Date: 2003-07-15
From: Birch Run Shelter

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I was up and out of camp by 8:15 this morning. The terrain wasn¢t too bad. I stopped in at Tom¢s Run Shelter for lunch where I took a little catnap while Daisies and I waited for Molasses. Once she caught up to us we headed on to Pine Grove. We hadn¢t even been walking for 10 minutes when there was this loud rattling noise. A rattlesnake! Chloe was leading us down the path with Molasses and Daisies walking side by side behind her and me following right behind them. When the rattle went off it scared Chloe and she jumped behind Molasses. At the same time Daisies and Molasses both jumped back running into me. It scared us all pretty good. The snake slithered off to the side of the trail and none of us wanted to pass by it, especially Chloe. So one by one we quickly went by and I think for the next 20 minutes we were a little jumpy. Made it to Pine Grove pretty early, somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00. Went straight to the store for the half-gallon challenge.   I was told by someone that you shouldn¢t choose a flavor you like because you most likely will never eat it again. The choices were very slim. There was peanut butter swirl, chocolate peanut butter swirl, cherry jubilee, and vanilla. I originally thought vanilla would be the one to go with but for some reason I decided on the peanut butter swirl and mistakenly got the chocolate peanut butter swirl. Although it was good ice cream I could only eat one half of my one half gallon. I¢m a little disappointed but I ate as much as I could. Molasses was able to tackle the entire half-gallon (with a little help from Chloe) and Daisies ate as much as I did. I think if I would have stuck to vanilla I could have done it. Not long after we finished our ice cream challenge Double A came in and gave it a shot. She couldn¢t finish it either. She had planned on staying in the hostel for the night so we went over there with her to check it out. It¢s pretty cool. This place was used in the Underground Railroad and we were able to go into the secret passage, which was in the broom closet. There was a small hatch in the floor, a tight squeeze to climb through, down a short ladder and you are under the building. This was awesome! It was soon time to go and meet Molasses¢ cousins for a cookout so we gathered our stuff up, invited Double A to go along and worked our way around to some picnic tables. Kathy and her 2 daughters Kate and Kris were super cool. They brought us all kinds of food, steak, hot dogs, corn, garlic bread, carrots, celery, dip, watermelon, chicken, sodas, and cookies. We hung out with them until almost dark then went over to the campground to set up our tents. We all decided to do somewhat of a slack tomorrow. Kathy is taking all our extra gear and food with her so we will be super light tomorrow. Then she is going to pick us up in Boiling Springs and take us back to her place. My pack is super light; I sent everything except my sleeping bag and snacks for tomorrow. I¢m sleeping in Daisy¢s tent tonight. Hopefully I won¢t be cold tonight since there¢s an extra person in the tent.