Date: 2005-06-22
From: Antietam Shelter

To: Midpoint Marker
Miles today: 31.7

Up and gone by 6:15 that morning. I awoke to the feeling of rain on my face. Because I did not have the fly on my tent, rain meant I needed to get up and packed before everything got wet. It did not rain but just for a few minutes. I dragged everything in to the empty shelter and packed there (since I was up I moved on).    Unfortunately I moved on a little to early. Fig and Just visiting were not awake yet when I passed by the next shelter (or so I thought). I found out weeks later that they were awake. They were either in the shelter or nearby however, Fig told me they were up and getting ready to move on themselves. Regardless I figured they would catch up to me that day, they were strong hikers. Thing was I did a big day this day, I did not expect to do that many miles. I guess I just got ahead of them in my quest to get to the Delaware Water Gap (as I hoped to do).   At PA 16 I hitched in to town. A man named Ian drove me to the local diner, told me he would pick me up in an hour and return me to the trail. Talk about a truly appreciated bit of trail magic. He was my age and he was surprised to hear I was retired military. When he dropped me off he handed me two cold cans of beer and said thanks for serving our country. I guess I did not seem to fit the military mold. It may have been my imagination but perhaps I was transforming physically as well as emotionally as the trail went on. It made me happy to just to think so .    I stopped at The Caledonia State Park eleven (+) miles ahead and waited an hour for Fig and Just Visiting. The park had a concession stand that opened at eleven that morning. I figured no better place to wait then where someone was cooking for you. A NOBO thru -hiker (who's name I cannot recall) even told me that the two were not to far behind. I waited as long as I could and set my sights on making it to the "Pine Grove Furnace State Park's Camp Store" for the famous "Ice Cream Challenge". They advertised that they would stay open until dusk. It was almost 20 miles away from where I was and it was near 11:30 when I left. I got there before dusk but much to my dismay, there were closed up "Tighter then Dicks Hat Band". No camping in the Park so I moved on and did a little more hiking (night hiking).    I passed the actual half way point that day at mile 1087.5 (a pile of stones on the left side of the trail) and ended up at the permanent half way point of 1089.5 (pictured in this entry) at 10 PM. What a long hike it was. I was rained on twice that day. I was able to however, "out run" the first storm only to be hammered to the ground by the second one. Another lightning storm was over my head that caused me to run (I should say "up") the trail as fast as I could. Water was coming down the trail towards me which meant of course I was running uphill hard. At the end of the day I was dead tired. It was my biggest day yet (31.7 miles) and I simply went behind the marker about 50 yards, set up my tent, ate a meal and went to sleep. I did not know if camping there was allowed so I went "stealth" which meant no flash light.   Note: While entering a park earlier that day (the name I cannot remember) I found a note on a kiosk. It was for Praying Mantis (Jacob). Perhaps he was still on the trail, I did not know at the time. I had not heard of anything from him since I saw him last in Damascus. I did hear through trail talk that he was near Waynesboro a day or so after I left. I do not know if he made the thru-hike or not.