We woke up today with a million things to do! Bubbles and Sprout have been carrying around these Sawyer Fast FIll adapters. We needed to figure out how to use those, cut Bubbles and Sprout’s hair, pack, and worst of all, catch Sprout up on all of his blogs!
We started with the haircuts in the parking lot of the old mall. Dad’s van has an outlet in it so it worked perfectly. Sprout went down to a 1 on the clipper and Bubbles went to a size 3 clipper. She felt a little bit better about her hair being all one length rather than a bunch of different lengths.
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| Sprout getting his hair cut |
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| Sprouts new hair cut |
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| Bubbles new hair cut |
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This is the Sawyer Quick Disconnect. Now they don't need to unpack
to take their water bags out of the packs when they filter water!. |
We left the hotel and started back towards the AT. Dad drove while I furiously typed Sprouts blogs. We decided that we would visit the Appalachian Trail Museum before dropping the kids off on the trail.
The museum is really cool. I wish we could have spent more time there and I hope to go back and visit. There is a shelter that was dismantled and rebuilt inside the museum. It is the last shelter that Earl Shaffer (the first man to thru-walk the AT in 1948) built in early 60s. It’s so different than the shelters of today. It is much smaller, only sleeping four. It also originally had a dirt floor. This was so that rodents could not hide under floorboards and make a home out of the shelter.
There is also an original sign from Katahdin in the museum. It was so cool! They replace the sign about every 10 years because it becomes worn from snow and wind. The last time they replaced it they sent it to the museum! The Three Amigos were excited because they know the next time they see that sign they will be at the top of Katahdin!
There were also a lot of different relics from some of the more famous trail stories. Grandma Gatewood has a really interesting story. She left home telling her family she was going on a walk. She went to the AT and thru-hiked, in 1955, wearing Ked tennis shoes and carrying an army blanket, a raincoat, and a plastic shower curtain! She hiked it two more times for a total of three times in her lifetime!
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| The Three Amigos and dad in front of the Appalachian Trail Museum |
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| A little bit of history on Earl Shaffer |
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| The shelter that Earl Shaffer built in the early 60's |
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| Sign from Katahdin |
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| Grandma Gatewood |
We decided after we went to the museum to have a picnic. While walking to the picnic area (right next to the Pine Grove Furnace Park General Store) Bubbles and I talked Smudgy Cheeks into completing the Half Gallon Challenge. At first he said he wasn’t up to the challenge because it was his first day back on the trail, after being off for nine days, but we were successful! He chose Raspberry ice cream and pounded it in 19 minutes and 18 seconds!! That is really fast!!! Bubbles still didn’t complete the challenge. Her plan is to complete it when Smudgy Cheeks is dropped off on the trail after they summit Katahdin.
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| I took a picture of the log book. Mayhem was here before Bubbles and Sprout on Friday! |
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| Smudgy Cheeks about halfway through the challenge. |
After our picnic we headed back to the intersection where we picked up the kids. It was really sad!! We will be getting together again at the end of May for a wedding, so it will not be too long before we get to see them (hopefully this time they won’t have two weeks worth of blogs to catch up on!)
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| Dad checking out the Mayapples |
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| Saying goodbye! |
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| The Three Amigos together again! |
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