TOPIC: High Mountain sengin 2019

drying up fast

nothing left but the stem

Still a few green ones hanging in there

"Stinging Caterpillars", geez, another nasty to be concerned about. I Googled them and apparently there are several species.

Not sure if I've mentioned it before but I run trail ultra-marathons which include any distance longer than a 26.2 marathon. The common distances include 50k (31.1 miles), 50 miles and 100 miles with races that fall in between those distances.

I'm going somewhere with this.

August 4th I ran a 50k and did pretty well for me. Several days later I became achy with chills and night-sweats, woke up in puddles of sweat. This lasted three nights. I found a "blotch" on my left thigh that slightly resembled a lyme tick bite. I went to Urgent Care, had a blood test and it was negative for lyme disease. They suggested I follow up with my family doc and that lyme, if I was infected, may not be far enough along to show up in a blood test YET. I did not follow up because IMO, the mark on my thigh did not look that close to the photo I saw when I had Googled lyme, I can also be stupidly stubborn at times.

I felt "off" the next several weeks but flew to AZ for a 100 mile race.

From the git-go I struggled, legs were weak and the slightest uphill grade I would lose breath. I stopped at mile 30. I phoned my wife next morning to schedule a visit with our doc. I requested a complete blood-workup to include another lyme test.

My doc agreed and results came back slightly positive for lyme so he put me on antibiotics. Might be the placebo effect but I'm already feeling some energy back and working longer around the property.

We'll see how it goes the next few weeks but in the meanwhile I'm going to be a bit more careful how I dress when venturing into the woods and just stay more aware.

Hope my experience helps someone out there.

Thanks for the story JM. I always heavily spray myself with bug and tick spray when I'm out in the woods seems to help a lot. However, I have pulled many ticks off of myself in the past. I hope I haven't contracted anything from them. There's certainly some risk involved anytime you go out in the woods. Glad you're on the mend, be safe out there!

I always spray tick repellent on before I go into the woods. I wear light clothes because of the heat so I can spray
my entire body. I use the strongest DEET I can find. at least 40%, I spray it on my clothes so I don't get it on my skin,
I know you don't want to get DEET on your skin for health risk reasons but its the best thing to repel ticks and bugs and a trip to the dr for lyme disease treatment.

Well, back in the good ole 90's today, and looks like it will pretty much stay that way through early October. Yesterday made 30 days without any measurable rain here. I went this afternoon for couple hours to see what I could find. It didn't take long before I wished I stayed home. I managed to find couple good ones, but not sure it was worth almost dying of heat exhaustion, lol. This has been an extraordinary month for unusual heat. We're setting records left and right in East Tennessee. I don't believe I've ever seen it like this in my lifetime. It will be mid October before it even gets down in upper 70's for the high.

Longest berry stem I think I've seen