Your going to need an ocean of calamine lotion

Toxicodendron says it all, albeit in Greek, so let me translate for you. Toxikos, means “poison” and dendron, means “tree.” This is the name for the genus of plants that contains poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. And, although I have yet to encounter poison sumac, I have a long and intimate history with poison ivy and poison oak.

I bring this up now, because one of the souvenirs I brought back from Arkansas was a spotty poison ivy rash, or more precisely a urushiol-induced contact dermatitis.

In the old days I would have treat this with calamine lotion, a pink chalky “lotion” that is one step above applying river mud to your skin. It drys the skin, but has little effect on the itch. On second thought, it is only a half step above river mud. Fortunately, modern steroid creams actually relieve the itch, so calamine is relegated to the dust bin of medicine, at least for me.

My first encounter with poison ivy was when I was an entomologist working in Illinois. I was collecting mosquitoes to check and see if they were carrying encephalitis. Part of the day I would crash around in the woods with a net, collecting mosquitos and unknowingly brushing against a lot of poison ivy with my jeans. The rest of the day I would pull hip waders over my jeans and walk through swampy areas looking for mosquito larvae. My legs would get pretty sweaty in the hip waders. Unbeknownst to me, the poison ivy oil was soaking through my jeans and covering my legs. The resulting rash had me bedridden for several days, and miserable for a couple of weeks. But I did learn what poison ivy looked like as a result.

All Toxiodendron species secrete an oil called urushiol (from the Japanese word urushi meaning “sap of the Chinese lacquer tree,” also a Toxiodendron.) This oil is highly allergenic. And even though up to 30% of people do not react to urushiol, an almost equal percentage get a severe reaction. I lean more toward the second group. It is estimated that there are at least 50 million cases a year in the U.S. There is no cure, but treated or untreated, most cases clear up in about two week, maybe three.

I have finished washing all of my camping gear from Arkansas, including my clothes, shoes, hammock, sleeping bag, stove, tarp stakes, and even backpack. Since most plants had yet to leaf out in Arkansas, I could not tell what stems and vines were poison ivy and what weren’t. So there could have been urushiol oil on all my gear or not. Better to wash all of it.

Along with washing my gear, I told Nancy that I would replace the carpet on the stairs to the second floor. I took on that project with some trepidation, as I had never installed carpet before. But it turned out to be pretty easy and only took me a few days to take out the old, prep it, and put in the new.

I am now working on my itinerary for my Buckeye Trail (BT) trip, which will start on May 6th. In particular I am trying to figure meals and resupply for this roughly 2 week trip. But more on that next time.

Until next Sunday, Happy Trails