Southwest: Fort Custer

[reidabel]

Thanks, you called it accurately, it was 99% excellent with just a few muddy spots here and there, I think more so on green than red. A beautiful day for a ride!

[kuhljord]

Tree down on the green trail, past the long downhill with the sand and before you hit the part by the lake

[reidabel]

Okay, so I was all concerned about the tick situation on my ride Sunday. Now, I've got all sorts of itchiness and bumps on my forearms and legs. I'm assuming this is from my ride out there. Does this happen to everybody riding there? Not being from the area, I'm not sure exactly what I should be avoiding, but I made at least some effort to not touch the vegetation during the ride. Apparently ... not good enough.

Advice for treatment? My buddy says calomine lotion, so that's what I've got all over it right now.

[davedejonge]

Ticks bite like a mosquito, in one place, and usually you know it, not cause the bite hurts but cause the dang thing is still stuck in your skin.
if its bumps (plural) chances are its poison ivy or something like that.

Good luck with it.

[SteveF]

Okay, so I was all concerned about the tick situation on my ride Sunday. Now, I've got all sorts of itchiness and bumps on my forearms and legs. I'm assuming this is from my ride out there. Does this happen to everybody riding there? Not being from the area, I'm not sure exactly what I should be avoiding, but I made at least some effort to not touch the vegetation during the ride. Apparently ... not good enough.

Advice for treatment? My buddy says calomine lotion, so that's what I've got all over it right now.

That's a reaction to plants I'd guess. Was the trail overgrown? I get a reaction like that sometimes, too when I brush up against leaves/plants. Might be poison ivy--if it blisters and weeps, then it's poison ivy. If it's just red bumps/hives, it's an allergic reaction "contact dermatitis." I got this so bad once I had to get steroid shots! Best way I've found to deal with it is DON't scratch it--just makes it spread and get worst. Gold Bond cream usually clears mine up in a day or two.

http://www.goldbond.com/medicated-anti-itch-cream.html

This time of year when the trails get overgrown, I take a tube with me and apply right after riding. Then again (if needed) after I get home and shower.

[reidabel]

Ticks bite like a mosquito, in one place, and usually you know it, not cause the bite hurts but cause the dang thing is still stuck in your skin.
if its bumps (plural) chances are its poison ivy or something like that.

Good luck with it.

Yes, plural and came up several days later, no noticeable insects buried inside them! Thanks ...

Okay, so I was all concerned about the tick situation on my ride Sunday. Now, I've got all sorts of itchiness and bumps on my forearms and legs. I'm assuming this is from my ride out there. Does this happen to everybody riding there? Not being from the area, I'm not sure exactly what I should be avoiding, but I made at least some effort to not touch the vegetation during the ride. Apparently ... not good enough.

Advice for treatment? My buddy says calomine lotion, so that's what I've got all over it right now.

That's a reaction to plants I'd guess. Was the trail overgrown? I get a reaction like that sometimes, too when I brush up against leaves/plants. Might be poison ivy--if it blisters and weeps, then it's poison ivy. If it's just red bumps/hives, it's an allergic reaction "contact dermatitis." I got this so bad once I had to get steroid shots! Best way I've found to deal with it is DON't scratch it--just makes it spread and get worst. Gold Bond cream usually clears mine up in a day or two.

http://www.goldbond.com/medicated-anti-itch-cream.html

This time of year when the trails get overgrown, I take a tube with me and apply right after riding. Then again (if needed) after I get home and shower.

I rode there for the first time a couple of weeks earlier just after they had cleared it for the Xterra race and I don't remember ANY slappers. This ride, though, I did notice a number of them, mainly in contrast to the trail being perfectly clear the first time I rode it. I have no doubt that I brushed many plants with my forearms and legs. Thanks for the recommendation, I will look into it

I was kind of hoping people would come on saying "oh yeah, EVERYBODY got that after riding there on Sunday" - but I guess I may have a sensitivity. It hasn't happened on any other trail I've ridden. I would hate to have to avoid Ft. Custer, which I've just found and is now (or was) my favorite trail. Figures ... but hey, I guess I could always ride it only in cooler weather and cover up my arms and legs.

[Static_Crash]

It's getting pretty thick out there in some areas, but hopefully we'll get most of the bad areas taken care of on the next trail day, June 16th.

I'm not a doctor, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express recently, but if I'm itchy after a ride out there I simply go over to the water station at the trail head and rinse my arms and legs off after my ride.

From the interwebs:

Water and Soap

As soon as you realize that your skin has come in contact with Poison Ivy rinse the affected area off with water. You have to do this first in order to make sure the oils from Poison Ivy do not spread. After you have washed yourself with water then add soap. Rinse off the soap, and pat dry with something like a paper towel that you can easily throw away so that the oils will not still continue spreading from something like a towel.

[reidabel]

I don't remember feeling itchy at the time, but I wasn't paying attention to anything but ticks. And thinking back on it, I kept rubbing my arms and legs down with my hands to try to knock the ticks off. Yeesh - that may well have worked against me and spread the oils. The pictures I saw on the web of people affected by this stuff were pretty scary, I hope I don't progress into something like that. Yikes.

I think I will follow that washing routine each time I ride out there, should I not end up too badly from this and decide to ride there again. I guess we'll see ...

Thanks for all of the good info!

[almostolen]

I got a bit of poison-ivy from the XC race....saw it on the ride home and covered it with a waterproof bandaid for 4 days and it never amounted to anything. Hope I don't run into any this sunday for the TT

[brokenbones]

@ Reidabel: With the early season and mild winter we had this year the plant life is thriving. I'd put my money on contact dermatitis. I usually start getting the itchy rash from that later in the year, but this year it's happening much earlier. It's like poison ivy, but apparently can be brought on by continued contact with any vegetation until you become sensitive to it. My solution is to wear long sleeve summer weight jerseys to cover my arms. For whatever reason, my legs don't suffer the same - mostly the sensitive inner skin on my forearms and the crook of my elbows from continuous brushing against branches and vines. Washing my arms immediately after a ride helps some, but the long sleeve jersey is 100% effective.

[SteveF]

@ Reidabel: With the early season and mild winter we had this year the plant life is thriving. I'd put my money on contact dermatitis. I usually start getting the itchy rash from that later in the year, but this year it's happening much earlier. It's like poison ivy, but apparently can be brought on by continued contact with any vegetation until you become sensitive to it. My solution is to wear long sleeve summer weight jerseys to cover my arms. For whatever reason, my legs don't suffer the same - mostly the sensitive inner skin on my forearms and the crook of my elbows from continuous brushing against branches and vines. Washing my arms immediately after a ride helps some, but the long sleeve jersey is 100% effective.

Doesn't look like long sleeves protect bones, though, eh? I have a 3/4 length sleeve jersey I wear for protection the same way--it's from Zoic and not too hot. I'd like to have one or two long sleeved ones light enough for summer if you can recommend a brand or source.

Yeah, right in the crook of the elbow--that's where it gets me too.

[thud]

I get the itchy rash stuff too after riding when it gets real weedy at the Fort. Usually goes away after a few hours for me, but extremely irritating! FYI for anyone racing this weekend, some sections of the trail like Grannies have enough overgrowth that it's making setting up turns more challenging. Sand isn't too bad yet, but contributed to my endo yesterday.

[reidabel]

So my wife got home yesterday after a couple of nights away, saw my arms and legs and insisted I either went to the urgent care or got a hotel, because she wasn't going to be in the same bed with me

Doctor has me on prednisone now (steroids), says that it is poison ivy and that it can continue to sprout up bumps for a couple of weeks after initial contact. He agreed I worsened it and spread it around by rubbing down my arms and legs to knock ticks off. The prednisone should clear me up in a couple of weeks.

He said a couple of things that surprised me and might be useful to somebody reading this:

1. Ticks won't get dug in for a while after they get on you, so just have a shower after a ride. It sounded like even hours later would be fine. So I don't need to bother wiping my arms and legs, though I might run my hand through my hair anyway.

2. Poison ivy gives you about half an hour to wash it off before it becomes a problem. However, since our rides can last hours, an early contact can leave it on for longer than that.

3. You all probably know better than this, but the only marked sections of poison ivy I've seen were down low on the ground, so I got the impression that it was a low-lying plant. He says it can climb and be up high. I guess the word "ivy" should have been my first clue.

I get the itchy rash stuff too after riding when it gets real weedy at the Fort. Usually goes away after a few hours for me, but extremely irritating!

Somebody mentioned washing up at the station at the parking lot, so maybe that could help you out? Although, it sounds like if the contact was more than a half hour before the washup, it might just spread it around like I was doing dry. Hmm ...

Also,

Washing my arms immediately after a ride helps some, but the long sleeve jersey is 100% effective.

[Static_Crash]

It's dry, dusty, and awfully sandy out there with pretty thick overgrowth in some spots. It is fast, but the sand traps will sneak up on you. Hopefully we'll take care of a lot of it at tomorrow's trail day, but man we could really use some rain.

[irishpitbull]

Poto is the same way. Dry as a bone. Sunday and Monday we might get some rain.