Woodrow Road to James Fry Shelter

Day 7                

Monday, April 4
Woodrow Road to James Fry Shelter
12 miles

Bob Freeman met us this morning at the AT Conservancy parking lot in Boiling Springs and drove us down to Woodrow Road where we stopped yesterday. 

 
It was easy walking, low and level, through Pine Grove Furnace State Park, then up a rocky ditch.  There was one rock field of “happy rocks” as we have started calling them – not bad, not small and jagged to hurt your feet, big enough to walk on.  

 

We reached another half-way sign, which was more permanent and picture-worthy.  The actual half-way point on the AT keeps moving due to re-routing of the trail each year but they haven’t moved this half-way marker since the half-way point was 1090.5 miles.  Bob had told us that he erected the black mailbox housing the trail register at this point. 

 

It started raining around noon and continued until we reached James Fry Shelter around 3:30.

 

King Bob and DW were sitting on the shelter platform when we arrived, Soul Keeper was inside reclining.  The couple told us they had started at Pine Grove Road and are going to Delaware Water Gap.  Soul  Keeper is from Minnesota and is doing a five day hike. We were glad to be in the shelter when it started sleeting around 6.  The temperature is suppose to go down to 28 tonight; we went to bed in the shelter but before the night was over we got up and made a quiet exit to set up our tent nearby. 

 

Caledonia State Park to Woodrow Road

Day 6
Sunday, April 3
Caledonia State Park to Woodrow Road
15.1 miles

Another slackpack day!  Started out pretty cold today - 29 degrees, feels like 16 at 8:00 this morning.  It was cold and windy all day with snow flurries falling. 

The trail going north out of Caledonia State Park is a wide, flat trail.  Very pleasant hiking.  In fact most of the trail today is that way.  Pennsylvania has not warranted its reputation for “Rocksylvania” yet.  The pictures below will attest to the beauty of the forest with mountain laurel thickets.

Quarry Gap Shelter is a unique and popular shelter on the AT.  It is a beautiful log structure with a front porch, a metal roof and an open common area in the middle with a sleeping area on each side.  The sign over the entrance proclaims that Jim Slauch is the innkeeper and he obviously does a great job at it.  As we passed it, we took not of the well-manicured surrounding and the little gate with a hello sign welcoming hikers.  A spring runs in the front yard – how convenient is that? 

The highlight of our trip was crossing the 2016 midway point.  We were looking for it, but almost missed the small sign on the left side of the trail in the middle of nowhere.  We have hiked 1094.55 miles!!  But we also have 1094.55 miles left to hike!  Now we are looking forward to induction into the “half-gallon club” when we reach the Pine Grove Furnace General Store – an AT tradition.

At 2:30 we reached Woodrow Road where Bob and Sandra had parked our vehicle.  Then we went in search of our half gallon of ice cream.  Upon reaching the general store, we were very disappointed to find that they had not opened for the season yet!  Oh, what a disappointment!  We will have to wait on our half-gallon club induction.  But we did tour the AT museum located across the street. 

Back at Trail of Hope Hostel, the good folks at the church had prepared lasagna and salad and we joined them and a trio of new hikers for dinner.  After doing our laundry, we drove to Econolodge in Carlisle for the night.