Short Hike in Cape Cod

In July we went hiking in Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a peninsula in the south of Massachusetts in the U.S. There are a lot of beaches and they are National Seashore. In a normal year, many New England people go to Cape Cod for summer vacation, but this year with COVID-19, not many people go there. We usually avoid the crowd in summer, and hike in spring, fall, and winter. This year it is not crowded even in summer, so we headed for Cape Cod. 

Taking advantage of that, we went day hiking there. This day we started at the trailhead on the Collins Road, across the Ryder Pond. The trail at the beginning was nicely wide in the pretty green forest.

Lush green was so vive! We continued walking for another couple of miles towards the cliff. Under the cliff is ocean. Atlantic ocean is not my ocean, however, it is still nice to see it. (my ocean is Pacific ocean, because I am from Japan.) 

On the beach some people were walking and sitting, but it was not crowded at all. They were able to have long social distances. 

We sat on the cliff and ate lunch by looking down the ocean. Looking at the ocean for a while, we noticed that there are at least 10 seals swimming in the ocean. Mostly very close to the beach, but never land on the beach. Interesting! Even from the far away, I was able to tell they are cute. Next time we will check them out from the beach. 

Then we carried on walking. Then a problem came. The trail got very very narrow and it was inevitable touching plants. The trail was not maintained much. My immense concern was that there might be poison ivy in the plants. I or Mr.N can't really tell how poison ivy look like. We are familiar with poison oak, which habits Western half of the U.S., but not well with poison ivy. 

Because I am SUPER MEGA allergic to poison oak, I know that touching poison ivy will be a huge problem as well. The allergen to cause skin inflammation is urushiol, the oil contained in both poison oak and poison ivy. 

My nightmare flashed back. I had a handful experience of getting severe, 2 month lasting lash from poison oak in California. 

Due to that, we had to head back to the trailhead. On the way home we bought Tecnu. This is the only effective preventive method to maximize the potential not to have rash and inflammation from poison ivy/oak.
As an immunological point of view, urushiol, the oil from poison ivy/oak is first absorbed by skin. Urushiol itself can't provoke any immune responses. However, once urushiol binds to protein in the skin, it will provoke immune response. Once immune system memorize those molecules, next time you will get strong immune response, which is rash. Now I have established the immune response, it is inevitable to escape from that. Tecnue is basically a solvent for oil. By rubbing Tecnue lotion on the skin, it can dissolve urushiol into the Tecnue. Then wash out the Tecnu. By doing that minimize the urushiol contents to bind to skin proteins. For urushiol to bind proteins takes 8-10 hours, so it is important to wash with Tecnu by end of the day is essential. 

Tecnue is sold at any pharmacy like CVS or Walgreen. If you are a hiker, it is good to have it at home. This immune response is established in anyone, at any age, at anytime!

Luckily I didn't get any rashes this time. Phew. 

週末にケープコッドへちょっとしたハイキングへ。

ケープコッドはマサチューセッツ州の南東部にある半島。ビーチがたくさんあり、ハイキングもできる。バイク（自転車）用のトレイルもあるし夏休みの行き先として人気な場所だ。ここは国立海岸として保護された公園になっている。

お金持ちの人は休暇用のバケーションハウスとケープコッドに持っている人も多い。夏にケープコッドに来る人は多いもののハイキングする人は少ない。ほとんどの人はビーチで寝そべったりレストランに行ってホテルに何泊かするというパターンだ。我々は違う。通常の年は夏は人が多いので春秋冬にハイキングに行く。しかしコロナウイルスのため今年の夏はケープコッドも閑散としているということでハイキングへ行った。

緑が生き生きとしている森を歩いて行く。綺麗な森で誰もいない　（１枚目の写真）。５キロほど歩くと崖の上に出る。そこからは海が見渡せる（２枚目の写真）。そこでサンドイッチを食べた。海をみているとアザラシが泳いでいるのが見えた。１０匹以上はいた。次回はビーチに行って近くで観察してみたい。

その後さらに歩いて行くとトレイルがどんどん狭くなり植物が足にあたるようになった。ここで問題が。。。ポインズンアイビーに触れると私はひどい皮膚炎を起こしてしまう。ポイズンオークとポインズンアイビーにはウルシオール（漆のオイル）が含まれていてそれが免疫反応を起こすのだ。ポイズンオークはすぐにどれだかわかるのだが、ポイズンアイビーはいまいち見分けられる自信がない。ということでそこでハイキングを中断してトレイルヘッドに引き返した。家に戻りテックニューで腕と足を洗う。これはウルシオールを洗い出して免疫反応を抑えるローションだ。もちろん時間が経ってしまえば完全にオイルが吸収されて免疫反応が始まってしまうので意味がないが８時間以内に洗えば通常は免疫反応を抑えることができる。５−6回ポイズンオークでひどい目にあっているので今回は3回テックニューで洗った。おかげで皮膚炎が出なかったのでかなりホッとした。綺麗な景色だったがポイズンアイビーが生えているかもしれない疑いで忙しい日となった。。。