This past winter, the Cape got hit with more snow and stormy weather than I have seen here in a few years, which put a damper on the frequency of our weekend walks. One hike we attempted became impossible because we were literally unable to find the snow-covered paths off the main road, another walk became somewhat of an adventure which left an unexpected result.
We returned to one of our favorite paths in late February, the Bridge Creek Conservation Area, behind Fire Station, Route 149, West Barnstable. We were absolutely shocked by the devastation the February 2013 storm had affected on the trees in this area. It was as if a bomb had hit - it seemed like every other tree had been split, torn or otherwise damaged. Towards the beginning of the path, a 60 foot pine lay fallen completely in our path. We had to climb the tree sideways, this is the sort of exercise that uses muscles you didn’t know you had. At other spots, you couldn’t even tell that there had once been a path – brush now grew across it – driven there by the 70 plus mph winds. The walk was actually fun, and we managed to avoid the thorny brambles going home with just a few cuts and scrapes. Until, that is, I ended up at the doctor’s office with poison ivy or oak gone wild 2 weeks later. I joke that a flesh-eating virus got me – but the fact is that this poison ivy flare-up has caused me 4 weeks of headache inducing medication and enough large wound dressings to stock an emergency room.
Here’s my tip: avoid going off the paths when hiking on Cape Cod; apparently, even in the dead of winter, poison ivy (or the oil it leaves behind) is in abundance.
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