Date: 2008-05-12
From: Boiling Springs PA

To: Boiling Springs PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 85 ¢ Monday May 12 ¢ Cabin at Pine Grove Furnace St Park PA ¢ Miles Today: 0Our Trail Angels also came bringing more gear. Brakeman's new pack arrived. It's a Gregory Triconi pack, size small with a small hip belt, which hopefully will put more weight on his hips and less on his shoulders. We shortened a couple of the straps with the sewing machine that Mrs. Grasshopper brought. I'm telling you that car had everything in it. They also brought us our mesh trail runners, but we opted to stay with our existing Gortex trail runners for several reasons. One reason is that since some of the rainy days are quite chilly still, we thought the benefits of the Gortex would be nice. Also, we just broke in our Gortex shoes in Shenandoah and we're not looking forward to switching shoes and going through the foot discomforts again, especially with the Pennsylvania rocks coming up. We can always have the mesh trail runners mailed to us further up the trail. We also spent time reviewing Grasshopper's pack to make sure that the seams were still strong, which they appeared to be. Her pack is holding up well, although it is very lightweight, at just one pound! Since we had access to a sewing machine, we shortened the waist belt on her pack, although it's currently fitting. A few weeks ago it was too loose. Hopefully in the next 1000 miles, she won't get that skinny again, but if she does she now has a little more room to cinch down the waist belt.We also had a great time touring the Ironmaster's Mansion, which is caddy-corner from our cabin. It was built in 1829 as the home of the ironmaster of the Pine Grove Furnace Ironworks. The Ironworks manufactured cannonballs during the Revolutionary War, and the mansion was a stop on the Underground Railroad for sheltering runaway slaves. We took a tour of the hiding area for the runaway slaves. All of us climbed down into the foundation crawl space area and got to experience what it would be like if we were one of the slaves trying to make it north toward your freedom. A really neat experience ¢ glad we did it.Ray and his wife are employed by the Hostelling International association and are in charge of running the hostel, providing tours of the Underground Railroad, as well as many other items it seems.   He's also in charge of the maintenance for the exterior, interior and furnishings ¢ all 6000 sq. feet of it! All of the wallpaper is to be stripped! He has plans of converting one of the hostel sleeping rooms into a private bedroom with a private bath, so that he can compete with the other cabins in the park. His goal is to solicit a lot of volunteers to help with the projects, and of course, he would the responsible for lining up those volunteers! Grasshopper volunteered to have us come back and help on some projects around the mansion. She thought that would be fun; Brakeman, not so much. He just rolled his eyes, shook his head and frowned. I'm not so sure he's interested in it.Ray has already made some improvements to the hostel. Internet access has been added and he has plans to add satellite.He said that it costs about $610 a month average to heat the mansion. It's hard to imagine that it does not cost more, as I¢m sure the walls are not insulated. It¢s also hard to imagine that the square footage of the mansion is not more than 6000 sq. ft. It is large!Ray has also been given the new responsibilities of managing and renting a dozen kayaks, and setting up a GPS course and managing and renting a dozen or so GPS units. He's also apparently getting involved with setting up a local AT office! As you can tell, we talked to him for quite a bit. A very nice man. We wish him the best with his huge responsibilities! I would think that it would be overwhelming! We were able to pay to use the washer and dryer in the mansion to wash our hiking clothes. The units were located in the basement along with stacks and stacks of bed linen. Ray explained that another hostel near by closed and now they have to wash all the linens. I don¢t think that in a month¢s time they would be done! Not using a regular sized washer and dryer! But at least there is no rush, as the other hostel is closed.On Monday, we hung a sign on the stop sign near the cabin for Josh and Amanda to stop by if they passed through, which unfortunately they did not. They apparently are one additional day behind. We were hoping to share our Trail Angel magic with them. So, so sad.We had perfect weather to be off the trail, which means that it rained! It started raining the afternoon we arrived and rained all of the next day!   Great timing for taking some time off! Goodnight from Pine Grove State Park after a lovely visit with the parents. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, the tons of food, the help with our chores, and the 48 hours of rest for our feet! It hurts to walk barefoot ¢ the bottoms of our feet are tender. Thanks Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper for being great Trail Angels!