Detours - When Plans Change

Just a typical day for the past week... 

We left the Finger Lakes Trail in Dryden six days ago.  Since then I'm still not feeling 100% with this chest cold that seems to never end.  Neither of us have health insurance, but despite this I took myself down to the local walk-in clinic to see if anything could be done.  After spending $110 to be seen I was told I had acute sinusitis and that really nothing could be done as I wasn't showing signs of active infection (all my mucus is clear, not discolored).  I was given a prescription for an antibiotic if it got worse, but was told to treat symptomatically until the symptoms went away.  Five days later I'm still not showing signs of infection and I'm still not any better.  Meanwhile, the rain has continued to fall.  We have been following the trail conditions very closely as the area we are about to hike in is full of gorges and waterfalls.  We are seeing updates like this: 

"The timber bridge at mile 1.75 on map M16 (eastern-most of the two large timber trail bridges on the FLT in Cayuta Gulf) has been totally washed away by recent severe weather activity." "Please be aware that some white-blazing on either side of this creek crossing is also missing as some trees have also washed away from the area, however the trail tread itself is clear of debris and readily apparent." "Because of recent heavy rain events, it is currently not advisable to ford Fish Kill on the Finger Lakes Trail (mile 17.1) in upper Treman State Park. Also, the blue-blazed high water detour route is impassable because of severe storm damage to the bridge just east of the Old Mill, making it impossible to cross the lower section of Fish Kill. DO NOT FORD THE CREEK AT THIS TIME, AND DO NOT TAKE THE BLUE-BLAZED HIGH WATER DETOUR ROUTE AT THIS TIME." and finally, my favorite: "The Flash flood that occurred last week has impacted the FLT section that runs from Sweedler Preserve/LickBrook to Treman State Park.  The field section near the RR track was probably under about 2-3 feet of water."

Trail conditions like this and worse for miles and miles are what we're trying to avoid!

These updates for us just mean more detours and more road walking.  Since I'm not getting much better and we've already taken ten days away from the trail, we have decided to give the FLT some time to dry up.  Instead of heading back to the trail, we are going to take a road trip through NY, PA, OH, WV, KY, and TN taking some scenic byways.  On the way back to NY, we will be driving the Blue Ridge Parkway through NC and VA, possibly taking a detour to ride on the C&O Canal Trail through the MD and WV region.  We have some business to take care of in TN and VA anyway so we feel this is really the best option.  We will come back to NY in a few weeks and hop back onto the FLT to complete our end-to-end hike.  Then, northward to Vermont to hike the Long Trail.  We will still finish our hikes, just not the way we planned!

This decision didn't come lightly for NoKey or me.  I feel like I'm letting down all of my blog readers and, more importantly, I feel like I've really let myself down.  I know that getting sick can't be helped, but it's really hard to tell a long-distance hiker that you can't do things until you get 100% better.  This chest cold has a tight grip on me and if I can't breathe then I know I can't hike.  I know all of these things and I'm still disappointed in myself.  We will be posting updates from our road trip with hiking, biking, maybe even some canoeing and cave exploring.  Even though our plans have changed slightly, we are still going to have an adventure!

Day 17 - Finger Lakes Trail

It turns out it didn't end up raining all night.  Unfortunately, it DID start thunderstorming at 7 a.m. though.  We were already awake and getting our stuff put away when a wicked thunderstorm hit - lightening and thunder, the whole thing!  Thankfully, it did stop at 9 a.m., enough time for us to get moving.  Unfortunately for me, I woke up feeling not so great.  I'd been developing a bit of a scratchy throat since Saturday morning (our first zero) and now, on Tuesday, I woke up with a double earache and a wheeze.  We started walking and my cough got worse and the rain started again.  It rained for about 45 minutes, enough time for us to get wet on the downhill and then the crazy steep uphill that followed Babcock Hollow Road.  This part of the trail is so steep that FLTC crews installed ropes to help pull you up the hill.  Thankfully, we've hiked this section before and didn't need the ropes, even though it was raining.  

It's really steep, they aren't kidding! 

By the time we reached the top of the short and steep hill, the rain had stopped and mosquitoes came back out.  If you stopped walking, they would swarm.  We kept our heads down and we kept moving, although I was moving at a much slower pace than NoKey was.  We reached a seasonal road and we could take two trails - either the main FLT or a branch trail known as the Swedish Loop.  We opted for this trail instead of the main FLT since we had already done this part of the FLT.  The Swedish Loop was very beautiful and well-maintained - a mix of hardwood and spruce with a nice soft ground for walking.  The loop trail met back up with the FLT in only 1.5 miles and we were back on track to hit Daisy Hill Road.  We road walked a bit before heading back uphill and then down to the Jim Schug Rail Trail. 

When we reached the rail trail we were making great miles, pretty quick too.  There was a bench at the end where the FLT meets the road walk and we sat down for a bit.  By now I'm coughing and gasping, my throat hurts, and I just feel like crap.  The first lean-to of the day was only 6 miles out and I figured we could just stay there.  NoKey convinced me that I really needed to get out of the woods and rest.  We finished the road walk up to NY 38 and pulled out our "Hikers to Town" sign to hitch into Dryden.  We got picked up really fast with the new sign and got dropped off at a gas station/McDonald's at noon.  

Seeing this kind of trail will motivate you! 

We were trying to figure out what to do next - I didn't want to spend money on a B&B when home was only an hour away, but we had no way to get home.  No buses ran from this area to Syracuse until the following day and we still needed to hitch 10 miles down the road for that.  All this changed when a nice man named Dave came over to us.  He noticed the AT logo on NoKey's hat and started telling us about his daughter who thru hiked in 2007.  We got to chatting and discovered we had all lived in Maine before.  One thing lead to another and he said he could give us a ride to Cortland because he was on his way back to work there anyway. He had a Chinese Intern with him, Aman, who was headed back to Syracuse at 3:30.  Aman generously offered to drop us off at home if we could wait for him to get off work.  We agreed to wait and they dropped us off at a shopping plaza where I went to the drug store for medicine and NoKey went to Big Lots for junk food!

So now we're back at home...again.  We are so grateful to all the trail angels we met today who helped us get here and I'm feeling incredibly sad to be off trail. I feel like I'm throwing off our whole hike.  I know that hiking when you're sick is hard, but I still just want to be on trail.  

The rolling central NY hillsides.