Ticks at (off leash) 1000 Acres aka Sandy River Delta

[Jeb]

As an official off-leash dog area, 1000 Acres at exit 18 off I84 can't be beat. We've been taking our dogs to 1k since they were pups 6 years ago, before there was any pavement or trail signage, typically for 2 hr walks 3 to five times per week, year round. They run through the fields and dig for mice and moles. A lot. Never picked up ticks until this spring. Never. But for the past couple of months, we've been coming home from 1k with one or two, about 1/8" body size, on about every 4th trip, on us and on the dogs. We may have picked up a tick on a hike in Larch Crater too, but it could have been from they day before at 1K. Anyone else having the similar experiences? Any ideas on why they are showing up all of a sudden this far west at 1K?

[Jeb]

I see that there is a warning tag for nettles, we suggest adding a ticks tag too

http://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide ... Delta_Hike

[mattisnotfrench]

This has been a bad year for ticks. I've encountered them every time I've been to the Gorge since mid-March, and I pulled 7 off me when I was backpacking down the Metolius. I'm sure the warm spring and fairly warm winter is the culprit.

[vision-quest]

This has been a bad year for ticks. I've encountered them every time I've been to the Gorge since mid-March, and I pulled 7 off me when I was backpacking down the Metolius. I'm sure the warm spring and fairly warm winter is the culprit.

This is probably a silly question, but as someone who hasn't dealt with ticks before, if I wear long sleeves/cover up will I be OK besides maybe having to check my neck/face? I'm heading to the gorge for 5 days on Tuesday.

[Jeb]

@Matt - We've hiked all over western Oregon with our dogs and have picked up ticks only once: a 90 minute Hood River Mountain hike last year during flower season. Between us and the dogs, over a dozen of them. But when taking the dogs, which is almost always, we have generally avoided "known" tick areas such as Catherine Creek and any places east of the Cascades. For 70 tick-free trail days per year (plus 200+ 1k walks annually), we're really on edge with what we're experiencing this year at our daily walking area.

[Waffle Stomper]

This is probably a silly question, but as someone who hasn't dealt with ticks before, if I wear long sleeves/cover up will I be OK besides maybe having to check my neck/face? I'm heading to the gorge for 5 days on Tuesday.

Sleeves are helpful but they will happily crawl up under your sleeves and pants legs. You can tuck your pants into your socks. All body tick check still required.

[retired jerry]

If you wear gaiters treated with Permethrin it helps. Ticks won't crawl under or over the gaiters.

If you're going through brush that touches you above the gaiters, the ticks can still get on you. You could wear permethrin treated pants.

[BigBear]

Best clothing in tick country? Two schools of thought:

Long sleeves with elastic bands at the wrist, pant legs tucked into socks.
Or... Short sleeves and shorts.

The first idea is to keep ticks out, the second idea is to see ticks immediately and pick them off before they find a place to bore into the skin.


Posting tick signs? Start at home. There are ticks in town, there are ticks at the coast (in the foothills) and ticks in the Gorge, and ticks in the valley, and... It's like poison oak, there's poison oak in the West Hills, Forest Park, along the Sandy River, everywhere it wants to grow.

I've been lucky this year. I haven't seen a single tick and I've done a half-dozen wildflower hikes int he Gorge. Hope my luck continues.

[vision-quest]

Thanks guys. The gaiters are a great idea.. I'll take mine. I'll also wear my rain jacket with sinched cuffs and sinch them down tightly. This should also help protect me from the poison oak as well. Sorry to hijack the thread, can anyone direct me to somewhere close the gorge or the airport that sells treatment for poison oak in case I do manage to get myself a nice bite?

[Stefrobrts]

I also know nothing about ticks. The only time I've picked any up were on the Lyle Cherry Orchard hike and out in Trout Lake. They give me the heebie-jeebies! So far the only ones we have seen were brushed off our clothing, but if it gets onto skin, how long do they take to burrow in?

During hiking season we treat the dogs with a flea preventative that is supposed to kill ticks as well, because the dogs are so fluffy we would have a hard time finding a tick in all that fur.