Date: 2009-07-15
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 19.9

In the early morning, we awoke to the ¢near-freezing¢ temperatures of July. I state this in quotes because we were still about 13 degrees above freezing, but for us, in July, it was a bit of a cold shocker. Breakfast was made quite quickly and we all sat at this huge picnic table (about 20 people in total) and began eating potatoes, grits, sausage, eggs, etc. It was an incredible meal for the hungry thru-hikers. At some point, another one of the young girls came up to me and said, ¢I¢m sure you get this all the time, but you totally look like the guy in the Notebook¢. She wanted to get a picture with ¢Ryan Gosling¢, so we went ahead with it. I think that I¢ll have to see the movie pretty soon. The best trail magic was the fact that this group was willing to take our belongings and ¢slack pack¢ us all the way to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, more or less the (un)official halfway point of the trail. It was a solid 19.9 hike, but aside from a few bumps, it was going to be relatively easy terrain. Guernsey and I set out together again, heading down the way to the white blazes, as opposed to a shortcut up the way that many of the thru-hikers had chosen. We ran into Jungli a short while later, and we all applied a good layer of Deet, as we wanted to avoid any deer tick embedding into our skin. Lyme disease is the devil! As I said, terrain-wise, there really wasn¢t that much going on. For the large majority of the time, we were walking along a ridge with few vista points. We kept running into and sometimes staying with Phoenix Rising, Willow, Jungli, Dah Wah He, Macaroni, and Archy. Just a few miles before Pine Grove Furnace State Park, we set ourselves up on a fallen log to mark the (un)official halfway point. It was a great picture, but I¢m going to have to talk with Dah Wah He, as he is the only one that has it! I did, however, have a friend take an absolutely quality photo of me standing on top of the fallen log, as if I had conquered my land. I engaged in some shenanigans, such as sticking out my tongue and giving a grotesque face. But, only until I saw it in my camera did I realize how nuts the photo was. I was also surprised at how large my arm muscles were, but I suppose that this largely had to do with the fact that I really dig into my trekking poles to give me some leverage as I ascend mountains. You should see the tips of my trekking poles - I¢ve warned them down so much that there is almost NOTHING left as a tip. Kind of like grinding your teeth¢¦We plodded on and arrived to the state park, preparing ourselves for the half-gallon challenge. It is tradition that to celebrate reaching the halfway point, that you go inside the general store and purchase a half-gallon of ice cream. Some folks do it for time, while others (me) just attempt to eat it all in one sitting. Seriously folks, a half-gallon is a ton of ice cream! I think that I made the wrong choice of Neapolitan Ice Cream. Initially, I was thinking that you had the three flavours and that it would really help me get it down. But, once it started melting and blending flavours together, it just wasn¢t very good anymore. Guernsey finished first at 1 hr. 10 min., while I laboured over my own, finishing in 1 hr. 38 min. In this one sitting, I consumed over 3,200 calories. Since this was just ¢filler¢, I ate a cheeseburger directly after, as I was a bit hungry. Guernsey was turning a bit sick, afterwards, and Macaroni tossed up the white flag after an hour. Blue Eyes did quite well and finished his chocolate one in around an hour. The rest of the folks (Jungli included, ahhheeem!) were too chicken to try it. In the evening, we went over and purchased a campsite for the group, which was much easier than trying to cowboy camp. Besides, they had clean showers with warm water! I did take a shower, which was absolutely lovely. They also had these huge drying jets for your hands, but having to improvise, I stuck my hair underneath the machine for a good 10 minutes. Some people came in and out of the bathroom and you can just imagine their faces when they saw this dirty, smelly guy (showers don¢t help EVERYTHING) sticking his head underneath the air jets. I felt a bit like a doosh, but I didn¢t want to go to bed with a drenched head. After getting back to the campsite, I proceeded to eat another two meals that I had packed, as I was hungry and I wanted to get rid of some pack weight. We sat around talking for a while. I had a bit of gas this evening, which prompted Guernsey to ask me, quite slyly, ¢Why do you have three earplugs with you? I suppose it is two for your ears and one to shut up your arsehole!?!¢