Stinging Nettle - Canyon Climbers Conclusion (for us)

The joys of hiking with a toddler, which is almost as good as hiking with a dog, invariably the child will get into something or other on each hike. I've taken to toting a few bandaids and QuickClean wipes in my fanny pack when we are hiking, just because we can't hike without S getting a cut a scrape or something. This time we ventured down into Cloudland Canyon in NW GA, where we saw a beautiful water fall, too many steps to count, and a 2nd waterfall that wasn't nearly as nice as the first.

Before the hike began little S was running to catch up to daddy, tripped and scrapped her knee and wrist. But if that wasn't bad enough, at the end of the hike on the way back up the myriad of steps she insisted on getting on my back (our form of transporting her when she is tired) she missed me and fell backward into a bush of unknown description at the time. I didn't think much about it until she was up on my back and complaining and rubbing the dickens out of her arm. We couldn't stay where we were because we were surrounded by the stuff and we were ready to leave anyway so I hiked her up on my back.... climbed up a bunch of steps and when she was still rubbing them I asked dh to take a quick peek. He said he didn't see anything, but I knew there had to be something so at the next platform, I set her down and found this. \/ (pic below) Now I'm no naturalist, but my first guess was Stinging Nettles.

She didn't seem to get it too bad, but it was enough to make her uncomfortable. I had for some really stupid reason an alcohol prep pad in my fanny pack. so I used it to quickly dab the spots and she seemed good with that. She carried the pad up the hill and kept dabbing them. By the time we got to the top they were gone. I've asked her a few times how her arm feels and she hasn't complained at all. Thank goodness. I think M was more scarred by whole incident than S was as M has added Nettles, to the list of things to fear.... like Poison Ivy, Black Widow Spiders, and scorpions!

And with that little mishap... we completed the 4 State parks and are sending in for our OfficialCanyon Climbers Club T-shirt.