Stinging Needles

imported
#1

can anyone tell me about these stinging needles on the LT? I dont remember them on The AT portion.

Chef

#2

Stinging Nettles.
http://www.odsa.com/golf/oregon/nettles.shtm

They’re all over. You just have to look for them. Nice hot and sweaty day, mmm mmm. Burn.

Bushwhack

#3

They are all over. Grow pretty good in shady conditions too. The trail is better trimmed than it used to be though.

False Nettles look a lot like the stinging kind from a short distance. In VA on one trip, there were a lot of false nettles nodding into the Trail, but once in a while I’d run into a real one. No fun. Luckily the sting doesn’t last too long.

Groucho

#4

Bad Nettles have grown up along the LT in the places that were hit hard by a January 1998 Ice Storm. Thick ice formed on the tree branches, the added weight broke off many branches and thinned the forest canopy. In the summer the thinned canopy allows extra sun to reach the forest floor and the Nettles, and other low herbacious plants thrive. In 2001 & '02 the worst areas were between Rolston’s Rest Shelter and Middlebury Gap, especially in areas with mostly Birch Trees which faired poorly during the ice storm.

celt

#5

Last summer I hiked for several days in the south central Adirondacks and there were stinging nettles everywhere…it was hot, I was wearing shorts, and some of the trails were very narrow…the nettles are really not that bad, just somewhat irritating-- and it’s not a long lasting irritation like, say, poison ivy. You notice it, but it doesn’t bother you all that much!

M

#6

If you find nettles, they often grow near jewelweed (sometimes called touch-me-not because of the way their seed pods pop when touched). Jewelweed had either orange or yellow flowers, depending on the species. Anyway, the juice from a crushed jewelweed stem does a great job at stopping the burn of stinging nettles. I tried it in VT last year and it was pretty cool!

If you can’t find jewelweed, the stinging goes away in about 10 minutes on it’s own, but it’s a good trick.

Cheers!

Chipper '02

#7

jewelweed is also purported to be an “antidote” to getting the dermatitis caused by poison ivy if applied soon after contact with the latter. I think there is some merit to this. (by the way, jewelweed is an Impatiens species; same genus as the common garden plant used in shady landscapes!)

M

#8

Another plant that helps with burns is the common plaintain. It also works great for bug bites especially if you haven’t started scratching them and any skin irritation even open wounds like ulcers.

Angie

#9

In particular, I remember stinging nettles in one spot on the Long Trail on my NOBO in '02. It was in 20 mile (or so) stretch after Maine Junction, the spot after The Inn at Long Trail where the AT and the LT split to go their separate ways. In some cut-over land. I got welts. I lived. They went away. But it was a beastly hot, sweaty August day, and they irritated the tar out of me at the time.

Jan LitShoe

#10

The most impressive section for admirers of nettles was between Rte 4 and Maine Junction. The entire understory was thick with them, not be missed. Many more sections north of Maine Jct on the LT were impressive as well.

OJ

#11

Don’t let nettles get you down. Collect about 1 quart of the flowering tops,bring to a boil while adding 2-3 lbs of sugar and use about 2 quarts of water while boiling. Add 2 quarts water and when cool(like below80degrees or so) add 1 packet of dry yeast and .5 ounce of cream of tartar if available. Let this ferment at about 70 degrees for about 5 days, then it is drinkable and at about 5%ABV not a bad elixir. The nettles are therapeutic for they contain alot of vitamin C and acteylcholine-great for joints and arthritic cond. Mnay great recipes for herbal beers are in Stephen Buhner’s “Book of Herbal Beers” Peace,2 Spirits

2 spirits