Date: 2019-07-20
From: Ridge Road Campsite (PA)

To: Unoffical Campsite at MM1106.5 (PA)
Miles today: 14.3

Today was day two of the weekend heat wave and was supposed to be the worst of the three days. Yesterday we went swimming, today the plan was ice cream.I was the first one up (as usual). Our campsite mate was the first out of camp and hiking. Now one thing to know about this guy is that he has been hiking for nearly 1100 miles and still hasn¢t seen a bear. So guess what comes strolling by the campsite about 20 minutes after he leaves? That¢s right, a bear. SC and I have 470 fewer miles completed and we¢ve seen six and five, respectively.We begin the day by passing three different half way markers. For those starting at either Springer Mountain, GA or Mount Katahdin, ME, this is the halfway point. SC and I have another 470 miles to hike in order to have completed the half of the trail.The terrain for most of our hike today was relatively calm. What I did notice was all the work being done around here to restore the woods to native plants. Some places had been ¢mowed,¢ others burned, some treated with herbicide, and still others with some combination of the first three. One area that had been burned in recent years was now covered in blueberries! Both SC and I walked slowly through this area enjoying what she now refers to as ¢God¢s trail magic.¢ We then walked through an area that was overtaken by some sort of invasive vine. It reminded me of kudzu, the way it covered everything, but it is a lighter shade of green and has arrow-shaped leaves. It also is covered with hooks, so you have to be careful walking by or it will grab you.The heat wasn¢t as oppressive as I had expected. The sky was mostly overcast and there was a good breeze most of the day. It was by no means cool, just not as bad as I thought it would be.We finally get to the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. They have a store there that has a ¢half gallon challenge.¢ The challenge is to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. If you complete it, you get to say you¢ve completed it and you get a small wooden ice cream spoon that says you¢ve completed it. The idea is to do something to celebrate completing half of the trail.Even though SC and I have not actually completed half of the trail yet, we have been looking forward to this challenge. This might be the only ¢challenge¢ on the trail I¢m interested in. After all, you get to eat half a gallon of ice cream!Now, one of the issues is that companies don¢t sell half gallons of ice cream anymore, so you have to buy 1.5 quarts and a pint. For my 1.5 quarts I got mint chocolate chip and chocolate for my pint. SC got chocolate chip cookie dough and Neapolitan. The first 1.5 quarts went down pretty easily. That last pint was difficult, though. SC said the problem was that I had chocolate. She said she had no problem with the vanilla and strawberry parts of her Neapolitan, but eating the chocolate was a chore. We were kind of limited on what flavors were available, though. Despite the difficulties of the challenge we both managed to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting and neither of us got sick. It took us a little over an hour. We ended up not eating dinner.Anyway, we spent several hours sitting outside of the store, eating ice cream, charging our phones, talking to fellow hikers, and avoiding the heat of the day. A little before 7:00, we decided to start hiking again and find a place to camp for the night. There was no camping in the park, so we walked out along a very flat trail. Once we left the park, the trail went up a hill and got rather rocky. We found a flat spot just off the trail at about mile marker 1106.5. We put up our tent without the rain fly and hang our bear bag, and then congratulate ourselves for surviving what was supposed to be the hottest day of the heat wave weekend.