What's in your First Aid Kit?

[Blue Jay]

In my humble opinion all you need is something to stop major bleeding, for that I carry a sanitary napkin and duct tape. In addition a major prescription pain killer and some neosporin. The rest is not necessary because if something happens you hike or crawl your ass to civilization. I don't believe in aspirin or motrin because pain is important to feel. I tells you that you are going too hard. I am not young but I have no trouble hiking long miles without pain. Taking pain killers and antibiotics for small things causes that problem to persist becase you are mistreating the original problem by hiking miles you are not ready for. I also believe in Probiotics, prior to a long hike. These are foods like yogert (I know, yuk) that have microorganisims that feed the good bacteria in your stomach. When they are healthy you can easily fight off gardia (not that you shouldn't treat your water). A fit healthy body can take anything but a bad fall.

[smokymtnsteve]

maybe not necessary but little something for heartburn is nice...

antihistamine is good if you get stung by something...I wanna be comfortable not crawling my a**back to civlization..

amother good thing to have is an ACE elastic bandage...you can use it for pressure bandage.. on and ankle or wrist or knee lots of uses..i gave one to some guy at the apple house he was hiking in sandals and didn;t have much..and twisted his ankle yea he was walking without and was really paying a price!

yea ever have heartburn...take some heartburn relief..there is nothing more miserable than to have heartburn and no rolaids..

[Redbeard]

Psuedephed, lot's of it. Rhododendrons and Mtn. Laurel sure are pretty, but hell on your sinuses.

[GritsNgreens]

Sounds odd for us guys but for larger wounds, Tampons or Kotex they are sanitary, come in a moisture proof wrapper, light weight, and can absorb more than you could bleed out, held on w/ duct tape and your good to go. Don't have one? find a female hiker and I'll bet she'll hook you up. Worked for me when I gashed my leg on a jagged rock.
Pain Killer? God's medicine....good 'ol THC......works everytime (just be wary of offering to an officer on vacation lol he was cool about it though)

[Odd Man Out]

... I don't believe in aspirin or motrin because pain is important to feel. I tells you that you are going too hard. I am not young but I have no trouble hiking long miles without pain. Taking pain killers and antibiotics for small things causes that problem to persist becase you are mistreating the original problem by hiking miles you are not ready for....

I agree with you on this one, except I do take the baby aspirin every day, not for pain, but for all its other benefits.

I also agree on the acid blockers for heart burn. That runs in my family and sleeping on uneven ground, at odd angels and without a reliable pillow exacerbates that for me, and I can't sleep at night when it flares up.

Yes on the ace bandage. A great multi-use item.

[pervy_sage]

In my humble opinion all you need is something to stop major bleeding, for that I carry a sanitary napkin and duct tape.

For your consideration, there is a new(ish) product out developed for our friends in the military that goes by the civilian brand name QuikClot Sport. It is a powder in a handy lightweight sponge that induces rapid clotting in large wounds. New tech that should be added to everyone's kit IMO. At $12 and 25 grams, it is worth the piece of mind for that catastrophic Murphy's Law event.

http://www.quikclot.com/home.aspx

[oops56]

cayenne pepper will stop a bad cut too just pore some on and it does not burn keep some in a 35mm flim canister look it up has more use also

[LDog]

I don't believe in aspirin or motrin because pain is important to feel. I tells you that you are going too hard. I am not young but I have no trouble hiking long miles without pain. Taking pain killers and antibiotics for small things causes that problem to persist becase you are mistreating the original problem by hiking miles you are not ready for.

There's truth in here, but I would advise that taking anti-inflammatories like Motrin and Naproxin is important for healing. I agree that one shouldn't mask merely nagging pain, but one should treat inflammation.

[Rocket Jones]

What with most people boiling water and futzing with stoves and fires, something that comes in handy sometimes is a small bit of burn cream.

[Odd Man Out]

What with most people boiling water and futzing with stoves and fires, something that comes in handy sometimes is a small bit of burn cream.

I'm partial to Petroleum Jelly. A good multi-purpose ointments. Good on burns, chapped lips, hikers equivalent of "diaper rash", chafing. Plus, mix some in with a cotton ball you have a great fire starter. It can replace fire starters, Chapstick, Body Glide, burn ointment and a few other things with one multi purpose product.

[Rocket Jones]

I'm partial to Petroleum Jelly. A good multi-purpose ointments. Good on burns, chapped lips, hikers equivalent of "diaper rash", chafing. Plus, mix some in with a cotton ball you have a great fire starter. It can replace fire starters, Chapstick, Body Glide, burn ointment and a few other things with one multi purpose product.

I carry the vaseline/cotton ball fire starters too. They're wonderful. All the other items can indeed be replaced by petroleum jelly, but the jelly doesn't work as well as any of the more specialized products. The extra ounc or two are worth it for me.

[Blue Jay]

You are correct since I wrote that in 03 I have since come around to treating inflamation at night after I have done big miles (which for me is not that many).