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, was polishing off the final sporkful on Tuesday and adding his name to the list of thru-hikers who have celebrated the trail's halfway point by downing a half-gallon of ice cream. By the end Cooper, 32, whose trail name is Pie Top, was calling the experience "pure misery. I don't think anybody should be doing this," Cooper cheerfully tells the AP. "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. As thru-hikers slog their way north through Virginia and Maryland, the ice cream challenge is a regular topic of conversation at shelters, said Stephan Berens, 49, of Nuremberg, Germany. Berens, whose trail name is Speedy, polished off his ice cream in about 25 minutes—with seven miles more to go that day.
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. So far this year, about 50 thru-hikers have finished the challenge, earning the honor of having their photos posted on a store bulletin board. In a notebook to record their thoughts, Chicken Louise wrote on May 24: "Life choices?" Seagull weighed in with, "I feel bad," and Hyena issued a cry for help: "It was very fun for the first 15 minutes. Now, I (and my family) want to die."
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The ice cream challenge record, less than 4 minutes, was set two years ago by a man with the trail name Squirt. Thru-hikers who want to attempt the record may only allow the $12 worth of ice cream to start to melt in the sun for a few minutes. They must be timed by a store employee. Those who do finish are awarded a commemorative wooden spoon—and bragging rights. "I thought it would be worse, but it's OK," said Berens, smiling and patting his stomach after finishing.
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