake mix in your dutch oven? Does that come out rising and cakey, or what's it like? I'm having trouble figuring out what it should be like. I'm wondering if doing something more like a cobbler to top the fruit would be the way to go to avoid the tasty, but weird-consistency topping I got with the 7Up. I've gotta believe I'm doing something wrong with that.

Also, my cousin told me the folks at the ER complimented how the wound was taken care of when they got it - and apparently the bit of neosporin helped the gauze come off easily rather than sticking with dry blood. So now I feel like my CPR/First Aid course I took in December has paid off. Hope to never have to get full value on the CPR end of things.

And Charlie - Sam turns 6 next week.

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions

Dave

We have done a lot more of them in the oven at home than a DO, but they come out basically the same. No rise to it, or not much, it just kinda firms up and gets a little crusty on top. If it is gooey you didn't cook it long enough...

Standard dump cake portions:

2 15 oz cans fruit or pie filling(peaches in syrup is the most popular).
1 pkg cake mix (yellow is the most popular)
1 20 oz bottle soda pop (lemon lime soda is the most popular)

It looks like you used twice the amount of fruit and twice the amount of soda for the amount of cake mix. Ideally, when finished the top of your dump cake should be golden brown and a little crusty, the center should be cakey, and the bottom should be like a thick cobbler.

Also, it sounds like your biscuit mix was far too wet as well. That will take a lot longer for the biscuits to firm up and brown than normal cooking time.

"...biscuit mix..."

Sometimes, if we are in a hurry, or just lazy, we will use Jiffy biscuit mix. Not nearly as good as home made, but quick, easy, and hard to mess up. Worked great for scouts making bisuits in aluminum foil too...

Oh yeah, I've made my own before as well. Really it's just about mixing all the dry ingredients together, maybe sometimes cutting in the shortening as well, then bagging it and using that instead. Really it is all the same list of ingredients with little variation in the quantity ratios. Just as with the Bisquik brand, you can also use it as the base for waffle, pancake, muffin and other quickbread recipes.

It seems, though that DaveT's mix ended up with too much liquid mixed in perhaps. At least that's what's happened when my biscuits have gone too long on the fire. Often they will collapse as well, the leavening having gassed out before the heat could set the dough firm enough to hold the structure. It's not a big deal, it all eats the same anyways, long as it is cooked through.

One of my favorite biscuit mix recipes is Coon Balls. Probably one of the top trail foods you can pack IMHO...

I used to carry a small syringe, but now I use Steripods or one of its imitators. I am not sure if they match what you used. They are single-use with a tab you break off. In my experience the nossle hole left is small enough for squirting - you aren't left dripping the fluid in. In fact I just tested, and could send a stream of fluid 10 or 15 feet. I hope that's enough for irrigation.

Each holds about 20ml. The more you have the better, of course, but just one is better than nothing as you can refill them with clean water for more squirting.

I sometimes also carry an antiseptic (TCP) but I'd hesitate before using it as real medics seem to disapprove. (I have no medical training.)

Well, I did another dump cake last night in my smaller dutch oven. So, two 21-ounce cans of cherry pie filling, one box of yellow cake mix, and one 16-ounce 7-Up.

This one worked a LOT better than any of my previous attempts - when I dumped in the 7Up, it fizzed right up to the lip of the dutch oven. I kept rotating the oven and the lid in opposite directions every 5-10 minutes. When I opened it up, it was turning nicely golden and some of the cherry pie filing was bubbling up through the cake mix in one spot.

So, I think I was previously only putting in enough 7Up to moisten the cake mix and make it a sludge...plus probably checking it so many times that it never got a good shot at heating.

As to the biscuits, I'd say benjammin's diagnosis sound correct again. I made my own homemade "Bisquick" mix, with the Crisco cut into the mix. I don't think the biscuit mix was too wet - it was just enough moisture to really knead it for a while to get everything moistened - not soupy or thin. I think I must have baked them so long that the leavening all gassed off as he described - they were not light and airy, but still tasty (especially with sausage gravy on it).

Thanks again for all the feedback - it's getting better each time.

Dave