Leader: Meg Higgerson
Co-Leader: Mary Pat Connors

                                                               Covid on the Canal Trail

This was one for the history book!! It was a rather “unremarkable” 6-mile hike on level terrain on a lovely late fall Sunday afternoon. The hike was limited to 20 participants and in a year impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic, we hiked masked and distanced.

On the Wednesday following the hike, one of the participants called the leader to indicate she had taken a COVID test on the Friday prior to the hike. She was asymptomatic and was surprised to learn that the test results received that day (Wednesday) declared that she was COVID positive.  The leader notified all participants that they had been hiking with a COVID positive Tramp. Of course this was unwelcome news but news many might have anticipated with the pandemic under very limited control.

Since the Chenango Canal hike and in an effort to maintain the safety of all involved, many hikes have further limited the number of participants, hike leaders and co-leaders have backed out of their scheduled hikes and some hikes have even been cancelled!   This horrendous pandemic has changed our Tramp and Trail tradition of steadfastly sticking to our hiking schedule, etc. etc. We must have faith that the vaccine that is on the horizon will get us all safely back on the trail.