Date: 2008-05-19
From: Quarry Gap shelter

To: Pine Grove Furnace state park
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Good miles today! Thanks to the easy terrain, we covered the miles in a good time, and I'm not as exhausted as the other 17 mile days. My feet feel a lot better, but i still need new shoes... still. This is getting annoying. The old boots feel great, but with the new insoles, they are squishing my toes... I kept them in for the first 8 miles, then swapped them out for the old insoles. More comfy, but with no padding, my feet were tired, and i could tell why my feet were hurting back in the south. So the foot/shoe saga continues. I have a feeling i will be visiting every single outfitter in the DC-Baltimore area trying to find a pair that will work for me. I feel like a prima-donna. Stupid feet...Anyway, the hiking today was good. We woke up to a cold start, 45 degrees...(so perhaps i will keep the winter gear for a bit longer), but it was sunny! So we got going around 8:30 and covered our first 5 miles in 1.5 hours. Whoa... but the feet felt good! We took a break at the Milesburn cabin, and then continued on to the next shelter. We took an hour there, but it was cold! The day turned out to be partly cloudy, so lunch was during the cloudy part with a breeze. Not cold, well... not too cold while hiking, but cold when sweaty and sitting still. We continued on to the next shelter, and got there fast too... amazing how fast you can move on flat trail...there, we met with a father and son who were out section hiking. The father thru-hiked in 1983 and had some fun stories to share. We got here to the hostel around 4 and were sitting on the porch hanging out when the people running the hostel let us come inside and play with the phone and internet until we could check in. We checked in and took showers... and then made dinner. Olive oil and gobbles raided the hiker boxes, and i worked to reduce the food weight in my pack. Just before we started to eat, laurie, the hostel manager, told us that maybe we could do the half-gallon challenge, if she could get the store owner to open the store. We stopped eating immediately, and waited with anxiety until we heard. no go... they couldn't reach him. so gobbles proceeded to eat his 3 packets of instant mashed potatoes which were mixed with salsa, bacon bits and some olive oil (food product via olive oil the hiker) and then some more salsa. I can't believe he ate most of it. Olive oil ate a ton of salsa-spaghetti that she made too. I didn't think such a little person could get all that food inside them. Anyway, that was a fun meal, and then we got the underground-railroad tour. That was cool... we saw the secret rooms built into the house, and Ray, the other hostel manager, gave us a history of the area and how it related to the railroad. A very good tour. Then we all just spent time catching up on emails, and calling home.We may still get a shot at the half-gallon challenge in the morning, if they can reach the store owner, but if not, perhaps we can try it on the way home from Maine. We're only going 10 miles tomorrow, so if we get sick on ice cream, we can stay at the park till we recover and hike in the afternoon, or we can just head out, and then we have the afternoon at the shelter to just chill out. It's nice to have options.