Managed an encounter with a cactus

Stepped squarely on a hidden prickly pear cactus today. A pear-shaped piece about 3 inches round full of long needles got stuck right in the middle of my arch. I found out that the best way to pull something like this out is one needle at a time, since the needles go in at so many different angles. I managed to get them out using sticks to break off as many needles as possible so that I could pull each one straight out without disturbing the others still lodged in my foot. Only about 8 needles went in, the rest were crushed. Once I had them all out everything was fine and I just kept on running the rest of the afternoon, however with an increased respect for them succulents. I think if had brought some clippers along I would have been able to simply cut off the needles and it would have been a bit easier to remove.

Lucky this wasn't a cholla cactus because they have a thin sheath over each needle that gets trapped in your flesh and is designed to cause irritation.

 

Glad to hear it's OK now. Is this plant found only in the southwest, I've never heard of them in northern areas. We have our share of thorny plants but nothing like that in the northeast. I was off trail in the past few days and the snow had matted most of the leaves down to leave a nice surface realitivly soft and mud free. Scrambling over fallen trees is fun.
Trail running is something I do on occasion, but much perfer going up hills to down. What kinds of trails do you like ? I also keep some tweezers nearby for the rare thorn, they can save your fingers and are a good investment.

 

Yeah prickly pear cactus is common around here in coastal california. be careful of walking anywhere downhill from a stand of cactus because pieces of them tend to fall off and roll onto the trail. I was pretty surprised at how little damage the cactus needles did, however. It looked pretty bad at first with a whole cactus fruit digging into my foot and it hurt a lot while it was firmly embedded there. Fortunately I got each needle out intact and was totally fine afterwards- pain was completely gone like nothing had happened. Thinking back I wished I had taken some pictures of the cactus in my foot. It was tragically funny. I had my camera with me but the first thing on my mind was just getting the cactus out.

I like both climbing up hills and running down them. I like all sorts of nature trails, rock scrambles, etc. I usually don't carry any tools or first aid supplies with me when I hike, although I find sharp tweezers handy for digging out deeply embedded thorns, and now diagonal clippers to cut cactus needles.

 

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whoa sorry for the multiple posts there. there was a problem with the server.

 

We have lots of cacti here in Tucson, you gotta watch out for them! I make it a point to stay away from the cholla cactus.

Glad to hear everything is ok.

 

I think I definitely live in the wrong state, wrong corner of the US to know a lot about cactus!

But I do remember dealing with prickly pear cactus as far north and high as the 6000 ft level in Yellowstone! Right on the Montana border at North entrance. Seems to love the drier prairie sites around there. I managed to get one long needle under my thumbnail, which had to be pulled out. The cholla cactus I can remember seeing around Santa Fe. Never had problems with it but I definitely got the idea that it meant business! Could cause much worse problems to the skin than prickly pear.

 

Cholla is nasty. In high school I went camping in the desert and almost every kid in our group got stuck with cholla. My friend had a big piece stuck deep in his leg and the needles had to be pulled out using a pair of pliers. It is known as "jumping cholla" because when the ground vibrates from somebody walking by, the ball-like limbs break off the top of the plant and bounce off lower parts and end up flying sideways into your body.

If you take a cholla needle and grip it with your fingers then pull, you will pull off the ultra-thin outer layer. Try it! When the needle enters the skin, this outer layer is deposited inside the flesh and stays there when the needle is pulled out. Then the flesh becomes very irratated for a while. Ironically, however, this feature of the cholla and its high needle density makes it very susceptible to fire. If you light a cholla on fire near the bottom, the whole cactus will go up in an intense flame in a matter of seconds, leaving behind the bare fruit. This does not kill the cactus, it just renders it defenseless against animals that might want to eat it.

 

so in short....it kills the cactus (unless being grown in a greenhouse...)

 

Yeah, so right. Glad you caught that. Fortunately I saw this demonstrated in a desert with no known cholla predators.

 

This reminds of a funny story (well funny now, not at te time as much, but even then a little amusing to me, and outright hilarious to others who were there).
A couple summers ago I visited friends in out of state. I like to go naked and after days of not being able to, I got an opportunity to sneak away in the early morning while still dark and very, very warm. There was a virtual desert like plain out back of my friend's house where I was staying, and I was dying to go naked there. No houses for a quite some distance. So I did it. I had no clothes at all with me thinking I'd be back in 15 or 20 minutes.

Well it didn't happen that way. I was enjoying it so much that I was gone for like over an hour, and it was getting lighter outside fast. I admit I was off and on masturbating building my orgasm up, which helped the time fly as I walked and was amazing fun. I figured I'd better finish masturbating at the house, and get moving while it's not fully light yet. So I ran, and right as I got closer to the house I stepped on a cactus and then sat down to look at it, right on a cactus.

So I am on the edge of the property in pain, and trying to hobble and still run to the door. It was full daylight out by then, and my friends, both female (sisters) who have never seen me naked but know I love doing these things, come out the door and are laughing asking if I had fun. I then show them the cactus. They laugh even harder. They helped me with the cactus, which was somehow erotic on my backside, and as I stand there I had an erection the whole time in front of them. More fuel for them to laugh about, ubut they helped me with he cactus which was good.

Anyway, it was funny.

 

Hey Spidey thanks for that great story. Yeah cactus is some pretty ridiculous stuff.

 

I'd say I live a pretty full life. Lots of stuff happens to talk about when you are a nude freak like me. "Ridiculous" is a good description to describe the cactus as well as my situation at the time. It was ridiculous , but also many things like embarrassing mostly from where it had got me, and me being naked at the time in front of girls. Girls who never saw me nude before, and I really didn't expect ever would. Not that I mnd though cause I liked it