Date: 2012-10-27
From: Backpacker's Campsite in Boiling Springs, PA

To: Tom's Run Shelters
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: overcast clouds

(In which I sleep through a dozen freight trains and reach the halfway point)-Currently sitting at a picnic table near the shelters before dark-After I finished typing last night I heard a squeal about 20 yards away. It got progressively louder and it took another 5 or 10 seconds to realize what it was... the sound tracks make when a train is coming down them. A minute later a freight train with its horn blaring blew past the campsite no more than 25 yards from my sleeping bag. Dammit. I thought "well, maybe that was the only one..." and then another blew by 10 minutes later. There wasn't anything I could do. I was glad I had earplugs and I sleep like a log. I dreamt about trains all night but got decent sleep.Towards the end of the day I made it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. This is the home of the half gallon challenge. For those unfamiliar, the challenge is to eat a half gallon of ice cream in under an hour. This sounds horrible to me to begin with, but those of you who have been following the journal from the beginning know that I have an out from this challenge. Consuming massive amounts of dairy product is a bad idea for me. Luckily it's a Saturday so the general store was open and I settled for 6 oz (fluid ounces mind you) of ice cream and a hamburger. Fully fueled, I took off for the most exciting part of the day...At 4:48 pm eastern time (dramatic effect) I made the halfway point of the Appalachian Trail. Wohooooo! It took me quite a while to stabilize my phone between rocks and auto-time some decent pictures. My favorite is the one of me sitting down. I didn't have any halfway-point celebrations planned but I've seen and heard about some great ones. There's one from Amplexus, a southbounder who hiked the trail last year, and who I think can safely lay claim to having the best halfway point celebration ever. Google "Amplexus Halfway" and click the first YouTube video link that comes up. Enjoy! Who can complete with that?!Of course, you can't have great moments like the halfway point without some follow-up disappointment. I pulled up to the shelters (only a few tenths past the halfway point) to find a massive boyscout troop and two shelters almost filled to capacity. I got the last spot in the shelter not swamped with 12 year olds. In addition to the troops there are at least a dozen other campers here tonight - a popular spot. I suppose I don't mind - if I can sleep through a dozen freight trains rolling by 75 feet from my head, I can easily sleep through a horde of boysouts.Last, but certainly not least, an update on the hurricane. Thanks to the poster on the guestbook warning me about it. Sometimes news travels slowly, but weather like this is always the talk of the trail. It looks like the eye of this storm is going to be directly over my head in 2 days. It's way too dangerous to be out in 30-40 mph winds in a forest that's not used to that. Trees will be coming down and I'd bet at least a shelter or two will be snapped in half when all is said and done. My plan is to hike tomorrow to within 2 hours of Waynesboro, PA (about 25 miles) and gauge the weather. If things are looking good, I'll get up early Monday, head into town and get a room at the Days Inn for Monday night. If the weather is turning ugly by tomorrow night, I'll suck it up, hike another 7 miles to town and stay there Monday night. Ideally I just spend Monday night in the hotel and try to hike out Tuesday afternoon... not many plans out here go ideally.Today's post was brought to you by the Proclaimers, because "I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more, just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door." Well really I just wanted to do it for fun - and I didn't even fall down.