Day 87, Tuesday May 25, 2021

    

Ezra / Nehemiah 

Quarry Gap Shelter campsite to stealth campsite outside Pine Grove Furnace State Park - 18.6 miles hiked today - 1106.1 total AT miles hiked to date.

Today was a big day, full of milestones and interesting sites.  Rick and Pinot got an early start, as they were in the shelter and didn’t have to deal with wet tents.  It had rained all night, so I had to pack my tent away wet.  I set out about 20 minutes behind them, but pushed hard and caught up to them by Birch Run shelter, 7 miles up the trail. On the way, I passed the Milesburn Cabin, which is apparently available to rent.

Once I caught up to the others, and although it was still early (10:30) we elected to eat lunch there.  We were anticipating the 1/2 gallon challenge later in the day, so thought that an early meal made sense.  Moving on from there, we were on the lookout for the 1/2 way point marker at mile 1095.5.  We found markers for the 2019 and 2011 halfway points (slightly different due to annual changes in the trail length).  After going back and forth a couple of times over the GPS coordinates, we found a square hole next to the trail with large rocks stacked around them.  Apparently someone had pulled up the sign and post from that spot.  Undaunted, we created our own designation out of rocks and memorialized the spot ourselves.

 

Pictures taken, the next landmark was the 1100 mile designation.  Again stopping for the obligatory shots, we continued on, determined to reach the Pine Grove Furnace General Store for the Half Gallon Challenge.  It is a tradition for thru hikers to consume half a gallon of ice cream here to designate completing half of the trail.  Rick, Pinot and I all undertook the challenge and completed it.  My choice was  Raspberry for the 1/2 gallon and Brownie Batter for the pint.  The extra pint is because what’s sold as a half gallon of ice cream is actually a pint less, and the extra pint makes up the difference.  Once completed, we received a small wooden spoon each to commemorate the occasion.

By then it was close to 5, and Pinot and Rick decided to stay at the hostel next door to the store.  I elected to move on, and hiked another mile through the park to a site along the trail outside of the park grounds.  Tomorrow we’ll meet back up for a relatively short mileage day, although we’re told the rocks are pretty intense on this next section.  The following day (Thursday) we hike into Boiling Springs to stay at Lisa’s hostel foe the night.

Until next time…