Date: 2016-07-07
From: Birch Run Shelter

To: James Fry Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: light rain

Woke up today at Birch run at around 7. I packed up and ate a cold breakfast. Waterfall and Hiker John were getting up when I was leaving. It was only 9.8 miles to the general store where the half gallon challenge was. The terrain this morning wasn't too bad. A gradual up led to a ridge and then a slow decline. Once I got to Dead Woman Hollow Road the trail flattened out to the official 2016 halfway point of the AT. I stopped and took pictures as well as filled out the log book. It was a fantastic feeling to be at that point on my hike. I continued on from the half way point and stopped at Toms Run Shelter for a snack. At this point I only had 3.6 miles to go. The trail had one climb before I reached the state park. Overall Pennsylvania as had some rocks but it really hasn't fazed me. I'm not sure if it's because I'm used to hiking on rocks in the Catskills and New England. I arrived at the general store at about 11:30. I went in to select my flavor of ice cream. They did not have coffee as that was going to be my first choice. Moose tracks was out, too heavy. Banana Cream Pie was out as the flavor would get old quick and become sickening. I settled on peanut butter pretzel. Heck if I'm gonna do this challenge why not go with a fun flavor. It took me about 35 minutes but I finished it and collected my wooden spoon. Needless to say I did not eat lunch. When I arrived at the general store sleeping bear had finished his half gallon. Feather was there eating a burger and I hadn't seen him in awhile. As I was eating my ice cream cake, haiku, gentle giant, hiker John and waterfall rolled on. Whitecap was also at the general store. Some attempted the half gallon and some did not. Hiker John, Waterfall, Whitecap and Haiku successfully did the challenge. The rest did not attempt. I figured it out that I had eaten 3044 calories. I sat for awhile letting the pile of ice cream digest. After about an hour I packed up and continued on the trail walking to the AT museum which was only a bit aways. The museum was neat as it had some itens of some of the first people to Thru hike. Such as it had done items grandma Gatewood took on her hike. I spent about a half hour at the museum and continued on to the lake for a swim. It was super crowed so I did a quick in and out. I dried off by the snack bar before continuing on. The rest of the crew were just getting to the lake as I was leaving. The plan for most were to go to the next shelter which was only 7.6 miles away. The trail followed s creek for a mile and then began the ascent. The climb was steady but not steep so no resting was needed even with the heat. It was about a 4 mile climb and then a descent with some small ups and downs after that. About 3 miles from the shelter a hiker with a black lab going south passed me. I reached out to pet the dog and the hiker said that's olive. I was like hi olive and said wait did you start April 6th. Sure enough this was the olive from the night Trooper and I were at Stover Creek night one. If you go back to my journal entry from night one I think I talk about Olive. I was so excited to see them. Her owner had taken two weeks off and was doing section hikes using his car waking south and then hitching back to where he started. I made it to the side trail of the shelter at 6pm and walked the .20 miles to the shelter. Well first off it wasn't .20 it was more like .50 up a hill and second the spring was dry so I had to walk all the way back to the trail for water. I was going to continue walking north but the rest of the crew were going to do the same thing of walk to shelter to discover no water. I set up camp west of the trail by the creek. As each of the crew made it to the side trail to the shelter I told them no water and they decided to set up there. Haiku was first, then cake, Alice, gentle giant, bear wall, sleeping bear, chef, mayfly. We had a crowd. Haiku started a fire and we all relaxed chatting. It was a great night.