Date: 2004-05-28
From: Tagg Runn, James Fry Shelter, PA

To: Day 66: US 11 north of Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 20.2

With ¢only¢ 20.2 miles to go before my pick-up at US 11, I slept in to 4:00 a.m. on AT Day 66. The trail began with a series of three hills of 500-feet or so, the last one a double with a great assortment or really giant, and FUN to climb boulders that we were challenged to cross as part of the 8.3 miles leading to the Alec Kennedy Shelter. Just before the bouldering challenge, I came upon Swiss Miss who had not yet started her day¢s hike after she missed the sign to the James Fry Shelter and the road to the store the night before and had instead been forced to hike on until 8:30 p.m. until she found this lovely spot on top of the hill to hang her hammock for the night. Sitting on the ground eating her uncooked Ramen noodles for breakfast, it was clear that she was a bit disappointed at not getting her ice cream, but it was also clear that she was pleased at completing what was probably over 28 miles the day before ¢ one tough little lady if you ask me!Swiss Miss and I chatted for a few minutes and then I sped off to reach the Alec Kennedy Shelter for my morning snack. At the shelter I once again met up with Tom who told me that he had also passed by Swiss Miss earlier that morning, but unlike her he indeed managed to find a store last night where he could take on the half-gallon ice-cream challenge. Tom left and I followed shortly thereafter where we were soon confronted by two small hills followed by a descent into pancake flat farmlands. On the way up the second hill, and down the descent I was first passed by Stealth and then by Swiss Miss, respectively ¢ I mean that, they were real nice in the polite way they zoomed on by ¢¦ Some people complain about the hikes across the farmlands, but I thought the change in scenery was fine ¢ besides the soft terrain was very kind to my sore feet.Boiling Springs is really a charming little hiker friendly farming town. I stopped at the ATC Mid-Atlantic Regional Office to eat lunch, where I met Stealth and another NOBO AT through hiker, Chestnut (who I first met as we passed Dicks Dome Shelter), who were making phone calls and reading the register. Swiss Miss dropped off her pack, got directions from Chestnut (who had been in Boiling Springs for the past two days waiting for a friend to pick him up) and immediately went off to purchase her long sought after ice cream. She returned with a quart of Ben & Jerry¢s in a few minutes and immediately devoured it. As I left she had not yet made up her mind if she was going to get another quart to complete the half-gallon challenge, but she did note that she was not yet full. Stealth said he got his ice cream the same night as Tom, so now he was off to have a real lunch somewhere in town ¢ again Chestnut was there with useful directions.The trail out of Boiling Springs was much like the trail leading in, pancake flat, but this time there was less walking in the middle of farm fields and more walking along their perimeters where there are trees and other plants. In truth I found it to be quite pleasant. Just after crossing PA 641, I had the good fortune to meet one of the local trail maintainers who had just finished mowing one long section of the AT. Naturally I thanked him for his volunteer work, noting that walking through really tall weeds and grass can be a pain, especially if it has rained recently. He laughed in agreement.Near the end of this day¢s hike I crossed over the PA Turnpike, a famous US roadway that I first traveled on when I was nine year¢s old ¢ over half a century ago. A little over a mile later the trail comes to the US 11 overpass for the AT, where I dropped down to the highway to await my wife at our designated pick-up spot. Sitting at the side of this busy highway was a real shock to my senses ¢ wow was it loud! Unfortunately my wife used the wrong off ramp from I-81 so I had to wait for 40 minutes for her to arrive, but after I got used to the noise it was kind of fun to watch all of the big trucks and people speeding home to enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend.When my wife arrived, I announced that instead of going out to dinner ASAP as we usually did after a pick-up, I wanted to go to a store to buy a half-gallon of ice cream that I was going to try finish eating on our way back to Hagerstown, MD. Driving down US 11 looking for a store to buy ice cream I decided it would be better to buy several flavors in smaller quantities so I wouldn¢t get sick of the same thing. Good idea, but for some unknown reason I still bought two pints with cherries and hard as I tried, I was only able to finish off 312 pints before the sweetness of Ben & Jerry¢s Cherry Garcia got to me. Even with this failure to meet the challenge, I figured I still consumed 2,360 calories and 82 grams of saturated fat in one seating, and as I have already hinted above, I finished off the remaining Cherry Garcia (another 520 calories and 22 grams of saturated fat) today while typing this journal. So much for my pre-AT low-fat diet! It will be very interesting to see what my cholesterol values are when I return from summating Mt Katahdin. Now the plan is to enjoy two days off during the Memorial Day weekend, take in a movie and, of course, EAT! Next week I should finally hit PA¢s infamous rocks ¢¦