Date: 2009-06-14
From: Birch Run Shelter, PA 

To: Pine Grove Furnace, PA 
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: few clouds

Cell noneOG notesWe woke up a little later than we usually do today. We were only going 9.9 miles to Pine Grove Furnace State Park and this hostel. We had a package with our food for the next 3 days in it here at the hostel. The hostel is closed from 9:30 am to 5:00pm. We didn't want to get up at 3:00am to get here before 9:30am so that meant we would have to be here at 5:00pm. We took our time hiking in and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The hike wasn't that difficult and it was a pleasure hike. As we hiked we passed a family of 4, father, mother, and 2 daughters ages 5 and probably 3 years old. They were erecting little structures against two trees. When we asked them what they were they told us "Fairy houses." This family is hiking 200 miles, about 6 miles per day with these two little girls. The oldest girl hikes all of the time and the younger one about half of the time. That is one amazing set of parents to take such young children on a hike like that. They were having a good time and the girls are growing up with such a positive impression of the outdoors. We see so many disfunctional families in our society it is such a pleasure to see these people who are doing such a great thing with their children.As we hiked today we passed the mathmatical halfway point. What I mean by that is, with all of the trail maintenance that goes on the length of the trail is constantly changing, and the milage has to be constantly recomputed. This year's milage has the halfway point about a half mile from one of the shelters. When we did get to where I thought it might be we found that someone had laid out sticks to read 1/2. We stopped and asked someone to take our picture there so that we could savor that moment over and over again. Tomorrow we'll pass a permanent halfway sign that we'll also have our picture taken at. This sign was once the real halfway point a 1985 thru-hiker named Chuck "Woodchuck" Wood erected many years ago. The sign does not get moved as the halfway changes as that would be a difficult thing to do. So there you have the story of the halfway point on the AT. C6 notesSaw another rattlesnake today, and again I just missed stepping on it! I didn't see it on the trail, but as soon as I was about 18" from it, it rattled loudly. I jumped to the right and it immediately started scooting to the left. Whew! Sure got my adrenaline going! This rattlesnake was 3 times larger than the one we saw yesterday.A couple miles before we got to our destination today we came upon a wonderful family making fairy houses. We so enjoyed talking with them. They are hiking 200 miles right now, and the children are 2 girls, with the oldest girl being 5 years old. They said they hike 5-6 miles each day and stop and do things, like making the fairy houses today, throughout the day. What a wonderful thing to do as a family. If you're reading this, we absolutely loved meeting you and chatting with you! What a wonderful gift you are giving your children...a love of nature.Where we are right now is where hikers do the "half gallon challenge." It's where you try to eat a half gallon of ice cream to celebrate hiking half of the AT. We chose not to do the challenge. We expect to start seeing Boy Scouts here some time this afternoon. There are two troops out here hiking 50 miles in 3 days. That's aggressive! It's a large group...more than 30 people overall. They come from a few hours from here, so they have a very full week scheduled, with a stop at Hershey, PA, and other tourist things in PA. We wish them the best.It's later now, and we had a fun surprise. Red Leg's son, John, and daughter-in-law (and their two chilren) stopped at the store where we were waiting to get into the hostel. Red Leg spent yesterday afternoon with them at the Caledonia State Park, then John hiked 14 miles with Red Leg this morning. After they dropped Red Leg off at a trail head, they decided to go to the Pine Grove Furnace State Park to check it out briefly and saw us sitting on the store porch. They recognized us and came over and introduced themselves. That was so nice!Old Goat & Check Six