My interest in hiking in this area has waned quite a bit since starting Jiu-Jitsu. The main problem is I am usually too pooped once the weekend rolls around to venture on a long hike. Then there's the hike quality. While I enjoy being outdoors in general, the hikes around here pale in comparison to places like Alaska, Switzerland, and New Zealand. Add to that the bugs, the heat, humidity, the yucky waters that make Millie sick, and the cons are starting to outweigh the pros of getting out and about. Still, I need to give Millie her exercise so I started to look for some new trails that were easy, shaded, and absent of stagnant water. Someone mentioned there was a nice trail at Point of Rocks, MD. I had driven past the signs countless times before going up route 15 but never stopped there. I knew the C&O tow path went through there, but never thought to check it out until now. Flat walks were what I was looking for. Well, this trail sucked balls.
The trail was easy and in shade, so that was good. It was also long and wide and probably would make a nice walk under normal circumstances. However, there were few things going against this trail: 1) too many bikers on this trail, which meant I had to keep Millie on a leash; 2) there was nasty stagnant canal water near the trail, which was another reason to keep Millie on a leash; and 3) shit loads of mosquitoes attacked me. I disliked the trail from the get-go but kept at it since I was already on it. The only thing remotely interesting was a lock house just a short way down the trail. You can actually stay in one of these lock houses overnight by reserving your stay through http://www.canaltrust.org/quarters/. Anyway, we turned around perhaps 30 minutes in, for an hour's walk. I don't think I'll be going back there any time soon.
So not only did the trail suck, it left me with an unwanted present: poison ivy. I have no idea how I got it. I knew I had been bitten by bunch of mosquitoes, so when I saw bunch of red welts I thought they were mosquito bites. When they started spreading and got worse, I thought I had developed an allergic reaction to mosquito bites. You may laugh at this stupid theory, but I had an incident last year that led me to believe I have some weird tolerance for bug bites. You see, I got bit by something last year, and the bit spot had swelled up into something crazy. I had guessed I was bit by a spider and would turn into Spider Woman. My dreams of being able to shoot out webs from my wrists got crushed when rings started forming around the bit. Then it became a lyme disease scare and I stared a course of antibiotics. Tests later showed I was negative for lyme, and the antibiotics surely killed all hopes of becoming Spider Woman.
Getting back to my current situation, I had gone over a week without knowing what the hell I had. I worried about bed bugs, though not all indications pointed to that. After suffering itchy sleep last night I went to the doc today who suspected it was poison ivy or something similar. Well, I guess it kinda makes sense even though I don't remember brushing up against any vegetation. Supposedly all it takes is a nick and rashes can develop anywhere. I wish I had thought of this sooner though to save me a week of itchiness. This was my first ever poison something encounter so it didn't even cross my mind. Now I'm on steroids and should start feeling better in couple of days. The hydrocortizone also helps too. Lesson learned: wear long pants on hikes.
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