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Cow parsnip, the curse of the trail
Runners and hikers battle blistering rashes caused by plant and sunlight
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"I wore gloves to bed to keep me from itching," she said. "That didn't work."
The rash finally went away, but Lastufka decided she'd prevent a recurrence by avoiding the plant altogether.
A few weekends ago, she and her friends decided to try the trail again. It was a sunny day -- a perfect environment for cow parsnip problems -- but Lastufka was hoping for a little luck. She wore shorts again, but this time she washed off afterward to try to remove any remnants of the plant.
But a few days later she recognized a telltale sign that she wasn't lucky at all.
"I was sitting at work and all the sudden my legs started to itch," she said.
The rash was back.
Not all bad
There's more to cow parsnip than its bad reputation on the trail. Janice Schofield, author of "Discovering Wild Plants," said it makes a great substitute for celery. Once peeled, cow parsnip stalks can be eaten raw or cooked. To make a unique hors d' oeuvre, the stems can be stuffed with cream cheese or seafood filling, she said.
The plant's strong suits go beyond the kitchen. Schofield has read that drinking cow parsnip tea can help counter nausea and heartburn. She uses the plant to make liniments for aches and pains and tinctures to settle an upset stomach.
But as cow parsnip flourishes in July and August, runners and hikers will continue meeting up with it in the meadows and open woods of Southcentral. They've found it on the Matanuska Peak Trail in the Valley, along Johnson Pass and even on Mount Marathon in Seward. It grows particularly well in places along Crow Pass Trail.
"It towers above my head," Lastufka said. "You literally go through a forest of cow parsnip."
It's been so bad there that state health officials even studied the problem the year after Lastufka's run-in with cow parsnip.
The state Section of Epidemiology interviewed 99 runners -- almost 85 percent of the competitors -- who raced in the 1993 Crow Pass Crossing. In that sample, 65 racers developed a rash, and most still had it 10 days after onset. Dozens of racers with rashes had been exposed to cow parsnip before without reacting to it.
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