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Safe Practices

Following are some health and safety practices to help you maintain your general well-being while in the interior.

Some of these guidelines and suggestions are common sense. Others are more subtle, being collected over time by the process of shared experiences. Please e-mail in any comments or suggestions.


Diet

  • A camping trip is not the time to experiment. Take food items that you know won't upset your stomach. Prepare the usual balance in your daily menus (protein, starch, carbohydrate, bulk, etc.). Pre-try any new recipes at home to ensure their success.

  • If your normal activity levels are low, be sure to supplement your usual daily menus with more energy sources to provide for the trip's increased demands (carbohydrates, sugars).

  • Adequate daily water intake is a crucial part of your daily diet. Make sure you have enough containers to facilitate the treatment and carrying of enough water.

  • Always take along purification tablets as an emergency backup to your normal means of treating drinking water. Depletion of body salts is the main danger of dehydration. Make sure you have salt replenishers in your food and medicine supplies.

Food Storage

  • The security of your food supply from wild creatures is an important measure to take ... worthy of being repeated from the cooking-equipment page ...

  • Food storage ropes are best made of strong narrow braided nylon rope such as found in modern parachute cord. Minimum lengths of 40 and 20 feet should be carried, equipped with a permanent metal snap on each end to provide easy and sure connections. The objective is to hoist the food bag to a point at least 10 feet off the ground and 7 feet from any adjacent trunk or overhead branch. If a suitable long branch exists high up, both lengths can be joined to achieve the full reach. If no such branches exist, two shorter ones on opposing trees can be used in conjunction with the two separate ropes. This method raises the two ropes over separate branches, joins their ends together with the food bag and securely raises them all to a centrally suspended point that meets the same distance criteria.

  • Keeping your food supply out of the grasp of bears and wolves is one thing. Racoons, flying squirrels and deer mice are quite another matter! These smaller creatures can climb down the very rope securing your food pack or leap to it from nearby branches. In order to reduce the chance of these smaller creatures decimating your food supply, you can reinforce its containment with plastic boxes and/or metal mesh liners. As a barrier to enterprising racoons and hords of mice, you can thread a wide circular plastic disk (the bottom of a plastic pail) a few feet above your suspended food pack.

  • Equally as important is keeping your food supplies dry. While zip-locks or freezer bags and twist-ties may serve to hold single meal amounts of a lot of food types, small plastic bottles are more appropriate for finer, moisture-sensitive foods. Having your food pack swinging from a tree through the night can expose it to some very determined moisture. So, make sure your individual food containers can stand up to the worst weather ... or for that matter, to a dunk in the lake!

Hygiene

  • Interior camping is generally considered a time for hard work and relaxation. Personal hygiene is unfortunately often given a low priority, especially when one's not in mixed company.

  • While the smell of accumulated sweat, grime and "whatever" can sometimes be tolerated; the eventual effect they have on civilized skin can be quite distressing. Just having a short haircut and slapping on lots of deodorant isn't enough. Having a rash breakout in a delicate area will definitely take the joy and comfort out of any outdoor activity.

  • Areas that can experience rashes because of compromised hygiene include ... mouth and nose, above hairline, underarms, privates, bottom and between the toes.

  • Prevention is as simple as observing minimum hygiene. Bring along a thin face-cloth, a face-towel, a small bar of plain (unscented) soap and a few ounces of anti-dandruff shampoo ... within individual plastic bags to contain their wetness.

  • Lack of privacy and time for the task is often the reason it's put off. It's best to just be forthright and honest with your co-campers. Change into your swimsuit, take your gear and a supply of water behind some inland bushes or a strung-up poncho ... do the soaping, washing and main rinse there ... then have a brief splash about in the lake to rinse away any trace residue.

  • Should bad weather or lack of privacy be a problem, you may have to perform the main tasks inside a tent. The caution here is that you don't spill water or splash the tent's contents. Obviously, shampooing your hair isn't a task to do in a tent. Be sure to rinse thoroughly, as soap residue can also irritate sensitive areas. Don't forget to dispose of rinse water in the same manner as dish water ... far inland, away from the tent site!

Campsite Safety

  • Adequate firewood can usually be gleened from the bush by snapping off dead branches and twigs by hand. If you believe a tool is necessary for wood gathering, take a collapsable saw rather than a hatchet or axe. If the weight of a hatchet or axe isn't enough of a detraction, its potential for serious injury should be. Hatchet and axe injuries typically involve feet, legs and hands. Due care should still be exercised with a saw blade, injuries with which usually involve fingers.

  • A reminder is appropriate here to not cut into any live tree! Too many campsite trees have been scarred and/or killed by thoughtless people wielding hatchets, axes and saws!

  • When you're stringing up your food pack storage ropes, be very careful. The usual method is to tie one end of the rope around a rock and lob the rock over an overhead branch. All too often, the rock comes loose and goes sailing off into the trees. Be sure no one is in danger of getting hit by such disconnected rocks. Also, should a rock-weighted rope be successfully thrown over a branch, there's a very good chance it will swing back toward the area from which it was thrown. Unless all people present are paying close attention to the rock's trajectory, someone could easily be hit by the rock on its "return swing"!

  • Black bears are a source of great concern for many people. Encounters can occur .. from the campsite and portage, to shallow shorelines and berry patches. For detailed instruction about dealing with black bears, you can check out ... Living with Black Bears in Ontario ... an online production by the Ministry of Natural Resources.