Trail woes

LavaRunner

LavaRunner

Chapter Presidents
Jun 4, 2010
526
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18
#1
I love the trails, I am always looking for a better, cooler, more interesting trail but as summer approaches, all my faverites are getting overgrown with Poison Ivy and my last run was more a challenge of itching, sweaping off deer ticks and copping out after I had enough.

What are you all doing to avoid the Ivy and ticks?

Itchy needs help here...
 
#2
DEET!  It doesn't do much for

DEET! It doesn't do much for PI, but it's the absolute best for keeping off the biters.

For PI there's homeopathic remedy called Oral Ivy that I've had very good experiences with, as long as you take it as recommended, as in daily, and don't skip.

Good luck!
 
#3
Ticks...that's another one I

Ticks...that's another one I didn't think about. I was already worried about rocks and snakes and now you're talking about ticks and poison ivy...Stop scaring me please!

I will pick up some DEET tomorrow. I'm not too concerned about the poison ivy since many runners will be stomping it ahead of me on Sunday but I'll remember Oral Ivy in the future.



Joseph, you're a wealth of knowledge!
 
#4
I picked up a bunch of ticks

I picked up a bunch of ticks running through some grass about shoulder high, most I was able to just brush off, missed a few but they weren't in yet just hanging on good. The grass was in sort of a marshy area but the trail was passable. I was wondering how many copperheads lurked in the grass. I think my pace was sub 5 for about 50 meters.

Snakes don't bother me much, usually you can see them. Ivy makes me itch for a few hours real bad then it seems to clear. Ticks, natures diseased little vampires, I want nothing to do with them,

It is time for a trip to Target and the 80% deet on the legs
 
#5
I've had good luck with a

I've had good luck with a product called Ivy Block, you apply it before any potential contact with posion ivy. The few times that I have gotten posion ivy when I used the product it was much less severe, but most of the time, I'm ivy free afterwards.
 
#6
I've worked in the woods on

I've worked in the woods on the east coast and in the Pacific Northwest.

Poison ivy is hard to prevent. You could stay out of weedy or woody areas or wear pants. It's not the deep woods so much as younger, more recently disturbed forests. Haven't tried "Ivy Block".

However, if you get poison ivy, a product called TecNu is very good at limiting the damage.

Mosquitos are more manageable. DEET repellent does work, mostly. But if you prefer a more naturalistic approach, remember they reproduce in still water, so you want to stay to drier areas if you can. Most can't handle the wind so if you are in a windy place that helps a ton.

All in all it'd be a good time to stay out in the open -- like on ridgelines, meadows, well-kept fields, etc. Probably time to stay out of the woods, where there will be more water and not much wind.

Though of course you can always create a kind of wind by running as fast as you can!
 
#7
I was going to recommend

I was going to recommend TecNu for after exposure for poison ivy too.

But don't forget, they have a clip-on you wear on your belt that will keep ticks, fleas, flies, gnats, and stuff away too, so if you don't like wearing all that product on your skin, this may be a better alternative.
 
#8
The poison Ivy reaction,

The poison Ivy reaction, luckely wasn't bad. Although I ran through a ton of the stuff before I realized it was waffing away at my ankles and thighs. It itched bad after the run but after a shower and a good scrubbing , the itch disapeared within a few hours. A couple of benedryl helped too. Today I am just a little red. No real swelling or blisters. I have never really had a reaction but then again, I really have no idea how bad I might have been exposed before. I do remmember mowing some Ivy down with the Lawn Mower not thinking what it was. I was mowing barefoot and walking in the clippings. You would think that I would have reacted to that. I must be one of theose luck people that don't react badly to the oils.

I am well aware of Deep Woods off I guzzle the stuff! I have a home in Honduras and down there we have Malaria, dengue fever, Yellow Fever and other wonderful jungle diseases so I wear it all the time when in the RainForest. Guess I need to soak up before runs too. At least this particular stretch of trail.

I have been running sections of trail that I will be running a 50 Miler on this fall. Thought training on the trail was a good idea. Come November there will be little ivy and the ticks ought to be gone by then.
 
#9
Sea water fixes both. Once I

Sea water fixes both. Once I stumbled into a patch of poison ivy and emerged with thousands of ticks. I walked around in the water and removed it all. Luckily I live on an island. BTW, I did get Lyme's disease last summer. Prolly will get it again this summer, too.
 
#10
Yes, that's a good point - PI

Yes, that's a good point - PI is water soluble. Rinse off with cold water asap after exposure and you'll have little or none of the reactive oil on your skin. Again, it just leaves you with clean ticks, so look yourself over carefully. Even better, get some help for that part.
 
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