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