morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-06-10
From: Graymoor Spiritual Center pavillion

To: RPH shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

It is hot.Hot. Hot. Hot.I didn't realize we were skipping june this year and going straight to july. I need to be informed of these decisions, before they take effect, so i can plan for this sort of thing.Hot.hot.hot. I think my brain melted in the heat, just like my poor snickers bars...Wow. A tough day for me mentally and physically. Physically i just wasn't with it today... i was draggin' my butt the whole day. The heat was a large factor, and my feet hurt more than usual (heels = blisters, and ball of foot pain some too), and mentally i wasn't there either. I was at home swimming in a pool, or sitting in the A/C with my feet up drinking a soda. I kept questioning myself about why i am out in the woods when i could be lounging at home in comfort. I guess we all go through that out here... i think the weather was a big part of that. Anyway, it was a tough day for me. Oh yeah, and i was using my MP3 player to help get me moving, and i busted my headphones. grrrrrr!After a restless night of sweating profusely and getting eaten by mosquitoes, we got moving at 4:30am and were on the trail by 6am. The trail was good - gently rolling with ups and downs that gave us a challenge here and there. Nothing really remarkable - at least for me, i kept my head down, and was clicking off the miles. One of those days. We of course had to stop frequently for water, since water sources in NY state suck. Did the past leaders of NY search out all the best water sources and pipe them down to NYC? I think maybe, because what's left is polluted or sketchy...So at lunchtime, we came to rt. 301 - we had a choice of a mile roadwalk to a park with water (adding two miles of hot no-shade walking to our 18 mile day) or going with streams that were marked as water sources in gobbles's book. We opted to try for the streams. Bad choice. The streams were no good. but....when we got around the lake we were circling, there was "a steep unmarked side trail that would lead to a beach with cold showers and a seasonal snack bar". cold showers = water. We need water... so we hid our packs at the top of the mountain and took our valuables and wandered off down this side trail. ha ha ha ... that was an adventure. We survived and made it the snack bar and filled up our waters. By then it was almost 3, so our plan to siesta for 3-4 hours in the woods turned into a 2-hour siesta by a snack bar where we still sweated profusely but were able to rehydrate.Did i mention it was hot?We had another fun adventure climbing back to our backpacks... for anyone doing this later on... take the roadwalk....but we made it all in one piece, and then only had 4.7 left to go.We rolled in here about 7:30 and did chores and got all ready for bed. It's 10pm now, so i gotta get to sleep. The shelter is nice, and especially nice because there are thunderstorms and lots of rain outside right now. Hope this cools things down for tomorrow. Big day to push to Pawling to get out boxes before the post office closes and then a zero day. ahhhhhh. That will be nice.
Date: 2008-06-12
From: Armonk, NY

To: Armonk, NY
Miles today: 0.0

Today was a zero day. It tired me out. I think i need another. I need to have a non-errand running zero day, where i just sit around....zzzzzzzz.......We slept in today until after 6am and eventually got ourselves up and moving. We got down to NYC about 10 and down to our first destination by 10:30. Knuckles and i got new shoes, and gobbles replaced his poles. Then my friend sanjey met up with us, and we wandered to jamba juice where i got a large berry lime sublime (sooooo goooood). We headed off to our next destination where gobbles tried to replace his filter and knuckles got some windpants. I was looking for a good fleece blanket but had no luck. So we went to the next destination, but again, no luck. I decided to keep my sleeping bag... it's 2 pounds... so i will have to deal.Then we got some lunch - indian food at cafe spice - good stuff. Sanjey had to leave after that (thanks for coming to visit. sorry it was all errands and no fun stuff) and we spent until 3pm running to various stores to get supplies we needed. aiya!After 3 we went to magnolia for a tasty treat - my first visit since the change in ownership, and a first visit for gobbles and knuckles. Not as good as i remember...(on the cupcake end)...so that was unfortunate. It was still really good though. Then we went to times square to show knuckles the fun there and to let her experience the sensory overload firsthand. Then we jumped on the train to get back up here. The goal being to finish up all our chores tonight, so we can get an early start tomorrow.I want to apologize to all my friends in NYC that i didn't visit with. I got sucked into doing chores for most of my day, so i didn't get to call or visit this time in. I will make sure to visit my next time into the city.So we got back and cleaned up our stuff and got almost-packed. I have my dishes drying, my phone charging, and all my stuff ready to be packed, once i get all the last odds and ends put into my pack. I need to figure out a way to be more efficient. O have nothing actually packed, but everything about 85% packed. sigh...Okay, tomorrow is coming soon, so i gotta get some sleep. Keep your fingers crossed that the new boots work some magic for my feet and that the trail is smooth and kind for getting back into the hiking groove.
Date: 2008-06-13
From: Armonk, NY/Pawling/NY route 20

To: Mt. Algo lean-to
Miles today: 20.4

I'll start with a big THANK YOU to mono and mom for the sodas. That really hit the spot. It was nice meeting you today. Hope you had a good hike.Today was a good day. The weather was awesome, and my new boots made my feet NOT hurt. It was so cool not to have foot pain. It's been a long time since my feet didn't hurt when i got to camp. Well, they hurt, but not like they did.. it's more of a fatigue pain tonight. And i have some weird numb spots on the balls of the feet... but that isn't really new either... yay!It's been a long day. I got up at 4:45 to shower, and the day was started. We had breakfast at the hotel and caught the cab to the train station. We barely made the train. Whew! We got to pawling by 8, then had to wait for the post office to open. We got our boxes mailed off and caught another cab to the trailhead. We started hiking a little after 9am. The hike was good - rolling hills, fields, swamps. We didn't hit a big climb till after lunch. But then we had several, and they were p.u.ds... we passed the famous A.T. train stop, and left NY. bye bye NY!!We hiked along next to the housitonic some today and that was pretty. 10 mile shelter was nice, and you can swim in the river there. Too bad we didn't stop there. We rolled into camp about 8 tonight. 11 hours of hiking (10 walking, 1 hour resting) ...made dinner, cleaned up, and now i am in bed doing the journal.Using my bug net tonight. It's nice in here. Mice are active already... hope they calm down.Saw an oriole today, and owl flying in the woods, and a turkey with some chicks. That was fun.I am about to pass out now, so i am signing off....
Date: 2008-06-14
From: Mt. Algo lean-to

To: Pine Swamp Brook lean-to
Miles today: 17.4

I am writing this on the 15th, because we got into the shelter so late yesterday that i didn't bother to journal...The day was good; well, it started off good. We slept in till 6 and got ourselves packed up at a leisurely pace. We only had to wander into Kent by 8:30 to meet my friend Gelman. So we got there a bit early and got ourselves some treats/resupply stuff at the gas station mini-mart, and as we came out, Gelman and Joe got there. Fun! We talked for a bit and then wandered down to Caralee's for breakfast. mmmmmm. good stuff. And we met some really nice people in there, who gave us the lowdown on where everything was in town. thanks! I highly recommend this place if you stop in. So after we ate, we hit the pharmacy and the outfitters. Then Joe and gelman gave us a ride back to the trailhead where we said bye and wandered off through a field to go climb a mountain. It was good to see my friend and to meet her boyfriend. Thanks for coming to visit!!It was about 10:30, and we had 17 miles left to go... no problem... 8 hours of hiking - we should be in camp by 6:30... but alas, that was not meant to be.I don't know what happened, but we didn't get to camp until 9pm. We got to the middle shelter about 2pm, which was on target for about 2mph, but then we all fell asleep and didn't wake up and get out until 3:30 because we had to filter more water. I guess it was the heat and humidity that sapped us... so off we went again, and we heard thunder rumbling in the distance. After a while that cell moved on, but the sky was threatening the rest of the day. The thunder eventually caught up to us about 7:30, when we ended up having to ditch our packs in the woods and sit on a log as the thunderstorm rolled over us. That was pretty exciting, and we got pretty wet. That took about a half hour... and then we got going again.So we got to the shelter late. We basically got there, got water, then ate cold - i had an energy bar and 48oz of gatorade and some m&m's, and then crawled into bed. We were exhausted and slow going up the hills. I'm not sure what was wrong... both gobbles and i are having a rough time of it. We have to figure out what is wrong, so we can fix it.My feet were aching again, but the pain was less intense than it has been in the past. Not fun, but not debilitating. The shoes seem to be working well for my feet. I didn't tie the laces quite right, so i got a friction blister, duh?, so i have to deal with that... no biggie..The terrain here in CT is good. Lots of steep ups and downs, but also some more gradual ones. We are having multiple 500+ foot climbs each day. The terrain is sometimes very gentle, and sometimes very rugged. Lots of rock scrambles mixed in with gentle walking. It seems to have a little bit of everything...
Date: 2008-06-15
From: Pine Swamp Brook lean-to

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: light rain

Tonight we are in the home of venessa breton. She rents out space to hikers here in salisbury. Nice house, nice rooms, nice lady.We did an easy day today. Our original plan was to just come into town for resupply and go to the next shelter, but we were still dragging and feeling really tired, so we called it a day early. Salisbury is a nice little town, and their market is a good one for resupply.Today we hiked most of the day with dodger. We met him first way back in southern PA, back at chris and andrew's half-gallon challenge. He had gotten off for a week and has since been trying to catch up to us. Speaking of which - where are chris, andrew, and champ? We thought they would catch us. Maybe the heat got them too... if you guys read this, catch up! ...so hiking with dodger was good. Hopefully he will stay in proximity with us. He wants to push the miles to finish in early august, so i don't know if he will stay near to us or not. jinx, another hiker is also in town, but we haven't found him yet... he's around here somewhere. He is mentally fatigued at the moment, so we are going to see if he will hike with us, so maybe we can help get him back into the game.It seems that we are in a hiker void. There a couple of hikers in front of us (time traveler, sleepwalker, railroadking, footlose, dirty harry), but behind us are very few hikers. Dodger was commenting that he was amazed that there were so few that he passed catching up to us. Odd. Maybe they are all clustered together a few weeks back....too bad there isn't a good way to find out. If any of team phenomenon is reading this, drop a line and let us hear how things are where you are hiking.Oh yeah... the hike. Good today... fairly easy terrain, a good climb that tuckered us out. We saw the great falls on the housatanic river, and the woods were pretty. Nothing really jumped out at me as memorable. We had some good views.So we got to salisbury around 3, and we did our resupply. I grabbed lots of bananas and apples to eat tonight, and i got some v8 juice to drink, and i pounded down a 32oz chocolate milk at the grocery store.I am now showered, and laundry is laundering. And i have caught up with journaling. I might take a nap... i'm getting sleepy.Tonight is a rest night. Thank goodness.
Date: 2008-06-17
From: Hemlock shelter

To: Tom Leonard lean-to
Miles today: 14.3

It stopped raining! We woke up this morning to sun shining through the trees. Very pretty. We got up and out by 8:30, and the start of the walk was really nice. Then we hit the steep downhill part. Now, rock scrambles are generally fun, and when dayhiking i like them. But these were not fun. Wet rock scrambles are not fun, and neither is falling down. I discovered that wet pine needles have just about as much friction as wet leaves when you step on them. I slid around some, but the magical hiking poles were able to save me. Gobbles was not as lucky and fell once on the way down. aiya! It took us a long time to get down...Then we began our trek through the swamps and farm fields. A nice change of pace for a couple of hours. It rained on us again, just in time for lunch. Luckily, we were at route 7, so we wandered down the road to a place called the corn crib - which sells doll house things, fresh fruits and veggies, and plants/flowers for your garden. We got some snacks there so we could sit in their gazebo while we ate. yay!We got going again about 1:45 and got here to the shelter about 4:45.The trail had some steep parts, but for the majority of the time was fairly level/rolling. So we could make good time. Our original plan was to push on to the next shelter, but knuckles is feeling not-so-good, so we decided to stop here. Hopefully she will be better after a good rest.Massachusetts is pretty. I think they need to install more water bars to prevent the trail from becoming a stream. This morning we did a lot of stream-walking. My shoe gore-tex held up, and except for my sweaty feet, the socks stayed dry. My feet are feeling relatively good. They are tired from the rock scrambles. I still have to massage them tonight, but i am optimistic that these shoes will be good for my feet.Not much else going on. scofield is here tonight, and a week-hiker named matt. We lost dodger - he is ahead of us by almost a day. He was fun to hike with, but is on a schedule that will have him finish a week or so ahead of us. Maybe we can catch him, and lure him to the dark side of hiking with us. muahahahahahaha! Watch out dodger!...We lost jinx too. not sure where he went-hope he didn't get off. He is not in the registers, so maybe he is behind us?A good day of hiking. Hoping to meet up with some friends in the next few days. looking forward to see if we can meet up. Hopeful.
Date: 2008-06-18
From: Tom Leonard lean-to

To: Upper Goose Pond cabin
Miles today: 22.2
Weather: overcast clouds

A good day of hiking today. A long day, but we got our miles covered in a reasonable time - we got here about 5 pm. That gave us time to relax a little, and cook dinner and eat without feeling rushed. A good feeling to have time at camp to get chores done and to relax some.We got started about 6:20 this morning, and the day was really nice. Lots of sun, and few clouds. We made good time in the morning. We got to the first shelter 5 miles in, in about 2 hours. I was able to call my wife and find out that i have lots of things to do for grad school, as soon as i can get to the google-machine/internet. It was good to talk to her, even though all we had time to talk about was school stuff/work things. I was hoping to get service again here, but no... meanwhile, back to my story....The trail was kind to us today, gently rolling, and not many rocks. The trail has changed over the past few days. Lots more hemlock forests, lots more swampy/bog areas, and there are still rocks, but not like in NY/CT. Mass is a very pretty state, and it's been fun hiking here. Very nice. The miles went by fast. The terrain was easy today, only 1 big climb of 900 feet. Otherwise it was mini ups and downs and lots of flats. Also lots of boggy areas and gobs of mosquitoes. We passed through an indian reservation/territory, and passed by a couple of beaver-lakes with the little beaver homes out in the middle. That was fun.Tonight we are at upper goose creek cabin, an enclosed house with a bunk room upstairs, and a kitchen and common room downstairs. There are cooking stations outside, and privies. The caretakers filter water for you and have it stored in jugs. Tonight, the caretaker has some visitors, and they brought jiffy-pop popcorn, and we are all stuffing our faces with popcorn.Knuckles still feels sick. She has already gone to bed. We are going to get her to the doctor in dalton tomorrow. Hopefully the extra sleep will do her good.The cabin is packed tonight - we have the 4 of us from last night, plus another 3 section hikers, and a father/son team who just got here from chicago and are going to head south. Fun to have all these people around.Time to eat more popcorn, then call it night.
Date: 2008-06-19
From: Upper Goose Pond cabin

To: Dalton, MA
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Today was a gorgeous day for hiking. Good temperature and partly cloudy skies. Lots of sun!We got started at 6:30 or so this morning and got knuckles to the road crossing so she could get a ride to the doctor. Her ride came about 8, and gobbles and i headed off into the woods to go the last 19 miles to Dalton.The hike was good, mostly flat terrain, with a couple of ups and downs in there. I was surprised at the amount of swampy hiking we had. Lots of squishy ground, lots of bog bridges and rock hopping. I figured that up in the mountains, we would have less of that. We did pass a lot of old beaver ponds, so perhaps that was part of it. We stopped at the "cookie lady"'s house for lunch. This is a couple who run a blueberry farm, and they set up a picnic table for hikers in the yard, and let us use their tap for water and will bring out cookies for the hikers if they are home. We were in luck! Roy "the cookie man" came out and brought us some super yummy cookies! so good....We kept going after that and were psyched that we only had 9 miles left, and it was 1pm. So many daylight hours left, and so few miles left to go! We cruised into Dalton about 5, and we were able to get in touch with rob bird right away (staying at the Birdcage). He came and got us, and we were able to wash up and relax a little just before he took us to old country buffet for dinner. mmmmmm... AYCE... good stuff. Then we went to wall mart and i picked up some new headphones, and then went over to price chopper and got some snacks. Then we came back to the birdcage, and we've just been hanging out since. Now it's time for bed.Knuckles was told that she just has a virus, and not lyme disease, so that is good. She came out to dinner with us, but is staying in the hotel for the night to get some quality sleep. She will come over and stay here tomorrow night. She is feeling better, so the rest is helping her.Tomorrow is our rest day - time to do my bounce box, and go do internet, and some resupply. And lots of resting and recovering. Looking forward to it.Time for sleep....
Date: 2008-06-20
From: Dalton, MA

To: Dalton, MA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Today was a zero day. aaaahhhhhhhh.So nice to rest the weary feet. I did effectively nothing today. We are staying with Rob Bird, who opens his home to hikers, just like the mayor. It is awesome. Great hospitality, and a fun guy to talk with. To other hikers - definitely consider staying here when you pass through. I hear that tom, the other hiker host in town is a great guy too, but i can only vouch for the birdcage.So we got up and moving around 8, and putzed around till 9, when we wandered off to get knuckles and do our chores. we got her, and ate breakfast, then went to the post office and got our boxes. After we raided those and bounced them ahead, we got haircuts *buzzzzzzzz* and went to the library. I spent an hour settling grad school issues and then got kicked off the computer because they have a strict 1 hour limit. I did get some emails and other reading done too, so that was good.However, i discovered that the hiker tip brooks gave me back in maryland went straight out of my head. There was an opportunity for awesome ice cream, and i forgot about it!!! d'oh! noooooooooooooo!!! T-mobile cell service up here is spotty at best, so i have been out of communication, and pay phones have disappeared too. Thanks for writing to remind me brooks, but i didn't get the news till i was past. **crying....crying** dagnabit.After the library, we got some lunch and came back here. We just hung out all day watching dog whisperer. Eventually, i went out and got snacks for the hike tomorrow - we are slackpacking the 22 miles across mt. greylock from north adams back to dalton. wheeee!   and we got a pizza for dinner.Knuckles went to the E.R. this afternoon because she was running a 103 fever. marco solo, a past thru-hiker who is here visiting, drove her over. The hospital people think it is lyme, so they gave her some drugs. She is going to rest tomorrow while gobbles and i hike. Also here in recovery is a hiker called master-alex. Rob drove up to bennington to get him. He is sick with lyme symptoms, but the clinic who took his blood last week are just getting the results. No word yet. He had opted to hike on until he heard, since he felt okay, but today it was too much, so he called rob.We also heard from k-bomb (formerly hokewa) today. He is with enoch, moccasin and others, and they just got to harpers ferry today. They weren't staying long and were heading out into the maryland wilds today. I'm glad he is still on the trail. I will have to call him back when i can get reliable phone service.Not much else happening, which is the way i want it on my rest day.Time for sleep. Lots of hiking to accomplish tomorrow.
Date: 2008-06-22
From: Cheshire/Dalton

To: Dalton
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: mist

Today's slackpack (aka just a daypack no 40-pound) was a cakewalk. Rob of the Birdcage dropped us off in cheshire at 9, and we were back at the birdcage before noon. And we just escaped the thunderstorms that came rolling through. whew! There was a single big uphill, but it was gradual, so not bad. Otherwise it was rolling, or downhill. Sweet.We didn't hit the 100 miles/week goal, but we still got 92 in. We have less than 600 miles left - 6 weeks or so till i am done with this part of my a.t. journey. wow....Anyway, we just hung out the rest of the day and watched t.v. It was fun.Tomorrow, we head out of town, and into vermont. Three states left!It's been great here in dalton, and i can see now how some hikers get sucked into the vortex of town... but gotta keep going. A big thanks to rob for his hospitality. The birdcage is awesome.Knuckles is feeling better now, so the three of us are heading out tomorrow starting out in north adams. snake eyes and trust me will get dropped off there too, but they will head south for their slackpack back to dalton. Our groups will only be a day apart after that, so we expect to keep leapfrogging with them up thru maine. They are fun to hang out with, so its good we're in proximity again. Who knows, maybe we will end up summiting katahdin together.Time for sleep. Gotta finish packing up for tomorrow in the am.