A close family friend passed away last week, and her illness presented no warning. Her last waking moments were hiking on the trail near NYC when she collapsed. Kidney failure was the cause of her death in less than 24 hours, and she had no sign of illness prior to her day hike. My friend wasn't even 30.

It turns out that Babesiosis is a nasty parasite that is becoming a more prevalent threat to the northeast of the USA. I cannot stress how important tick awareness is…

That being said, after finding a few hitchhikers from one of my hike recent hikes, I thought I was good-to-go until my next outing. Then I found one on my head two days later. Doxycycline x3 weeks is the prescription :/ No matter how hard you try, these little beasts will never stop trying.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/babesiosis/index.html

Please be safe out there, and advocate awareness to everyone you know.