On the TwentyMile Trail Hike on September 9, 2009, your webmaster, Lou Miller, was stung twice by bees as were several other hikers. I am allergic to bee stings. Normally, I carry an EpiPen with me but could not locate it before the hike. (I did find it the day after.) If you are allergic to bee stings you can suffer an anaphylactic reaction which means your blood pressure drops severely and you have difficulty breathing among other symptoms. It can kill you, if left untreated. The anaphylactic reaction can occur a few minutes after the sting or several hours after the sting or not at all.

Upon being stung I knew I had to get out of the woods and back to where I could get medical treatment if needed. Gary Corn and I left the group to return. Gary noted that we should have had another person go along with us. If I had had a severe reaction to the sting, I would not have been able to continue. If we had an extra person, that person would have stayed with me, while the other sought help.

So the first lesson is send at least two people with the injured person. The second lesson is, if you are subject to a serious condition, then come prepared. I should have had my EpiPen and benadryl with me that day.

It's easy to get complacent. I have not been stung for years and I keep a sharp eye out for bee hives (of course, I don't see as well as I used to), but not everyone else does.

Here's some more information on bee stings

And here's information on Anaphylaxis

Just for the record everything worked out ok. We got some benadryl at the motorcycle stop at the end of the tail of the dragon. I got an epinephrine shot at a clinic in Vonore. Gary Corn monitored me to make sure I didn't do anything crazy, because your judgment gets affected by stress. I am very glad I didn't have to drive myself out. My left forearm continued to swell until I looked like Popeye. So I had to get a prednisone shot the next day to stop the swelling.