Virus Warning for Hikers

 

 

We just went through a rough case of the flu/virus/seasonal bug thing here in Nampa. From kids to adults, family and friends, we learned to take sips no matter how thirsty we became.

This unnamed thing hits fast and hard. One minute you're eating supper, next thing you know, you're doubled over. Not food poisoning. Kids didn't eat what we ate. A friend flew in. She got sick, then passed it on. So, it appears contagious, with an incubation period of two -three days.

 

But the bad part is, after twenty-four hours of puking and such, you're wiped out for days. Hard to get back to the gym, let alone hike a trail.  It seems very much like the Noro Virus "epidemic" I witnessed last summer while working in the Hundred Mile wilderness as a Ridgerunner.

Of Moose and Men-Ridgerunning In Maine's Hundred Mile Wilderness

 

I met a doctor recuperating from the Noro on the trail. He didn't go to the hospital because he said it had to run its course. My personal experience seems to agree with everyone I interviewed. It will knock you off the trail for twenty to forty-eight hours and when you return, expect slow short days. Exhaustion is the main after effect.

I do recommend staying on the AT, rather than taking an obscure side trail into town. You could get too exhausted to move and if you get lost, or fall, you may become search and rescue material unless you're on the populated AT.

 

 And as I cautioned every hiker I met, even when you're in the woods, maintain good hygiene. Wash you  hands, don't share eating utensils or sacks of gorp. Your gut is depending on you.

 

 

 

 

If you have read this newly release book, could you please leave me a kind review on Amazon.com. It helps others to know if this is something they would enjoy reading. There are a lot of trail books to choose from.