I'm not a virologist, but I saw one on TV. Squatter crap on a hiking trail seems like a very unlikely vector. Of all the places one could contract this disease, how has it been decided, "oh yeah, definitely the poop trail caused it"? I could see contracting it at a hotel or restaurant, or someplace else with concentrations of people, but this story stinks.
It seems that our homeless friends are taking the idea of being a “squatter” a bit too far.
I had to think about that, but I don’t think it is implausible. I think there could easily have been separate groups of people who walked that trail where multiple people in each group got sick, and the only thing that tied them together was that hike.