As we left the quick flat state of Maryland we were greeted into Pennsylvania's rocky land by a warm buggy day. But with our hiking gang back together we all had high spirits. Although it was warm we had raining chasing us. So, we pushed a twenty mile day and made it to the Cadillac of Shelters.
Paddy Cakes and myself keeping ourselves bug free
Sleeping Beauty practicing his travel guitar
Not only was this the cleanest shelter we have come across it also had hanging flowers to make it just a tad bit classier! It was a 8 person shelter with a covered center area for cooking and a bear box to put all our food in. To top it all off the privy had reading material called "When Nature Calls" and even was equipped with air fresheners. A nice small stream ran right in front of the shelter, and just behind it were numerous tent sites hidden within the Mountain Laurel.
We were greeted with a cute little fence with a welcoming ducky
Even the bear box was surrounded with flowers
We got to the shelter and had a great night sleep due to Sleeping Beauty serenading us to sleep with this guitar. That morning we woke up to a fierce thunder storm dumping on us. Thank goodness we had a great shelter to hunker down in. By 9:30 the worst had past and we decided to take a chance and see what happened. It turned out to be a great decision because the sun came out for almost all of the day and we officially got to the 1/2 way point of the trail. 1090.5 miles down, 1090.5 miles to go.
Paddy Cakes loving life
The 1/2 point of the trail is marked by this sign put up last year by some previous thru-hikers.
Shortly after the halfway point Caboose decided to treat us to a nice campsite in the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Just before we got there a Timber Rattler striked at Paddy Cakes on the trail because he almost stepped on him. It was SCARY! We had just been taking about what we would do it one of us got bitten. Thank goodness we didn't have to find out.
The Timber Rattler after he tried to bite Paddy Cakes
Once we got to the State Park we went into the AT museum. They had some retired signs that use to be used on the trail and a lot of history info about the trail itself.
An old sign when the trail was only 2000 miles.
The original Mt. Katahdin Sign at the ending point in Maine.
One of the original shelters from the trail.
Sooooo, there are a lot of traditions throughout the trail. Some we choose to do, some we don't. The boys did however choose to do the tradition of the Half Gallon Challenge. The challenge is you must eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. Paddy Cakes, Spanky, Sleeping Beauty (who is lactose intolerant) , and Caboose all chose their flavors and had high hopes to completing. Paddy Cakes and Sleeping Beauty set a goal of completing in 30 min.
They all were happy at this point.
Paddy Cakes showing off what he has to eat in 30 min.
Sleeping Beauty had a good game plan of mixing the two flavors together to conquer.
Spanky and Sleeping Beauty pushing through the ice cream before it melted.
Spanky decided to just let it melt so he could drink it
Paddy Cakes showing off his victory of the 1/2 Gallon Challenge
Paddy Cakes time of completing the Challenge
Spanky hating his flavor decisions which he blamed on Paddy Cakes
Spanky was surrounded by empty cartons of ice cream but had to throw in the towel and call it quits!
It was a rough journey but Sleeping Beauty finished in 35 min and Caboose finished in 50 min. Only Spanky left un-victorious!
We did get harassed by a park ranger later in the night while we were setting up our camp. Most likely because he knew we were hiker trash! But overall a good stay in the park
The next day we got lucky and had another sunny day even though everyone kept saying we were heading into a storm. We ended up getting into some of the boulder fields that Pennsylvania is known for. We went through two rock mazes and had to maneuver as a team sometimes over the boulders.
We even had a freak encounter with a very curious baby squirrel. He even crawled up on Sleeping Beauty's shoe. Go to MerryCline's facebook page to see the video .
This picture has no zoom on it. Just to give you an idea of how close he got to us.
Going through one of the rock mazes.
We got lost a few times in the rocks but climbed our way to Boiling Springs, PA. We got super lucky and our friend Crankin ( our hiking buddy from earlier in the trip that broke her foot and had to get off trail )
who is awesome, came and picked us up and brought us to her Aunt and Uncles house in Baltimore, Maryland. They have been spoiling us with food, hot tubs and TV ever since we got here. We plan to get back on the trail tomorrow and push on through Pennsylvania over the boulders hopefully without any ankle twisting.
Also if anyone wants to check out Spanky's trail travels he has been posting videos on youtube and this is the link for his channel:
-Puddin'
