Date: 2018-05-07
From: Birch Run Shelter

To: Iron Masters Mansion
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: mist

Thanks to the whippoorwill, I awoke early. The hike today was easy, mostly downhill to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, and the weather could not have been nicer, mostly in the 50¢s and low 60¢s. We passed through an area of Michaux State Forest that was recently burned to reduce undergrowth. It is eerily beautiful. The early European settlers reported that the eastern woods were open enough to drive a carriage through them. That wasn¢t natural but the result of fires set by American Indians. The open forest favors deer and other game animals favored by the Indians. It¢s good to see fire once again being used to maintain an ecosystem. The Florida prairies are another example of a fire-maintained ecosystem. We also saw a scarlet tanager today. What a beautiful bird!  Today, we passed the monument marking the half-way point of the Appalachian Trail, but not the midpoint of my hike! This year¢s sign points to the termini, a distance of 1,090.5 in each direction. I wonder how the northbound thru-hiker from last night reacted. Did he think, ¢I¢ve done half the Trail!¢ or ¢Oh, my Lord, I¢ve only done half the Trail!¢ The marker moves each year. In 1998, it was just north of Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The southern part must be stretching faster. We did the 10 miles before noon. The Park general store is open and I binged on a hiker burger (fried egg, bacon, cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato), fries and an iced tea. For dessert I had a single scoop of chocolate ice cream. Oh, happy tummy! I confess to not finishing the fries.  We saw a northbound thru-hiker successfully complete the 1/2 gallon ice cream challenge, although he used a real spoon instead of the traditional wooden one. The Iron Masters Mansion doesn¢t open until 5:00, to allow the hostel keepers some semblance of a life. We toured the Appalachian Trail Museum. I¢m glad to see the artifacts being curated and preserved and the start of interpretive exhibits. Benton MacKaye¢s archives are at Dartmouth College. Myron Avery¢s are at the University of Maine, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has its own extensive archives and memorabilia. The Museum is drawing from these sources and private collections and presenting materials in a way accessible and informative to the general public. The Museum is housed in the old gristmill that served the Pine Grove Iron Plantation.  The ground floor is dedicated to children¢s exhibits. The main exhibits include Earl Shaffer and Grandma Gatewood¢s gear, including one of her signature gunny sacks and a pair of her Keds sneakers. Then we lounged on the hostel porch until it opened at 5:00. In the Hostel, we get a bunk with sheets, a shower, pizza and soft drink and breakfast (waffles), all for $36. Laundry is an additional $3. The bathrooms have toilet paper (a trail luxury), but neither soap nor shampoo.  There was some liquid hand soap and I diluted that. The men¢s and women¢s dorms each hold about 15 in bunk beds. The men¢s dorm is full, but there are only two women. Earplugs will be necessary in the men¢s. Iron plantations have a fascinating history during the 18th and 19th centuries, and were important stops on the Underground Railway. Because black and white men worked side-by-side on the iron plantations and many iron masters were Quakers, it was easy for runaway slaves and indentured servants to blend in. One of the closets in the Mansion has a trap door hiding a narrow ladder to a sub basement. I imagine that with a chamber pot set on the trapdoor, it offered a relatively safe place for runaways to find refuge from the slave catchers, who were given impunity by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. When I stayed here before, I had a dream of a runaway slave named Maria from New Orleans who fell in love with the iron master¢s son Anthony, with a tragic outcome. The dream presented itself as an opera. The dream was vivid and I awoke tangled in my sheets fighting for my life! I am hoping for a more restful night¢s sleep on this visit. Willow and Sam are tenting in the State Park, quite possibly a wiser decision. There¢s a bathhouse available to them. What a wonderful day! Good weather. Good friends. Good food. Clean body. Clean clothes. A soft place to sleep. What more could anyone want?