Well I guess it had to happen at some point: I got really sick and had to leave the trail for a short period. Giardia, a parasite that lives in some freshwater ponds and streams, is the most likely culprit.
One fortunate thing about my sickness was that we had some interesting experiences trying to figure out what to do. We ended up going to the nearest free clinic in Goshen, NY since I have no health insurance. There is a large farming community in the surrounding area and this clinic was started by one doctor who was treating migrant workers out of a trailer near one of the farm camps. Now they have a network of clinics spread around the eastern part of the state and provide free health care to anyone in need. They took care of me and helped me get medicated and back on the trail within a few days.
The terrain in New York was much easier than anything we experienced previously and we were able to comfortably do 18+ miles each day for a while. From my understanding this is one of the only good things about this section of the trail; easy terrain. There isn't much for scenery besides that, so after I got sick we decided to skip ahead to Harper's Ferry, WV to get back to the mountains and avoid too much snow in the Smokies. We are hoping to go back and cover the mid-Atlantic states after Springer (the southern terminus of the AT).
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