I thought poison oak didn’t grow in Colorado..yea, not so truePoison IVY In green are the confirmed counties in Colorado that have Poison Oak and/or Ivy My Poisoned shoulder

Yea, so...I’ve got some itchy bumps. Not those kind of bumps, get your head out of the gutter, no, the poison oak kind of itchy bumps.

I swore, and swore, and told others, and swore to others that poison oak doesn’t grow in Colorado. I knew that Poison Ivy grows in Colorado, but I’ve only seen it once and it was South of Durango (if you can call “South of Durango” Colorado) in Mesa Verde National Park.

Well, I am still sticking by the fact that I have never seen Poison Oak in Colorado, but I am now 99% sure that Poison Ivy is more prolific than I first thought. I have this large patch on my shoulder and several patches on my legs too.

I must have been somewhere WILD, and CRAZY, and WAY IN THE OUTBACK. Yea...no...I was at Chattfield State Park, doing the normal trail loop that I run all the time out there. BUT, it’s really narrow, and right next to the Platte River, and if I were poison Oak or Ivy, I would totally grow along that trail.

Why my shoulder you ask...well humm, how do I put it? Yea, uhhh, I fell down. On Saturday my workout was 2 laps at the gravel pond (3800 M) and then 2 laps on the trail that leaves from the pond (9 miles). About 2.5 miles into my first lap on the trail I tripped on a hidden stump and ate it HARD. I fell into the bushes, knocked my cheek against a log, scraped up both knees and my stomach, and I think that my left shoulder landed in a patch of Poison Ivy (I refuse to think it’s Oak). Sooo...several days later...itchy bumps.

This puts such a buzz-kill on my FAVORITE running trail.

So I did a little internet research and the above map of Colorado shows all the counties that Poison Oak or Ivy have been confirmed (the green counties). Now, I’m not really good a figuring out which county is which, but I can tell that around Denver...there is some Poison ISSUES!

Man...I am so upset!