No first aide kit

[John Yoder]

On April 4, I was riding my Giant mountain bike north on U.S. 33 between Plymouth Ave. and Monroe St. when I notice that about 150 feet ahead of me, a cyclist had fallen beside the road. When I reached her, she was kneeling on the ground and holding up two hands with numerous cuts on both of them from her fall. She was riding a one-speed bike with a large basket on the handlebars. I stopped and asked her what happened.  She said that she'd hit the curb that separated the business there from the road. I wondered if the basket had prevented her from seeing that she was riding too close to the right side of the shoulder where the curb suddenly appears.

Fortunately, she didn't break anything in her fall. I helped her get up, and looking at her bleeding hands, I told her that unfortunately I didn't have a first aide kit with me on this bike. As soon as I said it, I decided that I should at least look in my seat bag in case I'd put something in there that might help. What I found were two old packets of Wet Ones that I'd put in my tire repair kit to clean my hands after changing a tire. I ripped one packet open and found the little square of paper inside completely dry. It only took a moment for me to realize that, of course, I could wet them to something like their original function with water from my water bottle. So that's what I did, and she cleaned her hands rather well, with the exception of one deeper cut on her left index finger that refused to stop bleeding. At least, she was able to clean most of the gravel out of her cuts and ride off.

My lessons for the day:

1. Always carry a first aide kit. You never know when you or another cyclist might need it. I'm adding one to my mountain bike.
2. Don't assume you have nothing with you to help fix a problem. I remember reading an article recently about roadside repairs that you can do by looking for useable trash in the ditch, things like tin foil to boot a tire or a wire to wrap something with.
3. Water is the wonderful "medicine." It cleans cuts with or without a cloth.