After hiking with my brother earlier this summer in the Ozarks, I came to realize that almost every tree in some areas is covered in poison ivy. I guess in the fall/winter months I just didn't worry about what all those vines were, but it was quite obvious with them all leafed out.
How do you deal with it? I don't think it is actually feasible to just avoid trees with poison ivy on them, so we pulled the vines down with our walking poles where possible. I know that's not very LNT, but I didn't exactly feel bad about it either.
I'm no expert on it, but from what I've read it only takes a tiny bit of that oil in one place and you've got it everywhere. I thought about this as I stuffed my hammock (with the straps) into the BB sack on the second or third night. It wasn't such a huge deal, since we were touching it all day every day and didn't have any hope of avoiding it on this trip. I'm sure it's all over my pack/shoes/hat, etc even still.
On that note, does anyone know of a fabric-safe way to get the oils off of hammocks and tarps/backpacks/shoes?
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