This month’s tip is one that is sometimes overlooked by riders especially when it starts to get colder. It’s not a handy new gadget for the trail; this tip has to do with your personal health to avoid Dehydration.

Here in the east, August is probably the hottest and most humid month all year. It is also a great time to ride because frequent thunder storms keep the dust knocked down and the rain water fills up your favorite mud holes.

Sometimes during the excitement of going to ride people often forget to pack enough water. Even if the ride is a short one after work, you should pack water to stay hydrated.

Studies have shown that on a moderately warm day you can lose up to two liters of fluid per hour on an aggressive ride. If this fluid is not replaced, the risk of a heat related illness increases rapidly. Heat related illnesses range from initial dehydration, where you have decreased performance, to heat stroke which could result in loss of consciousness and death.
Ways to combat dehydration are simple and over the past few years products have been made to make this task easier and more convenient through the development of Hydration Packs.

Riders who want to stay on the top of their game should start to hydrate well before you ever throw your leg over the seat. Approximately two hours before the ride you should drink about 20 oz of fluid. This should last until your first fluid break about ½ hour into the ride. Drinking frequent sips from a hydration pack is better than drinking large amounts every once and a while.

Sports drinks have been developed to replace electrolytes that are essential to the body, but drinking solely sports drinks can add unwanted sugars that can tend to not quench your thirst. Alternating sips of water can help. Remember the feeling of thirst is a delayed response. If you have this feeling you could already be on your way to being dehydrated.

Altitude can also increase your chances of dehydration. Just as your ATV doesn’t perform as well in higher elevation, neither does your body. If your body is use to lower elevations, cells will not absorb fluids as efficiently and it’s important to increase your fluid intake.

Cooler temperatures also pose a risk. Fluid replacement during the winter is just as important as during the summer. Your loss of fluid is usually less apparent because clothing tends to wick away the moisture; however the loss is still there and should be corrected with consumption of water.

Other ways to fight dehydration are to avoid large amounts of caffeine and alcoholic beverages.
If someone in your party is overcome with a heat related illness remove them from the heat as soon as possible, even under a cool shade tree is appropriate. If conscious give them small sips of water, remove heavy constrictive clothing and pat them with a moist towel or cloth concentrating on the torso and under the arms. Then seek professional medical attention as IV fluid replacement may be necessary.

These simple tips will make for a more pleasurable ride and may even help with those sore muscles the next day!

When you look at a globe, world map or if you are more technically savvy, Google Earth, you don’t get a total perspective on how big this world really is. Until relatively recently in my life I was basically only seeing my little corner of this great earth, rarely traveling outside of the county in which I live. Don’t get me wrong…I have gone on a honeymoon and vacations that took me to tropical islands but usually I was focused more on just relaxing and not really seeing everything that was out there to see.

Enter Fisher’s ATV World, and the opportunity to travel outside of "my little corner" and seeing this world off of the seat of an ATV. Yeah, we are working to provide the viewers with the most adventure, excitement and ATV education that can be packed into a half hour… But the long filming days are SO worth it for a little more selfish reason, because I get to see most everything, smell everything and touch everything.

Recently, we were on a trip to the vast state of Wyoming, into the Big Horn Mountains. For the folks here, driving and hour or two just to go to Wal-Mart is routine. It is easy to see why people come to this area, whether it’s to live or vacation, the solitude is great. I can say that I was never in an area where I felt so small. The mountains towered over everything, the wild life was bigger than I could ever imagine and seeing the night sky, you would have sworn that you could have reached into the Milky Way.

On our first days ride in Wyoming we rode to this huge rock monolith that towered into the sky. Upon seeing this "rock", I knew that I needed to climb up and take a look from the top. It was obvious that others had felt the same need to climb this structure as I noted signs of foot prints in the gravel going up. People probably scale the Rock for the same reasons I wanted to….The view. And the view was spectacular. Looking over the edge, you get a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach. You could see well into the state of Montana. This was something that I won’t soon forget.

Getting back to seeing, touching and smelling everything, one of the days that we were riding and filming this episode we were on a really nice trail in the middle of huge pine trees. The canopy of the trees blocked out a lot of the sun and pine needles covered the ground giving the trail a slippery feel. As we came near the end of the forest the trail exited into a large open meadow full of wild flowers that were in full bloom. The wide array of color was not the first thing that drew my attention to the meadow, it was the smell. You could smell the overwhelming odor of wild flowers 50 yards before we ever reached the meadow. If this scent was able to be bottled every perfume company in the world would want it. As I pulled over to get a shot of the Meadow, my fellow Fish Staffer, Greg, pulled up alongside me and the first thing out of his mouth was "Can you smell those flowers"! It truly was an experience. I told Greg that this smell was a lot better then the odor he left behind in the bathroom of the Sheridan Airport. Greg just rode off, shaking his head.

Having experienced all of this wonderment was absolutely awesome, from the Mountains where we saw Bull Moose feeding on willows to the desert where we were able to touch several million year old dinosaur tracks. I really can’t wait to go back again sometime, perhaps in the winter; I’ve never seen a 16 foot snow fall.