morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-06-30
From: some brook

To: Day 49
Miles today: 17.0

Pretty average day today. We woke up and climbed 1,500 feet up to Bromley Mt. to start the morning off. Mentioning the mud would be cliche at this point... but it's becoming less of an issue because the views here in Vermont are getting truly spectacular. The summit put us on a ski slope and, from the tower, you're supposed to be able to see 5 states, although I'm not quite sure which 5 states I saw. Needless to say, I flew my Jolly Roger and had a very introspective safety meeting while I did brunch up in the tower.    It kind of sucks that I'm running out of food. I'm all out of snack food and down to nothing but instant potatoes and noodles for dinner. What's worse is that I'm beginning to get tired of all the pre-packaged food I'm picking up in my mail drops. My granola bars are months old at this point and starting to taste bland. I just can't bring myself to look forward to a bowl of potatoes or noodles for dinner at the end of the day anymore. Even the stuff that I do like like my beef jerky and my snacks is barely enough to sustain me. It's hard not to think about food all the time out here, especially when you're consistently burning more calories that you're eating every day. I now know exactly what all the NoBo's are talking about when they lackadaisically refer to their 'hiker hunger now.   We did another rough 17 rough miles until we got to the Big Branch Shelter, which is right to another brook and a footbridge (4th in-a-row.) Rock Monkey happened to be there so I was able to give her the squirt gun that Samurai had purchased for her back in Vernon, NJ. What a relief!Bubble hash, beef/vegetable slop, and one Riesen chocolate for dinner tonight.
Date: 2011-07-01
From: Big Branch Shelter

To: Day 50
Miles today: 15.9

The entire day today was one giant lunge toward a restaurant near the trail. We did a couple of 1,000' climbs. No big deal. Climbed up and over ANOTHER Bear Mt. No big deal. Took very few breaks and ate very little. Teen Bean, being the astute guide book reader that she is, found this place called the Whistle Stop Restaurant, which is a train station/pizzeria/ice cream shop/tourist trap that is just .5 miles from where the AT crosses VT 103. The 16 miles flew by today. It was really nice to have Rock Monkey's company today too, she def mixed up the 3-person dynamic that Green, Teen, and I have had going on for a while. I also met this middle-aged guy who is out here hiking the Long Trail today; he's only been out here for a few days and he's only going a few hundred miles so he's still pretty fresh. But he was planning on meeting his dad at VT 103 and had a feeling that his dad wouldn't mind giving us all a ride to the Whistle Stop, even though is was just a half mile away. This afforded us the time to really enjoy the Clarendon Gorge. You see, just before where the AT crosses 103, there is this impressive suspension footbridge over an impressive gorge that was cut out by the Mill River. And a short climb down the cliff allows a dirty hiker to bask on the sandy shore and swim in the crystal clear river. Me, Green, and the LT hiker stripped down and literally scrubbed ourselves in the river while the girls caught the first ride to the restaurant. Then we got a ride to the Whistle Stop where I ordered a very interesting turkey, cranberry, stuffing sandwich. I figured that a Thanksgiving dinner was somehow appropriate for my situation. As we ate, more and more thru-hikers kept pouring out of the woods. By the time it was all said-and-done Teen, Green, LT hiker, Dad, Rock Monkey, Bear Jew, Rock Puncher, German Shepherd, Llama Legs, No Cello, Brownie, Brownie's friend, 2 strangers, and I were all sitting around the table. I then proceeded to walk down to the store and buy a pint of half/half and a 6-pack of Long Trail Ale. Then a 700' climb up to the Clarendon Shelter. Now I'm pretty drunk and surrounded by thru-hikers. Today was a hoot man.
Date: 2011-07-02
From: Clarendon Shelter

To: Day 51
Miles today: 19.7

Another super crazy day! After waking up hung-over at a shelter full of thru-hikers, I needed some recovery time so I left later than everyone else, as is tradition. The plan was to do a big 21 all the way to Kent Pond, where there is supposed to be a lodge with a hot tub! We all did a long 4-mile 2,200' climb up Killington Mt. to the Cooper Lodge Shelter, a classy 4-walled stone shelter, in order to get cell reception. That's when we found out that the lodge is completely reserved for a wedding today. Huge let down. The view up there was fucking spectacular though, probably my favorite one yet honestly. It is the 2nd highest summit in the entire Green Mountain Range at 4,236' and offered me my very 1st glimpse of the White Mountain Range of New Hampshire. Those mountains looks terrifying by the way. I'm not sure if I'm ready to hike above tree-line yet... So we came up with a plan B and decided to stop at the Inn at Long Trail, where they have free camping for thru-hikers, a pub, and live music on Fridays.    When Teen Bean, Green Mile, and I made it to Shelburne Pass we decided to try and hitch to the Inn and save ourselves .5 miles that don't count. But the trail gods had much more in store for us than a hitch. A very hot mom and her very hot daughter were driving home and saw us on the side of the road. They turned around, picked us up, and gave us a ride to the Inn. When we got there we hopped out of the truck just as it started to rain lightly. The Trail Angels asked us where we were going to sleep, we pointed to the parking lot across the street, and they asked us if we'd prefer to just stay with them for the night. By this point, we've all learned to never even question for a second the kindness of a stranger so we promptly loaded back into their truck, stopped by the store, and rode off to their house for the night. Their house turned out to be a picturesque entirely off-the-grid cabin that runs exclusively on solar power and well water. At this point I don't even know if I'm still hiking the AT or if I've died and gone to Heaven. The lovely couple who own the cabin are named Tom and Jessica and they are Trail Angels of Brad and Cari or Rob Bird proportions for sure. Actually, the whole family turned out to be huge Dead Heads so they might even have a leg up on the rest of the Trail Angels I've met so far. Jessica cooked us burgers, hot dogs, and another amazing fruit salad. I then got to work on another 6-pack of Long Trail Ale and built a fire in their amazing back yard. Their back yard has a line-of-sight view of Killington Peak in the distance, so I sat there by the fire and watched the sunset over the mountain I had summited earlier that day. After nightfall a mosaic of stars and fireflies filled the sky and I sat there and smoked weed with the hot daughter and drunkenly lectured her about how she shouldn't take her privileged life for granted. Then we all retired to our sleeping bags on the back porch. Aint life grand.
Date: 2011-07-03
From: Tom/Jessica's Mountain Paradise 

To: Day 52
Miles today: 1.7

I could get used to hiking like this. Trail Angel Jessica and hot daughter Cassidy (named after the Dead song) cooked us breakfast this morning, handed us our cleaned laundry, and drove us around Killington to the grocery and the outfitter before dropping us off back at the trail head. My plan was to hike up to the lodge at Kent Pond, camp out there for the night, and then hitch out first thing in the AM. You see, Killington is my last real opportunity to hop off-trail and start making my way back down to upstate New York for Camp. The only town around here that has an Amtrak station is White River Junction, which is about 50 road-miles away. So this was my last day hiking with Teen Bean and Green Mile : ( We've gotten to be pretty good friends by now and didn't really want to part ways so we hiked really slowly after we got dropped off. We walked right through the Gifford Woods State Park, which was packed full of weekend-warriors here for the 4th of July. This made for great fun because the trail was literally littered with trail magic. First, we found a map of the state park with a big 'X for trail magic' marked on it. We dropped our packs and went on a small scavenger hunt until we found the campsite in question. The trail magic was gone by the time we got there, but we had the chance to talk to some of the campers and tell them of our recent adventures (without gloating too much.) Nevertheless, we stumbled onto two coolers full of trail magic for thru-hikers during the laughably short 4-mile hike up to the lodge.    The Mountain Meadows Lodge is run by a super friendly super down-to-earth ex-hiker who has essentially built for himself a Heaven-on-Earth nestled on the bank of Kent Pond. In fact, the whole state of Vermont has been seeming a lot like Haeven-on-Earth even since I got out of the 100-mile mud pit and hit the Green Mountains. So the AT literally runs through this guy's front yard (in between the lodge and the pond.) The place is equipped with a lakefront dock, a gorgeous view of the mountains, plenty of room to camp, cheap rooms for thru-hikers, a hot tub, a sauna, a game room, a TV room, internet, a B/L/D buffet, resident pig named Alice, and bliss... lots and lots of bliss. I couldn't have asked for a better last day on-trail. This is called hiking in style right here. I am so grateful and so thankful for everything that has happened. I don't know what else to say : )
Date: 2011-07-04
From: Mountain Meadows Lodge

To: Day 53
Miles today: 0.0

I feel so unbelievably good today after the hot tub, sauna, and dinner buffet last night. Green Mile bought me a 32 oz Arrogant Bastard Ale and 1/5th of Jameson as a (remarkably fitting) going away present. So I just drank and relaxed and marathoned Star Wars last night. This morning I ate a wonderful AYCE breakfast and chatted with this Swedish NoBo who was there. If and when he finishes the trail he will become only the 2nd Swedish citizen to thru-hike the AT in almost 20 years. I said my goodbyes to Teen Bean and Green Mile as they headed off into the Vermont wilderness. Then I hung out with Alice for a while, used the internet, sat in the sunshine and watched the clouds blow over the mountains, and was generally quiet and meditative all morning.    It was the early afternoon by the time I finally hiked out. Luckily the Mountain Meadows has its own blue-blazed side trail that takes you through a wooded disk golf course on a cross-country ski trail directly back to the Base Camp outfitter in Killington. It took me all of half an hour to hike back to the Shell station and stick my thumb out. I grabbed a little American flag from the median and added it to my thumb to express my patriotism. It took less than an hour to get a hitch to Woodstock, VT with Dick & Cindy, an older couple of really nice weekend-warriors. From there, it took me 5 minutes to get picked up by this crazy FedEx truck driver/ ex-hitchhiker. He stopped by a sweet visitor center so I could grab a map of the area then drove me straight to the Greyhound station in White River Junction. I went in and bought a ticket to Boston, MA on a train that leaves first thing in the morning. Then I stopped by the store and picked up a 32 oz Long Trail Stout and found a sweet little patch of woods to stealth-camp in right in between a residential road and a highway. Now I'm swinging in my blackbird right next to a nice little personal-sized fire that I built, drinking and watching the town's little fireworks display. This is literally the first time I've gotten to enjoy true solitude since I started this hike. Solitude at last.Happy 4th of July!
Date: 2011-07-11
From: upstate New York

To: Day 60 - 66
Miles today: 0.0

So I ended up having so much fun at Camp that Belle was able to convince me to stay on summer tour with her for another week. It didn't take much to convince me though. I really needed some live Grateful Dead music in my life to help get me back to normal after all that Camp Bisco craziness. Her and I got a ride to the Greyhound station in Albany, NY. Then we took a 22-hour bus ride south to Morgantown, WV and eventually made our way to a room in the Econo Lodge, compliments of my dad. As much as bus rides suck, it was actually really nice to have some one-on-one down time time with Belle. Reuniting and spending our first few days together in festi land was pretty intense emotionally. The next morning we took a cab to the Ramada and eventually found a ride to Marvins Mountaintop with this wookie couple that Belle knows.    Thankfully, our friend Amber was able to hook me up with a job on the parking staff. This amounted to a life saver, because I barely had enough money to get back to the AT at the time, let alone buy a ticket for All Good. The parking crew killed it too; we had tons of fun literally screaming at people from 4:30 AM - 6:00 PM on Thursday and Friday. We got festival admittance, showers, catering, and $10/hour for our diligent service. Even better, I was done with work, showered, and fed, and ready to rage by the time Furthur took stage on Friday. And the boys really blew me away this year man. It was a super intense show with a very atypical set list. That's how I remember it at least, I was on a prodigious amount of LSD at the time however. Other than Furthur, the rest of the music was just so-so: Sector 9 was aight, Umphreys was okay, Yonder was mediocre, DSO was pretty standard. I hate to admit it, but Pretty Lights was actually one of the most innovative acts of the weekend. And I typically con't stand DJ music.    Despite the music leaving me wanting more, I was absolutely delighted to see so many of my Florida kids at All Good. It was nothing short of a Florida-family-reunion up there on Marvins Mountaintop. It felt good to surround myself with close friends, relax, and let my guard down, especially after a festival like Camp which is more a feat on endurance than an act of leisure. Alas, all good things much come to an end, and when All Good came to an end, belle and I caught separate rides back to he Ramada. There, we sat around for 9 hours until my dad could come pick us up. We got to catch some of the staff party before we left though so it worked out. We went back to Pop's house and I got to spend one more wonderful night with my angel. The next morning we drove her to a gas station where she got picked up my some Shimterns and driven back to ATL. Tearful goodbyes.
Date: 2011-07-25
From: some Masshole's RV park

To: Day 74
Miles today: 0.0

It didn't take long at all to hitch into K-town this morning. I was chillin drinking coffee at the Killington Marketplace and Deli (and liquor store) by 11:00 at the latest. Then I took the blue-blazed ski trail back to Mountain Meadows. I wanted to stop in and say hey to Alice but I was so excited about getting back on the AT that I just walked straight through the yard. I was finally back on the trail by noon. And life was good. I literally kissed the first white blaze that I saw. I don't really know how my week-long break turned in to a 3-week vacation, but it is indescribably relieving to be back where I belong, alone and going at my own pace. I had a grand ol' time with it and spent the whole morning hiking slowly, whistling, singing, and soaking in the AT. I stopped by Thundering Falls for first lunch and generally just enjoyed myself. That was until I hit Quimby Mountain and a 1,200' climb over one mile. That climb destroyed me. 3 weeks was definitely enough time for me to forget how strenuous and exhausting this job is. And guess what happened next?    Rain. I've come to expect it by now. After 3 weeks of sunshine and blue skies while I'm in Babylon, and it rains the first day that I'm back out in the woods. The white-blazes have a sense of humor indeed. I hauled ass through the rain and stopped at the Stony Brook Shelter on the other side of the mountain. A pretty cool NoBo named arrow showed up. We smoked hash and chatted for a bit. I then took off and hiked another 2 hours until I hit Locust Creek and made camp. My water filter is acting pretty funny right now. I spent a lot of time cleaning it out and lubricating it back at my dad's house and it just hasn't been the same since. The water that comes out of it tastes like perfume or something. I need to figure this shit out ASAP.
Date: 2011-07-26
From: Locust Creek

To: Day 75
Miles today: 5.0

I'm back on the trail for sure. My water filter is shot; for some reason it refuses to let me back-flush water through it to clean it out. So I can realistically filter about another 20 liters of water before it clogs for good. No bueno. I stopped off in some dilapidated old cabin/lookout for first lunch and called MSR customer care. They couldn't do anything to help me so I'm just stuck drinking perfume water until I get to Hanover. Hopefully I can figure something out there.    In other news, I got lucky with the rain today. I approached the lookout just as it started to rain and hung out in the cabin for the duration of the rainstorm. Then I pulled another 5 or 6 miles and got to the Winturri Shelter just as another rainstorm blew in, except this one was much much worse. Arrow, myself, and 2 SoBo's decided to call it a short day and listed to "Shelter from the Storm" by Boy Dylan. It was fun. The SoBo's were cool enough, and me and Arrow kick ass, so we had a good time. It was nice to be done hiking by 4:20 PM too. We had the time to engineer a true thru-hiker fire that actually survived the damn rainstorm. Heck yes. Big day tomorrow to make up for my NEAR0.
Date: 2011-07-27
From: Winturri Shelter

To: Day 76
Miles today: 16.4

Thank God I stayed in the shelter last night. It rained hard all night long. No rain today though and, coincidentally, I had a really great day on-trail. This morning, Arrow and I made a pact to pack out a bunch of booze from West Hartford, VT and party down in the last shelter before Hanover, NH. With the promise of getting drunk as motivation, I killed some miles today. The terrain was easy, I kept my breaks short, kept a good pace, and managed not to break stride while climbing. My buddy Kyle let me borrow his ipod back at Camp Bisco so I raged the Disco Biscuits all day. I pretty much had everything going for me in order to do big miles.    I did encounter a snag, however. After I crossed White River and hit the beer store/deli in West Hartford, I made it 3 houses down when I noticed an AT logo on someone's house and a couple of hikers standing around. I stopped in to chat and fill up on water and a man named Steve, the owner of the property, introduced himself to me. He's the local Trail Angel and lets hikers camp in his awesome yard for free. The sun was already setting my the time I got there, so I decided to stay there and skip an 1,100' climb with beer on my back. I still feel good about the 17 I did today even though I didn't make it to the shelter. Plus, I set up my hammock directly above the little creek that flows through Steve's back yard. I somehow forgot to fly my blackbird's wing man though: my JOLLY ROGER.
Date: 2011-07-28
From: White River

To: Day 77
Miles today: 9.9

On the trail again. Man, the 10 miles to Hanover, NH today about killed me. My body is wiped from the "big" day I did yesterday. Maybe it's gonna take a bit longer that I though to get my body conditioned to hiking again. I've also been just barely drinking water because the water that is coming out of my filter makes me gag. Everything was fine once I got to Hanover though. This is by far the most hiker-friendly town I've been through so far. I got here and immediately stashed my pack and used the internet at the Dartmouth Outing Club. Then I went and got a free slice of pizza and a beer from the pizza place. I poked around town for a bit trying to find some college kids that would take me in for the night. When that didn't work out I pulled out my trusty guide book and discovered that there is a free hiker-hostel that serves the Hanover/Etna area. I made a phone call and within minutes Karen, the resident Trail Angel, was on her way to pick me up from the DOC. She took me back to her place, aptly named the Tiggers Tree House Hostel, and hooked it up with a shower, laundry, ice cream, cable/internet, and my very own RV camper to sleep in for the night. I was also able to contact an MSR rep who agreed to send me a replacement water filter for free! I'm about to get a great nights sleep tonight, wake up and collect more free kick-downs in Hanover tomorrow, and get my ass back on-trail FOR GOOD!
Date: 2011-07-29
From: Tiggers Tree House

To: Day 78
Miles today: 1.3

So the whole town of Hanover is strikingly reminiscent of a big pair of titties when it comes to hiker accommodations. I woke up feeling great in my private camper, watched the news, used the net, and helped out with some chores before Karen drove me right back to the DOC. From there, I went right to the bookstore to collect my free cup of coffee, then to the bagel joint where I was given 1 fresh and 6 day-old bagels for free. Then I went to the Mountain Goat outfitter and collected my free Snickers bar. There, I worked out deal between MSR and the Mountain Goat in which I was allowed to grab a brand new filter off of the shelf for free and just have MSR send a replacement filter to the outfitter. This way I was able to replace my filter for free without having to wait in Hanover for days or until I got to the next town. They did ask for $5 so that they could ship my broken filter back to the manufacturer. I only have $3.50 left to my name so I had to wait for 3 hours until I could get one of my parents on the phone and have them make the payment for me. It sucks to be embarrassingly broke... especially in a well-to-do Ivy League college town like this.    By the time I was done collecting all of my free swag, people had started warning me about a huge rainstorm that was about to hit and recommended that I stay in town and find shelter. Giant rainstorms are nothing new to me though so I shrugged off the townies' advice and headed up to the grocery Co-op to grab some last-minute snacks. I ran in to Arrow there who was contemplating whether he should stay in town or brave the rain too. We both decided to just buy booze and head up the the Velvet Rocks Shelter just a mile outside of town. There we could at least say that we had left town, but quickly run back to safety if the weather got too bad. The infamous Cimmaron was there in the shelter when we got here. I've heard all about this guy; he is 89 years old (about to turn 90) and is trying to break the record for the oldest person to do an unassisted thru-hike. Pretty cool. Arrow and I decided to give Cimmaron his space in the shelter so we set up camp outside and proceeded to get wasted on wine and cheap beer. That was until it started to rain. AWESOME.