morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-06-24
From: culvers gap

To: Jim Murray Property
Miles today: 21.3

Fire towers, dogs, dillydallying to the extreme, hopeful showers at secret shelters, last minute dashes and new thru-hikers - oh my!We said bye to Freeze, Motor, Highlander and The Kid this morning, and Bunyan dropped us back off. We met Tropic Thunder at the first shelter (he lives in a trailer, too). The hiking today was gorgeous again, but a little rocky, muddy, wet and mis-guided. New Jersey ATC - I'm gonna send ya'll $10 so you can buy a can of paint and fill up your weedwacker. But it's ok. We had a good time. We met some cool day hikers, section hikers and thru hikers (can you believe this far in we're still meeting NEW NOBO'ers?!?).We got to a platform towards the end of the day from which you can supposedly see NYC....yeah, horse pooey. There wasn't even a glimmer of flatland in sight. But it's cool. It was the highest point in New Jersey.My feet were very achey by the end of the day. I'm telling you. Every bend had me checking for the shelter signage. And it took it's time coming. The trail to the "secret shelter" is marked with "well water" signs. Finally the signage came into view. And then it started sprinkling. "Hey, G, how far off the trail is the shelter??" "Uh, .2." Sprinkles turned into rain. Aw hell. That called for an end of the day sprint to the cabin. We ran up onto the front porch and were stunned to find a "Shelter is closed. Camping still available" sign. I laughed out loud for about 2 minutes. "That figures." The storm past, and we hunkered down on the front porch for the night. Yep, me and Wags rocked out the teeny front porch of a rustic cabin. No worries, the neighbors came over to greet us. Yep, the Jesus Donkeys came for a visit. And then they got a little too friendly with my dinner. I manhandled donkeys to end this strange but exciting day on the AT.
Date: 2009-06-25
From: Jim Murray Property

To: vernon nj
Miles today: 13.2

6.25 jim murray to vernon nj 13.2 hostelwhat a great day for wildlife! We woke up early this morning becausewe were excited about our town stay. I have to say the view thismorning from that old front porch was one of my favorites on the trailso far, and all it was was a view of a field. I can totally appreciatea gorgeous view of a blaze orange and rose pink sunset, but i alsoreally enjoy the subtle beauty of everyday landscape. And i will NEVERlook at the skyline of a city and think "wow, that's gorgeous."anyway, i was just checking out the field and something caught myattention way far in the distance. After scrutinizing for a second ifigured it was probably a fox. Then it scampered off and solidifiedmy guess. I love foxes so that was a great start to the day!we flushed some polts and a hen turkey, saw a couple snakes and somemute swans and gadwalls around this huge wetland. And we finally sawsome more bears - a momma and 2 cubs! I think its safe to say thatwags engages in flight, and im more of a fight kinda gal when it comes to critters. She had a goodpoint though - we saw the cubs run up a tree but didnt know wheremomma bear was. Im not sure if in these situations im brave or juststupid because after checking out the cubs for a while i figured wecould just saunter down the trail and momma bear would do her thingand leave us be. We did just that, but in case i was wrong i palmed mymace. She ended up running past way to our left and that was that!we then enjoyed a gorgeous boardwalk hike through a swamp where we metout first sobo'ers - hitch and trailer (north carolina boys!). We madeit to our stop for the day, got a hitch to the chuch hostel and arethoroughly enjoying relaxing, clean laundry and showers.
Date: 2009-06-26
From: vernon nj

To: wildcat
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: broken clouds

6.26 vernon to wildcat shelter 17.2 tentburnin for vernon, baby! I woke up to a morning thunderstorm and washappy to be inside but felt bad for my friends outside. After aleisurely morning we packed up and headed out. Hitchhiking is illegalin jersey but im a gangsta so i stuck my thumb out. We got a ride froman awesome man named pat from warwick, ny who had never picked uphitchhikers before. He was very friendly and it was great to meet him.We hiked up wayawanda mountain and realized we're no longer in shapefor mountain climbing. It was a slow going day but we finally crossedinto new york - yep, crossed off our 8th state of the trip! And thenthe thunder rolled...and the lightning struck. Good grief we wereboldering along a ridge! Of course a storm blew in after i spent somuch time yesterday babying my gear back into shape. Oh well. Ourbadass meter is through the roof. At one point today we had to scale aladder to get up a rock face. Yep, with our packs on.we were super excited to be reunitedLoon, hotsauce, double vision, jukebox and windup at the shelter!the wildlife today wasnt as great, but we did see elvis, tupack,michael jackson and, of course, the missing governor.
Date: 2009-06-27
From: wildcat

To: fingerboard
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: scattered clouds

6.27 wildcat shelter to fingerboard shelter 14.3 tenti woke up raring to go this morning! I put on my ipod, cranked thevolume up and followed wags down the trail. Yeah, i was totallyjamming to will smith. We past a gorgeous waterfall and climbed upmombasa (really its mombasha but whateve) high point where we met upwith loon and hot sauce. Later we ran into jukebox and DV and windupwho said trail magic awaited us 5 miles down the road. Those were somegnarly 5 miles but it was worth it - john and sue picked 8 of us up,drove us to their home, laundered our clothes, let us shower, fed us adelicious dinner and offered up beds for the night. It was AMAZING!People say being open to experiencing all the trail throws at youmakes your thru hike, and i believe it. They're a great couple with apair of adorable germanWirehairs who i fell madly in love with. While it would have beengreat to take them up on spending the night, wags and i have big plansfor tomorrow and had to put in some miles tonight. So we said bye toour hiking buddies and john dropped us off.we had a great time with the lemon squeezer and enjoyed a beautifulevening and entertaining night hike.
Date: 2009-06-28
From: fingerboard

To: graymoor spiritual life center
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: scattered clouds

6.28 fingerboard shelter to graymoor spiritual life center 20.6 tent5:45 wake up call. Yikes! I had lunch plans with my good friend frommy freshman year at IU (go hoosiers!), julia and her husband brad (orB), so we got an early start. It was a fun but challenging 13.4 milesto town - we crossed the palisades interstate and saw a sign that read"new york city 34 miles" and that blew my mind. I could hook a rightand walk for a day and be in nyc. From georgia! Wild! But i figuredone goal at a time is probably best. I got to the top of bear mountainand holy tourist mob batman! Its very weird to come across so manyfolks when youre living out of a tent inwoods. And then rusticus showed up which was another left field move.We hiked down the mountain until i ran into julia and B - i was soexcited to see them! We had a great hike back to their car. We pastthe bear mountain rec area which was packed full of people, and notjust white folks. Finally, some diversity on the trail! Wags and i gotsome dip n dots from a vendor and then we mozied on through the zoo(lowest elevatio on the AT at 124 feet). We went out to lunch and thejulia and were kind enough to drive us to the grocery store so wecould resupply. I was sad to say bye but was so happy to see them - ithad been 7 years since the last time i saw them!wags and i hiked the 6 miles to this awesome pavilion where we werehappy to find cricket, plunger, mr. right, paulman and cupajoe! Imtired but its been great day!wags and i are also B level celebrities. Before we were C but we raninto 4 people today who recognized us from trail journals: stevie andadel, oak, and two other guys whose names i Didnt catch. Ego inflate activated.
Date: 2009-06-29
From: graymoor spiritual life center

To: rph shelter
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: scattered clouds

a beautiful sunny day with a decent hike. I was on auto-pilot for mostof the day and am sleepy now. Not an exciting entry to say the least,but they can't all be winners. Looking forward to kent on thursdayfollowed by another robert parrish! Love them zero days!
Date: 2009-06-30
From: rph shelter

To: Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: scattered clouds

It was great to sleep in my tent last night. The shelter was basically empty except for Wags and another guy (who was really nice but would not stop talking from the moment we got to the shelter). It's amazing how little "alone" time you have on the A.T. in the middle of the woods, and sometimes a person just needs their personal space. I stayed up last night reading my book (Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith, courtesy of Poppa Gangsta), trying to get mud off of my legs, and enjoying the fresh air. It's Monday night again, and the Bachelorette is on (yes, Gangsta's vice is my obsession with bad reality tv and People magazine. It just can't be helped) so Hayden texted me updates on what was going on. Yeah, I'm in the midst of this wilderness experience, but I keep up to date on the important stuff going on in the world.We stopped by the Mountaintop Market Deli for lunch today. The folks in there were super nice - it's awesome when townspeople can look past your ragged appearance (especially if you're wearing a rat-chewed shirt) and smell, and treat you like any other person - and served us delicious sandwiches! A few customers stopped and talked to Wags and I, and one woman even offered to drive us to the grocery store and wanted to make sure we were "ok financially." I really am racking up my faith in humanity on this trip. By watching the local news when I'm in town, I figure I'll probably need it come fall.We got sprinkled on a little after we left the deli, but just enough to cool us off some. When we were about 8 miles from our destination we took stock of the sky. Hmmm. Looks like bad weather. Think we can make it? Sure! So we kicked it into high gear and got to this shelter 5 minutes before the storm rolled in.It's just the two of us and a long-distance section hiker named Big Turtle. It's been raining since we got here, and it seems like it might rain all night. We got to camp at 5:30, and that's the earliest we have in a while so I'm really enjoying lounging about, reading my book, and thinking about writing letters. I wasn't in the greatest of moods today. I wasn't in a great mood yesterday, either. Emotions, fatigue, bad weather, etc have been affecting me lately, but not in a serious way. I think it's just a little lull that I'll pop out of once I take a few days off. And a good nights sleep might help!
Date: 2009-07-01
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter

To: Ten Mile River lean-to
Miles today: 12.7

I woke up feeling a little better this morning. The low mileage today was definitely a help - we've been putting in some big mileage days for us lately, and I'm definitely ready for a chill day. We past the Dover Oak (a white oak), the biggest oak on the AT this morning. It was HUGE and totally reminded me of the Angel Oak in Charleston. We also crossed the rail road station that can bring hikers into New York City on weekends. That was mind boggling to say the least. And then we very unceremoniously crossed into Connecticut. About 5 minutes after we crossed the road that serves as the boundry, Wags said "Wait. Are we in Connecticut now?" "Hmm. I think you're right. Cool." Then we bumped into some section hikers who, once again, recognized us from trail journals.After we past them, I said, "Wags, you think it might start raining soon?" "No, I don't think so." Then we started hiking up Ten Mile hill. And the noises we had been hearing turned into definite thunder rolls. And they got louder. And louder. Wags started hiking faster and faster. I couldn't keep up. I think my experience down in south Florida made me a little less intimidated by thunderstorms than is probably safe so I dillydallied while she hauled ass. Within 15 minutes of the start of our climb, it started POURING buckets on us. Lightning was flashing all around and right above us. Thunder was cracking over our heads (Wags had waited for me once the bad part of the storm hit). We finally summited (a wonderful view, I'm sure) and started heading down the mile towards the shelter. And I started laughing so hard I could barely stand. The rain was running off of my face so fast that I was having a hard time seeing, and it was thundering and lightning all around, and it was hilarious. We had to be less than 1/2 a mile for the shelter. And we were getting soaked. And I knew the storm would be over soon. Probably right when we reached the shelter.And it happened all as I figured it would. But I was pleasantly surprised to find Paulman and Cuppajoe in the shelter, waiting out the storm. And they eventually decided to stay for the night (Cuppajoe is ready for a hotel stay, I think, and she was having a hard time with the thought of heading out into the rain). We sat in the shelter, chatted, read, welcomed section hikers in from the storm, cooked our dinners, and turned in early. A good day.
Date: 2009-07-02
From: Ten Mile River lean-to

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 8.7

We woke up to the pitter patter of rain on the tin roof (shocker!). It's been raining for about 16 hours straight. Enough to make you a little nutty, yanno? Wags and I packed up and hit the trail with 2.5 glorious zero days adding extra umph! to our trail legs. We hiked along a rushing river, climbed Schaghticoke Mountain, scaled rocks, grumbled over some fairly technical climbing, got rained on (surprise, surprise), saw a BEAR, crossed a raging creek, and walked into Kent. No, Chilly Willy, it took us more like 4 hours to get there - definitely a ROUGH hike!. Kent, I must say, is a fairly pompous, yuppie town. The laundromat is NOT hiker friendly as evidenced by the 52 million "hiker rules" posted. The post office is home to George, by far the rudest post office worker I have EVER encountered to whom I said, "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to be a little more polite to people." He had nothing on Port Clinton's Russ. And the restaurant we ate at had lousy service, at least for hikers. Thumbs down Kent - and you can get those pretentious noses out of the air. I usually don't like to talk too much smack in my journal, but our reception was like day and night in terms of other trail towns.But no worries, Wag's Aunt Nancy is whisking us away for beautiful, amazing and well-deserved glorious zero days!!
Date: 2009-07-05
From: Kent, CT

To: Silver HIll Campsite
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

We had two WONDERFUL zero days thanks to the amazing hospitality of Wag's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim. I also had a great time with my dad and Melissa who took the time to come visit me during a busy move. But the trail beckoned, and I heeded the call.Wags and I waved bye to my dad, Melissa and Ozzie (my Yorkie step-brother) and continued our journey to Maine. I have a new pack (Osprey Aura 65) named Isabel 2 (anyone catch that reference?), new shoes (thanks to Melissa's charm!), and superfeet. A lot of changes, and a little more weight. Hopefully I'll hold up.We had a more or less uneventful hike. We met Rainn, a T.J. reader, missed the "sign" for the shelter, and found ourselves at a wonderful campsite with Loon, Plunger, Mr. Right, Bunyan, Freeze, Motor, David, a ridge runner and some weekenders. All in all it's been a nice welcome back to the trail.
Date: 2009-07-06
From: Silver HIll Campsite

To: Limestone Springs Lean-to
Miles today: 19.1

Man, what a great night of sleep! I slept in until 7:45! We got out of camp before 9 and enjoyed beautiful weather for the second day in a row! It was a slow-going day, and I felt a little drained but that tends to happen after coming back from zeros. My pack is slowly becoming comfortable - Osprey's take a little while to adjust to. It rubs my hips a little, but I hear that most people go through that. My super feet are nice but I had to take them out towards the end of the day. My feet were rubbing in strange places, and I felt blister's coming on. I hear you have to get use to super feet, too. I now have non-waterproof boots which are something I swore I'd never buy, but now that my boots are constantly soaked regardless of waterproofing I figure what's the harm? Maybe my feet won't get as stinky. Ha! Yeah right.I think we'll be finishing in about 7 weeks. That seems both very soon and very far away. Now that we're nearing the end, day dreaming about Katahdin is inevitable. I really work on focusing on the present and not jumping the gun in terms of thinking I'm almost done when I still have 693.1 miles to go (but who's counting?!). It's a daily struggle, though. I love life our here, but I also miss my home life. I know this journey will come and go like so many other life events. It's just simultaneously very hard to imagine the end and yet very easy. Part of me wants to rush, rush, rush so I can say "Finished!" and check yet one more thing off of my to-do list, but I realize that's just our societal views pushing me to think that time is money. Time, to me, is not money. It's precious. But I don't equate it to what our society views as "success." I've always thought I was not ambitious, but a professor once told me, "No, you are ambitious. You're just ambitious for something other than what American's value." Completing this amazing journey will be a success. A personal one - to me the most important kind.By the way, I hear there's a "fantasy hiker" league thing going on. I doubt anyone picked a newly-wed with dogs at home, but if you did my cut is 15%. Nope, I don't accept checks.
Date: 2009-07-07
From: Limestone Springs Lean-to

To: Sages Ravine brook
Miles today: 10.9

7.7 limestone to sages ravine brook campsite 10.9 tentah, the 3am it's raining wakeup call - how will i live without it?! Atleast the rain ended before it was time to get up. We climbed up up up.5 miles out of the shelter and booked it into salisbury, ct. It wasa super cute town and fairly hiker friendly. The library was awesome -we had unlimited time on the internet! As always, town time ended toosoon and we had to hit the trail.Wags and i hiked up bear mountain which is the highest peak in ct, andthen we hiked down sages ravine into out 11th! state!! Yep. We're inmassachusettes now! We got to the campsite and are tenting withbunyan, motor, freeze, david and rolling stone. Yeah, we totallycrashed the dudes campsite - oh well!im super excited to have my camera back - canon was awesome athonoring the warrenty, and now i can start taking pictures again. Funfun!it's been another great day on the trail. It's definitely weird tothink there's not an endless supply of these.
Date: 2009-07-08
From: Sages Ravine brook

To: Tom Leonard Lean to
Miles today: 21.0

Mission Impossible. Part 1 of 2 (?)Wags and I took our time leaving camp this morning - no need to rush when you have no itinerary! We got to Sages Ravine (we actually didn't pass it yesterday..) and had to take our boots off to cross the creek. We were in the middle of putting them back on when we heard, "Yo!" It was Hermes!! A few nights ago we ran into Saint, Windup and Rusticus, and now we got to see Hermes! His beard has gotten long - we almost didn't recognize him at first. The three of us hiked up Race Mountain and enjoyed a supertrooper reunin lunch at a gorgeous viewpoint. I ate my first huckleberry on that mountain! Then we past mile 1500 (somehow I got off on my "trip mileage" counter on the top of the screen but oh well) and held a photoshoot. Hermes took off aferwards - he's trying to catch Saint and Windup so he can zero with them in Boston.Wags and I hiked at a more leisurely pce. During one of our breaks I looked at my guidebook and said, "You know, Wags, we could be ambitious...." She smiled, "What?" "Well, we could go all the way to the shelter tonight, and then Upper Goose Pond Cabin is only 21 miles away." A few minutes later we past Stumbles and Mr. Hungry - SOBO'ers - and our plan was solidified when we heard about the blueberry pancakes the caretaker makes for you at UGP!Mosquitos, a closed convenience type store where we had planned to fill up on water and cold drinks, rock acents, a bear, and a darkening sky all stood together to thwart our way, but we would not be stopped! We arrived at the shelter at 9:30, exhausted. But we had made it. And I went to bed.Happy Birthday Rebecca!!
Date: 2009-07-09
From: Tom Leonard Lean to

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: few clouds

Mission Impossible. Part 2 of 2.I woke up re-energized.   Twenty-one miles did not seem as daunting, not when a famous trail stop was waiting at the end! Hermes camped at the shelter last night so we were happy to see him again this morning. We also got to see Hot Sauce - I was excited because she's such a fun girl! Then it was time to hit the trail.We once again had gorgeous weather. The trail was pleasant, we talked most of the day about anything and everything, and we made it to the shleter by 7:30. After cooking dinner, talking to Deborah, the caretaker for that week, and brushing my teeth, I fell fast asleep on an amazingly comfy bunk. Mission impossible accomplished! A great day!Happy Birthday Kara!!
Date: 2009-07-10
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: October Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 8.8
Weather: few clouds

Man, I needed some recovery after those two long days. And I got it! I slept in until almost 8:30 this morning! I woke up to the smell of pancakes, fumbled downstairs, and found a pile of hot, fresh off the griddle, blueberry pancakes. DE-LISH! We piddled around for the early part of the morning, took a little dip in the lake (brrrrr), and then Wags and I paddled the canoe over to the spring to fill up for the caretaker. Yep, Gangsta hasn't lost it - after all those months teaching canoeing at Rock Eagle I still know how to handle one of them baby's. Still don't like teaching it, but I really enjoy paddling around a lake in one. After we dropped the water off on the dock, Wags and I paddled to the middle of the lake and just floated, soaking up the sunshine. It really made me miss the beach, but I had a great time none-the-less!Then, as always, it was time to hit the trail. Right before we left, Rolling stone, Cole (the dog), Motor, Freeze, and David showed up. It was great to see them again. We hiked across I-90, past a lot of ponds, found a cooler of trail magic from Gimpy, ran into some mountain bikers - Graham and Jackie - who we talked with for a while, and called it an early night at October Mountain. Wags and I are the only ones in the shelter, and Ryan (a trail jumper...started out as a thru-hiker, got bored, and is doing sections now) is tenting away. The mozzie's (as Graham from Australia calls them) are pretty rough, but I succeeded in not wearing any DEET today. Let's see if I can keep that up, because I can't stand bugspray! But sometimes there's no other way to go about it. A great day!