Who's been sick while tripping?

[Alan Gage]

Thankfully not me and it's high on my list of things to not experience. But today as I battled a self imposed illness (too much partying last night) I couldn't help but think how much more miserable it would be to be sick while tripping. Being sick is bad enough but lying in agony inside the tent and unable to keep down food or water while still having to deal with bugs, hot, cold, rain, no bathroom or running water, and toilet paper supplies rapidly dwindling sounds like one of the stages of purgatory. Any been there done that?

Alan

 

[memaquay]

Been there, done that, several times. Both self inflicted and regular bugs. On the June trips with the kids, if one kid has a cold, everyone has it by the end of the trip. Unfortunately, in those situations we just have to push through it. Although I have evacuated sick kids before, I have always stuck it through. It's a test of internal fortitude. I've never had anything serious though, and most illnesses pass by the end of the trip. Something about living outside seems to enhance cure times.

 

[dave0]

Last trip I did got sick on day two as did my partner. We figured it was something in my coffee pot, perculator style. He hurled I felt like crap for three days on a five day trip. Wished I could have puked but couldn't just weak as heck with lots of portages in between. Rubber knees was the call of the day(s). Not a fun time.

 

[Alan Gage]

Last trip I did got sick on day two as did my partner. We figured it was something in my coffee pot, perculator style.

I remember that trip report. The Putrid Perculator. It sounded awful.

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

I once worked in a customer's home where they offered me a cup of coffee. I thanked her and marvelled at the distinctive flavour. Later I decided to empty and rinse the drip machine & pot for her as a favour. The coffee grounds had clearly been there for a looong while; the coffee grounds looked like a cute and colourful little bonsai landscape. That explained the compost coffee flavour.

I've never been ill on a trip, but do think about it and wonder how I'd deal with being too incapacitated to light a fire and heat water.

 

[Iskweo]

I have had a couple of trips where I was deathly ill, one in the Rockies and one here in Manitoba. I have also been on one where I cut myself quite badly and was laid up in the tent for a day during a horrendous storm.

Come to think of it there was also the Birch Falls trip where I rode my bike to get the truck from the park which almost killed me. I was quite ill from that. There was also the trip where we dumped on the way out with super high water and ran out of everything, including ambition.

So yeah, a lot of my trips involve adversity and the need to overcome illness and injury. I should stop doing this crap.

Christy

 

[lowangle al]

I roasted what I thought was a roughed stem bolite mushroom by the fire one night and put it in my soup in the morning. I was sick before we were packed up and had to throw up while carrying the boat at one point. I was bearly making it out thinking that my next stop would be a hospital when the diahrea struck, I almost didn't get to shore on time. Luckily that was the turning point and I started feeling better.


I'm not a mushroom expert but I think the problem was that it wasn't cooked enough, I had since been told never eat wild mushrooms raw. Anyway I will never eat another mushroom on a trip.

 

[redoleary]

Just once I was on a short 3 day trip and woke up one morning feeling terrible, like really terrible but I don't think I ever threw up, just laid around most the day and felt better the next 24 hr bug I guess.
I've had altitude sickness a couple of times but those weren't canoe trips, and I couldn't even smell food without throwing up, you generally feel like you have the flu.

 

[snapper]

I've been pretty fortunate. The only time I've ever been sick on a trip we were still in our drive-in site prior to leaving on an extended trip in the Okefenokee. I have no idea what hit me but it hit me hard. I couldn't get the sleeping bag open in time and barely made it to the bathroom at Trader's Hill before the sh_t really hit the fan. Instead of starting off on my trip into the swamp the next morning I had to go into Folkston and use the Laundromat to clean my sleeping bag and clothes. Since we lost the permit we ended up doing day trips instead. Not the same as an overnight in the swamp but better than nothing.

Now...ask me about my head injury! Definitely self imposed but not an illness so it doesn't qualify for this thread.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Guest]

I have no idea what hit me but it hit me hard. I couldn't get the sleeping bag open in time and barely made it to the bathroom at Trader's Hill before the sh_t really hit the fan

I have a cast iron constitution when it comes to that kind of stuff. Except for one memorable first night on a Green River trip. I did manage to make it out of the sleeping bag and tent. What I had not done before retiring was set up the groover and wag bag. I was still fumbling around in the dark trying to get the wag bag open when there was an explosion of sorts that required considerable clean up of the site the next morning.

I learned two lessons from that. One was to set up the groover before going to bed. The second was to avoid partaking of the free continental breakfast in a cheap motel. I suspect that was some e. coli exposure from the incontinental breakfast. Never again.

 

[MacCamper]

At four in the morning prior to heading home, roughly a fourteen mile trek of paddling and multiple portages, I experienced severe nausea with projection, fortunately I made it out of the tent. I was very weak and at times disoriented. Even my map reading skills had suffered as I managed to get my daughter and me lost...even though I had been in this area of the BWCA multiple times. Once back to the truck, after a brutal morning of double portaging (something I just don't do on group trips), half hearted paddling efforts on my part, overtaxing my daughter with additional chores as I was too sick, I begged her to drive back to the Twin Cities.

She did while I slept. Today my youngest kid still gives me the business. Although I truly suffered, I am glad she has something to hold over the old man. And I learned a very valuable lesson...personal hand sanitizer for everybody, with instructions on how to use it.

 

[dave0]

I've been pretty fortunate. The only time I've ever been sick on a trip we were still in our drive-in site prior to leaving on an extended trip in the Okefenokee. I have no idea what hit me but it hit me hard. I couldn't get the sleeping bag open in time and barely made it to the bathroom at Trader's Hill before the sh_t really hit the fan. Instead of starting off on my trip into the swamp the next morning I had to go into Folkston and use the Laundromat to clean my sleeping bag and clothes. Since we lost the permit we ended up doing day trips instead. Not the same as an overnight in the swamp but better than nothing.

Now...ask me about my head injury! Definitely self imposed but not an illness so it doesn't qualify for this thread.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

OK Snapper, inquiring minds want to know about the "self imposed" head injury! Gives us the skinny!

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have a cast iron constitution when it comes to that kind of stuff. Except for one memorable first night on a Green River trip. I did manage to make it out of the sleeping bag and tent. What I had not done before retiring was set up the groover and wag bag. I was still fumbling around in the dark trying to get the wag bag open when there was an explosion of sorts that required considerable clean up of the site the next morning.

I learned two lessons from that. One was to set up the groover before going to bed. The second was to avoid partaking of the free continental breakfast in a cheap motel. I suspect that was some e. coli exposure from the incontinental breakfast. Never again.

I had an accident at Jasper Canyon. It was the second to last night and the rented groover was full. Because it was a steep climb to the campsite we decided to wedge the groover in between two rocks near the river.

3am. Dark but a little moonlight just enough to barely make out shadows I could not find my headlamp in the tent and I ran and slid down the slope..about half in time Had to get the lid off sat and the groover partly fell over and what I was leaving missed the hole. Fortunately the other eight days did not!

Got up at daybreak to clean up the mess.

The Green River must be have an IBS genie. Never had an accident anywhere else.

 

[Fitz]

I was doing geology field work in the North Maine Woods one summer. Solo camping for the most part. On the trip up for one field session, I picked up a turkey sandwich at a convenience store and had it for lunch. After making camp and retiring that night, I was nailed with likely the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. The campsite had an outhouse, and I spent much of at least one night in it. I remember crawling on the ground at one point. I called it quits in the morning and drove out to recover for a few days.

 

[Chip]

Fortunately it only happened to me once. It was on a St. John River (Maine) trip. It was just after one of the finer memories from that trip: My 11-year old bow woman and I had garnered cheers from a group that was scouting the class II Big Black rapid. We had started down the left side, then pulled off a cross-river ferry in a heavily loaded canoe, then peeled and snaked down the remainder of the rapid on the right. We'd practiced these moves on the first few days of the trip and it was uplifting to see Katie reacting to what she saw in front of her before I could shout instructions. I'd think, "she needs a cross-draw here," and she'd be doing it before I could get the words out of my mouth. It must have looked impressive from the banks because the group that was scouting was hooping and cheering us on. Anyhow, we get to the bottom of the rapid and I was elated until all of a sudden, I didn't feel good. Fifteen minutes later I was hurling over the gunwales.

We made camp a short distance below the rapid. I was sweating and had fever chills and it was an effort to get my gear up the bank, set up my tent, and crawl in. I went to sleep almost immediately. I came out of the tent once to puke and then went back to bed. I was pretty bummed thinking getting sick was really going to screw up the trip, but in the morning, I was fine.

One never knows for sure, but I suspect I was a victim of inadequate camp hygiene. I try to be careful, but it is easy to slip up, especially traveling with kids. Whatever bug knocked me down, I was thankful it was fast moving.

 

[Guest]

Always carry anti diareha pills!
Turtle

 

[Guest]

Being sick is bad enough but lying in agony inside the tent and unable to keep down food or water while still having to deal with bugs, hot, cold, rain, no bathroom or running water, and toilet paper supplies rapidly dwindling sounds like one of the stages of purgatory.

One never knows for sure, but I suspect I was a victim of inadequate camp hygiene. I try to be careful, but it is easy to slip up, especially traveling with kids.

I’d bet that the culprit is most often fecal-oral contamination from poor hygiene. Everyone’s intestinal flora is different and it doesn’t take much. Kids helping with food prep, or simply consuming shared group meals are likely causes. I have at least never become ill that way on solo trips.

I know that folks who guide go to extreme measures in food hygiene and cookware/utensil clean up. Having a group of paying clients all disabled and vying for the crapter would not bode well for a successful trip. Or tip.

 

[makevx73]

Being sick is bad enough but lying in agony inside the tent and unable to keep down food or water while still having to deal with bugs, hot, cold, rain, no bathroom or running water, and toilet paper supplies rapidly dwindling sounds like one of the stages of purgatory.

Yep. everything but the not keeping your food down...

I was leading a small group of begginer backpackers up and over the Crow Pass Trail in the Chugach State Park, AK and came down with a nasty case of the flu (?). It came out of nowhere on the first night. The forcast had been for a weekend of light rain but everybody still wanted to go. The "light rain" turned into a serious down-pour all night long. The river crossing midway, where we had camped and planned to cross in the morning, was flooding and impossible to cross and looked to be that way for several days to come. We back tracked and got stopped at a little creek that had been ankle deep the day before but was now waist deep and raging. I barely made it that far. We camped there for two days waiting for the creek to drop. My guiding partner took care of everybody while I curled up in our tent with his dog to keep me warm. It actually was a good thing as it gave me time to rest and get over the worst of it. We had plenty of food for the stay but I seriously strained our toilet paper supply...

 

[Guest]

We had plenty of food for the stay but I seriously strained our toilet paper supply...

Yeah, even on long unsick trips that can-I-take-care-of-business rationing of the squares becomes a morning lottery. I bring a secret stash, like the reserve gas tank valve on old VW’s.

Yeah, yeah, I know, leaves, moss, snow. Screw that desperation, gimme some Charmin, or at least the little wag bag squares. Those little wag bag packets, with (barely enough) TP and a wet wipe are part of my secret stash.

While we are on the unseemly subject I keep the cat-hole, thunderbox, wag bag/groover supplies, including a generous bottle of hand sanitizer, in a small dry bag. That dry bag is left at the head of the trail to the crapter. If it’s not there don’t come a puckering, it’s already occupied.

Of course sometimes sharing a small site with another group necessitates a Howdy Neighbor double groover.

 

[Chip]

Yeah, even on long unsick trips that can-I-take-care-of-business rationing of the squares becomes a morning lottery.

Ever read about the guy who minimized his trash. The US average guy generates 4 pounds a day and this guy got it down to 6 pounds a year. He was so serious he eliminated use of TP, substituting water and his hand. In view of this thread, we should add soap to the equation. So, bring a little extra Bromer's and skip the lottery.

Fascinating story, if you never read about the no-trash guy: http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20151031/NEWS03/151039948/-1/news