Whooah, we're half way there!!!

Half Gallon Challange

This event is another one of those fun things that happens on the trail.
About 40 miles into Pennsylvania is the halfway point. Another two miles or so after that the trail passes a general store in Pine Grove Furnace State Park. So to celebrate coming halfway its tradition to try and eat a half gallon of ice cream. I was totally going to go for it because I figured never again am I going to have an excuse to try and eat a half gallon of ice cream.
Unfortunately the ice cream defeated me. I made it about 95% of the way through and was then like "if I eat anymore I'm going to puke".
But even though I was unable to join the "half gallon club" it was still good fun.

The Roller Coaster

This part of the trail was no fun at all. Its called The Roller Coaster because over 13 miles the trail goes up and back down 10 view less mountains. These 13 miles are also the last in Virginia.
I started it after lunch so I had already put in a good half day worth of hiking and it was majorly hot that day as well. So going over the roller coaster was no fun. The Virginia section is 535 miles which is about a quarter of the trail so when you get to this point you pretty much just want to get out of Virginia already but the state decides to be a pain to the very end.

Mau-Har Trail

The Mau-Har Trail is a blue blazed side trail the branches off the AT and loops back to it at a later point. Actually if you take the loop it cuts off 3 miles of the AT but this trail is more strenuous then the AT.
So I decided to take this side trail, not because its harder but because along this trail there are numerous waterfalls and swimming holes. The trail goes almost straight down into a ravine and then pretty much straight back up on the other side. But it was well worth it. The waterfalls were beautiful and there were too many swimming holes to choose from. Moose and Tetherball took the side trail with me as well. After about 5 minutes we found a nice swimming hole, stripped down to our undies and jumped in. The swim was refreshing but short lived. The water was so cold that as soon as you jumped in you pretty much jumped right back out.
But the scenery the and the swim was well worth the monster climb out of the ravine back to the AT.

Shenandoah National Park

Near the end of Virginia the trail goes through Shenandoah National Park. Its a nice park don't get me wrong but I wanted to get out of it as fast as possible. The trail pretty much parallels the Sky Line Drive the entire 70 miles. So I had the lovely sound of cars driving by my entire day and I could usually hear a car or two from the shelters at night.
The park didn't offer many good views from the trail either. To see any views you would need to walk off the trail and go to a view point on Sky Line Drive. Sometime the walk wasn't that bad, other times it was too far to bother.
But the park did offer a lot of good wild life. I saw countless deer and a few fawns as well. Also I saw a bear pretty much every single day which was way cool. After the park my bear totally is probably around 8 or 9. But the bears or more scared of me then I'm scared of them so all I had to do was bang my hiking sticks together and the bear would go running. I also saw 2 rattle snakes while going through the park as well.
Another cool feature about the park are the Waysides. The Waysides are little pull offs for cars so people can grab a bite to eat. Most are pretty close to the trail so hikers can take advantage of them as well. Only problem is you end up playing $10 for an ok burger. But the famous Shenandoah National Park Blackberry Milkshake was very good....not worth the $4 I payed for it though.
All in all the park wasn't really the great. Shenandoah is defiantly meant to be driven through.

Another Gear Swap

These posts are always fun cause people are always thinking "what crazy thing has he done this time". Don't worry though, its not as extreme as swapping the tent for a hammock.
After about 800+ miles my boots began to fall apart and some pretty decent size holes were forming on the sides. This was rather sad, I loved these boots. They were well broken in, comfy and had taken me so far. But also an unforeseen problem was arising. After all this walking my feet had started to get bigger. I don't know if they were just swelling and if all the walking had spread them out abit but my boots also were becoming too small for me.
So at the outfitter in Daleville VA (which is fabulous by the way) I bought a new pair. But I didn't go the traditional way and buy a new pair of hiking boots. I decided to try something called Trail Runners.
Trail Runners are pretty much sneakers with a better soul and are meant for hiking/backpacking. Now I absolutely love these things. Since they're pretty much a sneaker there's no break-in time, also they're super comfy. But like any good thing there's always a downside. Since they are basically sneakers they don't hold up as well as boots so they're going to need replacing before the end. Also they don't offer the same ankle support as boots do so for about the first week of wearing them I did have some ankle and knee pain but that doesn't bother me anymore.
But again another good gear change.

Trail Magic

Ok, so far I've told you guys mainly about the experiences I've been having so far along my trip. But I have not yet given you a glimpse at "trail culture".
Now on the trail there is an occurrence known as trail magic. It usually comes in 2 forms. Sometimes someone will just put a cooler up the trail alittle ways at a road crossing with sodas and other drinks in there. Or sometimes someone or a group of people will be waiting at road crossings with drinks and snacks and they'll hand you stuff and you'll get a good few minutes talk out of it was well. Sometimes the people at road crossing will go all out and bring a grill and have hamburgers and hot dogs waiting for you when you show up. When that happens its a real treat. But regardless any trail magic is a good "pick me up".
The other day while I was hiking I saw a sign that said "Trail Magic" with an arrow pointing down a side trail that leads to a spring where you can get water if you needed it. So I figured I'd take the trail and check it out. When I got down there this person had put maybe 55 cans of soda in the spring to keep them cold. It was pretty awesome. So I dropped my pack and had lunch down there with a nice cold soda. It was wonderful.
But the funny thing about trail magic is you almost never get it when you want it but you always seem to get it when you need it.

The Homeplace

In the town of Catawaba VA there's this restaurant called The Homeplace. Also known as a "must stop" for thru-hikers.
The Homeplace is an "all you can eat" restaurant that features traditional southern style cooking.
So pretty much since I started my hike I've been hearing about this place and everyone has been saying "you have to go, you have to go" so after all the rave reviews I've heard about it I figured I should go. But there's a catch.....just like almost everything in life. Its only open Thursday-Sunday, so you need to time it right. I made sure I was going to time it right and slowed my passe down a lot and made it to the town on Thursday. Actually I made it to the shelter 1 mile past the road-crossing you take into town Wednesday night and back-tracked that 1 mile Thursday morning....yes I was very dedicated to going to this restaurant.
I did get a pleasant surprise while walking into town, Tin-Tin and Fredo were walking back out of town, they had stayed there Wednesday night. So I convinced them to come back into town with me and join me for dinner.
We got back into town around 12 but The Homeplace doesn't open till 4. There's a gas station/general store in town with a bunk house/hiker hang out behind it, so we chilled back there and played rummy till 4.
Now The Homeplace has probably been one of the best eating experiences I've had on the entire trail so far. You go inside and it pretty much looks like your traditional southern style dining room. Then they hand you the menu and it works like this. You get two choices of meat, you automatically get the fried chicken so you then choose from ham, roast beef or bbq pork. We picked the bbq pork. Along with that you get sides of mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, baked beans, green beans, cole slaw, cinnamon apples and cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Now all of this is "all you can eat" so you can get refills on everything. So the three of us pretty much ate till we were about to explode. I am going to say that it was probably the best fried chicken I've ever had.
Then Fredo, Tin-Tin and I walked back to the bunk house and just sat down in complete silence and in complete food coma's for about 30 minutes. Then with as much will power as we could possible put together we all made it back to the shelter were i stayed Wednesday night and passed out.
Needless to say, it was awesome

Playing catch-up

Hahahaha....OK, i know i haven't updated this thing in ages, so its time for some mad blogging, lets do this


3,2,1.........go!!!