[pct-l] Panamint Rash [was: Ankle rash after hiking]

[kevin@antelecom.net (Kevin Corcoran)]

erik wrote:
><SNIP>...from Garnet Lake to
>Red's Meadow I acquired a fiercely itchy rash that started on my feet and
>spread upwards over a day or two. I'd never had something like that 
>before........
>.......Fortunately a friend lent me some Benedryl-type of salve
which helped, and after a few days the rash disappeared. <SNIP>


No, Panamint Rash is not a flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

On both occasions I've hiked in the Panamints I've experienced 
reactions to something.  The first time was on a hike in July, 
starting at about 10000' approaching the Telescope Pk summit. I had 
an instant reaction ....started sneezing, exposed skin broke out in 
an itchy rash, eyes started swelling shut, and it felt like my 
trachea started constricting.  (I'm not an asthmatic)..... I downed 
an allergy tab and once on top it subsided, but then got worse again 
descending to about that 10000' level before lessening again.  I 
figured it was a plant growing right in that elevation zone, yet had 
never experienced that in the Sierras.
The second time was in October at 5000'  in Surprise Canyon, though 
less severely.
Both times, my companions were not similarly affected.  I've not 
experienced it elsewhere.  I wonder if the range's high elevation has 
isolated its plant communities and it's something that grows mainly 
in the Panamints.  Regardless, it was new to my experience.
Any desert hikers out there had similar experiences in the Panamints?

Kevin "Hurry-Up-and-Pass-the-Bendryl" Corcoran