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Trail Talk

I had never had poison ivy before, so naturally when I went to dig the holes for the new sign at the head of the trails, I paid no attention to what I was kneeling in. Within a few days, my ankles and legs were blistering and my arms were too, apparently from where the poison ivy roots stuck into the hole. I tried to tough it out, but a week later, I did go to the doctor for some relief. She took one look and said, "0h my gosh!," which made me feel a little better, and like less of a wimp. She prescribed steroids and within a few hours, the welts had flattened.

A few weeks later, a tree fell across Mountain Road. Its trunk was maybe 8 inches in diameter. But attached to it was a poison ivy vine nearly 4 inches wide. It was like in Alien when they found the mother of all the aliens. It seemed like that vine had to be responsible for most of the poison ivy on the entire mountain. I dreaded cutting it down; I imagined the worst that could happen. Eventually, Bill Markey and I cut it with a hand saw, since a chainsaw would have kicked up a lot of dust. The vine seemed to be dead, but it was so large that the middle of it looked like heartwood. And I'm certain that there are surgeons who wash less carefully before surgery than I did after that operation.

Now that the poison ivy threat has been eliminated-ha!-please join us for trail work days on the first Saturday of each month at 8:30 a.m. Future projects include trail cleanup, drainage control, and work on the native plant garden in front of the Mountain House.