Date: 2009-06-21
From: Milesburg Rd

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Yesterday K-Bar and Soundtrack and August Rush and a couple of other hikers all passed me as I was setting up my tent. They were all going to the ice cream challenge today and stayed at the next shelter. I was 2.5 miles behind them at the start of the day but since I was up and on the trail by 6am I got to their shelter before they had left. Some of them were still sleeping. I met a section hiking couple and the girls trail name was BLAZE but not blaze like blazes on the tree but she explained BLAISE so I asked her if she was Catholic. She wasn't but she got that name because she is going to be a VET and St Blaise is the Saint for animals. I told them about Catholics getting our throats blessed on St Blaise day. They are traveling with a small white husky who has booties on her feet. The rocks are sharp and could cut her feet so the extra protection is a must.I was moving down the trail at a good pace today, yesterdays blues had faded away and the trail was some of the best I have seen in days. Anyway There is ice cream on the horizon.I sang the following to the tune of "FOLSUM PRISON by Johnny Cash" ...........I hear that Ice cream calling, I taste it in my mouth...............I see the crowd a cheering, though most are hiking SOUTH,..........I am an AT hiker,,, don't ask me why!!!!...I just keep on hiking, sometimes it makes me cry.....I hurt my knees in Harpers, my legs don't feel so good...The trail is pretty muddy,,, I'd get off it if I could ...(Chorus)I am a AT Hiker, don't ask me why.... I just keep on hiking...hope to finish for I die.....My friends are home a watching, their big screen TV's...Eating all those burgers and drinking those Brewskies...While I just keep on walking,,,in the rain and the mudWith every step I take,,,, I'm thinking of those suds.....They all went to Vegas, buffets and shooting dice.....While I'm just out here hiking, eatin bugs and sticky rice....(chorus)My friends are gettin married, there out there getting jobs,I just keep on hiking and my parents they just SOB...I'm just an AT hiker, don't ask me why...I just keep on hiking, hope to finish for I die.................. That song writing kept me moving and before I knew it I was at the state park. August Rush had just set the new 2009 hikers record by eating a half gallon in 16 minutes and 8 seconds.I sit back and prime the stomach with a cup of coffee. The young people are all talking about how August was getting sick at the end, how this was a hard challenge, how the flavor you pick is important because you get sick of the taste half way through the challenge. I just sit back and grin. Hell I can eat a pint of ice cream while there is a commercial on tv. I can also woof it down fast while Patty is in the other room and doesn't know I am in the freezer. Like she said in Fried Green Tomatoes ...."Honey I am older and wiser and I have more insurance" In my case I have more experience eating than any of these 20 somethings, heck I still have belly fat while most of theirs evaporated on the Blue Ridge Parkway.I pick up my half gallon, Peanut butter swirl, and set my stopwatch and go...the plastic spoons from the store bend on the hard icecream and I can't get a good spoonful. I switch to my camp spoon, something that has enough strength to let me dig in. I am sitting in the sun so the ice cream is melting, although slowly. I work the edges, the front and the back. I pull the peanut butter swirls out in strips and eat it like jerky. I scoop around the edges until I have just a big lump left in the middle of the carton. OH no I haven't been going fast enough, it is already 14 minutes. I work at a steady pace and finish. This is the challenge, just to finish, like a half gallon of ice cream is a big deal. I complete the challenge in 17 minutes and 32 seconds and get kudos from the other hikers. But the fame is fleeting, these young hikers are on to watching their peers try the challenge. This little camp store in the state park sold over 100 half gallons this weekend. They are almost out and more is being delivered today,SUNDAY!!The ice cream is Hersheys brand, a brand name that sold out their heritage and now sells basic lousy cheap ice cream. But at $5.75 a half gallon this camps store is doing well.I plan on staying at the hostel but they don't open until 5 pm. It is just after noon so I decide to hike back to my car and head to the cottage in Maine. A local I am talking to, SCOTT offers to bring me to his house, let me use his shower and then drive me the 40 miles to my car. I take him up on the ride and by 1:30 pm I am back at my car. Scott is one of those trail angels that goes out of his way for hikers and he didn't even try to save me.I know I sound kind of anti-religion but actually the Baptists in the South are doing a good thing. They know the trail is going to kill us and they just want to Save us First.I head to Maine where I plan to do some day hikes until TEMPORARY flys in on Saturday.O.M. River