morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-05-31
From: Blackburn AT Center

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: clear sky

My inner lizard was chilly this morning but happy now that I've found a sunny spot to sit in and pack up my gear. Blackburn center is beautifully amazing and I encourage everyone to stop in. It's a big old stone house with views of the surrounding area, deep in the woods. there are picnic tables, a huge porch and a free hiker hostel (cabin with wooden bunk bed slabs). I didn't sleep too wel because I am still using the new hammock pad with no forgivance. But I was so happy to stay here last night. Just as I started to stuff everything into my pack, one of the caretakers popped his head out of the porch and asked if I wanted a pancake breakfast. um yes! the caretakers were really cool, a couple that thru hiked in 2011 and were in the right place at the right time for this position opening up. Hitchcock and I sat there eating like kings with heeps of pancakes, grapes, and blueberries. After a little while Drop Out and Coffee to Go came down the mountain and joined us. It's always funny to watch hikers unexpectedly be offered really good food. our eyes get really big with excitement and usually we'll try to politely wait as you put glourious glourious food in front of us. Then we sort of turn to each other with a "can you believe this is happening look". I watched this transition of CtoGo and smiled. we sat there for a good two hours just chatting and enjoying each others company, talking about what the trail does up north. Eyes on the prize people.I eventually headed out at 10 on some easy dirt trail over flat terrain, following a ridgeline. Knowing I had fewer miles, I really enjoyed myself, consentrating on everything around me and once again enjoying that marfvelous feeling of everything being right. I love the trail and today it loved me back. Sure there were a few rock scrabbles but nothing to really twist my leg. mostly because i took them so slowly and enjoyed the new colors of the big white rocks. after a steep downhill i came to a big bridge underpass with stairs leading under and over to the road. All the cars look at you like you're crazy when we pop out like this and start walking on the sidewalk. and we look at them like, keep your eyes on the road and stop trying to kill me all the time. Great views from the bridge toward harpers ferry and then I almost had a epiletic fit of joy when the trail dumped me out into historic downtown. So many beautiful old buildings. the history, the stone work, ruins! and still my trail following the whitebkazes on the old lamp posts. rivers all around. train tracks! I do believe this may have been created as my own personal disneyland. Got picked up by a friend for a zero day in DC tomorrow. ah shower here I come.
Date: 2012-06-01
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Zero Day full of real life stuff, signing leases, buying new shoes in my quest to find ones to fit my big feet. Turns out I can't do the ankle boots in men's because they bruise my delicate legs. delicate flower that I am. so ended up back in my go to boots of merrels. they are not as tough and will not last as long, but at least they fit. I'm now a men's 9.5 wide. thank you fat swollen feet. Great times with friends today too and I even had a guilt free zero as there were tornado warnings all day and a massive downpour in the evening heading into night.
Date: 2012-06-02
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: broken clouds

Today is what I'll call a very full, short day. I was so slow packing up all my gear, showering, resupplying and getting all the last minutes heading for the trail details taken care of tha i didn't get back to Harpers Ferry until late afternoon. The biggest news is that my hammock came in the mail today! finally. Thanks so much to my mom for getting it turned around and shpped out to me so quickly. I played with the hammock part briefly but was pressed for time so quickly stuffed it and the tarp into my bag. My good friends Vicky and Lauren drove me back today and planned to hike in with me as far as they could before turning around and heading back before dark. they were very tolerent waiting while I played around at ATC Headquarters. I got my picture taken for the album and oooed and ahhed at the large topographic map they had showing the trail. How far I've come! It was also fun to look at the pictures of everyone else whose come through as well. so many people that I've hiked with! Anyway we finally got walking around 4:30 and spent 4 miles of it on the flat gravelled tow path. I liked this as it was something new but my friends were dissappointed not to be in the woods. Lucky me they wanted the full expierence and fought over who got to carry my pack. go ahead girls. 7 days worth of food weight, carry it all you want. Eventually we had to say goodbye and I headed out alone again.I got into the shelter just before 8 and figured it'd take me awhile to set up the new hammock, easy peasy though. I might not think too highly of their service, but warbonnet makes a great product. It went up quickly and I was all ready to go, until i looked up and went oh yeah, dead branch. okay moved it and was ready to go again in short order. then I pulled out my tarp and realized, ohhhh it doesn't come with guidelines. I was speechless. what? how?why doesn't it come with guidelines? my tent had to be staked out and it came with guidelines. Why am I an idiot? why didn't I check it before I headed out? argh. I quickly ended up cutting up my bearbagginf rope to secure it, especially as i felt a few strsy drops of rain coming down and really didn't want to be rained on. crawled into the hammock (ahhhhh) and got my phone out. In my childish anger at myself and the company i went to their website to reread the tarp listing. sure enough while it doesn't say it doesn't come with guidelines, it also doesn't say it does. sheesh. that's okay. godbless my smartphone, I quickly went to the Jacks R Better website and ordered the self tensioning guidelines from them the a town a few days out. These guys are so quick and helpful. such gear heads too. so for now I'll have to be careful about bear bagging but at least I have my tarp (which is nice and big) and my hammock (which is already sooooo comfortable) and I'm happy.
Date: 2012-06-04
From: Annapolis Rocks Campsite

To: Deer Licks Shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: broken clouds

slept so well last night. So well in fact that I almost didn't make it out of the hammock, into the woods, and get my pants down in the time. Ha, my body was all, "I'm tired, this is comfortable, let's just pee in here". Ha. Glad I made it and very happy to have such a good nights sleep now. The tarp did great in the rain too. I was a little chilled along my sides where they pressed against the sides of my hammock and I'm thinking I need to get a wider pad solution. I packed up very early compared to my usual wake up head out time mostly because I'm really hoping to finally catch Huff and Puff today. Right after Pogo campground I had my first taste of rock field and it slowed me down a bit. I lunched at the shelter that next came up and as Huff says, "the trail will provide" and I found a whole roll of duct tape to use on cutting my pad in half and taping it back up into a wider mat. Big hills out of this shelter that ended in big rock upshoots and giant bolders in the style of disney worldplay areas. This was followed by more rocky fields that were stressful on the ankles and knees. And then I reached a point that made me stop and seriously say, "you want me to go where?" In this huge steep pile of loose bolders an occaisonal tree poking up with a whiteblaze painted on it. It was very painful and slow going and this voice in my head kept talking to me the whole way. It waws basically thinking of all the colorful ways I could describe this three mile stretch of non trail. It's like Maryland wanted t be sure we wouldn't remember it as an easy state. Misson accomplished. But then almost as an apology we are let loose into this city park with benches, tables, swing sets, slides, vending machines and bathrooms with running water and flush tliets! I decided that I needed to give myself a treat and took 10 minutes to swing. I didn't do my usual flying dismount though, deciding it would be really stupid to snap my leg and end my hike in this way.After the park we crossed the ralroadtracks that marked themason dixon line and the state line into PA. 7th state! On to the shelter yay! But no Huff and Puff today.
Date: 2012-06-05
From: Deer Licks Shelter

To: Sweet and Low's place
Miles today: 13.2

What an unplanned, wonderful day. I started off feling so incrediably happy and thankful to be out here. This is perfect eather, everything is so gren and I just basked in the here and now breathing dep of the foest smells. A short 2 miles brought me to the fist shelter wherethre was a mother birdsitting on her nest that she built right against the rounded wall. Shejust sorta looked at me with a "do you mind?" Face and I moved on. This shelter was surrunded by multiple creeks with footbridges to get everywhere. Very cool but would not want to be here if there was any rain as the whole area looked flooded. The next shelter had two smaller roofed areas. One labeled fr snorers and the other for nonsnorer. Ha. If only. So far al the shelters in PA are very nice with unique little quirks.I ended up walking with semper fidelis and roadside most all the day which was lots of fun. Great stories and they kept poking me al day saying how they ere going to rename me klepto because I was obviously trying to take all te shiney objects out of their pacts. Can you get a new trail name from an old one? Ha. Anyway great day hiking with them but also a lot of random detourssince there was suppose to be a taern ritght off trail they wanted to go to but themarkings and directions all were off so we ended up walking the wrong wa on two differet roads. Finally got to the rigt one, called the place and it turns out they were more like a mile away. I decided I reallly didn't need a beer that badly and took off by myself, tired of putting in miles off the at. Pais so dar abusive, they routed us over some boulder climbs that were completely unecassary but in the end all the extra miles and slowed down pace because of the rocks worked perfectly for me. Just as I came out of thewoods to route 30 a car pulled over to drop some hikers off. Turns out it was sweet and low! We hugged and they invited me all the way to their place for a cookout. I got late by the tim we were cooking delicous burgers so they offered to put me up too. Shower! Thanks so much to sweet and low and ther delightful family for their hospitality and generousity! It is so very much appreciated.
Date: 2012-06-06
From: Sweet and Low's place

To: Stealth Camp just past Toms Run Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: light rain

Wow, fresh clean shower feling and a bed to sleep on. So nice. But the best part was getting to catch up with Sweet and Low. Miss those guys so much. In thanks, I took them out to brunch at Ruby Tuesday where we devoured the salad bar. Plus aded bonus of getting to visit this great vegggie stand place that had al sorts of dehydrated treats. I got kiwi and strawberries, beets, peppers, veggie mix, soup grens and two pie flavors to bring back on trail. As if thisunexpected adventure couldn't get any better right?Well I got started back on the trail around 1pm and quickly climbed the step hill to the first shelter. Also the nicest shelter on the trail. It has a very devoted caretaker who has done gardening and landscaping there. He even had hanging flower boxes. So nice to see this kind of thing. It turns out I just missed Huff and Puff too as they stayed there last night.   Darn, but so worth the trade off. Todays trail was amost entirely wide flat dirt paths surrounded by s much mountain laural I couldn't see an end to it. Stunning. No picture will do justice to how wonderful this felt. Oh PA you abusive boyfriend you. You tear me up with your rocky bolders, then give me beautiful flowers and easy trail. This relationship is stil new but I feel I'm gonna end up hurting in the end. Having started out so late I arrived at my intened destinaton just at 8 pm to find h and p were only 3 miles ahead at a hostel and left word that I should come all the way. Plusthey ttallty were bribing me with icecream. I debated briefly and decided to go for it and just night hike. This idea lasted another mile or so. Passed the official half way mark durning that little burst of energy! Woohoo. Bu decided that i'd bevetting in so late it would be a wasted trip and decided to stealth camp instead. Love my hammock!
Date: 2012-06-08
From: Alec Kennedy Shelter

To: Darlington Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I was gently awoken by Huff rocking my hammock back and forth. Best alarm clock ever but my god does the entire shelter get up way to early. Well before 6.   I was agast but also knew that I did want to start waking up earlier and want to hike with Huff and Puff as much as I can before I need to start slogging in rediculous long mile day to make sure I finish in time. For now I'll pla to tackle to northern prt of PA with them. After a climb and downhill, we came out of the woods ont. Cornfield and proceded to hike our first true PA field walk through the long gras with growingstalks to eiter side. A few miles of that and we were entering the town of boiling springs, such a cute beautybtw wth a duck lae and all these great old houses looking at it. We dropped our packs at the ATC center and booked it up the road to catch the ayce breakfat served at the local country club. 30 minutes to spare and man did we eat. I heaped piles of food on my plate. SO MUCH BACON! And just about everything else. We ate with Sugar Plumb, Wiffle Ball, and Runner. Hikers can clean house let me tell you as well as stink up a room. Hmm my body so wanted food coma but alas, 14 miles to go still. Luckily we were suppose to have mostly flat field walks today. Which is good as our pack belts were loose and we were waddling our way dow the trail. Most all the day was spent in theshade on thbe side of various fields of crops and occaisonal cow pasture. H and P earned their babysiting fe by making sure I didn't fill up at a water surce that was questionable. All the gras was dead and we eve fund a lotof deadanimals directly on trail around thestream. They all loked untouched so I'm thinking large quantities of pesticide runoff. Never let thirst get in the way of asessing the area. Poor guys. Also not so healthy for us humans either? While thbere has been enough rain in PA that all the water sources are running, they are now much further apart by a good 6 to 7 miles so we arehaving to be more careful about water managment. Theday ended with a steep mile long climb out of the valley tat yeilded a great view looking back across all the distance we had covered that day to the mountain we came down that morning. Wow, amazinging to think how far my legs will carry me in just a day. I'm in such high spirits, loving the variety of the trail today, the town food digesting in my belly, the overly large palace like privy at tonight's shelter, best of all, the good company on the trail. Still loving this adventure and eager to keep going, I have started to think about how difficult it will be to stop and adjust to a different life then the one I've created or myself out here. Part of me, never wants this to end.
Date: 2012-06-09
From: Darlington Shelter

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: broken clouds

High spirits as we left the shelter this morning heading downhill with thoughts of town food in our minds. There were fields aplenty and we were making great time, until the trail ran usstraight up a mountain on a steep trail. This is just about when the day started to become painful. So my guidebook rarely mentions anything about terran so I was worried when I read a warning telling us that the 8 miles into Duncannon was very rocky. That was an understatment. My gosh,I never realized just how rocky the trail could get. Welcome to PA! We stumbled our way wacross the rocks waking up our legs , feet, and ankles to new levels of pain. And then urprise! Good thing I was leading, as the secondi heard the sound I froze in my tracks and quickly identified the largest timbler rattlesake I've ever seen. A good 5 feet and bigger around than my forearm. And he was sure not moving for us. So we gave him lots of roomand walkedx in a large arc around him. His pointed head tracked us the whole time. For a second I thought Huff wasn't going to make it around as she seemed mesmerized.   Well withthat bit o excitement we madeit to the overlook were we could see down to the town. Well, I'll give this to the trail blazers, there wasn't much they could do to make this descent easier as it was on a cliff that was just barely winning a battle with gravity with huge sections of less than stable rockslides. Fun times! But not as fun as when we got into town, got our iconic picture of the Doyle, stepped inside to the bar with it's old style decorations. They had woochuck hard cider on tap so I was a very happy girl! Great food and great times meting the owner Pat. They didn't have any rooms left that culd accomidate us so we had some worr moments figuring out whow to get to another hotel as they were all quite a ways out of town. Pat and his wife Vicky are amzingly kind people who went out of their way and offered to drive us to another establishment. Endless thanks to them both. Fresh clean laundry, shower, bed and key lime dip!
Date: 2012-06-10
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Peters Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: clear sky

Ha, exactly 11.3 in and exactly 11.3 out of town. And I had a great sleep last night, a filling breakfast and interesting 2 mile walk through town. A lot of today was spent road walking as wemade our way over sme large major rivers. We did have a cool moment crossing the railroad tracks to get back to the woods as a train was sitting there. The conductor waved us by, basically a Li promise not to start this thing and kill you. It was a very hot day and a lot of rocks. I'm thinking that going to become a repeating theme. We got to he shelter after a really wonderful stop at trail magic. Yum hot dogs. Thanks so much! Really cool 2 level shelter. But oh the water source. It was down. Steep hill. Over 300 steps! But I was so happy as I tackled this carrying 12 pounds of water back up the hill and realized I am in wicked good sape. Didn't have to stop once. Not so much on those steps down in Georgia. So nice to see suc great results. Because we got in early, we had a lot of needed down time so happy times.
Date: 2012-06-11
From: Peters Mountain Shelter

To: Campsite before Rausch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 17.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Today wasone of those long tiring, boring days. As beautiful as our surroundings are it can become extremely monotonous doing this day after day, 11 hours of walking, one foot right in front of the other. And today was just a slog where none of us felt much like hiking. Wehad a lot of the infamous PA rock sections today so the ankles are tired. The rest of me is doing okay though wth the exception of my leftfoot which feels like it is flattening out and all the bones are being bruised. I swear all through hikers end up wit hobbit feet as they just sem to get wider and wider. We've all been noticing that there is more and more space between ourtoes. Heck when I got new shoes I went from a women's 10 1/2 to men's 10 wide, mostly because of width. I'm toold this never really reverses eithr. Oh well, good thing my shoes and I ere not all that close.Okay where was I? Oh right the hike. So my foot's ben hurtingand it certainly didn't help that I misplaced my pole and ended up scewering it. Ow. All day we walked adjacent to artillary fire which was interesting. We could hear them firing shots off, then hear where it landed. Sometimes this was slightly unerving as they sounded so very loud and close.I'm camping with Huff and Puff tonight and we are decking out our setup preparing for the coming rain. Huff gets weather radar on her phone which means I nowknow what's coming. No more surprises for this gal. We had a great fire tonight which always helps at the end of a day like today. I'm still loving life on the trail and am at peace with camping. I try to activily remind myself every day how fortunate I am to breath all thi fresh air and be awoken everymorning by the sounds of birds singing.
Date: 2012-06-12
From: Campsite before Rausch Gap Shelter

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: moderate rain

What a day. I left camp in high spirits after a gradual but reluctant wake up. It's started to rain now but I'm staying nice and dry under my large tarp. I'm sort of in love with itnow that I've expierenced how nice it is to be able to almost completely pack up under it's dry protection and then take it down quickly and stuff it in my pack. Well it rained all day. Not always a hard rain but it was ever present. We mde good miles as you are apt to do in this weather. Nothing to do but trudge forward. Despite being utterly soaked we were still in higher spirits than yedsterday. But man was I contemplating all the different words that applied today. Sodden, soaked, drenched, drowned... the first shelter was 13 miles out aftr a cross over a neat bridge. But there was no relief there b/c a camping group had absolutly taken over everything. Eventualy we were able to at least huddle at thefront with some protection from the rain and have a hot cocoa. In a way this worked out well becauseforced tl move on to the next shelter which was amazing. Four walls and doors, a giantsunlight and best of all close to a place whre you could order a chicken dnner. Yum. So now we are drying out with clothing draped everywhere in an attempt to dry it out some. But I am dry and warm with my bunk all set up to go and a delicous meal in my tummy. Just what we need to stave off to occaisonal thoughts of quiting miserable et days like this bring. Just as I was falling asleep, skunkape camein. So good to catch up with him. Now going to bed with the sound of increasingly hard rain falling on the roof.
Date: 2012-06-14
From: Eagles Nest Shelter

To: Windsor Furnance Selter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Shocker. There were more rocks today. But this timewe spent all day calling out, "hey Tom" every time we came to a section we felt was just atad rediculous. This was often. After an insanely steep descent into Port Clinton where I'm sure they had almost no property rights to work with, otherwise repeat after me, "switchbacks". Anyway, got into twn but found that my food drop hadn't made it yet, ah small town America. All okay though, headed to the hotel for lunch where I had a foot long belly buster haddock sandwich, which was amazing. Then we did laundry and headed over to the peanut shop for resupply. It's this fabulous old timey candy store with so many treat but also hiker food. And by that I mean I am totally going to be eatting trail mix and dried fruit and Jelly Beans for the next 3 days. Then it was straight up more hills. "Hey tom, maybe we should, I don't know wind this trail, like make it go less steeply up,kinda switch it back and forth." "Oh no.   Bob the hikers wouldn't like that. They'll want to get straight to the top. Let's sav the meandering trail for the flat lands." But we made it andwe have fresh laundry. It's very buggy tonight but in my hammock I'm simply enjoying all the fireflys.