Allergies on the trail

[NuAgeDesigns]

I am now ten days away from departing for my first nobo thru hike. I live in the northeast (CT) and its march 4 and my allergies are already starting. My question is I usually take a Zyrtec once a day to stay up on them, anyone from the northern states that have allergies have any experience with bad allergy symptoms on the trail and what they did to remedy the situation.

[Sensei]

Not from a northern state, but I have been plagued by bad allergies for most of my life. They didn't really start to bother me until I reached Harper's Ferry in early may, then they were pretty bad from there through Mass. and weren't so bad after that. Pennsylvania was awful. My remedy is Zyrtec in the morning, Nasalcrom through the day (probably the most effective thing I've found and it's non-habit forming), then Benadryl at night (with the added benefit of allowing you to sleep better in shelters full of hikers and mosquitos). Repackage the pills in mini ziplocks to save weight.

[paradoxb3]

I'm from GA, and thru-hiked in 2010, and I am also an outdoor allergy sufferer. I began hiking on March 16, I used Zyrtec daily, and began taking it mid-February to have it fully introduced into my system before I began. I've found that personally I feel VERY drowsy and lacking energy the first week or two that I begin taking it. I carried a few benadryls too, if I had more than the average symptoms. I had my moments of itchyness and sneezing as no med out there is a cure, but I don't feel as if the occasional allergy problem took anything away from the experience of thru-hiking.

[rocketsocks]

Yerterday(in the east)was so windy,lot of stuff in the air.Today i'm very sniffely and teary eyes,but that could be from Woo's pig post.I use meds,nasal and pills.Is sniffely even a word?

[WalksInDark]

I too have lots of allergies. In spite of using flonase daily, I found that I needed to take additional allergy meds almost every day when I am on the trail last summer. I highly recommend using generic benedryl (got mine in bulk at Sam's Club for about $5 for several hundred doses); but also recommend that you using some other OTC allergy meds on an "at least an every other day basis." The problem with allergy meds, for most people, is that they stop being as effective if you take the same one "day in and day out."

In regards to the upcoming hiking season: I have been out hiking in the Appalachian foothills here in Maryland for the past several weeks and can honestly say that current allergen levels here are approximating what I normally encounter after the first month of summer. Ergo, I predict lots of runny noses/sneezing/sore throats this hiking season.

Three last pieces of allergy advice: whenever possible, rinse your face and particularly your eye brows and eye lashes to remove dust/pollen; bring a plastic eye cup so that you can rinse your eyes out whenever they start bothering you; carry Visine Eye Allergy Relief Eye drops....it feels S O G O O D after you put a couple of drops in your eyes....particularly when you have been having red itchy eyes all day!

[takethisbread]

I have bad allergies as well. On my previous thru, I rarely suffered from allergies. Reasons I'm not sure, but I think the simplified diet and excersize helped. Also hiking early in hiking season helped, perhaps you'd be a candidate for a feb start. But with allergies every case can be different . I suppose I was more sensitive to the indoor triggers than outdoor triggers .

[underscored]

Is there anyone out there that zytec just doesn't work for? I'm headed out in April, and being formerly from upstate SC I know my allergies are going to be doomed. I'm planning on a double dose of allegra - eye drops - and benadryl for at night.

Anyone have any wonder cure out there? (Wishful thinking :/)

[trucker2015]

I normally don't have allergies but this year the pollen in the south east has hit early and fast.
It's really getting to me if you can be preemptive in treating them I say do it.

[heavyfoot]

My allergy symptoms include asthma so I take Accolate (Zafirlukast) and my rescue inhaler with me. Everything else I just deal with.

[underscored]

Allergies hit me hard in the last couple days, and I'm not even in the south yet. It'll be a combination of Allegra 2x (the cheap prescribed kind before it went OTC - think I have like a years supply worth) - Singulair (nightly) - Prescription eye drops - and an inhaler just in case (had some lung issues in the fall).

Here's hoping for some good wet days to knock the pollen out of the air.

[Don H]

I have bad allergies as well. On my previous thru, I rarely suffered from allergies. Reasons I'm not sure, but I think the simplified diet and excersize helped. Also hiking early in hiking season helped, perhaps you'd be a candidate for a feb start. But with allergies every case can be different . I suppose I was more sensitive to the indoor triggers than outdoor triggers .

I had the same experience last year on my thru. Although I suffer from seasonal allergies (they're just starting now) when I was on the trail they never bothered me. I don't know why other than being outdoors all the time maybe I became insensitive to them. I do know that as soon as I got home they started up again with the fall season.
I would recommend carrying some allergy medication and if you need more just pick it up during a town stop. If your meds are prescription you can have your MD phone in a prescription to your next town. Pharmacies are listed in the AT Guide Book. I had a script for antibiotics phoned in to the pharmacy in Dalton for Lyme disease with no problem.

[mgeiger]

Pollen count was over 9000 here in Atlanta on Tuesday, but dropping since. Lets hope we have seen the peak for this year.

I do Flonase (starting a few weeks before the spring and fall pollen seasons). It helps. I also take Walmart's knock off allergy antihistamine daily. $1.97 for 30 days.