Into PA

On the 6th I did 20.8 miles and camped at Pine Knob shelter. On the 7th I did 22.7 miles and stayed in Deer Lick shelter. On the 8th I did 23.2 miles and stayed at Birch Run shelter. On the 9th I did 21 miles and stayed at a campsite a half mile after Sheet Iron Roof Rd. On the 10th I did 22.4 miles and stayed at Darlington shelter.

The first bit of this section was just me redoing a few miles to get back to where I got off the trail. It was pretty boring doing the same miles I had done just about a week earlier. Luckily I finished those miles pretty quickly and I've been back on "new" trail for a few days.

The first new thing to happen was I hit some halfway points. First the official one for 2014 at mile 1092.65. It is nothing special, just a laminated print out but it's at the correct mileage.

A few miles later a more robust sign was passed. It's always bit odd that the trail changes so much from year to year.

Later that same day I hit the half gallon challenge. This is where you attempt to eat a half gallon of ice cream at the little store just past the halfway point. It was pretty darn easy. 25 minutes and it was gone and I could eat a bit more if I had wanted too. Most of the people I was with then succeeded too. From the photo can you guess who didn't make it?

This last day I hiked through Cumberland Valley. It is an outrageously flat and boring 20 miles of trail. It was hot, humid and there was not exactly a lot of shade. The following pictures pretty much wrap up the valley.

Now it's on to the more rocky and more terrible section of PA. To really give me incentive I doing the PA shower/laundry challenge. It is something we made up today but I'm going from Harpers Ferry (mile 1019) to Deleware Water Gap (mile 1288) without a shower or laundry. This unfortunately means I also can't stay in town anytime between there because I'm not so mean to stay in a hostel and not shower. We will see how it goes, you have to do something to mix it up.