Date: 2007-07-10
From: James Frye Shelter / Half-Gallon Challenge

To: Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 12.2

Got a late start out of the shelter and once I got back on the trail I met up with the rest of the group who had stayed back at Pine Grove Furnace State Park the night before. The hadn't been able to do the half-gallon challenge, but there was this other store you could do it about a mile up the trail. So we got up there and everybody did there challenges on one of the hottest days of the year so far, I think it got up to around 97 or so. Candy Bar, a Canadian girl who has 2 sisters who have thru-hiked the trail, completed her half-gallon in 18 minutes, which was absolutely incredible. She just didn't stop eating. Everybody else had really good times (mine was 55 minutes), and nobody threw up. The heat took almost everything out of me this day, I had a real hard time hiking. Got to Alec Kennedy Shelter, which was just 4 miles before Boiling Springs, and took a 2 hour break. I filled up on water from a source that looked pretty nasty, so I put in a double dose of Polar Pure (iodine solution). On my way to Boiling Springs I was drinking a lot of water and it tasted real bad because of the iodine, and I started praying to God for another water source or for somebody to have water up ahead. I was imagining sitting in a restaurant there in Boiling Springs with a pitcher of ice water on the table, and I started getting kinda pissed off at the whole situation. Then I had to hike up Center Point Knob, which was a pretty steep climb. Once I got to the top of it, I met up with a local guy named Chris who was training for a hike out west with his dog. I stopped to say hey, and he asked how my hike was going. That's normally a rhetorical question, but I decided to be honest in my answer, so I said "Man, this heat is sucking everything out of me." He said "You got enough water?" and I said "Yeah but it tastes disgusting" and he said "You want some cold, fresh water?" For a second I thought I was imagining again, and I said "Wha?" He pulled out two big Gatorade bottles and handed one to me. I almost started crying right there. I chugged about half of one of the bottles, handed it back to him and he said "No, keep on drinking. I don't need it, I'm just using it for weight." I asked if he'd mind if I threw out my water from my Camelbak and he preferred it if I did. I know I haven't mentioned much about my faith or relationship with God in my trailjournals up to this point, I haven't been including that for personal reasons, but I really feel that God was answering my prayers in this situation. This entire day was a struggle, what with the heat and the challenge of the terrain, and for this to happen at the end of the day was a true blessing. This was pretty much all I thought about as I hiked into town. Once I got to town, I stopped by the ATC and met with a woman who works there named Sally. I had met her a week before when she was doing trail work. She suggested a place to stay (the backyard of some guy's house in town) and we ordered a couple of pizzas together that she said she'd go pick up as I went to set up my tent at the guy's house. After I set up my stuff, I went back and had my pizza with another hiker named Edge (we actually hiked into town together) and headed over to a restaurant where Jake and Bob were watching the All-Star game. We got to watch up the 7th inning, then the place closed down.