Date: 2006-06-23
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Well I think most of us made it through the night OK after the half gallon challenge yesterday but are still having thoughts on why we did it. One would think that a half-gallon of ice cream would fill you up for a few days but instead I think everyone was even more hungry than normal. This was partially due to not eating a solid dinner after the ice cream last night. After packing up we made the short hike back down to the camp store for some snacks. Jane, Baro, Donkey, and I decided we wanted to go into Gettysburg if we could hitch a ride so we made a sign and started putting our thumbs in the air. Our chances of a ride were slim due to the backcountry road we were on as well as the distance over to the battlefield. We stood out on the road for about 15 minutes with no luck. All the sudden a little lady riding a bicycle down the road rides by and joking around we ask her for a lift. Her response was, "I may just be able to give you guy a ride down to Gettysburg if you will wait on me to return". Just a few minutes she returns in a pretty nice Buick and tells us to jump in. She wanted us to meet her husband over at their cabin before taking us over to Gettysburg. We took off and just down the road we pulled into a gravel driveway with a little cabin. Her husband comes out to greet us and after a few brief introductions handed he handed us the keys to the Buick. He tells us just to take the car for the day over to Gettysburg and return it back to the cabin when we were done. He only asked that we fill it up when we were done. Before we left they gave us their road atlas and said if we were going to steal their car we needed to have a good map to find our way. So with all of our jaws dragging the ground we hopped in and took off down the road. Just about a mile down the road was the camp store where we had the ice cream challenge last night so whipped in the drive just to show everybody there what we had scored for the day. Our trip over to Gettysburg was well worth the efforts in getting there. We first visited the museum that has tons of artifacts from the war. One thing that I found so unique was many of the guns on display had been made or had parts made at the arsenal in Harpers Ferry. We just visited this area last week. After the museum we went across the street to the cemetery where many of the soldiers from the battle are buried. This is also the place where President Lincoln gave the Famous Gettysburg Address. After the walking tour we decided to take advantage of the car so we went on the auto tour. It mainly visits a lot of the monuments around the town and in the actual battlefields. Even though we took quick tours of the monuments it was well worth going. See Gettysburg is one of those places that you could easily spend several days walking and reading and just break through the ice on all the events that happened those couple of days that July. When finished we grabbed a bite to eat there in town and made our way back toward Pine Furnace to return the car. Once back on the trail Jane, Baro, and I stopped at the halfway monument for some pictures before heading on. A thru hiker built this monument in the 80's to mark the midpoint of the trail from Georgia to Maine. The rest of today's section of trail crossed a ton of roads and gave us a glimpse of the rocks here in the state of PA. The last section of today¢s hike passed by a drag strip so naturally I wanted to stop in to see a little racing but didn't have any daylight to spear so I rushed on toward the shelter. At the shelter not much was happening since we made it in so late, so basically I ate and jumped in bed. Around 11:30pm it started raining and rained most all night. This always makes for a great nights sleep out here on the trail.Tonight: Hot Springs, Mule, Outbreak, Morning Fit, Jane, Baro, Ghost, FDR,Gringo, a few others, and myself.