Western Poison Oak

Just a heads-up to all of you who, like me, enjoy wandering off the beaten path in search of "that next great trail..."

It appears that I happened to find more than just trails last week; in fact, I discovered that the valley plays host to something more deadly than Poison Ivy - a nasty bit of work known as Western Poison Oak. Up until last week, I thought that P.O. was a 'back east' kinda' plant, but nope... I have some pretty impressive Urushiol (the toxic / corrosive chemical that makes this plant so deadly) induced wounds on both legs to prove the point.

Here is a picture of what 'the enemy' looks like:

http://www.sjparks.org/Trails/images/poison-oak1_001.jpg

In case the two of you do happen to meet, wash the Urushiol oil off with soap and water - lots of it - ASAP. If you are beyond that point (you have less than an hour to catch it before the oil sinks into your skin) the best relief I found from the subsequent itching is called Sarna-P; available at White's Pharmacy downtown. Without it, you will be driven to distraction wanting to scratch - and won't sleep much.

See this link for a full description, as well as spring (green) and fall (red) pics' of the beast...

A.