Date: 2009-06-30
From: Tom's Run Shelter

To: Yellow Breeches Creek
Miles today: 22.8

This morning was a leisurely morning because I wanted to arrive at the Half Gallon Challenge at about eleven. Since I only needed to hike three miles to get to the Pine Grove Furnace General Store where we do the challenge, I didn't need to get moving until about ten. Unfortunately, the only good thing about the Ice Cream Challenge was the excuse to eat a stupid amount of ice cream in one sitting. The lame excuse for a store at which this takes place offered the following half gallons: Vanilla (self-explainatory), Mint Chip (like drinking a half gallon of Scope), Cotton Candy (puke!), and Butter Pecan (a stupid excuse for a creative ice cream flavor unless you are ninety years old). They did have Cookies n Cream in pints so I comprimised and got two of those and two vanilla's. Of course, half-gallons cost seven dollars and the pints were two fifty. So the lame staff of the store gloated in raping me of ten dollars (not to mention all the other hikers who they charge seven dollars for ice cream). Nothing like completely taking advantage of an opportunity. They have all these newspaper articles hanging in their store about how cool their place is because of the ice cream challenge and all they are going to offer are seven-dollar half gallons in four lame flavors. For real--if you're going to do something in your life, do it right. It simply isn't worth doing things mediocre. This applies to ice cream stores as well as long distance hikes as well as jobs and relationships. Shape up or ship out...Anyway, my time in the challenge was 41:43. The best times were about ten minutes and some went over an hour. Lots didn't finish. Shortly after the challenge, the trail goes by a big marker that marks the halfway point on the trail but it's not that accurate since the trail changes lengths every year. This year it is evidently three miles longer than last year. I think I got the better part of a day off the distance between me and Mostly but the choices for camping are really limited in this section. You cannot camp between Boiling Springs and Darlington Shelter which is more than 18 miles, so you can be looking at either really big or really small days if you didn't see this coming. Mostly registered in at James Fry Shelter last night so he either did eleven miles to the Boiling Springs Campsite or 29 to Darlington. Its hard to say. What a great experience it was night hiking into the campsite tonight. I left the shelter after eating dinner, about 8:30 to do the four miles to the last campsite before Darlington Shelter in order to get me a (long) day away from Duncannon. After about the first mile, the trail leaves the woods and winds through corn fields on its way into Boiling Springs. With the Summer Triangle above me in the heavens and millions of fireflies shimmering like ocean waves reflecting moonlight everywhere around me, I made my way to the campsite just south of town. As I got closer to the campsite, I could see headlights and wondered who was there. It was a pleasant surprise to meet up with Slapshot and Otter again! You may remember them as the guys who camped on the bald at Rice Field Shelter during that huge thunderstorm that scared us all to death. I couldn't help but to be nervous about pitching next to them in this big open field for the night! Tomorrow is another big day trying to get into Duncannon. Mostly said he planned to zero there so hopefully I will catch him tomorrow before I take two more zeros with my friends Chris and Tin in Harrisburg. Until then!