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Most of the worst, event-ruining disasters that can
happen at Pennsic (or any camping event) are completely preventable. In
this article, we'll
show you the top three most common problems that occur, and how to avoid them.
Portions of this article are loosely paraphrased from Sigulf and Daniila's
annual pre-Pennsic talk.
It sometimes comes as a surprise to first-time attendees to hear that the three biggest dangers to anyone camping at Pennsic have nothing to do with battlefield injuries. The top three ways to ruin your Pennsic are heat injuries, foot injuries, and the infamous "Pennsic plague". If anything, fighters are better protected than the rest of us from the first two, because they are fully aware that they are playing in a potentially dangerous sport, and they train themselves to take appropriate precautions year-round.
Sun injuries, heat injuries, and dehydration tend to go hand-in-hand at camping events, meaning one can lead to another, or you can get two or more of these injuries at the same time. At Pennsic, heat injuries are the number one cause for a trip to the local emergency room, which is a good way to ruin your War. The good news is that heat injuries are preventable.
Heat exhaustion will drain your energy; heatstroke can kill you. Heat exhaustion is characterized by fatigue or weakness, red face, and lots of perspiration - with heat exhaustion, your body is overheated and trying to cool down. Heatstroke's most important sign is NO perspiration, along with fatigue and weakness, often a pale face, and sometimes confusion, or a "chilled" feeling. With heatstroke, your body is badly overheated and has begun to stop working the way it should. If you have ever suffered from heat exhaustion or heatstroke, you are now sensitized, which means you are more likely to suffer a heat injury again in the future, and you are likely to feel sicker and suffer worse with a repeat occurrence. Obviously, it is better to prevent a heat injury than to end up treating one.
The easiest way to avoid heat injuries is to stay hydrated. Keeping your fluid levels up has several benefits - most importantly, your body is better able to regulate its temperature and prevent a heat injury in the first place. (In cold weather, the water in your system acts as insulation and can help prevent hypothermia.) A well-hydrated body recovers faster from injuries like muscle pulls, sprains, strains, and bruises. Headaches are commonly caused by lack of food or water, too, so before you reach for the aspirin, reach for a snack and a bottle of something to drink. Finally, for the over-21 crowd, hangovers can be prevented almost entirely (and cured if you do get one) by making sure you drink a pint of water for every pint of beer. As the alcohol content goes up in your party, so should the water content in your body.
Other ways to avoid heat injuries are to stay in the shade as much as possible, to wear clothing that allows perspiration to evaporate (natural fibers good - polyester bad), and to avoid over-exerting yourself during the hottest parts of the day. If it's 90 degrees outside, don't wear three layers of clothing no matter how pretty you look. Bring water with you everywhere you go, and make sure to drink it. If you're on the battlefield, drink every time a water-bearer comes by. If you can take a nap or give yourself some other form of downtime during the hottest part of the day (usually about noon to 3pm), do so.
While heat and dehydration do go together, it is still possible to become dehydrated even on a cool day. It is a disappointing truth, especially for fighters, but beer and pickle juice do not count toward a person's daily fluid intake. Water, fruit juice, milk, and non-caffeinated teas and sodas are all acceptable. Gatorade is acceptable, but it is a good idea to balance it with an equal quantity of plain water. Alcohol and caffeinated beverages are not acceptable substitutes for water. Caffeine and lemon juice are natural diuretics, which means they cause your body to flush water from your system. There is nothing wrong with having a soda, iced tea, or a lemonade to cool down, but they won't help you stay hydrated.
If you haven't been keeping track of your fluid intake, an authentic medieval way to check your hydration is uroscopy - in other words, examine the color of your urine. Yes, it sounds gross, but it works. A well-hydrated person can expect to pass a lot of water (the ideal is a trip to the restroom about every two or three hours), which dilutes the waste products in their system, so their urine will be the color of lemonade or lighter. A dehydrated person will have darker urine, because of the more concentrated waste products (which are also likely to produce a stronger odor). People who are sick or have recently gotten over an illness, who have unhealthy diets, or who have recently had too much alcohol to drink will also tend to have darker urine, again because they are passing more waste products. Drinking more water is good medicine for all of these problems.
Everybody knows that you can get a sunburn if you spend a lot of time outdoors. People sometimes forget to pay attention to the sun, though, when the weather isn't very hot, or when there's a nice comfortable breeze, or when it isn't very sunny out. Visible sunlight does not cause burns. The ultraviolet radiation that does cause sunburn is NOT stopped by cloud cover, so it is possible to get a blistering sunburn on a completely overcast day. Because UV light can reflect off of surfaces just like regular light, it is possible to get a mild sunburn even when sitting in the shade. Wear sunscreen!
Likewise, people sometimes forget that even the best sunscreen doesn't stay on skin forever. If you apply sunscreen in the morning, you will probably need to reapply it at lunchtime, and again in mid-afternoon.
Sigulf's favorite sunburn story is about the time he decided to go up to the top of Mt. Eislinn to contribute to the Populace Archery Shoot - every person who goes gets to shoot one arrow, and their score is added to the total for their Kingdom. It was afternoon and he was relaxing around camp in pants and suspenders, without a shirt on. He figured that all he would need to do is walk up the hill, shoot his point, and walk back down, so he didn't bother to bring a shirt along. It turned out that a lot of other people thought the same thing - so three hours later... when he finally was able to shoot... he was sporting a terrible burn with bright white suspender marks in it. Later that evening, the sunburn, in his words, "turned into one giant blister on my back, and all I could do was lay there and moan because it hurt too much to roll over." Wear a shirt! While you're at it, be sure and wear a hat, too, to help protect the top of your head, your face and eyes, and your neck from the sun. Shading your head can also help protect you from heat injuries.
While the cold is unlikely to send you to the hospital at Pennsic, it is still an important factor to consider. Nights at Pennsic can turn chill surprisingly quickly, and many people are caught by surprise when they discover that both the ground and the average air mattress are natural heat-sinks. A sunburn will also cause your body to shed heat faster, making you susceptible to hypothermia.
If you sleep on the ground or on an air mattress, be sure to put something thick and insulating under you before you lie down. If the temperature drops below 55 degrees at night, or just feels damp and chilly to you, consider putting on a hat or a hooded sweatshirt as part of your pajamas. Your head is especially vulnerable to temperature fluctuations! A hot day without a hat can make you miserable, while on a cold night you can shed an amazing 30% of your body's heat through your scalp. Sleeping with a hat on can make all the difference between a night spent shivering and a night spent sleeping peacefully.
The weather has a physical effect on everyone, whether it's wet, dry, hot or cold outside. It affects our health in obvious ways when we are freezing or sunburned. In less obvious ways, it affects how well we sleep and it affects our appetites at mealtime - have you ever been too hot to eat? What many people don't realize, however, is that the weather can also affect our mood - partly thanks to poor sleep or appetite, and partly for the same reason that animals behave differently when a storm is brewing. While mood shifts probably won't send you to the emergency room, it's a good idea to be aware of them, and to be extra considerate of your fellow campers. If you find yourself snapping at people for no obvious reason, grab a snack, go somewhere comfortable, and chill out for a half-hour or so. You'll feel better, and your camp mates will appreciate the courtesy.
The number one reason to visit Chirurgeon's Point, and number two on the list of "reasons to go to the emergency room at Pennsic" are foot injuries, which can range from blisters to twisted ankles to severe puncture wounds. Cooper's Lake Campground, despite having trees and grass and open sky, is not a pristine wilderness - the ground is full of unseen hazards like broken tent stakes, shattered glass, bottle caps, and various other sharp things that do not belong in the sole of your foot. These things accumulate in and on the ground from year to year, despite everyone's best efforts to keep the grounds clear. Sigulf's favorite story on this topic is about the folks who were setting up camp early in the war, dug a fire pit, and "struck beer" - a stash of bottles that had been placed in the ground to keep cool the year before.
It is tempting to enjoy the outdoors by going barefoot, but it's a lot more enjoyable to wear shoes and stay out of the hospital. Even if you're going to Pennsic as a fur-clad barbarian, wear shoes anyway, and I'm not talking about flimsy leather slippers with no soles here, either. Sturdy footwear is one of the few things that even the Authenticity Police will ignore, because we in the SCA understand that our health and safety are more important than looking pretty. Even if you're not wearing shoes, take care of your feet, by keeping them clean and dry; you can prevent blisters just by wearing a decent pair of socks with your shoes, and if it's a hot day, be sure to change socks if they get too soaked with sweat. It's also a good idea not to wear brand-new shoes, or beat-up, falling-apart shoes to war, because of the risk of blisters.
Probably the only thing worse than a severe puncture wound is an infected severe puncture wound. In addition to glass and tent stakes, you also need to be aware of the risk of catching tetanus from stepping on something sharp, or catching something equally nasty by accidentally stepping in spilled garbage or spilled bodily wastes. Yes, the Pennsic staff do an excellent job of emptying the dumpsters and cleaning the portable restrooms each day, but they're only human... and let's face it, sometimes people litter, and there are always a few party animals who will indulge to the point that they can't (or don't care to) make it to a restroom. Yes, it's gross to talk about this stuff, but it's even more gross to step in it barefoot. Wear shoes.
Take at least two pairs of shoes with you to the War. One pair should be for everyday wear, and a second pair of sandals or surf shoes can be reserved to wear to, from, and in the showers. Ideally, you will also have room to bring along a third pair of wet-weather shoes in case things turn muddy. In years with very bad weather, people have been known to get one foot stuck in the mud, slip with the other foot, and then break a leg when they fall and their stuck foot causes them to land wrong. Never underestimate the value of a sturdy pair of footwear!
Pennsic Plague usually is caused by several factors all working together:
Most people who catch the infamous Pennsic Plague find themselves suffering from mild stomach upset and feeling generally run-down. Some people don't have any symptoms until after they return home. In most cases, a little rest, a lot of water, and being indoors away from the constant temperature changes are all that is needed to recover.
If you find yourself experiencing severe stomach upset (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps), or if you experience a fever at all, you could end up going to the hospital, and you should, if you're smart. Some types of food poisoning can be fatal, and each year, about 9000 people in America discover that the hard way. It may ruin your war to need to visit the emergency room, but it can ruin a lot more if you refuse to go out of stubbornness or pride.
Dehydration and alcohol consumption are both factors in Pennsic Plague that you can control completely. You don't need to go partying every night, and there are always water bearers on the battlefield to make sure you get at least a little water or Gatorade into your system. Even if you're not on the field, water is easy to come by, even if it's bright orange, iron-rich well water from the tap. And, all joking aside, for a moment: If you can't or won't control your alcohol consumption, please consider attending the AA meetings that are held on site, daily, throughout the War.
When it comes to diet, though, there is probably not a lot that you can do at Pennsic to prevent a radical shift in what you eat, how often you eat, and how much or how little you eat. Your appetite will be affected by the weather, the amount of exercise you get each day, and other factors. You could make the effort to only eat what you brought from home, and to schedule your meals strictly - and some people, for health or religious reasons, do exactly that - but even then you are at risk of getting food poisoning if you don't keep your cold foods cold enough, or fail to cook your hot foods to the right temperature. Pennsic is not the place to prepare sushi or eat rare steaks! Likewise, the ice in your coolers should be topped off daily, and anything that starts to look or smell suspicious should be thrown away immediately, so that it can't contaminate the rest of your food.
Consider: Pennsic draws over 10,000 people to a remote campground in Pennsylvania. These people produce garbage that goes into dumpsters, and sewage that goes into portable restrooms. That garbage and sewage attracts flies, who feed on it, breed in it, and then come and land on your kitchen table and your food, and walk around with their dirty little feet. How repulsive is that?
Until last year, information on controlling flies could be found in an excellent online article by Lady Sophia the Orange, from the Barony of Sternfeld. Outside the SCA, she works as an Environmental Specialist and Pesticide Manager, is a licensed Indiana Pesticide Applicator, and holds a degree in Environmental Science. While the article is no longer available, Lady Sophia determined that the average lifespan of the common fly is about one week, which means that the garbage generated during the first week of Pennsic guarantees that the fly population on site will increase during the second week of the war. The best ways to control the fly population, then, are ways that control their access to garbage and sewage.
Controlling the fly population is the first step in preventing disease; the second step is protecting your food from the flies that do manage to crop up. Lady Sophia's article lists traps that are known to be effective, as well as those that should be avoided for use at Pennsic. She recommends a one-two punch of smelly bait traps to attract flies away from your food, and sticky traps to stop the flies that do come into the kitchen area.
In addition, wiping down tables, plates, and utensils with a bleach solution (one capful or spoonful of bleach to a gallon of water is plenty) will kill any germs that the flies leave behind. Do not over-concentrate the bleach, because too much of a good thing can cause stomach upset itself as it accumulates on your plates and utensils. Here is a quick test: Dip your hand in the bleach solution and then "flick" the water off your hand; now hold your hand a few inches from your face (not right up close) and inhale gently. If the chlorine smell is really strong, you have too much bleach in the solution. If your hand feels slightly soapy and the smell is not overpowering, then you've got the mix about right.
And finally, it can't be stressed enough, and it shouldn't be overlooked: wash your hands. Hand sanitizer should be considered an acceptable quick-fix, but it is not a substitute for a good thirty-second scrub with soap and warm water.
There you go! Hopefully this article hasn't scared you away from the war; Pennsic is a terrific time, and most people find that it takes very little effort at all to enjoy themselves safely. Preventing an injury or illness is always easier than treating one, and all of the methods outlined here are easy to follow and easy to remember; they just take a little common sense.
See you in camp...
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