Stay safe out on the trails this summer by being tuned into some of the natural hazards around you, so you can see them coming and adapt. Think – Heat, Hydration, Ticks and Plants.
Heat is an obvious one and sadly it’s been front and centre recently with some high profile and well publicised deaths. There’s not much you can do about summer challenges being held….. in summer… but you can make sure you research the best advice available in your territory and act on it. Take control of your own wellbeing and if you don’t feel 100% comfortable about the conditions you’re in, go with your gut and abort or pass. The trails & challenges will always be there.
Hydration is super important all year round but in summer, your focus should switch to making sure you’re drinking the right stuff. When it’s warm and you’re going to sweat (your body’s mechanism for making sure you don’t overheat) you need electrolytes, not plain water and, most importantly, when you’re highly active, as you are when Sport Walking, you need an electrolyte drink with a good level of sodium. If you just drink water in the heat, you’re not replenishing the minerals your body needs that are being washed away in your sweat, so you become mineral deficient and in extreme cases this, like heat stroke, can be fatal. So, if you’re hot, thirsty and gasping for a drink, make sure you’re topping up the minerals that you’ve already lost in your sweat and you’ll not only stay safe but you’ll feel better and be capable of much more.
The third risk on our list is a nasty little critter – the Tick. Well, actually, it’s not nasty at all, I mean it can’t help it, it needs food just like we do. The thing with ticks is that when they bite, their saliva can give you an infection called Lyme’s Disease and if left undiagnosed it can be debilitating. You’re most at risk from ticks when you encounter long grass or abundant vegetation, so if you hit a section of overgrown trail, perhaps with long grass flowers or ferns that you have to brush through, you’re at risk of picking up a tick. They’re so small that you’d be hard pushed to notice it unless you’re really looking, so really look, really often! General advice is to wear long trousers but that’s not really viable in a hot summer challenge, so if you brush through vegetation, check yourself as soon as you’re clear. You don’t have to lose lots of time, just give your legs a good brush down with both hands while you walk or stop briefly for a quick inspection. If you can get a tick off before it’s latched on fully, it’s much better than trying to remove it later. We always recommend that you carry a pair of Tick Tweezers in your vest at all times and make sure you have a thorough check over yourself at the end of each walk. Be sure to look behind the knees and in other ‘creasy places’, where they might be less visible. Lastly, if you notice a red swelling, especially a donut ring mark on your skin, go see the doctor and specify that you think you have a Tick bite. Medical professionals are much better now at understanding the risk of Lyme’s Disease from Ticks and taking prompt action, so you should be prescribed antibiotics if they confirm it’s a Tick bite and this should be the end of it.
Lastly, plants. OK, so you might think we’ve gone a bit soft if we’re trying to suggest that plants are dangerous but the truth is, some of them are, so it’s not a bad idea to know about them. Most trail plants that will cause you pain are of the stinging or spiking variety – brambles, wild roses, saw briers, stinging nettles etc etc but these aren’t the plants we think you should learn about and take care over. I mean, we all get scratched, stung and irritated by various forms of foliage when we go walking right? There are relatively few dangerous plants out on the trail but it’s worth acknowledging they’re there and making sure you can identify them. For instance, in the UK, if you walk along a river or canal or even down a path with a damp or wet trench running alongside it, you’ll very likely encounter Hemlock Waterdrop Wort – the most toxic plant in the UK and by toxic we mean deadly. Hemlock loves to be by water and can get pretty bushy, potentially bringing you into contact with it. Experts advise that you don’t touch it. Another plant that’s a hazard on UK trails but this time isn’t deadly is Giant Hogweed. If you come into contact with this plant you can get a nasty rash that’s inflamed by sunlight, so a particular hazard in summer. There are numerous plants berries and fruits that can do you damage, so it’s really worth doing a little research on the species you’re likely to find in your area and particularly learn how to identify them, so you can make sure you never get acquainted.
These are a few of the key hazards that you might encounter on the trail but, of course, it all depends where you are in the world and while Hemlock might be high on the list for us Brits, I suspect snakes are a bigger concern for our Australian or American friends! The thing is to be aware of the hazards wherever you are and to learn about them. When we go to visit family on the Croatian coast, one of the top hazards when walking the wooded trails around our home is a poisonous snake called the ‘Poskok’ that likes nothing better that having an afternoon sleep in the trees, to get more warmth. The fear is that you inadvertently walk under one and it drops onto you, so whenever we’re in the right environment, our focus is laser sharp on the tree line above.
Now if all this makes you think, “forget it, I’m staying indoors”, please don’t! In every aspect of Sport Walking, just as in every aspect of daily life, there are hazards and risks. You could be walking along the most beautiful benign trail, looking at the view, feeling as safe as it’s possible to feel, then trip on a stone and break your ankle! Nothing in life is safe and, likewise, nothing in Sport Walking is 100% safe. There are risks with everything, the key is to make yourself aware of potential hazards and to be alert, so you can avoid anything that could cause you harm or simply spoil your day. If you take control of your own safety in this way – by learning what’s out there and how to identify it, you’ll carry this knowledge with you and nothing will hold you back.
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