Date: 2015-05-16
From: Toms Run Shelter

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained a tiny bit last night, but not enough to leak inside my tent. I left the camp at 7.30, but not before being surprised at the privy by two people who had camped across the river. I made the nearly 4 miles to the Pine Grove shop in good time. Aside from the millions of spider webs, it was a nice morning stroll. I got to Pine Grove at 8.45 and got my ice cream for the Half Gallon Challenge. I started with a quart of salted caramel. Part way through, I started feeling unwell. I regretted eating breakfast. I was joined by Trailwalker, and later Attrition (the hiker with the sword) too. I very slowly made my way through the large tub of ice cream. By the end, I knew had enough room to eat the rest of the half gallon, though perhaps not the mental capacity. For my smaller tub, I had just plain vanilla. I think that anything else would have made me vomit (and I heard that Stealth did so before finishing his). I really struggled to finish the smaller tub. It took me a long time, and eventually I finished everything in an hour and 20 minutes. In that time I had ingested more than 2,500 calories and double the recommended daily fat allowance. I felt sick, but not really stuffed full. My stomach ached, and I wished I could have just laid down and slept the ache away. Instead, I went nearby to the AT museum. The AT museum is a small museum that has a few items from famous hikers. It was a nice place, and I enjoyed looking at the objects carried by hikers in generations past. It had wifi, a hiker box, a toilet, and a sofa. Everything a thru hiker could need. From there, I still had 16 miles to go. It was a long, tough 16 miles. There were some actual hills today. The weather was brutal again, with boiling hot sun and then a drenching thunderstorm in the afternoon. The thunderstorm was exactly like walking through a cold shower, it was actually more powerful than some of the showers I have used here. When I finally took my shoes and socks off, I had to wring them out. My soaked feet also looked horrific, and I quickly dried them and put my sleeping socks on.As I was walking through the thunderstorm, I had a couple sections where I had to scramble across the rocks in a section called a "rock maze". It was really not ideal in the pouring rain. It was really a maze, and the blazes even have arrows to point the directions. Eventually, I made my way to the shelter. I'm here with Attrition, Trailwalker, and Sputnik. There are some section hikers camping nearby, and I just heard a rattle snake rattling around. I'm staying in the shelter despite the risk of mosquitoes because of the equally annoying risk of torrential rain. I didn't have lunch and then for dinner I had my lunch, though I wasn't especially hungry. The ice cream had kept me full all day. I definitely regretted eating the ice cream. It did make me quite sick, since I haven't consumed that much dairy ever and especially on the trail where I have basically no dairy at all. At least now I have completed one of the big challenges of the AT. I don't want to do any more food challenges if they are like that. Tomorrow, there are 15 miles of almost completely flat trail. This is good, because I'm planning to do 25 miles tomorrow to get into Duncannon on the following day.