Date: 2018-07-09
From: Quarry Gap Shelters

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 17.2

Sleeping in the shelter was pretty peaceful last night. There were mice scurrying around but none jumped on me nor bit my finger. I got up and ate a bagel with peanut butter and honey. Today was the day for the half gallon ice cream challenge. I was pretty excited to eat all that ice cream and would use it as motivation for my hike. I got up around 8 am and headed out around 9 am.  I hiked out with Snorts and Chomps. Snorts was having issues with her calves locking up and had to stop to stretch them out. She had also been hiking in Chacos. I pushed ahead and didn't see them for the rest of the day. The trail was pretty easy today. In some areas it was flat for miles. Southern Pennsylvania has been easy so far except I know the rocks are coming. I ran into Squirrel and Brian. I hadn't seen Squirrel since Bland, VA when I was hiking with Theresa. Squirrel mentioned he hiked 102 miles without stopping through that area. It took him 3 days and he didn't sleep. By the end of the trek he started hallucinating. He mentioned that gorilla duct tape did the trick when his feet got fatigued. We came to a gap and I saw a truck, coolers, and a grill. It was trail magic! I retired couple fed us burgers, hot dogs, chips, soda, moon pies, and fruit. I was stoked for this meal since all I had was peanut butter and tortillas for lunch. I ate all the food and was greatful. It's always a treat to have trail magic during the week. We headed out from there and eventually came to the actual midway point on the AT. I was now more than half done. In another 3 miles, there was another halfway sign except this one was installed in 2011. It was not the actual halfway point but they would need to move the sign every year since the trail's length always changes.  After another 4 miles we arrived at the pine grove furnace camp store. It was the home of the half gallon challenge. The store invented the challenge to sell ice cream at high prices but I was going to still do it. Bubbles, Humming Bird, and Fire Breather were already there. They all just finished their half gallons of ice cream. Humming Bird wasn't looking so great. Bubbles was handling it like a champ and was plotting how to beat the time record which was 12 minutes and 30 seconds. I went into the store and got a half gallon of chocolate ice cream. I started digging into it. The ice cream was tough but I was determined to eat all of it. I was thinking about Theresa since she likes ice cream so much. About 3/4 of the way into the tub I hit a wall and ate at a slow pace. I eventually finished it but had to get a cup of ice cream since the tub wasn't an actual half gallon. I crawled through eating it and finished in 30 minutes. They gave me a wooden spoon and I entered my name into the log book. I felt ok after eating that ice cream and thought about if I needed dinner. We all got pictures of us in an ice cream comatose on the lawn then headed over to the lake. The park had a beach on a lake. Humming Bird, Fire Breather, Bubbles, and I went swimming. It felt great after a 17 mile day. Luckily no ice cream came back up. We packed our bags and headed a quarter mile to a stealth site. It was an island between two streams with hemlocks growing on it. It was a beautiful site. We all setup and hung out for a bit. I didn't eat any dinner since the ice cream still filled my belly. I setup my tent and turned in for an early night.  Tonight there are bubbling brook sounds all around me. Bubbles is in his element.