4/14/09
Respect the Cactus!
If you ever happen to be visiting the southwestern part of America, and happen to be wandering around the desert, I need to remind you to respect the desert.Here's why:
There are pointy things in the desert. Many of the pointy things grow thousands to a plant, and have special shafts of poison surrounding the pointed part, and even little bonus prickly hairs beneath the pointy barb to further your
So, my brilliant husband spent some time in ROTC and Survival School. A long time ago. One of the things he remembered learning was that there are snakes in the desert- rattlers and sidewinders and whatnot. Oh, and there are scorpions and tarantulas and God knows what else, lurking beneath the rocks to sting and bite and kill us all.
So maybe it should have been no surprise to me that when he encountered a fallen nub of one of these guys:
... that he naturally freaked out. You see, he wore canvas Converse shoes. In the freaking desert. And he, being the rebel he is, just had to go off the beaten path, where we encountered a whole heckuva lotta those little furry looking cacti pictured above. So when his improperly-shod foot came down on a part of those, and the barbs pierced his tender arch, with some sort of stinging acid shooting into his skin, his natural assumption was that he was being bitten by a rattlesnake. I was not in range to watch this, but from over a hill I heard a scream, then a couple of confused cries.
He had batted at the thing on his foot, lodging multiple one-inch spines in his fingers. The pic above is kinda hairy, but if you look closely, you can see the little death needles being picked out. He was in some pain...
Here's the shoe.
...and a slightly better shot. Those pickers actually stuck his fingers together. We worked at the ones in his fingers for a while, then wandered down the side of the mountain until we found a Ranger, who kindly loaned us his Leatherman. We used the pliers to pull the spines out of Mike's shoe. Some are still lodged in the sole, through half an inch of rubber.Upon examination, we discovered that these particular cactus spines are housed in a shaft filled with some sort of (formic acid??) stuff that stings, like nettles. The barbs on the ends are particularly good at staying in your skin or clothing. In fact the few I brushed up against are still coming out of my favorite green pants, three months and a dozen washes later!
We used this experience to teach the kids about treading carefully, and staying to the beaten path if not properly outfitted.
**Bonus note: this trip was in January. Mike's dad, upon hearing this story, laughingly reminded us that rattlers hibernate in January!
Labels: cactus, desert, road trip, sabino canyon, Tucson
