Tricks of the trade for the outdoorsy

[BeccaDay]

OK, I’m going to post a picture here so you can all get a good laugh at me. Here goes:

Yes, these are my pants after caching today. I should have worn jeans!

So this Colorado-raised girl sometimes forgets about stuff like burrs in all of the brush and things like that in the great outdoors of Wisconsin. Now if you want tips for avoiding rattlesnakes, hiking in high altitude or what to do if you fall in cactus I could give you all kinds of information. So my question is, is there a good way to get all these burrs off? Or do I pretty much have to just pull them all off one by one? It’s probably easier to just buy new pants! And while we’re on the topic, anyone else want to share any other tricks of the trade that they’ve picked up over the years?

Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien

[amita17]

I had a lot on me one time but they came off pretty easily, I just pulled them off. But maybe take a wide piece of tape, like packing tape or duct tape, and press it on and lift it? Then do this in succession up or down the pants leg until they are off. It’s not a very outdoorsy trick, just what I thought of as I read your post.

[bartrod]

Don’t wear cotton…something more tight knit that won’t pick them up.
P.S. What tiny feet you have 😀

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[CodeJunkie]

You may want to contact Hack1of2. I believe I saw them in a similar predicament and they were pretty “Aggravated”.

[Mister Greenthumb]

Who cares about the burrs, did you find the cache?

[labrat_wr]

TEFLON- oh, I guess it’s too late for that.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[CodeJunkie]

As a hunter I’ve run into this before and usually resort to “hand picking” them when only as bad as your pants are.

For more serious cases I’ve used my hunting knife to scrape them off. This works fine on my hunting clothes which are a bit heavier material, so be careful on lighter weight materials.

I’ve also heard the following work, but have never tried them:
* Butter knife to scrape them off (preferrably with the slight serrations on the edge to help grip the burrs)
* Flea/Tick comb (from the pet supply store)
* Pumice stone (to rub them off).

[Northwoods Tom]

Cache with a springer spaniel… You’ll come out clean yet the dog will collect his and your share, then wait till your spouse can’t stand the matted fur anymore and she de-burrs him for you…

Seriously, wrapping the hand in tape seems to work well. Yet they aren’t something that really bothers me. Somewhat therapeutic in removing. The easiest way I believe is to just keep an eye on the area you walk thru and avoid the buggers. Once you learn to recognize the plants, you start spotting them yards away. The type you got in to there are really easy to brush with your hand in to one mass clump and easily remove from a smooth area of the clothing.

[JimandLinda]

Find a good movie to pop in the DVD player and pick ’em out by hand.

You might as well do something fun while your at it!

(nice ankles!) 😉

[rtrezrsnhvn]

rofl Beccaday as RT10 has a sweatshirt that is hanging in his room with a similar predicament… Gma warned him not to go into the brush and he went anyway. His sweatshirt got covered. I refuse to pick them all off for him (I did launder it in a lingerie bag and a lot of them came off (and I didn’t find them on anything else 😉 ). He’s got more work to do though…

[hack1of2]

As CJ mentioned I had the same thing happen to me at the cache called Aggravation. Just one more reason to be aggravated…

The polyester shirt I was wearing had this weaved pattern in it that acted like Velcro – it stuck to maybe 100-200 of those little burrs and poked through to my arm and side. They wouldn’t brush off even a little. No more “Velcro” caching shirts for me! Looking at the picture I see your pants have that same weaved pattern in them. Congrats!

I soaked the shirt in water for 2 days to loosen the burrs up, but it still came down to picking them all off by hand. There are still some tiny remnants on the shirt that I’m still discovering…

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Try a industrial strength lint roller

[BeccaDay]

You guys are great, thanks! 😆 And I really don’t think that this picture does justice to my predicament. There have to be at least 500 of those suckers on there. And I have a feeling that may be an underestimation. And the picking them off by hand thing results in tiny thorns in my fingers. Ugh! I think I may resort to CJ’s knife suggestion. For now the pants are in a pile in my bedroom to deal with when I have a little more time.

@Mister Greenthumb wrote:

Who cares about the burrs, did you find the cache?

😆 That’s the important question, isn’t it? Yes I did, thankfully SEVENCARDS gave me some help on his cache. The worst part is that I got the most burrs on me while I was looking in the wrong place after not understanding part of his multicache. I think I could feel less shame if I at least was in the right place for it. 😳

Now off to deal with the “mini spike balls” as they have been dubbed by my 6 year old.

Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien

[Timberline Echoes]

How much do you like the pants…? Maybe it is time for them to move on as a fire starter….lol.

We have had the same issue… Usually on the shoe laces.

I try to wear pants that are “slippery” so those buggers don’t stick to me.

Good luck.

[Team Deejay]

You know, if you run past the burrs, they can move fast enough to jump on you……Oh, wait, that’s ticks…..nevermind…..

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