Date: 2007-07-09
From: Toms Run Shelter

To: Campsite beside creek
Miles today: 15.0

The heat is killing me! It's ben in the 90s with high humidity. Ugh! I use a damp bandana around my neck to keep me cool. Saw a copperhead snake today, but I'm not sure it wasn't a rubbber snake...It was coiled with its head up in the air and is mouth wide open...and it didn't move...at all! Thumper wouldn't let me toss a rock at it to see if it moved, I still don't know if it was real. The guys say it was.My pack is killing me...without those stabilizers its just hanging off my shoulders and forming a big round ball on my back. Thumper said it's looking like I'm carrying bowling balls in it! Tomorrow I get the insert back when I get to Boiling Springs Post Office. Then I'll be happy again.Today had many disappointments.   Furnace Grove State Park's convenience store is known for he "Half Gallon Challenge"...can a hiker eat a half gallon of ice cream? We were camped about 4 miles away from it last night, so our plan was to get there for breakfast. We had no plans of partaking the challenge. Word has it it makes many a hiker quite uncomfortablre. Well, we get there and there aresigns that the state parks in PA are closed until the state budget is approved. Even thehostel next door was closed. What a disappointment...we were all quite bummed. So we decided to hike on another 6 miles to a restaurant for lunch. I had planned to resupply at the campstore so I was short onfood. So off we hike in a bad mood. Lately I've been hiking faster than these guys, so I don't see them much. I got to the road crossing for the restaurant and hike the 0.3m down to it. It's closed! New hours:      closed mon and Tues! Now I'm really peeved. I stopped a woman and she said the store a couple of miles away was open and offerred to drive me there. But I read my notes and realized that one more mile down the trail and I came out 0.2m from it, so I thankked her, hiked the 0.3m back down the road to the trail. Still no sign of the guys. Where are these slow pokes? I decide to leave them a note on the trail and head off to the store...they come trucking in about 30 minutes later! They had called the restaurant from a hilltop and knew it was closed so they slowed down. The store was a treat of good food and great service so it brightened our spirits...so did many bottles of various drinks andsubs and ice cream!Another odd thing happened to us on today's hike...we were in the movies! A Japanese film crew is making a documentary for PBS in Japan to be aired in September. (Abal, could your daughter tape it for us?) They were set up at the Midpoint marker that was erected by a 1985 thru-hiker. They filmed usarriving at the midpoint and interviewed us there...cool! It's only 8:00, early day for us, but hopefully I'll get a better night's sleep than last night when I just seemed to toss and turn. Most nights I sleep well, but it's so warm with no breezes...and hotter in my tent.This lifestyle is reminding me of a movie I saw over 15 years ago: Groundhog Day. The guy wakes up and the same day is repeating itself! That's a bit what it's like out here. Get up, pack up, munch a breakfast bar, hike, rest, hike, eat lunch, hike, get water, hike, Sstop for night, set up camp, cook, go tobed...same thing most every day...now you know why town days are exciting to me...something different.And tomorrow is a brief town day...hike in and hike out...but Duncannon is Thursday!Step lightly