June 20 at halfway!

June 20, 2005 | Day 85 | Miles: 17.1 | Total Miles: 1095.7
End: James Fry Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
Sunny and nice
Hurray, hurray, we now have less, mileage-wise, to do than what we've already done! Wow. Halfway there. Very cool. It's taken us 85 days to get this far. Amazing. As for "halfway there," please note that it was Ryan, and not I, that wrote out ALL the lyrics to "Livin' on a Prayer" in the Pine Grove Furnace, PA Store hiker register :-)
We made it to the store about 11:30am and dove right into the "Half Gallon Challenge," a thru-hiker tradition in which you try to eat a half gallon of ice cream as fast as you can. Now, I love ice cream, as many of you know, but I couldn't quite do it. I was on the verge of either passing out and/or throwing up with about a cup of ice cream left, and that was it.
I had to stop. Very disappointing. Oh well. I did get the "I Tried Club" spoon as a condolence :-) Ryan on the other hand was amazing and finished his ice cream in 48:45. Impressive. I am sure he will goad me about his feat later, but for now he is feeling badly for me and how my stomach has been feeling all afternoon. We spent 3 hours in the park, recouperating, and I was really surprised I actually pulled off the 7m to the shelter. Thank goodness it was mellow terrain.

So, we're halfway there... Do I have any profound thoughts? First, I know I'm impressed with us for walking this far. It takes determination, a fair amount of stupidity, a tolerance for suffering and a whole hell of a lot of desire to keep walking every day, even when you don't always feel like it. :-) We are lucky to have each other to push and prod each other along. It's been a ton of fun all in all, depsite the pain that is often the other half of the equation :-)
Gear-wise, things are holding up well. Our Osprey packs (Aether and Ariel 60s) still look brand-new; our tent is awesome; our Waldies (the silly foam shoes we wear) are a godsend; I'm on my 3rd pair of Merrells (lasting approx. 450m each), my second set of shirts, have replaced two pairs of socks so far, having used 5 in total, replaced two sets of undies, and have switched to a skirt for the summer instead of keeping the conertible pants. I'm still using my Mountain Hardware 25 degree sleeping bag, which I've washed twice. We've gone through tons of TP, Gold Bond and Body Glide for chafing, and are on our second filter cartridge for our water filter. Not bad overall. I'd say we're doing pretty well...
Body-wise, I'm (knock on wood) feeling good. My back hurts sometimes, as do my feet, but overall this body is a tough one :-) Amazing how many miles it can take me!
People-wise, we are loving it out here. There are many, many cool people on the trail who have quickly become our friends. Everyone does their own thing, but there is a comraderie which is wonderful. Makes the trail a great place to be. Also, the community surrounding the trail, with all the trail angels and the friendly towns, is amazing. All the generosity that has been bestowed upon us just because we're out here renews our faith in humanity :-) Plus all the support and help from our family and friends at home is HUGE! Gloriously wonderful.
Trail-wise, GA felt tough but it was beautiful and well-maintained. NC/TN had more ups and downs, but were wonderful as well. We loved the Smokies, and would like to go back; we'll skip a second visit to the Shenandoahs. Southern VA had some realy nice views and nice terrain; northern VA did not thrill us as much with all the poison ivy and narrow trailway. WV was great--only a few miles! MD was quite lovely as well, and so far the 45 miles we've done in PA have surprised us with lots of blooming mountain laurel and pine trees, and less rocks and more flat sections of trail than expected. I'm sure the rocks are yet to come but we're not complaining too much so far :-)
I still hold true to my estimate that 90% of the time, we're having fun out here. That's a pretty good average, isn't it? :-) All in all, happy to be out here, and psyched for the miles to come :-)


Ryan:
mix of sun and clouds, warm
rock factor - 4
big day for the campers out here on the ol' at. most importantly, we hit the halfway point. yahoo! unfortunately, i saw danielle hit her lowest point today...both mentally and physically. poor girl was ill...green. but, attempting to eat a half gallon of ice cream can do that. at pine grove furnance state park at just about halfway, the thruhiker tradition is to eat a half gallon of ice cream for induction into the "half gallon club." let's just say that danielle will not be eating cookies and cream for quite some time. i, on the other hand, was victorious! 48 minutes and 45 seconds. no cookies and cream for me for a while either, but the 2500 plus calories and numerous moans were worth the little wooden spoon. now who would have bet that i could eat more ice cream than danielle? in case you are wondering, the record is 4 minutes, 59 seconds. gross. we're in a strange vortex now...no other thruhikers really around us. very strange. we have the shelter to ourselves tonight, and we didn't see another hiker the whole 4 hours we were at pine grove eating and recovering and recovering some more. (fatigue was there, but he's just doing a section, and he watched us tackle the ice cream and was a good cheering section.)

scorecard at halfway:
pairs of my socks - 7
pairs of my shoes - 4
pairs of my underwear - 4
plastic bottles of gold bond - 4
lipton noodle or rice dishes - too many
maps - 18
water filters - 2
my sleeping bags - 3
snickers - not enough
blisters - enough to last a lifetime
(mom, you can skip this next part.)
places on ryan's body that have hurt or currently hurt: left foot, right foot, right big toe, left ankle, right ankle, right achilles, left shin, right shin, left knee, right knee, left groin, left hip flexor, right hip flexor, general crotch area (chafing...not good times.), left trapezius, left elbow, right elbow...not to mention a number of cuts, bumps, bruises and bug bites. are we having fun? you bet! now, if we can just survive the pennsylvania rocks...or dutch.
today's song - livin' on a prayer, bon jovi. (really was there any other choice? and, yes, the entire lyrics were left in the pine grove furnace log book for all to enjoy. "tommy used to work on the dock...")