Early in the day (I left the shelter around 7) was a second halfway marker. Because the trail grts reconfigured fairly frequently, it’s not surprising that there are two halfway markers a couple of mikes apart.
Kust north of the shelter is a state park. This meant a lot of road or wide flat trail walking. It also meant stopping at Pine Grove General Store, home of the half gallon challenge, where hikers who have just finished half the AT (or are about to if going SOBO) celebrate their accomplishment by trying to eat half a gallon of ice cream. The reward for finishing it is a tiny wooden ice cream spoon, the kind you taste samples with. The record time to finish is 4 minutes.
Two Esses, Hootenanny and a guy I had seen before but not met were just sitting down at a table outside, each with a 1.5 quart ice cream tub. $8 for the 1.5 quart, $6 for the pint if you manage to finish the 1.5 quarts. I asked after Lone Star. Two Esses said he had to get off trail because he contracted Lyme disease. Apparently he is starting to recover. The new guy is Crush.
I ordered a breakfast vegetarian wrap. I was not going to try to eat a half gallon of ice cream. It was delicious but disappeared quickly.
Both Hootenanny and Crush told me their legs were sore, and when they described it (between mouthfuls of ice cream) it sounded just like my case of anterior tibial tendinitis. I told them about mine and offered them my leucotape. I first helped Hootenanny tape himself up, then Crush. Dinner had just arrived with his tub of cookie dough ice cream, and he asked if I worked in the medical field! Both Hootenanny and Crush said they could feel a difference as soon as they lifted their foot.
Crush finished his 1.5 quarts, then Hootenanny, and both went back inside to buy a pint, which they also finished. Two Esses just barely finished her first tub, and Dinner gave up halfway through his. Cookie dough, he said, was not an inspiring enough flavor to eat that much of.
As with previous days with the old threesome, the new threesome and I leapfrogged each other several times. We had the same planned destination, a shelter 18 miles along.
My tendinitis had flared up a bit yesterday because of the distance, but I was careful today and by about 4 I was feeling almost no pain. I got to the shelter first. Uncle Science, MoJo, and OT (Old Timer, a white haired man with God’s hairstyle, who is doing the top half of a thru hike after doing the bottom half last year) were already there. I checked out the tentsites but they were all slanted so chose an upper bunk in the shelter. One Penny arrived a little later. I pointed out that there were snorers in the shelter so he took one of the slanted tentsites.
Hootenanny and Two Esses arrived almost an hour after me. Crush had developed such bad tendinitis, and his leg had gotten so swollen, that he caught an Uber from one of the roads we crossed, and was headed to the town that the three of them were planning to stay at in two days. So he will have at least two days off trail which should help him recover.
Although we did climb some rocky and very challenging ridges today, there were no ridge views. The terrain other than the two ridges and a few short rock gardens was easy. A good day for recovering from yesterday’s long push.
Mile 1102.2 to mile 1121.2 = 19 miles
A previous halfway point
Two Esses, Crush and Hootenanny
This is how flat and straight much of the state park section was
Crush and Hootenanny played Pooh sticks on this bridge