Forum Index > Trail Talk > Expiration dates: Can you top this?
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Navy salad
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Navy salad
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 9:42 am 
I decided I should probably go through my first aid stuff in my backpack, just to make sure I had everything I need. I found a packet of Povidone Iodine (a pad) that expired in 1987! I opened it up just to see what it looked like, and the pad was stiff as cardboard and totally dried up.

trestle, rbuzby
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rbuzby
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 9:52 am 
How about what happens to old emergency "blankets" those mylar type ones. I opened an old one and it just disintegrated into a million little pieces. Not doing that again.

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lookout bob
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 4:45 pm 
great idea to update your first aid supplies. I took a Wilderness first aid class through WTA and they recommend going through your kit once a year at LEAST! cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")

Navy salad  mosey
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grannyhiker
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 6:26 pm 
Your supplies may not be the only item needing updating. If your first aid training dates back to the 1980s or earlier, as mine did, it's definitely time to retake it. Some of the treatments prescribed back then have turned out to be actually harmful (I'm thinking particularly of the cut-and-suck-and-tourniquet procedure formerly recommended for snake bite). It's well worth the $couple hundred and a weekend of your time to take a good wilderness first aid course. The "call 911" first aid class type generally found in the community (and often free) is great when the ambulance is 15 minutes away, but it's not much help when you are 15 miles from the trailhead. NOLS and REI, as well as WTA, are good places to start looking.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey

uww, trestle
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RichP
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 7:11 pm 
Speaking of updating, I just renewed my CPR card today here and noticed they have some Wilderness First Aid courses coming up. I'd never been trained in AED and it was a good experience. Something we need to practice constantly so that it's automatic. https://www.cprseattle.com

SpookyKite89
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Mike Collins
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 7:53 pm 
The expiration date on my Mountain House Breakfast Skillet is in 2047. I’ll put it in my will for my kids.

day_hike_mike, Navy salad, Chief Joseph, Shred
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mosey
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 8:30 pm 
Mike Collins wrote:
The expiration date on my Mountain House Breakfast Skillet is in 2047. I’ll put it in my will for my kids.
So you really want to curse them with dehydrated eggs? Some friends and I sampled a stash of MREs from the Vietnam war a few years ago. Reheated just fine and I've grown fond of pilot bread. Edit: I guess they're not from the Vietnam war. I was told they were half a century old from somebody's attic and I didn't take any pictures so I'm just guessing. Nonetheless well beyond expiration

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Mike Collins
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 9:03 pm 
mosey wrote:
Some friends and I sampled a stash of MREs from the Vietnam war a few years ago.
MREs were introduced in 1981. I have some in the garage from time in Iraq. During the Vietnam war in the field were cans of MCI (Meals, Combat, Individual Ration).

runup, mosey
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jinx'sboy
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 9:04 pm 
mosey wrote:
Some friends and I sampled a stash of MREs from the Vietnam war a few years ago. Reheated just fine and I've grown fond of pilot bread.
Back in the day, when you’d been a few days camped out on a small fire…. canned pilot bread in the old ‘C’ and ‘K’ rations, and the later MREs, smeared liberally with the canned plastic cheez was a divine and welcome treat!

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jinx'sboy
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PostWed Jun 22, 2022 9:07 pm 
I was going through the old stuff in the back of my medicine cabinet a couple months ago. I found some Tylenol that ‘expired’ in 1996. I threw it out.

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rbuzby
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PostFri Jun 24, 2022 10:19 am 
Fred and Helmey Beckey climbed Mt Waddington when they were teens. It was an expedition type climb. Fred kept the left over meat from their supplies, and fed it to a pal on one of his pioneering climbs in the south western US years later. Fred's partner said it had critters in it, but Fred ate it anyway.

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Randito
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PostFri Jun 24, 2022 10:27 am 
rbuzby wrote:
but Fred ate it anyway.

rbuzby
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snoqpass
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PostWed Jul 06, 2022 2:23 am 
catsp wrote:
Mike Collins wrote:
mosey wrote:
Some friends and I sampled a stash of MREs from the Vietnam war a few years ago.
… During the Vietnam war in the field were cans of MCI (Meals, Combat, Individual Ration).
And LRPs.
I tried a LRRP ration....once...I was in the Marines during the transition from C-rats to MRE's, the 1st generation MRE's sucked, it was probably one of the reasons I went on Embassy duty, we ate extremely well we had a Mess Fund that we would use some of the money to hire a cook, in Tunis our cook would make a Tunisian meal at least once a week, our cook in Belgrade was from Thailand who would make some amazing meals

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timberghost
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PostWed Jul 06, 2022 5:41 am 
Just add some water and it will be good as new

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cdestroyer
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PostWed Jul 06, 2022 6:53 am 
'66 was in the montana natl guard last year in high school and was at summer camp in utah. out in the field we were waiting for a parachute drop of food. I saw it coming down and ran out to it, nearly hit me. inside was LRRP and we were the guinea pigs for a test batch....boil water, pour in bag, wait til hell froze over, then eat,,,,,,enjoy. we were catching rattlesnakes and eating them....can't say which tasted better..

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