July 14 Mile 1100

We crossed the line today. The Halfway Line, that is. Halfway to Mt Katahdin. This year it's mile 1089. Seems strange to have come so far. We have now gone half the miles in half the time available. Now we start going downhill.
Last night the rain poured down and did not stop until we got up. In fact
we stayed in our tents until we felt it was letting up- around 7:00am, late for us to get up. It rained so much and so hard that water leaked through the bottom of my tent. One of the worst things out here is a rain like this one where everything you carry gets wet. All you can do is pack it all up and hope for a sunny day later so you can take out everything and let it dry in the sun.
And the extra water probably adds two pounds to our packs!
As we hiked today we met a hiker named Germ from Atl. She was section hiking south and gave me some helpful tips on balancing my pack. For awhile today we hiked on beautiful pea gravel trails. I'm not sure who put them here, but they are terrific.
I must say it again, the Potomac AT Club has wonderful shelters here. They even have toilet paper in some of the privies, or outhouses near the shelter. Some parts of the TN trail didn't even have outhouses. ( no TN jokes, please) Supposedly they did not want to take away from our "wilderness experience". Having people fend for themselves and seeing toilet paper festooning the hillsides creates a whole knew experience for those coming after.
Got to Pine Grove Forge park in the afternoon. It was once a big forge and now all the building are part of the park. Cool old stone buildings. Have an AT museum here. Will have to catch it later, as it closed right after we arrived and we had more pressing business like going to the General store, getting our second lunch and drying out everything in our packs.
Here they have the "Half gallon challenge"- eat s half gallon of ice cream as fast as you can to set a record. Some hikers today did it in about a minute and a half! I just ate a pint, very slowly, to savor it!
Hiked on at 5:00, hoping to find a campsite. No luck for about 7 miles til we got near Fry shelter. Found a spot near dark- put up tents-.ate in the dark-tried something new to eat- Progresso Beef Stew- not bad, but heavy. Have to eat it the first day out. bought it at the camp store. Now gone 86 miles in 5 days- making up for Harpers Ferry!


Sent from my iPhone

Reply Forward