Date: 2008-08-23
From: US 11 PA

To: Pine Grove Furnace Park
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Half way point today. At least the trail marked 1/2 way point. The official is 1088 miles in either direction. The trial was marked at 1069 when the total mileage of the trail was different in 1984.Today Crotchy and his girlfriend Lara joined us for the hike. Before we left Crotchy's house his whole family helped cook us eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and home fries... wow.The hike in to Pine Grove Furnace State Park wasn't too bad. Spoon and I were walking at 4 miles per hour for over 5 miles. We stopped at the official half way point for pictures.In the General Store at the State Park there is the infamous "1/2 gallon challenge". The 1/2 gallon challenge is for thru hikers exclusively. The general store owner stocks Hershey's 1/2 gallons in his freezer. The challenge is to eat the whole thing as fast as possible. Currently the record is 2 minutes... 2 minutes. How is that possible? An older gentleman was wise enough to allow his 1/2 gallon to melt before he drank it. So that is the unofficial record because he didn't really eat the ice cream. The legitimate record is just over 4 minutes by a guy skinnier than myself.Spoon and I were far ahead of the group and we were the only ones showing interest in participating. Spoon chose Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and I chose Peanut Butter Swirl. As we selected our flavors a tourist asked us if we were thru hikers and if we were doing the 1/2 gallon challenge. When we said yes he offered to pay for the ice cream and told us that he admired us for doing the trail. He said that he had always wanted to do it but he was to old now. Spoon and I let him know that he was our trail angle for the day and thanked him whole heartedly for the ice cream. If not to finish for myself now I had to do it for the guy...I couldn't do it... I couldn't eat the freakin' 1/2 gallon! I tried so damn hard. My stomach was stretched, I was sitting up straight, taking breaks, deep breaths, walking in circles... and still only could finish 1/2 of the 1/2 gallon. The taste... the idea of hitting another peanut butter swirl was haunting. I wanted to throw up but felt that I actually deserved the suffering for trying to eat 1/2 gallon of ice cream. Spoon finished his whole box in 32 minutes. It was impressive. I was leaning over and cursing myself and he was dripping the last drops out of the corner of the box. Just as Spoon was finishing the rest of the crew showed up. They were laughing at me and telling me that I wasn't a true hiker. Of coarse none of them even tried to do it, but I did feel like a failure. I also felt like a champion for not taking it to far and hurting myself. I really could not eat anymore or I would have vomited. Peer pressure didn't get me this time... my white towel was thrown in.Grettle was getting a competitive itch and was contemplating getting her own 1/2 gallon. She was on the fence so I convinced her that if she finished mine then she wouldn't just be my hero but we would finish as a team. I would also feel better about the nice gentleman who bought the ice cream for me. She killed in in something like 15 minutes and stillhad room for more. That made me feel better that Grettle at 110 lbs. beat me in ice cream eating! We are camping in the park. My hammock is set up on the outskirts of a campsite. I rigged my tarp up over me and it does not fully cover my hammock. If it rains I will get soaked. I need to purchase a new tarp asap.~Santana~ "by myself but not alone"