As a solo day+ hiker pursuing a state or agency completion patch, it kind stinks to reserve a certain portion of stamina for the loop, or redundant walk back to a car. Wouldn't you like to put most, or all of in it in one direction progression? I've got a solution.
One is that you could use a bicycle. For me here in Ohio, one mile hiking equals 3 - 4 cycling. It depends on the terrain and personally, I don't ride up hill because it consumes a lot of stamina doing that. So lets say that your a flatland 20 mile per day hiker. That generally means that you need to stop hiking around your 16th mile. With 4 miles hiking left over, you multiply that by 4 and 16 miles of cycling is what you have left. Now if you were just off-road, because the number of curves there are usually greater, you'll usually have something like a 12 mile trip back (4 miles within your 16) because the roads are more direct. They're often better engineered, too. And that will conserve stamina.
The other thing is by putting a motor on the bike. If you hide it somewhere in the forest, you can chain it up just about anywhere and in this example... you can put the full 20 down trail when you hike. However, here in Ohio, a motorized bicycle must be licensed as moped.
Lastly, the other option could be public transit. I'm the webmaster for the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource (OTHR). But anywhere, transit comes in different forms. There's passenger airlines, international, interstate and regional bus lines with stops and stations. Some of those stops could be at gas stations in places with less than 5,000 residents. There's rail, which has stations in larger cities and platforms in smaller ones. Finally, there's local transit.
It comes in several different forms and I'll start from the most rural. Transit agencies often run county wide zones (some are smaller). The first I'll mention are those running dial-a-ride/ demand responsive/ curb-to-curb/ shared ride services. For the most part, they all mean the same thing. If you search the Internet by county, you might be surprised by what you'll find.
There are three kinds of this type transit, they can be "disabled only," "residents only," or be open to the general public. Here in Ohio, most of the ones that I cataloged on the OTHR are "general public." They all require advanced reservations These services often run on vans, or Ford Econoline cut-a-way buses.
But there's several draw backs. The dispatchers are often not accustomed to hiking locations. That maybe because they don't go up into the parks, or some remote townships enough themselves. And they seldom, or maybe never have got a request for those certain locations before. Also, they may not pick-up/ drop off on a road which may get their vehicle stuck, or damage the chassis. This may be especially true in the winter.
What you need to do is try and work with the dispatcher and see if you can agree on a better location. Be willing to travel up to 3 or 4 miles off trail to this location. It's best if you schedule to board/ disembark at a public facility so the vehicle can get off the road. But some agencies might let you board/ disembark on on the roadside. If they do, you should schedule them to pick you up about at least 120ft from an intersection. Be sure to get on the bus, pay your fare and take your seat expediently so the bus can get back underway.
Then there's what's commonly known as "fixed route," which these are the city like buses that most of you commonly know. Depending on the transit agency, they can run on cut-a-way buses, too. They're fixed because the service is regular and doesn't deviate from it's route. I've catalog agencies that have it. But as we're hikers, or prospective hikers, those deviations are usually only 3/4th of a mile. And some are reserved only for the disabled.
They can have two types of stops. Those are that are formally signed on metal and utility poles and then there's "flag" stops. This when the transit agency doesn't use formal stops. Instead, the person wishing to board just stands on the side of the route and when they see the vehicle approaching, they just wave, or hail the bus to signal their intent.
Finally, there's what I coin as a "hybrid fixed route." This is just like a fixed route, but it requires an advanced reservation to ride. On the OTHR, these are rare.
Tips:
1) When seeking to board, always arrive at your boarding location 15 minutes prior to the scheduled arrival of your transit vehicle.
2) You should board with exact change for fare, or be willing to surrender the remainder of your monetary bill denomination.
3) Many agencies are out of service on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays, except in most larger cities.
In some of the dial-a-ride type agencies have zones that are less than a county. They might just be one city that the trail gets near. And on occasion, they'll state that they'll go 1, or 3 miles outside of its limits. If you activate the right Layers in Google Earth (left pane, at the bottom), you can see municipal incorporation lines. With the line measure tool (located in the tool bar above the map), you can measure the distance between the incorporation line and the trail at various points to see if it comes into their transit range. I've had to do this with two transit agencies and they were both measured "as the crow flies" from any part of their limits with the line going at any angle from it.
For you folks on, or going to be hikers on the Finger Lakes Trail - Main Line in Southern New York, you are truly blessed the last that I knew. Some of the fixed routes between county agencies don't have great schedules, but the last that I knew, there is an elaborately connected transit system along the North Country concurrent portions of the Main Line.
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