Hypothermia

[The Grebe]

How many of you fellow outdoorsmen have ever experienced Hypothermia? How did you get it? What happened.

I've had it once, back in the late 70's...experienced it while running a muskrat trapline. It was supposed to be a quick hop, get the traps out of the marsh, before an impending snow storm was to hit, later on in the day.

My son and I were in the canoe, moving as fast as we could, pulling traps and it started to rain.

The surface temperature dropped something like 20 degrees almost immediately and the rain started to freeze and coat everything. The rain got thick, like big drops of clear Karo syrup, but it didn't turn to ice, it stayed rain until it hit and then it froze.

I certainly wasn't dressed for anything like that and started sporadic shivering, even with the exertion of paddling the increasingly ponderous, ice covered canoe. My son was helping with the paddling, but he was having a time of it. If it wasn't for the fact that my gloves froze to the paddle, I don't think I would have been able to hold onto it, there was so much ice and my mobility was so impeded.

It wasn't long before I started to become kind of uncoordinated and the shivering, shaking and teeth chattering became almost uncontrolable. But I knew I had to get the kid to shore.

I didn't know about hypothermia at the time and I had been cold and wet before, but I had never experienced anything like this, I knew it wasn't good!

Luckily, my son had kinda over dressed and had on a water repellent parka and his wool pants...plus he had a youthful layer of fat. Something I didn't have at the time.

We were able to get to shore, but we were riding really low, maybe 3 inches from taking on water.

From the time we beached that canoe, I don't really remember alot, bits and pieces, I shaking like crazy and I couldn't talk right? I do remember throwing the gear into the box of the truck, knocking the ice off the Canoe so we could lift it and load it, but things were going down hill fast!

I know my son had to start the truck, my hands were shaking to bad to get the key in the ignition and turn it! We didn't live far from the swamp, maybe 6-8 miles, how I got the truck home I don't recall?

My wife and son had to get me out of the truck and into the house...and later she told me she was so scared when she seen me, she thought I was gonna die, she said my lips were blue!

She got my wet cloths off, ran a tub of hot water and got me into it and still the shivering didn't stop. She got me out and into bed with an electric blanket and more covers on top of that.

After a time, my core temp came back up, because gradually I quit shivering and fell asleep...I slept for something like 18 straight hours!

It took me awhile to get back to my old self, I wasn't right for about a week or so.

Thats some bad, sneaky stuff, don't ever want to experience that again! When it comes to the cold, I stay vigilent now and I don't forget my close call!

Heres something else I forgot to mention....from that time on, once it started cooling off, I put my boat up and didn't fish open water, except from shore...only twice have I been out on open water in the cold...both times on Mille Lacs, once last season and once perching this season and although the fishing is good, I still have reservations!

[gunflint]

Scary story. It's amazing how things can go south so fast. When I was 3 we were living in Mound at the time. Myself and neighbor kid decided to follow a dog around the neighborhood. This was in mid-January. Long story short, he found his way home and I didn't.

Of course the police were called, The neighbors were organized into search parties, even my fathers work place in MPLS emptied out so that his co-workers could help in the search.

I ended up on Lake Minnetonka after dark it was below zero, somehow (or maybe someone was watching) I knocked on a fish house door and there was a guy fishing. He didn't know anything about the search but he knew that a 3 year old didn't belong on the lake and found help.

I frost bit my hands and feet but I could have been much worse. The moral of the story is, You should spend as much time as possible fishing. You just might save someones life.

[GatorBait]

Yeah, I can't forget that day.

2 years ago my buddy and I were in our john boat floating a creek for ducks and a possible deer. First off, my buddy is about 6'8 and i'm 5'7 with a nice 24pack. It was cold, dressed in chest waders, several layers and my 4n1 parka. As we get about 1/2 through our hunt, we turned a sharp curve and ran into a bunch of fallen trees which was backed up by a newly designed beaver dam.

We navigated the boat through a small hole but we both had to bend backwards (the fun starts) to go under a 4in limb that didn't move. As I laid straight back the limb was stuck on my chest and my eyes were huge as I see water rushing over the back edge of the boat. A sec later, 2 guys, 2 benelli's and 1 Desert Eagle went overboard. The water was just above freezing and we were dumped into a 12ft hole with swirling current. My buddy made it out as he landed in a shallower spot but I was stuck as my ankle became wedged between two logs. In shear panic, I gained my composure quickly, ripping off my parka and working my way out of my chest waders. So I made it out alive but as soon as I hit the air it kicked in high gear. Knowing we had a mile walk to get to a house, it set in and wasn't very enjoyable loosing feeling in your whole body. My uncle who was on patrol happened to drive by as we walked into this persons yard and helped us out immediately even though we couldn't talk. The mile or so walk seemed like 100 miles as I could barely move.

Needless to say, I've never floated the creek again, no matter how good the hunting was. We did end up getting the guns back.

[lars0926]

Back some years ago my buddy and I were on our annual canoe trip. We'd drop one vehicle off at the headwaters and another about 32 miles downstream. We'd fish the river in the spring because the walleyes would run hard in there and it wasn't uncommon to have holes with nothing but 3-6lb fish. Tons of fun. About 2/3 of the way down the river (our second day on the trip) the temps dropped by almost 25 degrees. Unprepared for the weather we were constantly cold. We got caught up in a swirling eddy by an old stump and dumped. Fishing gear was lost. Everything was lost but the cooler and the tent. Sleeping bags were soaked (and so were we). I won't go into details about how we survived that night, but I was within an inch of losing my life.

[UdeLakeTom]

Twice....once when a teenager, tried to cross the Snake river near Hwy 65 near Mora, slipped on a rock and ended up wet....Dad's old '52 Buick had a hole in the floorboard and didn't have heat...the drive back then was a little longer than now....Mom put me in bed, and I stayed there from about 5 PM until the next am....

The next time was opening deer hunting in '94. It was my first time back to deer hunting in 18 years. I guess I got a little too excited and forgot my extra pair of dry clothes, we had 10 inches of snow on the ground that year.

In the morning, I put my foot under water, the boots were soaked and that was my only pair at the time, then walking thru the snow, it became caked on my jeans, and the started to melt. By 4 o'clock I could hardly walk. Finally stopped at a friends place and they had a pull out bed near a wood burning stove. Went to bed about 9:30 and at about 1 in the morning I finally quit shivering. Since then I have more than enough dry clothes and boots. I've found out that dry cold clothes are better than wet ones. Someday I hope to learn when to come in out of the cold.

[The_Duckslayer]

I fell through while goose hunting one year. We were hunting a flooded corn field and when I broke through the water was above my waders and they filled pretty good! Everything was wet! Took me 45 minutes to get back onto the ice! I never knew that a person could be so cold! Once the numbness sets in it feels "good?" but you know that you are in trouble then! I ALWAYS have spare dry clothes in the truck now when I go hunting. Stripping down to my skivvies in the middle of a corn field and then waiting for the truck to warm up was not a good way to end a hunt. Oh, and I caught holy he11 from the Lil Mrs when I got home to, but she was glad to see me! She knew just by the condition that I was in that something had gone bad wrong out there. Take care and N joy the Hunt././Jimbo