Sam Cooper had just trekked 7 miles through a rain-sodden stretch of the Appalachian Trail when he sat down outside a little country store in Pennsylvania to take on its ice cream challenge.
Nearly 40 minutes and 2,500 calories later, the dairy farmer from Chapel Hill, Tennessee, polished off the final titanium sporkful of chocolate chip cookie dough June 10 and added his name to the list of "thru-hikers" who celebrated the trail's halfway point by downing a half-gallon of ice cream.
Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Sam Cooper, trail name Pie Top, attempts the half-gallon ice cream challenge June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
By the end, Cooper, 32, whose trail name is Pie Top, called the experience "pure misery."
"I don't think anybody should be doing this," he said cheerfully. "This is not healthy at all."
The ice cream challenge is thought to have begun more than four decades ago at the Pine Grove Furnace General Store in Gardners, a few miles north of the current true halfway point on the 2,197-mile trail. Thru-hikers, as they're known, are the fraction of the trail's 3 million annual visitors who attempt to walk its entire length in a single, continuous trip.
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"It's called the half-gallon challenge," Cooper said. "Very appropriately named."Â
Hershey's Ice Cream driver Sam Sattazahn delivers ice cream June 10 to Pine Grove Furnace general store at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
Up to the challenge
As they slog north through Virginia and Maryland, the ice cream challenge is a regular topic of conversation among thru-hikers at shelters and campfires, said Stephan Berens, 49, a psychiatric nurse from Nuremberg, Germany.
Trail experts say hikers can need up to 6,000 calories a day, a practical challenge when food needs to be carried up and down rocky terrain. The slender Berens figures he's lost about 20 pounds since starting April 8.
The ice cream challenge record — less than 4 minutes — was set two years ago by a man with the trail name Squirt. Two decades ago, the mark to beat was about 9 minutes.
Thru-hikers who want to attempt the record may allow the $12 worth of ice cream to start to melt in the sun for only a few minutes. They must be timed by a store employee.
Thru-hiker Noritaka Mizumoto from Osaka, Japan, walks the Appalachian Trail on June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
Berens, whose trail name is Speedy, polished off his black cherry and vanilla in about 25 minutes after completing 17 miles on the trail that day — and with seven more to go that afternoon.
"I thought it would be worse, but it's OK," said Berens, smiling and patting his stomach after finishing the half-gallon. "Such a crazy idea."
Zeke Meddock, trail name Petroglyph, didn't time himself but finished his choice of a quart and a half carton of chocolate chip cookie dough and a pint of strawberry. The diesel mechanic from North Amarillo, Texas, began his hike March 27 — two months after finishing a stint in the U.S. Army.
"You're basically walking away from life," said Meddock, 31. "It's the most free I've ever felt."
Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Zeke Meddock, trail name Petroglyph, attempts the half-gallon ice cream challenge June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
Bragging rights and a spoon
Those who finish the ice cream challenge in a single sitting are awarded a commemorative wooden spoon — and bragging rights for the rest of their hike. Some people get sick. Others wash down the ice cream with a hamburger.
So far this year, about 50 thru-hikers finished the challenge, earning the honor of having their photos posted on a store bulletin board.
Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Sam Cooper poses for a photo after completing the half-gallon ice cream challenge June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
In a notebook to record their thoughts, Chicken Louise wrote on May 24: "Life choices?" The next day, Seagull weighed in with, "I feel bad," and Hyena penned, "It was very fun for the first 15 minutes. Now, I (and my family) want to die."
Bruce Thomas, a 41-year-old disability support worker from Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, passed on the challenge, opting instead for a breakfast sandwich and another one for the road.
"It's early morning and I'm pretty sure I cannot do it," said Thomas, trail name Not Lazy.
Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Sam Cooper attempts the half-gallon ice cream challenge June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
Going the distance
The challenge is one of several quirky traditions and places along the trail.
There's a shelter in Virginia where hikers confess their sins in a logbook, a two-hole outhouse in Maine with a cribbage board between the seats and a free canoe ferry across the Kennebec River that's considered an official part of the trail. At Harriman State Park in Tuxedo, N.Y., hikers encounter the renowned "Lemon Squeezer," a narrow rock formation.
About one in three people who launch a thru-hike take the roughly 5 million steps required to go the distance. They most often walk from south to north, starting in Springer Mountain, Georgia, and wrapping up 13 states later at Maine's Mount Katahdin.
Entries in a hiker logbook are seen June 10 at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.
The trek typically takes six months but the current speed record is about 40 days, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Meddock said there was talk that a man on the trail behind him could be on pace to break it.
There was also a lot of discussion among hikers about the extensive damage along the trail in southern states from September's Hurricane Helene. But mostly they think and talk about walking.
"It's always hard," Thomas said. "It's going to be hard. I never think about quitting. I only think about how I can do it."
