The official half way, the half gallon challenge, an other assorted happenings

Ive been hiking in Pennsylvania for the past few days and have been enjoying the terrain thus far. PA is notoriously known on the trail as the "rocky stretch" and "where good sneakers go to die" as the rocky landscape and boulder fields make for tough traversing. So far it hasn't been too bad, but I hear the stretch coming up is supposed to be pretty rough. Here is a shot of a rock maze I hiked through the other day:




I passed the official half way point the other day.


Felt quite good to get by that marker. A hiker named Grasshopper equated this second portion of the trail to the second half of a football game. You've seen what your up against, you make your adjustments, now go and finish it out. I'm very much looking forward to the next 1090 miles.

Soon after the halfway point, hikers come upon a little place called Pine grove furnace. It is here that AT thru hikers attempt the "half gallon challenge". The challenge is to eat a half gallon of ice cream in under a half an hour. I was considering this test but knowing I can't eat more than a pint of ice cream on my own, I elected for the cheeseburger. A few other hikers were more brave than I and a couple met the challenge, scarfing their half gallon in no time. A few also failed...and it was painful to watch them try.

Met up with some new hiking friends and knocked out 52 miles in a couple days. Tiring, but it wad pretty flat, so nothing too bad. We had to hike across a 14 mile valley and the weather of late had been quite toasty. 100+ degree heat index can really make you sweat. To counter this, we constructed some heat reflectors. Check out our designs:









I couldn't find an umbrella in town, so Sunkist, Sage and I rigged up some cardboard to my trekking poles, which we attched to my backpack. We covered the cardboard in an aluminum emergency blanket (think the kind you see runners wearing after a marathon) to reflect the heat. It worked pretty well actually.

One final note...and a pretty funny one. As evening approached, we continued along this 14 mile stretch of farmland and intermittent tree cover. At one point we had to cross a field where a herd of milk cows were mingled. As the 7 of us approached the herd of about 20, they suddenly became agitated and started to run all together and ahead of our path. Stampede!! But the cows did not keep going. They ran to our direction and literally formed a semi-circle around us, staring us down. They mooed at us while we hurled taunts about the cheeseburgers we just ate the night before.

Uneasily, we walked through the semi-circle of cows they formed across the trail. Sure enough, as we passed, the herd followed us for another 50-100 feet through the field. It was almost as if they were escorting us off their property. A hiker named hawk took a picture, which I must get for you to see. He captured us walking away from the cows in a straight line with the herd behind us, just staring, their eyes lit green from the flash. A truly unique experience!

-mojo