Date: 2009-07-23
From: TomÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Run Shelter

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 19.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Well after exactly three calendar months and, by my reckoning, 93 days I have finally reached half way. I guess ¢half way¢ can mean many things: half way already; just plain half way; or maybe only half way. I can¢t speak for other thru hikers but I¢m guessing few would be members of the ¢half way already¢ club, and I think it¢s difficult to think of it as ¢plain half way¢, it¢s too much of a milestone to dismiss with merely a shrug. My gut tells me for most, once the hoopla dies down, it could shockingly be a case of ¢only half way¢! But even then what does that mean? Maybe, ¢it¢s only half way and so lucky lucky me I still have another half to enjoy ¢ yippee!¢, or ¢it¢s only half way ¢ do I really have to do all that again ¢ oh no!¢Somehow after all that analysis I seem to have omitted my own feelings about it. What do I think? I think it¢s a mistake to focus on half way as any type of goal or intermediate accomplishment. You can¢t ignore it but it¢s better not to dwell on it. For me it¢s the middle of the middle third ¢ but if I¢m not mistaken that¢s maybe another way of saying half way.Anyway, shortly after halfway I arrived at Pine Grove Furnace and, for most folks, the home of the Half Gallon Challenge (to eat half a gallon of ice cream at one sitting). There would be challenge for me this year. I strolled up remembering my previous visit, recognising the same tables and chairs and recalling good times with Bull, Tunnel Vision and Teflon. The challenge had been fun but tough. Tough enough for me to wear my ¢spoon¢ with more than a little pride and tough enough for me to consider it a once in a lifetime event and well, I¢d been there, done that.I snacked and bumped into SnP and Strider, who had spent the night at the hostel, followed by Dugout and Walking Home who had camped. Everyone was in fine spirits and the relaxed mood was contagious as nobody seemed in any particular hurry to start making more miles.Now at this point I¢d like to be able to report that the morning did in fact turn into another unexceptional walk. It no doubt would have had it not been for the intervention of one particularly unfriendly wasp. Getting up from a break I had a strange sensation on my left hand, a strange and baffling sensation that started to turn into a bafflingly painful sensation ¢ OOW!! I looked down and a wasp had, for some reason completely beyond my knowledge, decided to take umbrage with the tip of my middle finger. I shook it off and spent the next few moments cowering pitifully while turning my back on a new enemy as it buzzed around in an apparently agitated state. ¢Go away nasty wasp¢ I whimpered as I cowered some more. Eventually he flew off and I could resume my full manly stature ¢ walking tall and recalling my recent other wasp attacks in Sweden and Manitoba.Life ¢ if it¢s all about the memories then I definitely prefer those involving eating ice cream to being stung by wasps. Oh well, life¢s rich tapestry ¢ what are you going to do?I would now like to finally be able to report a return to standard operating conditions and make light hearted remarks about an unexceptional afternoon¢s walk, but ¢¦. It rained. Fairly unexceptional you might say and I¢d have to agree but it got me all in a tizz. I still think of those storms I have missed because I happened to be lucky enough to be in a shelter and then reason, but I¢m carrying a helter. Why can¢t I sit out all the storms in it? It sounds plausible but it¢s all about timing and that you see is where it gets tricky and where the agonising begins.Today I stopped, pitched up, (getting everything wet in the process of trying to keep everything dry), sat there as the promised storm did nothing but spit, packed up again and continued hiking. This is when the storm did arrive and I was thoroughly soaked. I need to stop trying to be clever. Maybe just stop thinking all together.I arrived at the sanctuary of the shelter where I could escape the rain, organise myself, change into dry clothes, laugh about it all with SnP and Strider and most exceptionally say ¢stuff this as far as camping goes, I¢m going to stay in the shelter¢. Aye another fair weather camper ¢ that¢s me.