Celebrating a milestone.

Day 69 - 6/24/10
Didn't sleep well. It seems like every other night is a bad sleep, but
that means I should sleep well tonight. I had a good start time
though, left just before 7, so I made between 4-5 miles by 9. I
stopped at Rausch Creek to fill up on water at this well that was
doing some experiments with the pH level. Since it was all sciencey I
figured it was good water, so I got two fresh liters.

After that I continued on, stopping a short time later at Swatara Gap
where Churchill and Winston were sitting/breaking. They had decided to
go into town in a few miles, so when they left we had a farewell
because you never know if you'll see someone again. I was still going
for another 10+ miles, which would put a good space between us. I
stayed there a while snacking, and pretty soon Pyro and Ace showed up.
We all hiked together for 1/2 a mile, stopping when we came to a
cooler full of trail magic drinks! I had a Coca-cola and read the
register they had there. Someone had come upon it about a week earlier
when it was empty, and in the register wrote "trail tragic". That made
me laugh.

After downing the Coke, Pyro and I hiked on, passing under I-81 and
then coming to a big climb. By this point it was almost 12, so we were
sweating something terrible going up. Plus it was rocky, and then
poison ivy started showing up everywhere. When I was at Evelyn's she
gave me a poison ivy lesson so I'd be able to identify it on the
trail. I'm glad we did that because I've been able to avoid it much
better. But the problem today was that there was so much of it you
could not avoid it entirely. It was overgrown on both sides so your
legs were always brushing against at least one side. It was like that
for more than 2 miles, and is by far the worst section of poison ivy
I've seen on the trail so far.

Pyro and I hiked through that for a while, then we saw clouds coming
in and could hear thunder in the distance. We had heard from an older
guy a while back that we would be getting afternoon thunderstorms, so
we dropped our bags and covered up. Pretty soon after that it began to
rain, and the thunder grew louder, but fortunately we were on the
outskirts of the storm, so it was refreshingly pleasant rather than a
pain.

It seemed like a long time to the William Penn shelter, but we
eventually got there around 2:30. We stopped and had a late lunch, and
by then the rain was gone, so it was a nice time to break. We ended up
staying almost an hour, and in that time Ace showed up. When I left I
only had another 4 miles to the 501 shelter, so I got myself 1 more
liter of water and headed out. The 4 miles were easy, but because it
had rained and the sun had come back out, it was incredibly hot and
muggy. I was very sweaty and having bad chafe. I never said this but a
while ago I did end up going commando, maybe 2 weeks now, and it has
been amazing. I don't get as hot and sweaty down there, and now my
swim trunks dry much faster. But when it rains I'm wet for extended
periods, hence the chafe today. It was actually very unbearable, so I
was dying to get to 501 shelter and take a nice shower to clean up.

I made it and there was only 1 hiker here, an older guy named Charlie.
I talked to him for a second, then ran to the solar shower and took
care of business. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been
able to shower tonight. I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep,
that's how bad my chafe was. Eventually others started rolling in, a
couple I met today named Limestone & Mrs. Limestone, Eddy (another
German), Pyro, and Ace. This shelter is really nice, it's an old
pottery studio, so it's very close to a main road. Because of this you
can order pizza here. We all decided to order food, to celebrate a big
milestone today. I (and everyone else) am now under 1000 miles to
Katahdin. Triple digits baby! I almost can't believe it. Katahdin
feels much closer tonight then it did this morning. Funny how that is.

The pizza was good, I actually had a sausage, onion, and green pepper
calzone, and some Coke. We all ate outside at the picnic table, having
a nice time chatting whilst eating. Now I'm very tired and ready for
bed. My ankles look like they're getting poison ivy now, which scares
me. I really really don't want to deal with that again, but there was
no way I could completely avoid contact today. Let's hope I can keep
from scratching. Fingers crossed.

P.S. The Brits grill the bananas in tin foil Judy. Cut a slit along
the curve, stick the desired amount of chocolate in there, then wrap
in tin foil and grill. Let me know how it turns out.

Total miles: 1184.4