Miles: 1104.6 | The morning begins with a communal breakfast and an unexpected gift: an all-women group therapy session led by a fellow hiker-therapist, offering space to process the emotional weight of the trail. Fueled by home-cooked food and shared honesty, the hike toward Pine Grove Furnace feels strong and steady. The long-anticipated halfway point finally arrives at dusk, complete with trail magic—but after days of buildup, the moment feels quieter than expected. Past the celebration, exhaustion and homesickness surface, tempered by a deep, undeniable truth: halfway is done, and nothing now stands between the trail and its end.
I woke up around 7am and went inside to join everyone for breakfast. Meats, eggs, and potatoes were passed around the communal table. Miles slept through breakfast. The rain had mostly subsided in the morning. After breakfast, us lady hikers (Miles was the only boy hiker!) sat around the table and talked with Vandal about anything and everything that was bothering us on and off trail.
She listened and helped us talk about our problems. It was like one big group therapy session. Thankfully, Vandal was a licensed therapist. It was good to get it all out and to know that other women hikers were lamenting some of the same things that I was.
We all went outside to pack up after our little session. We took a group photo of all of us women (that I cannot find now 😅)
We packed slowly and eventually headed out. The ‘menacing climb’ that the trail angels had warned us about turned out to be surprisingly easy for us.
We cruised toward Pine Grove Furnace State Park and the halfway point. Fueled by home cooked food and 50% of trail completion we made good time. We got to the ‘official halfway point’ (there are 3 marked...) in the evening just before dusk. Someone left trail magic there!
After the halfway point, we walked through Pine Grove Furnace State Park as the sun set. We walked out of the park in the dark and arrived at the edge of the park around 9:30pm. We set up camp just past the edge of the park and shared Miles’ tent.
We had FINALLY made it halfway. But there was so much ‘halfway’ hype that it didn’t even feel real anymore. We’d gotten excited about halfway when we crossed from Virginia in to West Virginia and the hype didn’t stop until today. It had been 5 days of ‘halfway’. It made it feel like a never ending journey. I got homesick and overwhelmed. It was tired in more than just a physical way. But I’d made it halfway now and there’s nothing that could stop me from here.