Day 85, Tom's Run Shelter to Campsite at Mile 1113.6

I’m glad I keep running into them. They are fun people to be around.

As the hiker expression goes, “Maine isn’t going to walk to me,” so just past 8 a.m. I decided it was time to leave camp. Stick was ahead of me by a couple minutes.

Before long, I was passed by RedEye, Jason and Boomer. I hated them for their youth.

Not really.

A little.

After about 3.5 miles the trail reached Pennsylvania Highway 233, then followed the road for a short distance before turning at the entrance of Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

The road took me past Ironmasters Mansion, a large, stone and brick building built in 1829 by Peter Ege. His father, Michael Ege, had built Pine Grove Furnace, an ironworks near here.

Today the mansion operates as a hiker hostel and wedding venue. If that doesn't strike you as an odd combination, it's likely because you've never stayed in a typical hiker hostel.

A little bit farther down the road was a general store. It’s not really considered a halfway point of the trail, but the proprietors take advantage of the proximity just the same.

Several years ago they invented a gimmick to capture more hiker money. It’s been successful enough to become a tradition. The idea is to commemorate the achievement of reaching this far by eating a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting.

This challenge isn’t like other gluttony challenges, such as the one in Texas that requires the participant to eat a 72 oz. steak dinner. In those, if you complete the challenge in a set amount of time you get the food for free.

There’s no free ice cream here. And though it’s called the half gallon challenge, the ice cream sold here isn’t in a half-gallon container. Hikers who want to take the challenge must buy two containers that equal a half gallon. If they manage to consume all of the ice cream they get a tiny wooden spoon imprinted with the words “MEMBER OF HALF GAL. CHALLENGE.”

Making myself sick in exchange for a two-cent wooden spoon was a tradition I was willing to skip, but Stick chose to do it. I sat with Jason, RedEye and Boomer on the store’s porch and watched him.

A family wandered up while he was digging into his solidly-frozen ice cream. They gave Stick the perfect audience for him to share some of his many stories of the trail and his life at home. He has a complete library of stories catalogued and indexed in his brain, ready to deliver to anyone at any time.

Perhaps they were mostly interested in the spectacle of a hiker gorging on ice cream, but the family seemed willing to listen to several stories as he ate.

The other four of us had confidence in Stick’s ability to finish the ice cream, but had we thought of it, we might have taken wagers on whether or not he would get sick. That would have been, however, a bet we would lose. He showed no signs of discomfort.

During this time I ate a breakfast wrap, which was soon followed by two scoops of chocolate mint ice cream, which was soon followed by a cheeseburger. I was full, but not overly stuffed.

After Stick successfully completed the “challenge” and claimed his wooden spoon, he followed up with a cheeseburger and a large order of fries.

He didn’t quite finish all of the fries, but it was an admirable effort. I’m sure if a tiny wooden fork had been offered as a prize he would have finished them.

RedEye and Boomer left to hitch a ride into town to buy some beer and fireworks, while Jason stayed behind with Maple. They figured three people and a dog would not be an easy hitch.

Stick and I decided to head off to the Appalachian Trail Museum, which was also located in the state park and adjacent to the trail.

The museum opened in 2010 in an old mill, which had been little used in several preceding years.

It was small, but had several artifacts and information about many notable hikers and supporters of the trail. The exhibits included a trail shelter that was built by Earl Shaffer, who is credited by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy as the first person to complete a successful thru-hike. The shelter was originally located on Peters Mountain in Pennsylvania. When it was replaced by a new one, the old shelter was dis-assembled and brought to the museum.

Also in the museum was a sign that once stood at the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. I stared and studied it, while thinking about the possibility of touching the current version of the sign in about three months.

After leaving the museum, the trail took us past Pine Grove Furnace, a smelting works built around 1770. Iron ore was smelted in the furnace and then cast to produce wagon wheel parts, kettles and stoves. Later in the 19th century locomotive parts were produced here.

Iron production continued with several upgrades to the site until it was closed in 1895. The state bought the land in 1913 and turned it into a state park in 1931.

We next entered a wide open area where many people were setting up for picnics, throwing frisbees and balls, and enjoying their day off.

At the end of the picnic ground the trail made a right turn and took us past a small lake with a beach. There were hundreds more people here, celebrating the holiday.

The trail then led us up a road that was blocked to car traffic, but open to bicyclists. Several people were walking and riding.

Back on the trail, we went along a long section that was mostly flat and easy, with two road crossings and a train tracks crossing.

The second road crossing was Pennsylvania Highway 34. It was 6:30 when we crossed it, and now we were getting anxious to find a campsite. The Guthooks app said there was space for a tent about seven tenths of a mile up a small hill. We were hoping the site had room for more than that, and when we got there we discovered there was plenty of room for both our tents.

It had been another event-filled but tiring day. I tried to take care of my camp chores quickly so that I could get to bed soon.

As I did the night before last, I laid on top of my quilt to cool down while listening to distant sounds of fireworks.

The celebration continued well into the night, but I had no more celebrating left in me.