A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

It took about 2 hours to drive to the Shenandoah Mountains from our place in Reston. But if we didn't have anything else planned for a weekend, and the weather was nice, we'd pile into the station wagon and tool on up there. Leaving in the morning, we might have lunch in Front Royal or Sperrytown, wander around for a few hours, then grab some dinner on the way home, arriving in time to watch Diff'rent Strokes on TV.

My goal was to have the kids grow up to be as comfortable in the wilderness as I was, thanks to my mom who had let me wander unsupervised over our property in Vermont when I was 8.

While Mary's upbringing hadn't included any wilderness time, she was a good sport and trusted me to not lead the kids into danger.

John loved the woods and hiking and the animals and plants he found along the way.

On this trip, he managed to find a caterpillar that turned out to either be venomous, or John was seriously allergic to. A pale pink caterpillar with black markings matches the descriptions of some tussock moth caterpillars and related species that can appear along Skyline Drive. Many of these caterpillars are known to cause skin irritation or allergic reactions because of their urticating hairs. Of course, we didn't know that when I took the above photos.

I was also unaware at the time that caterpillars could be poisonous, as I had not been a kid who picked them up. (I wandered in the woods; I didn't browse.)

But by the time we began to clamber up a rock wall, he was starting to itch.

I hoped, of course, that John's reaction would stop, or at least be mild. But as we continued to follow the trail, his discomfort continued to increase.

Still, we were in the middle of the woods and had to continue to follow the trail in order to get back to our car. And, while John was uncomfortable, he wasn't in agony. So the picture-taking continued.

It's always harder for adults to climb than it is for kids. I'm sure I looked as awkward as Mary did while climbing the hill. But I was the one holding the camera!

Finally the loop trail brought us back to our car. A final look, then we began our return drive. But John was now in enough pain to warrant our stopping at an emergency room in Culpepper to be looked at. Luckily it just needed a salve (not epinephrine). But we all learned a lesson in picking up strange insects that day!