[pct-l] poison oak

[Trekker4 at aol.com]

Bob  "Trekker"
Big Bend Desert Denizen
Naturalized Citizen - Republic of  Texas

Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if  it 
wasn't for us, you couldn't walk.' 
-- Harry Browne

"If you think  health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs 
when its free."  
-- P. J. ORourke



In a message dated 3/10/2008 8:39:47 A.M. Central Daylight Time, Trekker4  
writes:

    In '05, a wet year, immediately after the long  CA-14 culvert and a mile 
or two before the state park on the edge of Agua  Dulce, the trail had become 
completely overgrown with a thicket of Poison Oak  and other stuff. One was 
forced to rock dance down the creek for a couple  hundred yards before the trail 
reappeared on the right side of the creek. Both  sides of the creek had lots 
of Poison  Oak. 
Stumbling on a rock, I touched some with  two fingertips, at the same instant 
realizing what it was. Since the stumble  resulted in one foot standing in 
four inches of water anyhow, I immediately  scrubbed those fingertips on a rock 
and rinsed them in the creek.  A  couple hours later at the Saufley's, after a 
shower, I put a bit of Zanfel  (recommended by Yogi and others) on those 
fingertips; fortunately I never  had a reaction, because fingers are a bad place 
to get Poison Oak.
 
Bob  "Trekker"
Big Bend Desert Denizen
Naturalized Citizen - Republic of  Texas

Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See,  if it 
wasn't for us, you couldn't walk.' 
-- Harry Browne

"If you  think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs 
when its  free." 
-- P. J. ORourke




In a message dated 3/9/2008 9:44:18 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
billbatch at cox.net writes:

The  general rule seems to be to wash off as quickly as possible.   Sometimes
though you wont know you hit it.  Then once it starts to  itch - wash it off.
Any mild soap will do, even a bit of tooth paste and  water will do.  As for
the itching after the fact, my impression has  been (and I have had it bad a
couple times) that the powders, creams, etc  just give you something to do
while it works itself out.

Most  people report seeing very little along the trail.  While I have  only
hiked the Southern Calif section, the only place I ran into it -and  there
was a boat load - was on the final couple miles approaching Barrel  Springs.
Funny, most of the Poison Oak was tagged with a pink  ribbon.  When you get
to Barrel there is a sign for south bound  hikers noting that the pink ribbon
indicates poison oak.  For the  bulk of people hiking north though, no such
indicator.

PGumby  

-----Original Message-----
From: Len Glassner  [mailto:len5742 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 6:21 PM
To:  pct-l
Subject: [pct-l] poison oak

I've not had a run-in with  poison oak, but I expect I may have an upcoming
opportunity.  I see  there are various products that remove the oil (some
very expensive, some  not), and others that address only the itching.  Any
recommendations  as to what to carry?  Try to remove the oil or just treat
the  itching?


_______________________________________________
Pct-l  mailing  list
Pct-l at backcountry.net
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l





 
____________________________________
 It's Tax Time! _Get  tips, forms and advice on AOL Money &  Finance._ 
(http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001) 






**************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & 
Finance.      (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)