June 18-19 in PA

June 18, 2005 | Day 83 | Miles: 16.8 | Total Miles: 1057
End: Antietam Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
Sunny and nice out
A day of trail magic! Right before the Maryland-Pennsylvania line there is a park the trail goes through. It had some nice views out into the valley below as well as a bunch of picnic pavilions, restrooms, etc. We sat down to eat and another thru-hiker came up to us, saying that a nice gentleman was cooking up hot dogs and such for hikers. Well, we couldn't pass that up :-) Rex was hanging out by one of the grills with tons of food, and was happy to share and chat. Awesome!
Ryan could have stayed forever, but we had to get down to the next road crossing by 2pm as Aaron, our friend from DC, had agreed to meet us there, shuttle us into town and have an early dinner with us. How nice to have a trail angel friend :-) We hit the supermarket, had pizza and a Blizzard at Dairy Queen, and got back on the trail within a few hours. Wonderful! Our stomachs were full but we managed the 4.5m here in good time on the moderate terrain. We've set up the tent in a pretty spot by the river. (I have to admit I wanted to stop at the shelter 2m in, but Ryan wished to keep going (amazing, I know!) and this was the right choice. A much better camping spot!)
By the way, we crossed the Mason-Dixon line today and are now in PA! Woohoo. Into the mid-Atlantic and out of the south. Yeah :-) 6 states down, 8 to go. Hopefully we'll make it through the infamous PA rocks, manage to find water despite the said many dry water sources and keep away from all the rattlers! Doesn't it sound inviting? Sign me up :-) But hey, we just keep on moving... New England beckons :-)

Ryan:
sunny, warm
rock factor - 3
new feature to the journal: rock factor. pennsylvania is supposed to be really rocky...full of death type rocky. so, each day the rock factor will let you know how much of this trail myth was true. 1, meaning a few pebbles here and there, all the way up to 10, meaning the trail was unidentifiable and the rocks were sharp, pointy, loose and throwing flaming spears at us. speaking of pennsylvania, we have crossed the mason dixon line! goodbye south! no more grits and no more y'alls! don't get me wrong, the south is nice, but the further north we get the happier i am...and closer to home. (assuming we actually find one.) many thanks to aaron, who took time out of his busy wedding planning schedule to come visit us again today. a guaranteed ride into town is always appreciated. the visit was short, but great to see him again. thanks, bomber! we were a little late meeting aaron because of a little dose of trail magic at pen-mar park, thanks to rex. rex used to be stationed at a nearby base, and still lives in the area. every year, his regimen has a reunion scheduled for the 3rd saturday in june at noon at pen-mar. well, once again, rex was the only one who showed up. but, he knows no one is going to show up, so he's just as happy feeding the hikers. so, if you ever find yourself around the pa/md border on the third sat in june, stop in and have some hot dogs and potato salad with rex. he's a really nice guy.

June 19, 2005 | Day 84 | Miles: 20.8 | Total Miles: 1078.6
End: Birch Run Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
Mostly cloudy but it didn't rain on us, amazingly
Our easiest 20-miler yet. It wasn't hot, which helped too! Started at 8am, got to Caledonian State Park by 12:15, had lunch, used the restrooms, filled our water bottles, called our dads for Father's Day and finally took off around 2:15. Made it here by 5:30pm.
We're in a strange hiker "vortex" right now. A bunch of people we know are behind us, and a few are way ahead but for the past few days since Harper's Ferry we really haven't seen any thru-hikers. Very odd. Tonight it's only us, a ridgerunner (someone hired by the Appalachian Trail Conference to be out on the trail for the summer, checking in on the shelters, etc) and Fatigue, a section hiker who's been wit us for a week or so, on and off. Quiet. Other than that, not too much of excitement. We did see a Scarlet Tanager today, which was cool. On to the official half-way point and the Half-Gallon Challenge tomorrow! (It's a thru-hiker tradition. Buy a half gallon of ice cream and eat it as fast as you can. According to the books, the record is 4:30 minutes. Yikes and wow, all together!)

Ryan:
mostly cloudy, few sunny breaks, almost cool
rock factor - 3
to start the day off, someone threw a dart into my left calf about 50 feet down the trail. i was all proud of myself for getting out of camp before 8, and then i got stung or bit by something. it hurt...a lot. now, you can barely see the mark, but i was not happy. we took a 2 hour lunch break at caledonia state park (the trail goes straight through). the smell of match light filled the air, but do you think i could get a cheesburger? nothing. no one would take pity on the grubby thruhiker. not even the mennonites. so, hungry... i did however get a ton of great looks. "look, that guy's wearing a skirt." i wouldn't have it any other way. tomorrow...the halfway point! so, all that stuff you just did...rinse and repeat.