Date: 2005-07-01
From: Boiling Springs, PA

To: Caladonia State Park
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Sleeping bags are not meant for anything that has to do with stealth thats for sure... in fact nothing functional and hiker designed is good for stealth missions.. it crinkles and sounds similer to a 5 year old hopping up and down on super duty bubble wrap...wow..hopping up and down on bubble wrap,..sounds painful to me..and fun.The harder you try to be quiet the louder it seems especially to a sleepy muggy NON morning person such as yours truly...Cordura.. silnylon.. compactor trash bags..tyvec..and fluff stuffed pertex sleeping bags that need all 20 yards of it stuffed into a ittle bitty nylon 6" stuff sack..oh so loud... velvro..clips and biners..its all so loud and not really that cool for stealth missions.. What??..a stealth mission you ask??!!!!!well.. Touk the incredable and her accomplice and apprentice..the amazing Rosie the Riveter..(HF-ME 05) were up to the challenge against all odds..and succeded..here is their story.First.. waking up before a sane ammount of daylight Touk crawls from her bag...still covered modestly from head to blistered toe with a thick layer of mosquito's..no se em's.. Hitting the ground like a cat and then hobbling about four feet stifling squeeks as her feet protested loudly to contact with a hard surface like..ground..she makes her way quietly down to the tent city to wake the sleeping Sunshine... playing eany meany miney moe as to which MSR hubba the sleaping beauty is in...(stealth mission would come to a very noisy end if I woke Mother or Vogue up...precision in observation was necessary).. score!.. Sunshines teva's marked the correct tent and in twenty crinkly and noisy minutes later we had our packs on and there was anough light to see the rocks and blazes stumble on up the fameous white blazed trail..   Our goal..15 miles as quick and swiftly as possible... Our mission. The Caladonia state park's swimming pool and a flaming sunburn before the temperature !outside reached the quad digits... The trail was mellow and gentle in the hill department but the rocks... oh the rocks.. little jagged pointy slippery ouchy treacherous rocks..and we haven't really even reached the "real" rocks....according to the veteran hikers...such as all honorary members of Billville.. but these ere bad enough.. our feet have a whole language of their own.WE MADE IT!!!   15 miles in 4 1/2 hours...B.A.M.M...our feet had to be told to be quiet or I'd pull the trail over!!.."make them cut their own switchback"..just kidding..but seriously.The pool was't even open yet... We had a good half hour to be nice to our trail abused feet....and suport the concession stand..Since the pool had no diving board (my love language... no complaints tho)We took advantage of the showers.. After an hour of swimming with a hoard of loud little kids we generously supported the consession stand and worked on burning over our hiker tanlines... I had scored a bathing suit at goodwill the previous day in waynesboro and Sunshine had a handy pair of shorts so we weren't swimming in our hiking shorts and grubby shirts...ieeeeww.. Hikers started to filter in and we had quite a presence among the townies for sure.. Every 2 1/2 hours the lifeguards evacuated the pool for a pool check (its hard to see a drowned person at the bottom of a 5" pool) and a quick soda break..then.. came the 10 minute "adult swim"... which the hikers took over and proceeded to play a heart attack introduced a game of ultimate frisbee... I truly thought I was going to die of heart attack.. hikers are fit as a fiddle but.. in water.. wow 5 minutes and we were all clinging to the railing gasping for air...fit as a fiddle is a reletive condition I guess... the lifeguards whistles were blowing more during the ten minute hiker swims then in the couple hours prier.."no running"...uh.."or drinks in the pool".uhh.."keep the shorts up dude".."is she drowning?"7hrs swimming,.. topped off by trail magic by Spicy's parents who fed an army of hikers pizza.. **thank you so much!!!!!!!!.. and then 2.4 miles to the Quary gap shelter..oh yeah.Then onwards 17 miles to the official halfway point and the half gallon challenge....stay plugged in.