Date: 2005-06-02
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up this morning in the nice comfortable bed after a great night's sleep. For breakfast, Tammy had Chex cereal, and buttered toast for us. Tammy then drove us back to the trail where we said our goodbyes. She said if we needed anything and were still in the area we could give them a call. Thanks again for everything. VERY much appreciated.We started hiking at 8am. We went up the first climb and Boston immediately recognized a blue buff Old Yeller had picked up on the trail just prior to Dahlgren to find it's owner. It seemed that it was prominently displayed so that it would be seen by either us or it's owner. We couldn't believe that Old Yeller was actually ahead of us because he had not hiked the 23 miles the same day we did to get into Pen-Mar. Cubby didn't think it was possible that it was same blue buff that Old Yeller had picked up, but Boston did.On we went. We made really good time and mileage today. Hiking at a very good rate. The terrain was good and the weather too. We were hiking fast, thinking of the 1/2 gallon of ice-cream and the "Half-Gallon Club" at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in celebration of passing the halfway point of the Appalachian Trail today. The trail's halfway point is about a mile prior to the park.Well, going back to today's hike - - We were hiking quickly, making good time today, cranking out the miles. We then came across a Southbounder named Montezuma. He asked our trailnames and then told us that Old Yeller is just ahead of us and he is trying to catch up to us. AHEAD of us?! He should have been behind us. Seems he was hiking extra fast today and got up and left extra early to catch up to us. Little did he know about the luxurious night we had just spent at Bruce and Tammy's house. He got into to Caledonia late last night, thinking he would camp with us at Caledonia. He looked for us, but couldn't find us. He then assumed we were ahead of him, camped somewhere between Caledonia and Pine Grove Furnace State Park. So, he picked up his pace and was hiking to catch us before Halfway so we could celebrate the "Half-Gallon Club" together at the park.Funny to think we are hiking fast to get to halfway, and he is hiking even faster to catch us before halfway. Sort of like a dog chasing it's tail in a weird kind of way.We did catch up to him after running, and we mean RUNNING for 1.5 miles after Montezuma told us he was just ahead of us. We greated eachother like old friends. We then enjoyed a much more "relaxing" pace toward Pine Grove. We celebrated the trail's Halfway Point together prior to the park. Together, we celebrated halfway again at the park with some ice-cream.At the park campstore, there was a short order grill which derailed our plan to join the Half-Gallon Club. The food won out over ice-cream, yes, even for Boston. We had hot grilled sandwiches and fries. We each ate a PINT-box of ice-cream after lunch.It was a great day and it feels good to have half the trail completed. It was also good to celebrate it together with Old Yeller.Old Yeller got us a campsite at the park. The lady at the park office must have not understood that we were hikers, not car camping people. She assigned us the furthest campsite in the park. We gave Old Yeller a little good natured razzing about picking the furthest campsite to walk to. When we got there, there was no tent pad. It was an RV site. We picked another site with a tent pad and nearby facilities. Boston set up the tent and Cubby started a nice campfire. Boston and Old Yeller collected some firewood.Boston and Cubby had Mac&Cheese for dinner, which we got from the campstore. For breakfast we will be having OJ and muffins purchased from the campstore. We stayed up until 9:15pm journaling and then went to bed.