« October Blog Stats | Main | Mountain Cedar »
Copper Breaks Campout
November 13, 2007With an entire weekend off for the first time in a few months (or so it seemed), my girlfriend and I decided to take the weekend to go camping and fishing at Copper Breaks State Park between Quanah and Crowell.
Took the tent, camp stove and the like... thinking it was a great idea.
Until we both got sick.
Well, sick is a bit strong of a word.
More like, I had a ridiculous major allergy attack, something that I have never really experienced like that before. I've always battled allergies, but this was a different animal. In a period of about 3 hours I went from enjoying a day fishing... to a teary-eyed, runny-nosed, sneezing stopped up down and out shell of my former self.
And the day started so well....
So Amy and I loaded up the car and hit the road Saturday morning,
We pulled into our campsite about noon... unloaded our tent and gear and set up camp. By about 2 p.m. we were done and ready to go down to the lake and fish for a bit. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a cool deal this year where you don't need a license to fish in virtually every state park. So we took advantage of it for a while.
It didn't take to long to realize that perhaps fishing wasn't going to as easy as we thought. There is a little fishing pier on the lake at Copper Breaks... and the wind was blowing about 25-30 mph right in our faces towards the shoreline. It's kinda hard to cast your lure into the wind. So we were restricted to shallow water.
I pretty much knew that meant we'd be fishing for bluegill or maybe the occasional bass. I'm a fan of the bluegill fishing... those little guys are tough and will put up a good fight for a few seconds. It's enough to get the heart pumping.
So I set up with a small bumblebee looking jig and a bobber set about 1-ft. deep and tried to keep it near the reeds that were growing alongside the lake. It didn't take long before I had a hit.
Now... I realize this isn't some kind of lunker, or even good enough to get me on the outdoors page in the paper. But this was pretty important for me. I haven't been fishing since I came to Wichita Falls back in 2002. It really is one of those kind of things that I should do more often. I love fishing, and it brought back a lot of fun memories I have with my dad.
Amy decided (on her own, I never prompted this) that she wanted a picture of herself kissing the fish. I was a bit bewildered, but said that'd be fine.
I'm not sure if she wanted me to share that with everyone, but here it goes anyways.
Note... I wasn't sure if she wanted to actually kiss the fish, and may have accidentally pushed the fish a bit close to her lips. Whether or not it was my fault or hers, she actually did kiss the fish. It was pretty funny.
After a bit longer on the lake, and moving a few different locations, we decided to take a break and go for a hike.
If you recall... hiking and Jason/Amy camping trips haven't started off so well (ref. Lost in the Wichitas). But we went anyways.... I had a blast. Amy... not so much. Not but about 10 minutes into the 1.1 mile walk, I stopped in my tracks and grabbed Amy's hand. She didn't see the 4-ft. snake on the path in front of us.
The Rangers at the park entrance warned us about the rattlesnakes, but I knew instantly it wasn't a rattler. Amy...she didn't care and nearly fainted then and there. The rest of the walk, any little rustling sound in the grass along the trail sent her blood pressure through the roof. I was trying to not laugh out loud at her, but it was pretty funny.
Nature would take it's full vengeance out on me a bit later during the walk. That was when I first started noticing the effects of something in the air. I had been sneezing since we went fishing, and my eyes were alternating between dry and scratchy, and watering like a sprinkler.
We went back to the campsite and chilled out for a few. It was still to early for dinner. I noticed I forgot to bring a lighter for the camp stove. So, with my eyes burning red and watering, we went to Crowell for a lighter.
I stood in their meager medicine isle and passed over the allergy meds and grabbed a small bottle of eye drops. They worked instantly. So we went back to the camp.
Amy noticed what looked like smoke billowing out of a grove of evergreen-type trees when we got back. I took one look and knew instantly what was happening.
Mountain Cedar.
More accurately, juniper trees. Ash Juniper to be totally accurate. They start pollinating in November and run through winter. Just talking about them right now is making me itch. It wasn't smoke blowing from the trees... it was pollen. And I was screwed.
Mountain Cedar is one of those allergens that hits my family harder than anything else. Cottonwood and ragweed are close at second and third... but Mt. Cedar, it's a sorry piece of you know what. I have witnessed my dad annually reduced to laying on the couch near the throes of death from this stuff.
Stupid me went camping right at the start of their pollen season.... that's like walking into a cage with a grizzly bear wearing a steak vest and then kicking him in the groin.
Instead of immediately packing up and leaving (which would have been the best idea) I thought maybe I could stick it out. She asked what I wanted to do... and blindly I replied, I want to go fishing again.
Amy warned that if I started sneezing while I was down there, we were going to leave. We should have.
Pulling into the parking lot near the fishing pier, I noticed the name of the hiking trail nearby.... it was Juniper Ridge....perfect.
So we fished until sunset. I landed another fish...
The smile was almost forced for the photo... but I was excited to get another fish. Walking back to the car... Juniper Ridge struck again. I reeled off four sneezes in a row, and instantly knew that I was in trouble.
We were hungry and went back to the camp for dinner. Shrimp fajitas... very good. Afterward, I said we needed to go get some medicine. Amy had developed a bit of a cough herself, and started getting a typical sinus headache. I couldn't even see straight, the pressure on my sinuses was tremendous already.
Looking back, we should have left...again. We should have packed up everything back in the car and gotten the hell out of there. Staying would only bring misery. I'm not sure why she didn't put her foot down and make me leave... but I can't think of a rational reason why I stayed other than I just wanted to get away from home for a few days.
We drove into Quanah to the United, and found the pharmacy isle and both stood there for a few minutes while we tried to decide what was best. I went with the strong bennadryl to knock down the allergens. But it didn't work well enough.
Neither of us got any kind of meaningful sleep that night in the tent. The winds died down a bit, but the damage was done. Mountain Cedar had attacked and was going to make my life miserable for a while.
Waking up the next morning at about 7 a.m.... both of us were completely stopped up and in a zombie-like state. We somehow managed to cook breakfast without burning ourselves, packed the car and left.
From about noon until 10 p.m. we didn't move from my couch but once. Around 6 p.m. we went to Market Street to get dinner and load up on meds. Give me the Alavert, Tylenol Severe Sinus, menthol kleenexes and nose spray. Amy went with Theraflu, cough drops and something else I can't remember.
I could feel myself starting to feel a tiny bit better after that... although some of that may have been psychological... but waking up Monday morning was a different story. It took me about 1 hour to get going, then the head kinda cleared up, the watery eyes went away and for the most part, my runny nose stopped dripping like a leaky faucet.
I've felt fine for most of the day... a bit of a minor sinus headache, but nothing I can't handle with a little advil..... amazing the difference being away from the pollen source can be. I won't be making that same mistake again anytime soon.
Other than the near death allergy attack... it was really fun. I can't wait to go fishing again sometime soon...just not near Juniper Ridge.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Comments
"that's like walking into a cage with a grizzly bear wearing a steak vest and then kicking him in the groin." Awesome.
