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Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 2422
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Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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Dirt Don’t Hurt… or Does It?
Back in 95’ we were hiking in the Wrangell Wilderness in Alaska and managed to overstay our food supply. The only thing we had left was one small bag of gorp and 21 miles between us and our truck. This meant that the gorp would have to sustain us even if it meant taking an overnight along the way. Besides, the Alaskan wilderness was rugged and at times the conditions could be unpredictable. This certainly wasn’t an impossible situation, but it wasn’t good.
The day prior to our food shortage, I made a deal with my friend, John. I would agree to stay another night if he guaranteed that I had food for at least a full-day’s hike. A bag of gorp would be ok for a day hike, but I agreed to split it with him, but with strings attached. If something were to happen to his gorp, I would not share my half. John agreed to the terms and conditions and took his half.
After the first 10 miles of slogging it out over wet and muddy trails, we decided to take a lunch break. We leaned our heavy packs against a tree and sat silently on a rock gorging ourselves with the gorp. After eating through about half of our share, we began feeling more talkative and started telling stories. This, of course, meant hand gestures and animated body movements which ultimately led to John’s bag of gorp slipping from his fingers and scattering all over the forest floor!
I didn’t have a moral dilemma; we had a deal and I was sticking to it. The gorp that I had was going to barely get me through the day as it was without having to share even more of it. I chuckled to myself as I slowly nibbled the next handful out from my palm as John crawled on his hands and knees browsing for bits and pieces of food. John was careful and deliberate at first being sure to brush any dirt off each morsel, but as he became accustomed to the task at hand, he just started popping the scattered stuff into his mouth. This went on for a few minutes until I heard him coughing and spitting. It turned out that what he thought was a large peanut was in fact a slug! Even so, this wasn’t enough to dissuade him from finding every last drop of the gorp to fill his hungry stomach.
I’m sure John hadn’t eaten much dirt that day, but it doesn’t take much to get sick. John was fine and never did become ill from the soil, but it has been established that there are a half-billion microbes living in each gram of soil. Of these thousands of different kinds of microscopic pests, there are dozens of them that can lead to serious illness and even death. The risk rises with exhaustion and low oxygen consumption which is more likely in high elevation. There is also a risk for developing a secondary infection when already weakened by another illness.
The risks are greatly increased whenever an expedition is greater than two weeks. It is common for bacteria and viruses (which may also be in soil) to fully infect the body after 5-14 days from contact. The symptoms may incapacitate the victim making survival in the wilderness a dangerous scenario. This is especially critical for those on solo adventures.
It is recommended to have a small supply of strong antibiotics available for use in the wilderness as well as antiviral meds or herbals. These can only be prescribed by a doctor, but some doctors are apprehensive to give these pharmaceuticals to just anyone. It is very important to explain to the doctor how dangerous illness can be in the back country, otherwise they may sabotage your emergency meds like what happened to me. My doctor had given me antibiotics at a dose that would have barely treated acne, let alone a serious infection.
Even though I hadn’t become ill while in the wilderness, I did become extremely sick on the drive back home. I was unable to leave a hotel room for 3 full days and at one point was too weak to walk to the bathroom. If it wasn’t for a helpful hotel employee, I would have died of dehydration or high fever. I was thankful my illness hadn’t caught up with me while I was still in the Alaskan back country, but the experience drove home the importance of back country medicine. |
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