Discussion: Cactus story

In whatever year it was that Comet Hale-Bopp came, I was doing a rogaine near Tucson. My partner and I had the clever idea of saving our headlamp batteries by pinning glowsticks to our knees for easy sections. My partner accidentally kicked a barrel cactus in the dark, and that was not good. We never tried the glowstick thing again, and I don't recommend it.

Not a cactus story but this reminds me of the time several years ago at the Hickory Run training weekend when a couple West Point runners decided to run the advanced night-O course wearing only shorts and shoes and carrying a pair of glowsticks each for lights.

Not a cactus story, but it reminds me of that story of an orienteer named Foster, who disregarded weather advisory and went to the Navigation Games in Gloucester area.

One year at a Tucson Rogaine we came across a fence at night. The bottom strand was far enough off the ground that the easiest way through (at least for someone small like me) was to slide underneath. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the teeny-weeny cacti there. I ended up with small cactus spines in my butt. It was about two to three weeks before they were all gone.

I also remember a course with a control in the middle of a saguaro field on a hillside. It was scary because the ground was sloped and didn't have great traction. If you slipped, the only thing to grab or catch you would be a saguaro. I made it out alive.

Running as fast as you could ever imagine, I tripped, fell, and rolled through a couple of TX pencil cactus bushes. I went through a lot of duct tape to still not get all the needles out. Some swear by elmers glue but I’ve never found that any more or less effective than good tape. Also, kicking prickly pears is not to be recommended because they are more prickly than peary. However prickly pear soup is just fine.