«A state challenge»
(It’s like the Four State Challenge, but it’s just a state, so it is the only challenge of the State)
After leaving Harper’s ferry, we felt very slow and overheated, so we were only 6 miles to an incredibly pleasant shelter. There was a floor above and laminated floors! When Sleepy and Cookie were there (the Dutch couple with whom we have now spent a lot of time), we decided to sleep in the shelter. This was our first time sleeping in the shelter in more than a month due to our fear of Norovirus. We feel safer now, but we will always be on alert to Maine. I think everyone else is also taking it seriously now, we see many more people washing their hands from what we did before.
Walking on the bridge leaving Harper Ferry
The next day was Stider’s birthday! It is our tradition now to push great miles on our birthday and, as we push 28 for mine, we had to go bigger. We woke up at 5 am, the birds already sing and packed to go. We were on the road around 6:30 am and the air was embroidered and thick. The miles flowed below us, we both felt very strong and excited to see how far we could arrive in the hours of daylight ahead of us. The weather was so charming, not too hot and the moisture in the morning disappeared in the summer breeze.
Crossing through monuments in Maryland
We did not see through hikers this day, only one day hikers. We have noticed that we are in another section between bubbles, our Shenny team separated since we all take zeros at different points. Typical in life for us. My friend who has walked before informed us that 400 is incredibly low for Harper’s Ferry in early June. However, I feel lucky because the number of people on the road this year has been quite charming, social when you want it but not dominant. We stopped for lunch at 18 miles and decided to take the Mason Dixon line, which was 17 miles away. Crazy, but we thought that a shower and a pizza would be worth it.
Crossing i70! A big problem for us Colorado People
Annapolis Rocks – Our friend took a picture for AT prints here and we needed to see them. So pleasant !!!
I am a hypocritical while I write this because we tear some of our friends who wanted to try the infamous challenge of 4 states, walking> 40 miles of VA-WV-MD-PA, and I said they did not do that. Maryland is beautiful and Harper’s Ferry is incredible! Don’t hurry! And here we are accelerating through Maryland. However, we take the time to read on all battlefields and take more breaks than I thought. The beauty of having paths of paths is the ability to walk more time, faster.
Path that begins to get rocky
We ended up making 35.4 to thousands, our Strava marking 39, including lateral trips to Annapolis’s rocks and walking through the battlefields. I was jumping to the Mason Dixon line, so proud of us, so excited to sleep in a bed. My legs were tired But we were both very happy. Soolah picked us up at 8:30 pm and took us to his legitimate House of Fairies in the city. We have pizza and shower. I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.
A photo of Solah’s backyard. This house really felt like a place where fairies would stay
Maybe the best pizza I’ve had in my life
I am finally in the north! ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
The challenge of half a gallon
I wasn’t even to try the Gallon of ICE Cream Challenge. But Enerizer emphasized the importance. He said: «You don’t have to finish, you just have to try.» Energizer is a triple Corwner, who now walks along the path with his son, and the rule here is anything that a triple Corwner says is basically law. Then, I investigated a little. I realized that the gallon challenges a big problem in culture. So is the Ferry Harpers halfway. These are traditions that have been happening for more than 50 years. Now I am part of the traditions that have been placed in their place, and I must respect the land on which I really walk to claim the name, «hiker garbage».
Hikers in 1983 by making the challenge of half a gallon
I found this crazy in the museum … thinking about walking along the path in the 30s or 40s surprises me.
So, I not only promoted to eat half a gallon of ice cream, but also all walking around us. We enter the store that sells it and we registered in the mansion hostel. I hoped to be able to establish once this challenge was complete. For my dismay, when I saw some hikers eating their ice cream, they were eating an ice cream bathtub AND An additional painting. That??? I was prepared to eat the bathtub. Apparently, pint and bathtub are an adequate gallon. Curse. That is a lot of ice cream.
So full of hope and emotion …
We wait for the dream and the cookie to arrive and then we begin. I was hungry, so I thought it wasn’t going to be so bad. My flavor options: dough bath for cookies and a black cherry pint. Some guys who finished the challenge before us, Fuji and only Ray, were training us. «Let them melt a little but not all the way,» they encouraged. We were advancing and I really felt that I was living a dream of childhood. I can not eat ice cream for dinner, it really was encouraged!
It was fun for about 20 minutes, until I did it in the middle of the bathtub. I was shaking because I was being so cold. Looking back, this is where I should have thrown into the towel. But Stider trusted to finish and my competitive self also had to do it. I crossed it when Strider finished at 54 minutes. This seemed fast, sleepy and cookies. However, Ray only completed it in 10 minutes! He didn’t even let him melt. I just took it in the chin.
When he was approaching the end, a 15 -year -old boy began the challenge with his parents. As soon as the first half of the bathtub passed before calling it. Telling us: «You are literally crazy.» I was right as I suffered at this point and my painting melted enough where I could drink and chew a little. I thought for myself: «Well, I feel horrible, I could well feel horrible and end.» I completed it while everyone applauded. Then I sat at the table, hating my life. I felt so sick, so disgusting, but so proud of myself. After about 10 minutes of seeing Sleepy trying to finish his, I made a fast trip to the bathroom where I gave all the cherry foam. I immediately felt a million times better! I left jumping!
I hated my life and elections at this time
Sleepy then saw how happy I was and ended. Later he told me that his breath to finish the challenge was that he vomited me. This was actually the most fun I have heard. My reward? To eat much more than my stomach could sustain? A small wooden spoon that says «half -gallon club». I could also add my photo to the wall of the finalists. I felt very proud of myself, especially because I only told 3 other women who finished this year.
A screen capture of when where Sleepy finished
Everything is worth a wooden spoon and an image on the wall, right? GOOD?
So what is more difficult?
While we ate, Fuji said something very interesting. He told us that he believes that the challenge of half a gallon is actually an AT metaphor. Doing something painful and miserable, but pushing because you know in your instinct that you have to do it. Maybe this is slightly true.
I have been told that the first third of the path is physical. The second third is mental. And the third is spiritual. Now, as we are a good part in the mental section, I definitely understand what Fugi was talking about. Doing the same day again and again can take you in your head. Seeing all my friends and family hanging up for summer makes me have Fomo. Seeing my little sister graduated at the university and not being there made me so sad. Life continues while I continue walking through the country. Of course! He knew he enrolled.
However, if you can believe myself, I learned a lot about me from eating half a gallon of ice cream. I can do uncomfortable things. I can and willpower Complete them if I really give my mind the matter.
I also learned to eat a lot of ice cream is a lot Hardly walking 35 miles in one day.
Half!
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