Chat
10-25-2019, 09:22 PM
Thank goodness I don't think snakes are common in Death Hollow! Death Hollow's claim to fame is actually poison ivy (more on that later), which to a lot of folks may be just as bad as snakes I guess. I did hear how Death Hollow got its name. Apparently back in the old mail trail days a horse or mule fell into the canyon and died. I was also told that someone once tried taking a horse up Death Hollow creek to see if there were any possibility of a route that way. He made it but vowed to never ever try taking a horse through there again. Goats rule.
I remember you telling about the semi going off the bridge. Yikes! Rather terrifying way to die. You've got quite a long time to think about it on the way down, but at least the end would be quick and painless.
I would say the hike was definitely a success, but it obviously needed a few tweaks. We were very sore by the last day. Phil was especially in a lot of pain. His feet were killing him. Phil's feet are almost as wide as they are long so he has a wretched time finding shoes that fit even marginally well. 4E shoes are still too narrow. His feet split the seams on the sides of his shoes so lots of little pebbles fell into the gap between the outer sole and the inner lining where he couldn't really get them out. He'd also acquired a lot of blisters from his sandals the previous two days, so by the end of the third day his feet were in really rough shape. I was ok until we got back, and then I made the mistake of sitting down for a while before dinner. Boy was it painful to get back up! Walking on solid rock for two days is evidently very hard on your feet!
So about that poison ivy... now, keep in mind that I've never spent much time living in places where poison ivy grows, so I never learned to identify it. Couple that with the fact that I've never reacted to it even when I did live in poison ivy country during college. I remember someone telling me one time on a hike that I'd just walked through a patch of poison ivy. I was wearing shorts so I should have reacted but I didn't. Since I never got an itch from it, it never left enough of an impression on me for me to remember what it looked like. Well, in the days following our hike up Death Hollow I ready many trail descriptions, all of which emphasized the abundance of poison ivy everywhere on shore. All accounts said "Walk in the creek!" There are photos of people covered head to toe in long pants and long-sleeved shirts with gloves on their hands and bandanas over their faces because the poison ivy in that canyon easily grows five feet high and can't be avoided unless you walk in the creek, which can't be done in places. Of course, not knowing this, and not knowing what poison ivy looks like, Phil and I tromped through without a care in our shorts and t-shirts. All I can say is that we are very, very lucky because neither one of us reacted to it.
It wasn't until a week later that I started to get a tingling itch on my bum. I wondered what it could be as it grew worse over the next two days, developing into a very irritating rash. Phil read up on poison ivy and discovered that it can take up to two weeks for a reaction to show up. And guess what. Yep. I'd made a classic camping blunder! I took a late-night hike and forgot the toilet paper. I felt around behind me for some leaves. Oops. Interestingly, I never got it anywhere else. The hand I used to pull the leaves didn't even react. Since we didn't shower until a good 24+ hours after encountering it, we could have been in very rough shape indeed.
Just as my rash began to go away, Phil started to get bumps here and there. He hadn't wiped with any leaves, thank goodness, but we'd been walking through the stuff all during the late afternoon and evening when the creek got too deep. It was weird that it popped out in random places instead of concentrating on his legs and arms. We were very grateful that neither of us was too reactive, and that the rash conveniently waited until after we got home from our trip before it appeared.
I remember you telling about the semi going off the bridge. Yikes! Rather terrifying way to die. You've got quite a long time to think about it on the way down, but at least the end would be quick and painless.
I would say the hike was definitely a success, but it obviously needed a few tweaks. We were very sore by the last day. Phil was especially in a lot of pain. His feet were killing him. Phil's feet are almost as wide as they are long so he has a wretched time finding shoes that fit even marginally well. 4E shoes are still too narrow. His feet split the seams on the sides of his shoes so lots of little pebbles fell into the gap between the outer sole and the inner lining where he couldn't really get them out. He'd also acquired a lot of blisters from his sandals the previous two days, so by the end of the third day his feet were in really rough shape. I was ok until we got back, and then I made the mistake of sitting down for a while before dinner. Boy was it painful to get back up! Walking on solid rock for two days is evidently very hard on your feet!
So about that poison ivy... now, keep in mind that I've never spent much time living in places where poison ivy grows, so I never learned to identify it. Couple that with the fact that I've never reacted to it even when I did live in poison ivy country during college. I remember someone telling me one time on a hike that I'd just walked through a patch of poison ivy. I was wearing shorts so I should have reacted but I didn't. Since I never got an itch from it, it never left enough of an impression on me for me to remember what it looked like. Well, in the days following our hike up Death Hollow I ready many trail descriptions, all of which emphasized the abundance of poison ivy everywhere on shore. All accounts said "Walk in the creek!" There are photos of people covered head to toe in long pants and long-sleeved shirts with gloves on their hands and bandanas over their faces because the poison ivy in that canyon easily grows five feet high and can't be avoided unless you walk in the creek, which can't be done in places. Of course, not knowing this, and not knowing what poison ivy looks like, Phil and I tromped through without a care in our shorts and t-shirts. All I can say is that we are very, very lucky because neither one of us reacted to it.
It wasn't until a week later that I started to get a tingling itch on my bum. I wondered what it could be as it grew worse over the next two days, developing into a very irritating rash. Phil read up on poison ivy and discovered that it can take up to two weeks for a reaction to show up. And guess what. Yep. I'd made a classic camping blunder! I took a late-night hike and forgot the toilet paper. I felt around behind me for some leaves. Oops. Interestingly, I never got it anywhere else. The hand I used to pull the leaves didn't even react. Since we didn't shower until a good 24+ hours after encountering it, we could have been in very rough shape indeed.
Just as my rash began to go away, Phil started to get bumps here and there. He hadn't wiped with any leaves, thank goodness, but we'd been walking through the stuff all during the late afternoon and evening when the creek got too deep. It was weird that it popped out in random places instead of concentrating on his legs and arms. We were very grateful that neither of us was too reactive, and that the rash conveniently waited until after we got home from our trip before it appeared.