Ghillie Suit Shop Blog RSS
Keeping your feet dry, the ultimate key to avoid undesired problems during your excursions
From just swollen feet up to wounds and lacerations, your feet are exposed to a myriad of problems during a hiking excursion if you don't pay attention to their protection by a bunch of tips, some of them very easy.
1. Change your socks regularly
When you talk about keeping your feet dry, many people think that keeping away from watercourses and avoiding stepping on puddles is enough to keep your feet dry.

Yes, your feet get dry not because of external water but due to your own bodily fluids retained in your socks, so changing them regularly it's a good idea to keep your feet dry and healthy.
2. Get sure your socks are dry
Many times hikers change their socks and store the used pair in a bag inside their backpack.
That's a mistake because unless you carry with you several socks pairs, sooner or later you will need to reuse the first, wet pair, and guess what? After being stored for several hours in a closed environment, they will be almost as wet as the moment when entered into the bag, leaving you without replacement socks.
Orange Vests not only for hunters but hounds too
But what about hounds? It would be easy for a hunter to get confused and take a hound by a game, shooting and killing it.

To avoid such a fatal mistake, hounds also must wear an orange vest. This will allow you and other hunters in the area to easily differentiate a hunter animal (hound) from a hunted one (the game).
Once again, most animals allowed to be hunted with hounds are blinded to orange and won't notice the hounds presence because of the color, but they will be safe from gunshots because everybody knows an animal wearing an orange vest is a fellow hunter too.
This is particularly important during waterfowl season when hunting grounds get crowded with hunters ready to shoot just with a minor movement. In this case, seeing an orange vest will allow you to decide if it's safe to shoot or not in less than a second.
It's just a conditioned reflex, once you see something orange in front of you, the finger will stay away from the trigger.
Don't forget to keep hydrated
It's not only is capable to kill a person because of its body dysfunction, but also affecting his survival capabilities and even putting people in hazardous situations, most of the time without being aware of the real risk.
That's why it remains paramount not only to count on a reliable water supply but also to be conscious of the need for water and don't neglect hydration, otherwise, our body and mind will deteriorate silently until putting us in real danger.
During physical activity, our body heats up and bodily water is used to keep everything running well inside the cells, so there's water consumption even when the weather is cold and it's necessary to refill bodily water reserves to prevent organ damage.
In a hot climate, things are easier because it's feasible to get thirsty but during cold days many people don't feel the need to drink water, getting dehydrated slowly and continuously, until being so weak that it's possible to collapse.
To avoid such a dangerous situation it's very important to be aware of how much water we are drinking throughout the day, and rehydrate our body continuously, despite being thirsty or not, otherwise, once we find out we are dehydrated, it might be too late.
Keep mosquitoes away
Yes, it's funny and great to be outdoors but there are also some negative characteristics and risks requiring attention to avoid unexpected consequences and yes, camping and hunting might be risky and even deadly if you don't behave properly.
Perhaps the first risk jumping to your mind when you talk about the risks of camping and hunting is about a fire, a wild animal attack, or even a gun accident, and even when those are real possibilities, it's not as usual as one might expect but there's something virtually all camper or hunter is exposed to, a potentially deadly, imperceptible risk: Mosquito bites.
Especially in wet areas, when the weather is warm, mosquitos may be a real nightmare. Their buzzing and bites may force you to leave an area, only to find mosquitoes everywhere!
Certainly, it's not grateful to become a myriad insects' dinner so, the best choice is to be prepared in advance to avoid such situation, preventing not only mosquitoes bites but also deadly diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, and even Chikungunya fever, especially in tropical and subtropical areas.
The first thing to do is investigate local mosquitoes activities patterns. In endemic areas mosquitoes are found all day long, but in certain timeframes they become more active, particularly at dawn and dusk, so knowing the peak mosquitoes hours it's possible to find shelter before millions of mosquitoes are out for dinner.
Water Treatment Outdoors
So, the first thing to do when you are outdoors is to find a water source but keep in mind that not all water supplies are safe, even clear, fresh, pristine water may get you sick if it is contaminated, and the worse dangers are not easy to identify.
No one would drink dirty, brown water unless it's a matter of death or life, but the real risks appear also with clear water that might be contaminated by microorganisms without giving any sign of it until the person who drinks it gets sick.
The major risks when you drink water from natural sources are microorganisms, mainly protozoan and bacteria but also some viruses however, risks don't remain here and water might be contaminated with pesticides or other chemicals, particularly in areas downstream of human activity, especially industrial.
That's why it's so important to properly treat water before drinking it outdoors, no matter how clean it looks, waterborne diseases are a major concern and you need to be aware of them and behave accordingly.
On this regard, it's extremely important to count on a water treatment system among your camping and hunting equipment, this way you will be safe when consuming treated water instead of drinking it straight from natural sources.