Once while on a month long paddling trip on the Rio Grande, we climbed up the cliffs to the Asa Jones waterworks. On the way down, I slipped and slid into a bunch of small cacti with billions of hairlike needles.

I literally had spines all up one whole side of my body, imbedded from ankle to shoulder. They resembled hairs so closely, and were so numerous, that pulling each of them by hand was impossible. I tried using duct tape to remove them, but obviously didn't get them all. I was tortured for weeks by cactus spines, they popped my brand new deluxe Thermarest self-inflating sleeping pad (not that I got any sleep since I couldn't lay down comfortably!!) and I eventually ended up shaving them to at least get them to the point where I could lay down. It took months for them to all dissolve or work their way out or whatever they do when they go away.

I STILL don't know what kind of cactus I fell in hate with.
Are there any desert dwellers out there who might know what the name of this cactus is?

(PS...the Thermarest never held air again, despite repeated applications of tire puncture repair stuff being put into it! )