- Joined
- Mar 7, 2002
- Messages
- 759
Well took the kids on their first float trip this weekend. I believe that it was the Illinois river here in NW Arkansas. Took a pretty fancy knife and custom made baldric, ie Mora sports knife and nylon string over my shoulder. The knife is so light that it actually worked great and I didnt even notice it during paddling and swimming. The son and I practiced a few feather sticks and basic skills during our lunch break on the bank. The water levels were just right and it was a lot of fun for the younguns until right at the last. While teaching the kids how to paddle, we spent a lot of time going in circles and going under tree limbs. The last tree that we encountered, I heard a lot of screaming and finally looked about a foot from our heads just where I was about to grab and saw a water moccasin draped over the limb. I got everyone to be quite and to be perfectly still and let the water push us downstream thus avoiding him jumping into the raft and hitching a ride. All kinds of scenarios went through my head during and after but I started wondering what I should do if the snake had bitten one of us. Especially one of the kids. You see all kinds of things on TV about cutting the wound and sucking the blood out or putting a tourniquet on but what first aid steps should one actually take in the event of the bite and how dangerous is the bite from a Water Moccasin or Cottonmouth. I want to be a little better prepared before our next floating outing in case of a snake bite emergency.
