Outdoor odyssey day 12, along the Appalachian Trail

Posted on: October 23, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

The Appalachian Trail Museum.

A future hiker, perhaps, enters the Appalachian Trail Museum at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

It remains a dream, the Appalachian Trail.

I’ve never through-hiked the AT, as it’s known. It stretches 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. It’s the longest footpath-only trail in the world, and the granddaddy of long-distance trails.

Time, of course, is the issue.

It typically takes five to seven months to traverse the full length of the trail. Kinda hard to get that much time off work.

But I’ve hiked portions of it over the years.

Most recently, as part of my personal outdoor odyssey, I explored just a tiny part – a section that, admittedly, is less than exciting in some ways.

Except for one thing.

The AT runs through Pine Grove Furnace State Park. It’s about the mid-point of the path.

The Appalachian Trail Museum sits in a former grist mill.

A former grist mill houses the Appalachian Trail Museum.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

My wife Amanda and I had met my oldest son, Derek, and his girlfriend Ashley to walk a bit and check out the park’s annual Fall Furnace Festival.

Here, the trail follows, for a while anyway, what looks almost like a blacktop sidewalk. It runs past the park’s swimming beach and through a picnic area.

Lots of park visitors, I’d wager, have no idea they’re on the trail when walking from their picnic table to the concession area.

What’s cool about the trail here is the Appalachian Trail Museum. Located in what was an old grist mill, it’s a small but fascinating repository of all things AT. You can check it out here.

The park – once the site of an iron-making community – also holds what was the “Ironmaster’s Mansion.” It’s a giant house – big even for its day – that serves as a hostel for hikers.

You can tour it, though, so that’s neat.

Then there’s the old stable. Converted now into a general store, it’s the site of the half-gallon challenge.

Through hikers – who rarely get to sample fresh food of any kind, let alone something cold – are here offered the chance to try and eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting.

There were some through hikers there when we stopped by. None were taking the challenge.

But there’s a trail book in the store where hikers who have attempted it have written tales of how things turned out.

It’s not always good.

But the stories and occasional illustration are fun to read.

So while I haven’t hiked the trail end to end yet, perhaps some day I will. I think I’;ve been scared off the half-gallon challenge, though.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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