We woke up and were super excited because A: The Three Amigos are going to be reunited. B: My dad and sister are picking us up on the trail today, and C: New shoes are in my near future!
It didn’t rain last night (just sprinkled). We were looking forward to getting to Pine Grove Furnace Shelter today. We wanted to go to the Appalachian Trail museum but it was closed. Not everything on the trail is back to regular business hours yet because we are ahead of the bubble (hikers leaving from Spring Mountain Georgia.)
It was the quickest that we packed and got out of camp (we were still the last to leave camp though!) We walked 3.7 miles to Pine Grove Furnace Park. The walk into the park was awesome for me because there were evergreens everywhere. My heart was jacked. When we got to Pine Grove we were really excited because the General Store was open!
Sprout was jacked to complete the traditional half gallon challenge. (Side note: The General Store sits in the valley where the halfway point of the AT is. Hikers who stop through the General Store are challenged to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. You can pick from the Hershey's ice cream they sell in the store. When you finish with the carton you still have another pint to go! Since hikers can burn up to 5,000 calories a day you can pretty much eat whatever you want without gaining weight.) I knew that I couldn't eat half a gallon of ice cream and finish my hike for today so I got the cowboy burger (in honor of all the cowboy coffee) and fries.
We sat at the picnic table out front and started the stopwatch for Sprout's challenge. Like a true hero, Sprout ate some fries before he started the challenge. All morning we had been talking about our Viking characteristics and how they would help him overcome this challenge. There were a bunch of people around when Sprout started. They were super negative and were saying that he wasn’t going to be able to finish. I felt like I needed to encourage him. I had to pull out the big guns (I told those Negative Nancys that they could get off the porch if they weren't going to encourage my hubby!) I got to the point where I put on the Rocky Theme song. I’ll let Sprout's blog tell you if he was able to finish.
After resting for a few hours we started back on the trail. We walked past three facilities while hiking out of the state park. As soon as we got back onto the Appalachian Trail, out of the state park, I had to take a dookie. I contemplated walking one mile back to the nearest bathroom but I didn’t have time! To make matters worse, the destroyer (Sprout) broke our trowel. Have you ever dug a hole with a stick when you really need to go? #stressful!
After that debacle we made it to James Fry Shelter where we met two brothers who are walking from Harper’s Ferry to Maine. We had a good time with them until we had to walk down to the road to meet the family. I hope to run into them again on the trail (I think their names were Rocky and James). They were carrying a bunch of stuff that their grandma made them pack. One of them had a kit for if they lost a cap on their tooth! He said, “My pack is 50 pounds but I’m carrying stuff in my pack for my grams!!” Talking about their grandmas made me miss my Nanny!
Dad found us around 8:00 just after it was getting dark. We had our thumbs out. It was our first attempt to hitchhike and can you believe it, a family member picked us up!
 |
| The Sprout starting the Half Gallon Challenge!! |
 |
| Two other thru-hikers joined The Sprout |
No comments:
Post a Comment