Being in the outdoors is typically considered some of the lowest Covid risk activities anyone can partake in.
While there's no 100% safe activity anyone can do within a group, this post explores some additional measures we can take to increase our safety in the outdoors especially around other people.
*The Latest CDC guidelines say that if you’re fully vaccinated, no mask is needed in group settings
Recreating outdoors was already one of the safest activities you could do as a group during the pandemic, now as more and more of us are getting or becoming fully vaccinated, this is perhaps one of the first “return-to-normal” activities we can participate in.
Are you fully vaccinated?
IF YES!
Feel free to go mask-less!!!
Stay Home if you're Sick
🤒
It goes without saying, but worth the reminder:
if you feel crappy, it’s best to sit it out.
The priority now is on safety
Safety of your fellow hikers.
Get well now, hike again later,
Assume the Worst
☣️
Assume you have Covid.
(even if you don’t, play along)
Take measures to protect others around you from exposure, your hiking crew, your family at home, and other hikers you might encounter along the way.
Assume others around you have Covid.
(even if they don’t, play along)
Take measures to protect yourself while around others.
One of the frustrating aspects of this virus is the asymptotic nature of carriers, plus there’s no harm in taking the precautions.
Mask Up
Mask Up only if you're still unvaccinated
😷
If you still need to wear a mask:
Pick what works best for you.
It's an individual thing so go with what's most comfortable.
By now we have figured out what works best, either a hospital mask, a handmade mask, a bandanna, or a buff.
The idea is, go with whatever is comfy, that covers your nose and mouth, and do what works best for you.
Keep it handy:
On your neck is best.
Be ready to deploy if sharing space on the trail.
Opt for the "Low-Risk" hike
When choosing your next hike, try to minimize the "injury risk" and choose an outing with the least chance of needing rescue.
Why?
- If there’s an injury that needs a rescue, you and/or your patient will have a greater exposure to covid.
How?
- If you get rescued by EMS, First Responders, etc, and need to go to a hospital, you’ll be exposed to a covid environment.
- Worse if the hospital you’re taken to is at capacity with covid patients, you might get emergency care outside the ER.
- You may be triaged out and the care you need might be pushed to a lower priority.
- You might need to self-quarantine and isolate after discharge.
This is a worst-case-scenario but keep it in mind when choosing your next adventure.
Carpooling
Carpooling is now the preferred transportation option for groups
Carpooling was off-the-table for a while, but once again, it's safe to do so, especially if everyone in the car is fully vaccinated.
Thru-hikes, where carpooling might be the only travel option:
Group Size... No Longer An Issue
Social distancing guidelines used to keep our group sizes small, but this is no longer an issue.
Spreading Out
No longer an issue
Single Tracks
Full return to normal
Wide Fire Roads
Full return to normal
Encountering Others
Not all hikers are fully vaccinated.
Not all hikers wear masks.
Yep, there will be times (more than once I'd bet) you'll see hikers, mountain bikers, trail runners not wearing a mask at all, and that's fine. The risk of contracting a virus in mere passing someone on the trail is already incredibly low (not 100% low) especially if there's a couple meters of space between you.
Put a mask on, and that risk drops even more.
It's easy to maintain the social distancing rules while passing people on wide fire roads, but what about tight single tracks?
It's true, we all have to share the trail, and it's inevitable that you'll encounter other hikers, runners, or mountain bikes who need to pass one another on a tight single track trail.
What to do then?
Follow the "hikers right-of-way" guidelines:
- Acknowledge you see each other.
- The hikers on ascent typically get right of way, but this is a flexible guideline, someone will get waved through.
- If you have the right-of-way:
-pull up your mask, and wait til you’re given the go-ahead to pass. - If you have to let a group ascend past:
-pull up your mask, move to the side where you can, and let the group pass. - In a crowded clearing, summit or parking lot:
-pull up your mask, and allow plenty of space around others.
Also... be friendly! Wave, say hi to folks.
We're all sharing the stoke of the outdoors together.
🤠
Summit Celebrations
Full return to normal 🥃
"CHEERS!"something we can all enjoy at the top! ⛰
Cheers to That!
Can you believe we used to socially distant like this?
Bring Sanitizer
Still a handy item to bring a long
First Aid
1. Mask Up when helping strangers not in your group.
You may be hiking with a fully vaccinated crew, but emergency situations fall outside that control, and you might be engaging with other people, potentially unvaccinated people.
Most of the "First Aid" situations we encounter while hiking are minor most of the time (cuts, sprains, bruises, scrapes, etc) and in all cases we are helping one another in close contact, so step one in any first aid situation is to "Mask Up"
(both patient and the medic)
2. Sanitize
We will be using our hands, so get the sanitizer out and clean those hands.
(yes, the patient as well)
3. Gloves
When interacting with a patient that might involve contact with skin or fluids of some sort, add an extra layer of protection by using gloves.
In wilderness medicine training, we're taught to "Protect yourself first".
If you have to touch a patient where fluids are involved (even sweat) you should be wearing gloves.
Update the First Aid Kit.
- Make sure you include gloves in your first aid kit.
- (more than one pair of you have the space)
- Be sure your kit includes a good supply of wipes like alcohol swabs.
- This is a good opportunity to update expired medicines and dried up bandaids.
CPR ?
If there's need to perform CPR on a patient, and you need to engage in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation;
prioritize life-saving over virus protection.
Lifesaving is messy, you're saving a life, get that part taken care of first.
Yes, you can perform mouth-to-mouth with your mask on.
If your mask is preventing a good breath, poke a hole in one of your extra rubber gloves and create a dental dam.
Get creative and be flexible in life-saving situations and above all, don't panic.
More resources can be found here:
Hiking Solo
Safety Without Numbers
Hiking solo is perhaps the safest of all when is comes to contagion risk.
It's always best to hike with a buddy, but this is something the more advanced hikers need to weigh for themselves.
A few quick things to consider are:
- You’ll probably encounter other hikers, so you’ll need to be ready to mask up when those situations arise.
- Wilderness First Aid training is a must-have, you may have to perform self first aid, and may have to perform first aid on a stranger.
- You’ll be alone.
This has it’s own list of risks and you’ll need to have advanced preparedness and training to pull this off safely, and there’s too many factors to list here that fall outside the scope of this post.
2 Responses
This is really great, Paul! Thank you.
On single track trail, I also try to turn my head as I pass others or they pass me, just so I’m not breathing right at them. Even though I’m breathing through a buff, I’m often breathing HARD.
Turning my head seemed rude, so I now make it a point to acknowledge people, saying “Hi” or something in a friendly tone before facing away.
That’s a really good point Jerry, Thanks!
This pandemic is so new to most of us, and we often forget the real reasons why were out there on the trails in the first place!