Halfway! (Really!)

So today is June 24, and right now, I’m at the Ironmaster’s Mansion hostel in Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania. This morning, I woke up at Caledonia State Park, where I’d rented a car camping spot. That turned out to maybe not be the best decision, except that I had easy access to filtered water, which was great. My camping spot was also in good proximity to an immaculate restroom, which was a nice bonus. But I roasted like a Christmas turkey overnight.

Normally, I would keep part of the rain fly open on my tent, but this being a car camping site, a lot of the people who were camping around me had giant pickup trucks with tow-behinds, and they all seemed to have brought the entire contents of their homes with them, including every outdoor light known to humanity. So it was very bright all night.

I closed up my tent in a desperate attempt to achieve some level of darkness — plus, it was sort of threatening to rain. It actually did start raining at one point. So, minimal airflow, maximum temperature, bright lights, and noise. So I understandably didn't sleep very well.

I was on my way by about 6:45, but because it was a rather large complex, it took me a good 20 minutes to get from where I was tenting back to the AT. That probably added a good three-quarters of a mile. But the weather was much better today. Lower humidity and not glaringly sunny. There was also a nice breeze for most of the day. So, major upgrade in the weather.

I'm still trying to catch up on hydration. Without being too graphic, I have consumed — at my best guess — eight or nine liters of water but only been to the restroom once or twice. So I’m trying to get even more liquid in me, because it just can't be good for me to be drinking this much liquid without having to go to the bathroom in a kind of proportionate manner.

Wife note: Can I just comment on how much this sign irks me? If south is on the left-hand side, and north is on the right, shouldn’t it read, “Georgia to Maine” instead? Arg!

Anyway, the first couple miles of the day were pretty uneventful but reasonably challenging. About 2.2 miles in, I came to the Quarry Gap shelter, and in retrospect, I probably should have just kept hiking last night and stayed up there, rather than dealing with renting the campsite and everything, but you know, hindsight's 20/20. It was a really beautiful campsite, though.

From there, the trail was just kind of mild ups and mild downs, no real views, very few other people on the trail. At one point, when I was getting some water maybe 7 or 8 miles into the day, I ran across a group of young lads, who were camping. And one of them was in full head-to-toe camo and carrying an assault rifle! It was very difficult for me to not immediately chastise him. I asked one of the guys if backwoods G.I. Joe was one of his buddies, and he just kind of laughed nervously and seemed a bit embarrassed about it. I think it's preposterous for someone to bring an assault rifle on the trail.

At about 12 miles, I came up on some epic Trail Magic. So, a couple people I’ve hiked with before — Gloss and Low Key — are cousins from Southern Illinois, and they’re Amish. I think someone told me originally that there were Mennonite, but they’re actually Amish, I now know. Anyway, they’re thru-hiking the trail, too, and they do a fantastic job of taking their approach to the world and applying it to the AT. They're very disciplined and organized, and all of us are constantly in awe at how clean they manage to stay. Well, I guess Low Key’s parents had wanted to do some Trail Magic, so they brought enough baked goods to feed a good 50 hikers, but it turned out to be a pretty slow day. So I spent about 30 minutes basically eating my weight in Amish baked goods, which were fantastic. [Wife note: You know what’s NOT fantastic? No pictures of these awesome baked goods! **shakes fist in frustration**]

After I finally tore myself away from that lovely Trail Magic, I had probably 8 or 9 miles to go for the day. And boy, my feet were really starting to hurt. I’m thinking maybe my boots aren't big enough anymore. S. told me she’d read something online or seen a video about how your feet tend to get larger as you hike. The arches start to flatten out, so your feet can get wider. I have extremely flat and wide feet as it is, so I don't know what kind of shoes are going to be able to fit me. I might just have to get some clown shoes or something and put padding in them.

I'm hoping to get to an outfitter soon to buy myself some new shoes, but in the meantime, my feet have really been giving me trouble, and that tends to have sort of cascading effects on the rest of my body. And I got a little bit of a preview of Rocksylvania this afternoon, which wasn’t exactly helping my feet any. Overall, it wasn't that bad, but it was sort of a harbinger of what's to come.

To be honest, I was actually considering just walking off the trail at that point. You know, hiking is supposed to be enjoyable, and when you’re overheated and your feet are hurting and there’s not much you can do to mitigate that at the time, those thoughts start to creep into your head. It’s easy to start rationalizing getting off the trail.

But shortly after I left the Trail Magic, I arrived at the plaque commemorating the halfway point of the AT for the 2024 season. The Appalachian Trail is actually fluid — the route changes a little bit from year to year, so the length fluctuates. And the midway point for 2024 is 1098.7 miles. And I started to think whether it would be easier to turn around and go back or to continue on to Maine. Frankly, neither option seemed overly appealing at the moment.

But I continued on and made it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, which used to be the site of a big iron forgery. I think that's the right term. They used to make stoves and pots and all those sorts of things. Now it's a state park, and I’m staying at the hostel called the Ironmaster’s Mansion, named after the people who owned the forgery. I guess this is where they lived. It was donated back to the state and is now a hiker hostel. It's also a little bit of a casual museum. I'm literally the only hiker here tonight, so the caretaker decided to go home. Obviously, we had a discussion before she did, but I guess that makes me the Ironmaster tonight.

Louder for the hikers in the back: “The Innkeeper does not check butts for ticks.”

I took a quick shower and then went down to the general store in the state park,  which is where some thru-hikers choose to participate in the “half-gallon challenge.” The goal is basically to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. I don’t think most people succeed. If I tried that, it would be bad news for my future hiking days and my intestines. [Wife note: Timing doesn’t matter — you just have to finish, and yes, people will occasionally end up barfing — but some hikers try to finish as quickly as possible. I saw in a recent hiker vlog that the record at the time was 3 minutes and 37 seconds. If you successfully get down all your chosen ice cream, you get a little wooden spoon as your trophy, and your name goes up on the wall.]

So I refrained and got a very delicious hamburger instead. While I was enjoying that, a hiker named Daredevil came in and said he was ready for the challenge. Now, Daredevil is legally blind, and he says he can see the trail quote-unquote “most of the time,” which is just a terrifying thought for me, but he's been doing great. He uses one of those classic red-and-white canes to feel things out, and he can see light and dark and general shapes. So, hats off to him.

Daredevil was about halfway through his pint — Hershey's doesn't make half-gallon tubs anymore, so you’ve got to eat a large container, plus a separate, smaller pint — and was clearly going to finish, but I didn’t stick around to see it. I headed back to the Ironmaster’s Mansion so I could do my laundry, and when I got there, lo and behold, Low Key and his dad were there, delivering all the amazing baked goods they had leftover from handing out Trail Magic.

So I absolutely plan on having as many cinnamon rolls for breakfast as I can fit into my stomach. But it's 10 o'clock now and time for bed. The air conditioning isn’t keeping things very cool here, but I’ve got a fan pointed at my bunk, so I should be good. I’m going to try to make it to Boiling Springs tomorrow, which is 19 miles away. It's supposed to be a little bit hotter, so we'll see how that goes.

Today was about a 20-mile day, but if you tack on the time I spent marching around the campsite this morning to get back to the trail — plus a bit of an accidental detour I took on a blue blaze trail that wasn't marked very well — I probably did more like 21 or so. That might explain why my feet hurt so badly. My boots have 430 miles on them already. I need to work on that. Stay tuned.