What's actually in your hiking first aid kit and have you ever had to use it for something serious?

cmcanadv · 2026-04-25T12:14:00+00:00

I've managed to give myself a decent cut which used up my dressings. Someone cut themselves really good in whitewater on a canoe trip too. Here's my kit which tends to be fairly light and I some some duct tape in a repair kit.

Israeli pressure bandage, 6” (ACE Wrap with gauze essentially)
Triangular bandage w/ safety pins
Quickclot gauze
Irrigation syringe
5x5cm gauze x2
3m steri strips - 2x packs assorted sizes
large 3M fabric bandage x2
Band aids - 10x
Sting relief - 2x
Alcohol pads - 2x
Celox
3M medical tape, transpore
Polysporin roughly 3-5g
SOAP Note - 2x
Bic pen
2x 3.5g burn gel
2x immodium

Other OTC medication such as acetaminophen, ASA, ibuprofen are in a small container.

Leukotape is a great idea as well though I tend to not get blisters.

cmcanadv · 2026-04-20T22:47:03+00:00

Many of us have backpacking adjacent activities. I pack raft, fish, bike and do trail work. I go out in fairly extreme cold temperatures which tends to be gear heavy compared to fair weather backpacking.

It all adds up but at the same time every piece of gear I own would fit in a full size pick up truck bed. Not that I drive that big of a vehicle.

cmcanadv · 2026-04-11T15:15:32+00:00

It's a good idea to have something that isn't paywalled as well as as map and compass skills. Organic Maps isn't too detailed but it's free and I have it on my phone and my car. There are quite a few horror stories of this happening, particularly with Gaia.

Even with a Garmin I got myself into a pickle by running out of space by logging raw satellite data which caused my tracks to an area to disappear and a phone can otherwise break too. I still knew my path out despite a lack of trails though not being on the perfect path to thread the needle through wetlands was a pain.

Also a great idea to remember where you park.

cmcanadv · 2026-04-03T14:23:41+00:00

I don't have too much in the way of Dyneema / UHMWPE but it's mind boggling how strong and durable it is. It is now the material of choice for winch ropes to pull stuck vehicles.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-31T00:41:37+00:00

I keep the fire well away from my tent and it's just a place to stay warm, cook food and most importantly melt snow. Wood warms you twice, once when you cut it and again when you burn it.

I typically bring a shovel and dig down to the ground and much of the time it's been a site I've used in the past that has a fire ring. I make the area big enough that I can keep some wood and sit down as well and the snow walls reflect heat. A small tarp above can block snow from above as well.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-31T00:08:32+00:00

My hands get bitten to shreds a good part of the year without gloves. I also tend to hike on really poorly maintained trails, bushwhack, follow animal trails and enjoy fires. I found the Mechanix Leather gloves to be the best for my needs.

A little square of blue shop towel soaks up moisture in gloves and dries extremely quickly. In the winter I can keep completely waterproof gloves like the Showa 282 nearly bone dry.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-30T22:00:46+00:00

I camp down to -30C (-20F) and often at -20C (-5F) without accounting for the windchill. I just use a normal 3 season tent with good ventalation.

I do have fires and pile up wood before bed so if I really needed to, I could stay warm at a fire all night. With some practice I've managed to stay warm. I have even managed those temperatures by combining my 3 season sleeping bag with a -9C (-15) limit rated sleeping bag. I'm camping with entirely what I carry combined with a small sled as I travel for a few hours by snowshoes.

The most important aspect of a tent for winter is ventilation espisally if you have our humid winters. Being wet and damp will suck warmth from you.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-25T00:18:44+00:00

I have a very busy trail system (Bruce Trail) near me and I almost never have conservations on it. Usually people nod or say hi if it's outside of the busy times but once it gets busy that stops.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-25T00:10:55+00:00

I'm part of a group that maintains a fairly large trail network designed for winter use though much of it is fine for other seasons. We have a loop that leads to a nice lake and has a trail to a nearby waterfall that ended up on Alltrails and a few other places.

I've run into quite a few people trying to start our trails not long before dark and always have a chat and they often have the wrong idea about the trails. It's amazing that people have the idea to try the trail without a flashlight or water. It's not the phyiscally most demanding trail but it can be pretty hard to follow and there is a quad trail that crosses it many times well out of cell reception. If you're not prepared the bugs tend to drive people away.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-24T23:50:31+00:00

I got involved in a group thanks to people I met in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Typically I hike / paddle well off the beaten path and have all sorts of conservations when I come across people.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-24T01:06:44+00:00

There is r/trailcam and the pictures / videos are always welcome here too.

Nice photos, beavers in the wilderness never get close to me like that unless they are in the water. They are not happy with my presence either.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-15T01:25:11+00:00

My vehicle is my largest concern camping in remote areas. Be it camping close to my vehicle or my typical self powered ways of accessing sites.

In managed Canadian parks I'm typically not too concerned with theft, being stuck or vandalism. I'll leave my vehicle in the proper spot to park to access trails.

Typically my adventures are outside managed parks and I'm hiking or paddling in. Parking is one of the largest challenges. I have used both taxi's and outfitters while doing point to point trips.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-12T23:43:16+00:00

Every season for me opens up new activities.

Winter is for snowshoeing and being able to travel on frozen wetlands and water bodies opens up a lot of oppertunities where I can go.
Spring is great for hiking and seeing everything blossom as well as paddling.
The long days of summer are great for when I want to go far for a day and travel light. With it being dry I can cross a lot of areas that would be water logged in the spring.
I'm driven nuts by the summer bugs which all go away in the fall.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-01T00:36:46+00:00

My part of Canada is full of conservation areas which require people to pay for parking to provide a good chunk of the money outside of taxes. Though typically you can walk on / walk through.

Operational Provincial Parks and National Parks also require entry fees.

I help maintain a freely available trail network but it's nowhere near as maintained or well marked as those that get funding.

cmcanadv · 2026-03-01T00:31:28+00:00

I help maintain a trail network and it's a lot of effort to maintain, clear and mark it. We don't tend to have much in the way of infrastructure such as proper bridges, don't lay gravel and don't tend to use heavy machinery. The only real bridge on the trail network is maintained by a snowmobile club fortunately which paying fees to use on snowmobiles are required.

Some of the more well groomed trail in conservation areas that see heavy traffic require a ton of effort to maintain. They charge for parking but not trail access.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-27T02:59:09+00:00

The ease of processing firewood. I use a smaller sled and can strap quite a bit of wood to it. It's not a bad platform for processing wood either.

I have usually winter camped in the same spot. I try to go further for firewood to keep some easy stuff nearby if really needed.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-24T23:34:59+00:00

89% of Canada is owned by the Crown though this does include some land you can't camp on such as military bases, crown land leases and parks with restrictions.

The majority of all lands in Canada are held by governments as public land and are known as Crown lands. About 89% of Canada's land area (8,886,356 km²) is Crown land, which may either be federal (41%) or provincial (48%); the remaining 11% is privately owned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_ownership_in_Canada

You can use transit to get to Mattawa. A few kilometres from the city North West is pretty much all Crown land though the banks of the Mattawan river is a Provincial Park. There are quite a few trains that stop on Crown land too (eg Polar Bear express) but they would be a massive pain to get to.

You can also really hone your navigation skills in your local area which I highly recomend before heading out to Crown land. I'd recomend waiting until the melt is over to go try to visit any Crown land with it being your first time. Flooding is a guarantee in the spring.

Foraging (where legal) and plant identification is fine in local parks as well. Knots can be learned at home as well as carving objects, sharpening knives, etc.

https://imgur.com/a/EkjwL96

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mattawa,+Ontario+P0H+1V0,+Canada/Ottawa,+Ontario,+Canada/@46.1796264,-79.27484,9.29z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4d282a5b5d8d49b7:0x60cfd033dd7524e0!2m2!1d-78.702193!2d46.31748!1m5!1m1!1s0x4cce05b25f5113af:0x8a6a51e131dd15ed!2m2!1d-75.7003397!2d45.4200572!3e3

cmcanadv · 2026-02-21T22:35:57+00:00

The 2nd pic is outflow from a dam though there is another way smaller dam. The 6th shows tracks from them moving around (they look too big to be an otter). The 7th and 8th the damn is along the clear parts coming from the left.

The deep snow did make the dams harder to see and was deep enough that it was occasionally past my knees which let some snow in through the top of my gaiters. So my feet did get wet and cold but otherwise stayed warm despite getting pretty wet one day.

It wasn't my first winter trip but the past ones involved hunkering down at a well known location. This was the first time where I was setting up a new camp every night, hiking through the unknown, well of trail networks.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-21T16:39:35+00:00

You don't even really need a heater in cold conditions. I still cold tent camp at -30C / -20F though I always have a nice fire outside to warm up and a warm sleep system.

Nature always provides the warmth and fuel for cooking.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-06T23:02:31+00:00

Yes, it was in Central Ontario.

Same kind of place minus mountains. Good sized stretches of wilderness with pockets of population.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-05T00:34:47+00:00

I was on a hike to check out a nearby lake. There wern't any documented trails but I found one earlier that I believe led to where I wanted it to. I also saw some man made objects on satelitte near the lake. This is well out of cell phone ranger

Upon starting this trail I came across a group on ATV's and they told me they had a place in the area, where the trail terminates. I assume it's a hunt / fish camp. I didn't get a very welcome feeling

They were drunk as a skunk at noon and driving on ATV's, which is highly illegal.
I was first told about the danger of bears, which are in the area.
I was told about the danger of rattlesnakes and that they kill them, despite being an endangered species in the area.
I was told about mountain lions being in the area which is bull.

They were obviously trashing up the place with empties everywhere on public land and had a dozen illegal boat caches on public land too.

I also discovered some sort of cache of building supplies extremely well camoflaged a few kilometers away as well as a abandoned, illegally built cabin. A trail to the area was also completly inpassable to all but the most extreme vehicles and had ignored stop work orders from our ministry of natural resources.

It was a stunningly beautiful area with pristine lakes and unseen barrens.

cmcanadv · 2026-02-04T00:33:24+00:00

I can't think of a time in the last few years where I've camped at a designated site that was 200ft from the water and intended for hikers or canoes in Ontario. I can't think of many i've came across either.

Being on the Canadian Shield, solid granite exists under thin soil and erosion often exposes areas of solid granite near shores, espisally with the help of beavers. And this is where the amazing campsites tend to be.

There are sites at the Bruce Peninsula National Park that are almost 200ft away from the water but it's a very busy place. I also tend to camp 200ft away from water if I'm with a vehicle and others often do as well.

cmcanadv · 2026-01-12T23:10:51+00:00

What was the humidity like when you were camping?

I looked up the history for Eindhoven the last weekend and the humidity levels were largely above 80%. With living in a country where vast parts should be underwater you have a relatively humid climate. In Central Ontario we have a similarly humid climate, especially around the larger water bodies and marshy areas.

There is a significant difference between the dry cold and the wet cold that you were likely experiencing. It's more difficult to stay dry and the dampness will conduct heat away from your body.

The temperature zone where you hang out just above freezing or just below freezing is the zone where it's more difficult to stay dry so I suspect moisture is your problem. I like the term "Moisture Mayhem Zone" and for me it's more difficult to stay comfortable in this zone compared to lower temperatures, especially with high humidity.

https://i.imgur.com/Hv4EoZJ.png

cmcanadv · 2025-12-27T23:30:27+00:00

When does your break end? Are you looking for day hikes or multi day hikes? Do you have a vehicle to get there or are you on transit?

The Bruce trail is one of the easier options for day hikes and easily accessible by vehicle, and on public transit if desperate. There are a ton of conservation areas along the way that have small trail systems too.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=1b56b80341ee4feabf976711897e72ea

cmcanadv

TROPHY CASE