Saturday, April 23rd

Quarry Gap Shelter (1087.8 mi) to Iron Masters Mansion Hostel (1105.0 mi)

Hiking Miles: 17.2

Total Ascent: 1,963.9 ft

Total Descent: 2,552.5 ft

Total Grade: 261.2 ft/mi

Steps: 39,021

We got up at 6 am to the sound of our (annoying) whippoorwill friends who sing beautifully at dusk and dawn. It was a rough night of sleeping (the worst thus far) with their chants but it’s not every night that we are blessed to hear the sounds of nature. I was also a little sore because I could not get comfortable on the uneven ground that my mattress was on. Other than that, I was a bit excited this morning at the thought of potentially eating a half-gallon of ice cream later this afternoon (one of those fun and challenging hiker traditions well-known on trail).

After packing up, we sat at the table and I ate a cliff bar, a chocolate pop-tart with peanut butter spread on top, and hot instant coffee. We talked with Rosemary and asked how his night was with Rich inflating his mattress as needed. He smiled and said it wasn’t that bad. Rosemary had one more day on trail before he was getting picked up at a major route along the way. We said our good-byes to him and Rich before setting off on trail at 7 am, informing them that our goal was to reach the 1/2-gallon ice cream challenge (~18 miles away) before the general store closed at 4 pm.

We started off by hiking a healthy uphill climb, but for the most part the terrain was relatively flat today. We increasingly felt confident throughout the day that we would make it to the general store in plenty of time to participate in the 1/2-gallon challenge. We were certainly working up the appetite for it!

Our random conversation shifted to discussing the hiker we met the previous evening named Rich. First, I will say that he seemed like a really a nice person, very positive in nature. I suppose anyone who would leave the campsite to hike two miles downhill to meet friends at a pizza joint, then hike two miles back uphill with leftovers for hikers, was someone with good intentions. But some of the things he mentioned or that we witnessed (e.g. leaving the pizza out on the picnic table), was sketchy. He mentioned that he got caught in that snowstorm earlier in the week and rather than finding shelter, he set up his tent in the middle of it. Needless to say everything got soaked, and with the freezing temps, a few of his fingers became frost bitten. These are choices that could potentially have caused harm to himself, and to others. So we named him “R.I.C.H.”, an acronym that stood for “Repeatedly and Inadvertently Causing Harm”. We only met the poor guy for a short time, however he certainly left an impression. (-: 

Meanwhile, we made great progress with our pace and were going to make it to the store by 2 pm in plenty of time to purchase and eat our ice cream. When we approached the main road just one-quarter of a mile from the general store, I could virtually taste the ice cream. We also heard an alarm of some sort blaring from a home to our left, perhaps a car alarm was set off.

When we arrived at the store, we were immediately directed to the freezer that contained the ice cream specifically for the challenge and were given plastic spoons for scooping. Eating at an outdoor picnic table, I finished 1.5 quarts of mint chocolate chip ice cream and 1 pint of Neapolitan, and Stevie finished cookie dough and Neapolitan.

It took us 32 minutes to eat it all!! It was totally delicious and refreshing (well worth the experience) but I don’t think I would ever eat that much ice cream ever again in one sitting. It was a bit painful, and if that wasn’t bad enough, I must have gone to the bathroom at least 6 times to rid all of the dairy.

We took a lengthy nap on the lawn next to the AT Museum across the street for an hour before we finally decided to check into the Iron Master’s Mansion right next to the general store. The mansion was built in the 1600’s and it piqued our curiosity.

It was antiquated and very quaint inside, and we set up in a bunk bed in the corner of a bunk room (near a fireplace) that could sleep 12 people. I chose the bottom and the headroom was way too low. Getting in and out,I kept bumping my forehead. Nonetheless, it was the perfect place to stay for the evening.

We met a number of friendly hikers staying at the inn. There is a woman who runs the inn, and she takes care of EVERYTHING from check-in to laundry and cleaning to cooking, etc.! She reminded me of the Stevie Budd character on Schitt’s Creek. We took showers, did laundry, ate dinner, called home and called it a day. Tomorrow, our plan was to hike to Lisa’s hostel, which came highly recommended by a woman who stayed there a few nights ago.