Date: 2015-06-27
From: Harpers Ferry 

To: Mt. Holly Springs, PA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: moderate rain

Post Saturday June 27 from Mt. Holly Springs, PAHello from Mt. Holly Springs, PA public Library. I am at northbound milepost 1112, Mt. Holly Springs, PA. That is about 90 miles north of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I rejoined Brad/No Worries in Harper¢s Ferry. West Virginia, so it is nice to be back with him.   He still walks faster than I do during the day, but we agree upon a destination each night and rejoin each other then. Sometimes we walk together. In the past few days therefore I/we have rapidly walked through the states of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. We are now in Pennsylvania, and will be for a few weeks, until about July 10th, as the AT goes through that state for about 250 miles. So we have finished six states (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland), and are in our 7th (Pennsylvania). We have crossed the Mason-Dixon line, so we are now in Yankee territory.   So I am no longer a foreigner.   But the motels and restaurants are more expensive up here and further north, so I already miss the cheaper prices of the south.   The AT goes through 14 states.   It is nice to see the states go by, as evidence of some progress.   As previously mentioned, I am happy to be done with the state of Virginia, which really did seem to go on a long time, and which has a lot of vertical ups and downs.   The last 100 miles has been relatively not-much vertical up and down..   Pennsylvania is famous for its miles of sharp rocks and boulders. We will start them tomorrow.   I was surprised when a few weeks ago an AT thru-hiker veteran told me that many thru-hikers quit the AT in Pennsylvania due to both the heat and the rocks.   I will try to be careful.   I do indeed walk downhill ¢like an old man¢, especially compared to the youngsters who whiz by me.   I use my poles as often as I can going downhill to relieve the stress on my knees. We are doing a zero miles day today specifically because of rain.   It is raining today, and the weather forecast predicts 1-3 inches of rain, and there are flash flood warnings out for small streams. It also rained 3 days ago, in the later afternoon, when I got fairly soaked, but remained comfortable temperature because it remains warm. No danger of hypothermia now. I wore my raincoat, mostly for temperature control. I does not really breath, even though it claims to do so. No problem, though. But it stopped raining that day by the time I got to the shelter/camping area, so I could set up my tent with no problem.   It also rained two nights ago, for multiple hours.   Because I still don¢t like to stay in the shelters and swat the bugs, I pitched my tent two nights ago, but underneath a pavilion, near the shelter.   That is, my tent was sheltered from the rain by a pavilion shelter roof.   Two others saw what I had done and did the same thing.   So we had 3 tents pitched under a roof shelter.   It was effective. My tent is a good one (Big Agnes 1-person), and keeps me dry, but that night I had especially no rain worries.   Yesterday we knew there would be lots of rain today, so we made plans to spend 2 nights in a motel in this town. So we did laundry yesterday, got all of our clothes and gear dry, and are mostly killing time today.   So life is good.   We will resume hiking tomorrow Sunday morning June 28, when the rain is expected to stop.   Therefore, No Worries and I are being smart about our hiking, choosing to intentionally avoid the rain when feasible.   Obviously, if a thunderstorm happens in the afternoon, there is not much we can do about it. But if the weatherman predicts widespread rain several days in advance, we will try to get out of it.   One GOOD thing about the rain is that drinking water from streams and springs will be available in Pennsylvania.   In dry conditions, the Pennsylvania springs and streams dry up.   But that will not be the case this year.   OK, about the actual hiking¢¦We have got past the actual, AT halfway point. .   This year, that is milepost 1095. The trail length this year is 2180 miles.   It gradually increases each year, as trail builders add more switchbacks, which we love, because it decreases the grade.   But most of the switchbacks that can be added have been added, so I don¢t expect the trail to be significantly longer in the future.   Did you know the almost the entire 2180 mile AT is a National Park? It is. It is owned by the US government/National Park service, but predominantly maintained by a dozen or so local trail maintaining clubs.   Anyways, the the remaining miles of the AT north of us is less than I/we have covered in the southern half.   I will try to post my recent pictures after this blog.   I got a picture of the halfway post sign.   It seems that this milestone is less significant to me than even the 14 done milepost. Not exactly sure why.   Perhaps because so many people were dropping out in the earlier parts of the hike, that the earlier mileposts showed me that I was not among the quitters.   Now I am a veteran and have a better chance to finish. I was told a couple days ago that 60 (!) hikers signed into Harpers Ferry a couple days ago. Perhaps not all of them were thru-hikers.   But there are still a lot of hikers on the AT now, in my vicinity. As mentioned multiple times, we are firmly in the northbound ¢bubble¢. It has to be that way, for those of us that want to finish before really cold weather hits Maine in October. I have made contact with Dan McClure (David O¢Neill¢s cousin) to hike with him in PA, but I have no firm response from him.   I will text him today and tell him I am in Pennsylvania.   YES, at the semi-insistence of my daughter, I partially did the 1/2 gallon of ice cream challenge at the actual AT halfway point, which is at the general store in Pine Grove Furnace State Park at milepost 1102 (not at Harpers Ferry, which is only the ¢psychological¢ halfway point. I have a picture of it which I hope to post. (These library computers are really restricted, as usual¢¦ I connect my smartphone by USB cable, but the computer won¢t recognize anything connected to a USB port - to protect the computer from viruses, I¢m sure. )   Anyways, we each bought 1.5 quarts of our favorite ice cream.   (They don¢t seem to make 12 gallon ice cream buckets anymore.) I ate mint chocolate chip. Per the web, 1.5 quarts of ice cream is 822 calories, not really that much, considering a large McDonald's chocolate shake is exactly the same, 820 calories. . I thought the ice cream would be more.   Both Brad and I finished our 1.5 quarts of ice cream, with no ill (stomach) effects.   I was considering buying and eating the remaining 12 pint of ice cream, but we knew we had to walk 10 miles after eating the ice cream, and neither one of us wanted to be sick on the trail. So, unfortunately, I can¢t brag that I met the 12 gallon ice cream challenge, so I did not get the ¢coveted?¢ wooden spoon for doing so.   Neither one of us were much hungry though for the next several hours. Usually, we stop every hour or 90 minutes to eat something, even some peanuts. That day we didn¢t eat anything for about 3 hours.   Brad and I did agree that this was likely the only time in our lives we would eat 1.5 quarts of ice cream at one time and feel no guilt about it.   We need the 820 calories. Surely there was some milk products in it!   We think that we can eat all the calories we want now with no ill effects, that, in fact, we must consume more calories to maintain our weight (at least I must, as I have little to lose before I lose strength.)   But this morning, at the motel, I ate two bananas, two apples, and a big bowl of blackberries.   I then went to Dollar General and bought a drank a 12 quart of milk.      So I attempt to eat fruit and vegetables when in town. Fruit is possible; Vegetables are particularly hard to get (or cook) anywhere. (Not counting french fries as true vegetables.)At Pine Grove Furnace State Park we also spent 15 minutes at the Appalachian Trail museum. Yes, there is one. It was fascinating to me and I would have like to spend more time there, but we felt we had to get moving to beat the oncoming rain, so we didn¢t stay long. It had stories of the ¢famous¢, early AT hikers, of which I am familiar, but you are generally not. I remain in good health.   No pain.   One thing I notice is the huge amount of built-up callouses or just thick skin on the bottom of my feet.   Feels like I have several layers of duct tape on the bottom of my feet. I don¢t, of course, but the calluses/thick skin protect my feet.   I am continuing to use my same Asolo boots that I started with, but will swap them out at the north Pennsylvania border AT post office of Delaware Water Gap, even if the rocks of Pennsylvania don¢t obviously wreck my existing boots.   Even though I am loath to swap boots unnecessarily, it seems prudent to swap boots, once, just to avoid future problems. I am not concerned about breaking in my new boots. My feet are well broken in, and I didn¢t break in my first pair of boots, more than a few miles before I started the AT. OK, enough of this rambling.   I will attempt to post my recent pictures.