morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-08-17
From: Logan Brook Lean-to

To: Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: scattered clouds

We left at eight and flew downhill to East Branch Lean-to for a short break by the East Branch of the Pleasant River, which we promptly forded. The water level had fallen so low that we crossed on rocks with dry shoes. Even the trail was--as a general rule with exceptions--dry. From the Pleasant River we climbed over Little Boardman, our last two thousand foot mountain. Adam complained about the difficulty and we proceeded downhill to Cooped Brook Falls Lean-to. We found powerbars hanging in the shelter and wolfed them down before swiming in Cooper Brook. We dried on sunny rocks. Eight long and flat miles later and we set up camp at Antlers Campsite--a buggy point jutting out into a lake that we had all to ourselves.
Date: 2004-08-19
From: Crescent Pond

To: Hurd Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We got up slowly and ate a small breakfast--pop tarts and half a bagel. First we trudged four miles to Rainbow Stream Lean-to and then we trudged just over eleven to Hurd Brook Lean-to. The trail never climbed up or down more than a few hundred feet--Rainbow Ledges exluded--but it took careful and taxing footwork over and around and on roots and rocks. In places we had to step around standing water. In other places the water was moving. At least Adam got to see his moose; we found a cow grazing in a pond, indiferent to our presence. Later we saw two or three moving away from the trail through the woods.I wanted to continue three and a half miles to the campground and store at Abol Bridge, but Adam was pooped and disliked the forecast. Tomorrow we hike to "The Birches" and meet Adam's mom; he's pretty excited.One month from tomorrow I start the new job.I hope I can call the Millinocket post office and convince them to let Adam's mom pick up packages for me--we will come down from Katahdin saturday after the post office closes.
Date: 2004-08-20
From: Hurd Brook Lean-to

To: The Birches Campsite
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: broken clouds

The shelter was full and Adam slept poorly--"the worst night on the trail". We hiked out at seven and made Abol Bridge and the store by eight fifteen; we started grazing: I had two sausage, egg, and cheese bisquits; a bacon cheeseburger; a double cheeseburger; a jelly donut; an ice-cream sandwich; and a mint & chocolate ice-cream cone. The eating was spaced out--we spent time talking with Daybreak, Mailman, Sparrow, Seeker, various locals, and tourists--and we spent six dollars on the cellular pay phone working out logistics. We bought more food for tonight's walk and tomorrow's climb. That walk took a couple of hours--the terrain was better than we've seen recently.At Katahdin Stream Campground we met Fuzzy, Stargazer, and Pita Man just down from a perfect summitting. The weather: sunny and warm and blue-skied. The forecast: rain and clouds. Then Adam saw his mom and step-dad walking over. We wasted time talking and eating Twizzlers (same nutritional content as gummies) and eventually registered with the ranger. Spaced here for thru-hikers are nine dollars--and only for thru-hikers.We settled in and ate more crackers with cheese and tuna. Desert: maple frosted mini-wheats.My alarm is set for 2:30 AM. We will get sunrise or soaked.
Date: 2004-08-30
To: Jacksonville, FL
Miles today: 0.0

This week has been hard.After our night at the Caratunk House, Adam and I spent a few days working our way back to Florida, where we've been hanging out together until this morning. Adam left for parts north this morning . Yesterday we lazed about on the Beach and before that we went tubing with Josh et al. on the Itchetuknee.Too many goodbyes; this hurts.
Date: 2004-03-15
To: First Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Just had dinner with Morning Moose '03 who told me about the site. I was planning on setting up my own site (worked last summer programming asp/asp.net with SQL), but i think this site will do everything i want with much less work on my part.I was originally planning on leaving may 6 and hiking northbound. I will probably stick to that plan, but I have a little more flexibility because I am now hiking solo. I'm looking at the possibility of starting later or going southbound as well.I will eventually get my gear list up. I'm taking an ultra-light approach - my pack weight is about 7 pounds right now. I'm in the middle of experimenting with making a pack-replacemnt out of some nylon and my sleeping pad to shave almost 10 ounces of the weight. I am expecting to hit around 30 miles a day once i get in shape. To test my current limites, i hiked almost 50 miles last weekend. The plan was to hike the 96-mile mid-state trail which runs across the center of massachusetts from RI to NH in 4 days. We stopped after 2 because we were incredibly sore. I'd rather whimp out on an easy trip and heal than pull something and risk not hiking this summer. The daytime temperature was about 40 to 45, the low was 20. I carried my summer pack plus an extra shirt, a sheet to add a few degrees to my sleeping bag, and a msr whisperlite because it was too cold for my .2 ounce alcohol stove. I carried about 6-8 days worth of food to make sure I would have a worst-case scenario pack.I didn't make it the whole way but i'm not disappointed at all. It was over 20 miles before i felt the least bit sore, and we had plenty of energy and could have continued at a much slower pace. I'm not in the 30-mile-a-day bracket yet, but I know I'm beyond the typical '8-mile a day plus frequent 0-day' category that lots of hikers fall into.
Date: 2004-05-09
To: Stuff to post in the next few days
Miles today: 0.0

I will be driving 'home' to NJ in a couple of hours for some final preparations and will fly from newark to atlanta at 5 AM on thursday the 13th.In the next couple days, i will do my best to get quite a bit of information up on this website, including:- a copy of my (rough) itinerary- a copy of my gear list- a list of maildrops, addresses, and expected dates- a list of supplies for each maildrop- photos of all of my gear
Date: 2004-05-10
To: Food Shopping
Miles today: 0.0

Spent all afternoon shopping for food. I pretended to be my dad to get into costco, and bought about 30 pounds worth of gorp ingredients, 20 pounds of granola, huge containers of nutella and peanut butter. I bought out all the powdered whole milk from the asian supermarket, and then got some more dried fruit, couscous, and tomato paste at trader joe's. I need to go to the supermarket tonight to get instant cream of chicken and cheddar broccoli soup mixes, instant jello zip-packed tuna, salmon, and chicken, and a few other odds and ends. Look for a complete list of mail drop contents and some pictures later tonight.
Date: 2004-05-11
To: More Food Stuff
Miles today: 0.0

I just finished sorting out food into bags for each stop. My standard drop will be 6 days of food, with backpackers pantry meals added in if i need to go more than 6 days. I've got 15 2.5-gallon freezer bags each with 6 days of food for a total of 90 days. Below is a list of my food in csv format because i'm too lazy to make a table.Item,ounces,calories3 bags pasta,18,9001 tube tomato paste,5,1001 bag chicken,7.4,2451 bag salmon,6.6,1804 bags instant soup,3.5,3203 packets pudding,9.8,10201 bag instant hummus,6.3,7201 bag parmesan,4,5601 lg bag granola,15,19201 bag powdered milk,8,12001 container peanut butter,13,21901 sm container nutella,6,9181 bottle oil,8,20001 bag dried veggies,1.4,02 large bags gorp,32,44001 bag bacon bits,2,2401 bag pepperoni,9,11706 vitamins,0,0this gives a total of 155 oz = 9.6875 lbs of food, which contains 18083 calories, about 3000 a day, which was my target while planning.my favorite part of packing food was making gorp. Every trail mix i've ever seen has almonds, and i don't like almonds. so, i got the following:3 large jars peanuts,168,291981 large jar cashews,40,68042 huge bags rasins,288,130002 huge bags m&ms,104,147423 bags trader joes mixed dried fruit,48,3745and mixed up some 35+ pounds of almond-free gorp.tomorrow's mission is to swipe salt and pepper packets, and to find itty bitty ziplock bags to hold italian seasoning.I know i have promised pictures, but i've been too busy packing food to worry about them. I have to sit around at home to wait for the insurance adjusor to look at my car between 8 AM and 4 PM tomorrow, and i need to sew my pants, which shouldn't take too long, so there should be time to post pictures of gear and food.
Date: 2004-05-12
To: Don't slam the Presser Foot
Miles today: 0.0

I can do french seams like nobody's business now, even on curves.I had tried to find a pair of light rain pants, but every pair i could find had heavy fabric, a liner, a hundred pockets or something else wrong with them. I found an interesting pattern for pants at thru-hiker.com They're simple pants made from 1.1 oz ripstop nylon with dwr (durable water repellent- hydrophobic coating on the fabric that allows water to roll off, still breathes completely, but is not completely waterproof)The site says that the finished pants would weigh 1.9 ounces. I didn't believe it, and expected something on the order of 2-3 ounces. When i finished them, i was amazed that they came to about 1.8 ounces!
Date: 2004-05-12
To: Mail drop - shipped!
Miles today: 0.0

Just got back from the PO to ship my 1st maildrop. It's headed to Helen, GA 30545. For $.45 i could get a tracking number, i figured it was worth the cost considering i could know if/when my maildrops arrive. I'll request my parents do the same for the other boxes they ship. The box weighed about 12 pounds, had 6 days of food and fuel (good thing about denatured alcohol- you can mail it unlike white gas and isobutante) and cost $15 for priority mail (2-3 days delivery).This maildrop is a change from my original schedule. I had planned on making my first drop at the walasi-yi center at 30 miles, but peter and colin had their first drop in helen. It's just short of 6 days, so i will not have finished all of my food, but that's ok. The one thing i noticed about their schedule is that they didn't include the mileage for the approach trail. It's a good 8 miles, but the first shelter on their list is at 16 miles (my book says 14, go fig) plus the 8 mile approach trail is 24 miles- not good. The only thing i can think of is that they plan on starting at usfs 42 which runs across about .9 miles from the start of the trail and backtracking, but that would have been 15 miles, not 16 miles. we'll see if peter ever calls me back.
Date: 2004-05-12
To: Mail Drop addresses
Miles today: 0.0

i didn't mention before, but the format for mail is this:Joseph J. FitzPatrickGeneral DeliveryTown,ST,zipPlease hold for Thru-Hiker (ETA)For example,Joseph J. FitzPatrickGeneral DeliveryFontana Dam, NC 28733Please hold for Thru-Hiker (May 23)be sure to put a return address, since there is a possibility i will miss it or they will not find it when i go to pick it up.People other than my parents and ben are more than welcome to send me stuff. Food especially. Yum.-joe
Date: 2004-05-12
To: current plan
Miles today: 0.0

So, peter is wimping out and hiking from usfs 42, a fire road that crosses the trail .9 miles into it, backtracking to the top of springer, then hiking a day's hike. I'm going to make my way to amicalola falls st. park by bus/cab then meet greg (guy i met online) at the top. we'll camp the first night at the springer mtn. shelter and then essentially start the trail on the 14th.I will probably catch up to peter by saturday, if not definitely on sunday night. My first maildrop in helen, ga is on monday, the same as peter's.-joe
Date: 2004-05-15
To: grrrr
Miles today: -8.0

It's 3 AM. I've been fiddling for the past 2 hours with my pack. I should have let it be how it was. I have to leave for the airport in half an hour, so i have to give up now. Unfortunately, the pack is not in a usable state. Luckily, i brought my golite pack home from worcester with me. I think i am going to end up using that unless i have a miracle in the next 10 minutes. The golite pack weighs 14 ouces, significantly heavier than the 3 ounces that the one i am working on should weigh. Even though it will be 20% of my toal weight, i'll still be under 5 pounds total pack weight.When i get to NJ and have two days to rest, i'll try fiddling with it again. Oh well.This will be my last post before leaving. In 24 hours i will be asleep in the mt. Springer shelter. Lets hope all goes well.-joe
Date: 2004-05-21
From: Helen, GA

To: NOC, NC
Miles today: 60.0
Weather: few clouds

hello! For some reason, this internet access terminal won't let me use the regular text boxes, so i'll just have a large title. Stopping in Natahala Outdoor center for a bit. Hiked 24 miles yesterday. As of noon yesterday, i had hiked 135 miles in exactly 1 week. My right knee hurt a bit, so i put the knee brace on that instead of my left. Food is good, shelter floors are hard to sleep on. i will start sleeping outside once it stops raining every day (yesterday was the first clear day). I took some amazing pictures i will mail home on saturday when i get to fontana dam post office.
Date: 2004-07-07
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Since i left harpers ferry, i have eaten two meals out of my food bag.I left harpers after breakfast and began hiking. I think the trail in MD is flatter, wider, and better maintained than SNP. There are also several amazing shelters - like ed garvey shelter, with a second story balcony and loft. I ate lunch at one of the parks whose name i forgot, then moved on to pine knob shelter for the night, just north of I-70. There were a bunch of kids there who just graduated high school and were cooking up deer steaks. they shared. it was good. They were only out for one night and gave me quite a bit of food. The next morning i was still full and just had a granola bar for breakfast. I got to Pen-Mar park, right on the pa/md border in the late afternoon. I ordered pizza with a few other hikers and ate a whole large pizza. I was full enough to hike to the shelter and fall asleep. The following day was the 4th of july, and i wanted to make it to pine grove furnace. When i reached caledonia state park, there was a family there for their 4th of july picnic with a big sign saying 'free meal for through-hikers' I ended up spending 5 hours there and met rooney tunes, arms + kelly?, and mad scientist. After eating far too much, i left for the shelter 7 miles away. When i got there, firecracker, a section hiker who lived in the area, had chocolate peanut butter cake and beer for the thru hikers. Monday morning, i skipped breakfast and hiked 12 miles to to pine grove furnace, the halfway point on the trail where hikers eat a half gallon of ice cream. I finished mine in less than 50 minutes. Then i had a burger and fries. Then i finished 2 other people's unfinished half gallons. We waited around a while longer, went swimming in the lake, then moved on 7 miles to the next shelter.Tuesday, i wanted to get up early and make it to boiling springs, except it was only 12 miles. The next shelter after that was 21 more miles, but duncannon was only another 4 past that, so i decided to push 38 miles into duncannon. I made it to boiling springs by 10, spent a little time relaxing, then pushed on the other 25 miles, 12 of which were perfectly flat. I got into duncannon by 7:30, checked in the hotel, and ate another whole large pizza.I'm hiking a light day today, about 11 miles to the next shelter. I'll do 25 a day the next couple days into port clinton, where there is supposed to be a trail festival saturday and sunday. After that, it's only 3 days into the delaware water gap and a trip home. I should make it there by tuesday night the latest - only a couple hours short of 2 months from the last time i was home and left for georgia.
Date: 2004-07-15
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Morristown, NJ
Miles today: 0.0

Quite a bit has happened, so i will try to break it up into separate entries so it's more topical and less rambling.When i got into duncannon, I stayed at the doyle hotel. The building used to be an anheiser-busch brew house. It has a bar on the first floor, some big rooms on the second, and the upper two floors are bare minimum bedrooms with shared bath. It is only $17.50 a night, and it's probably well worth that price. When i arrived, there were several thru-hikers on the second floor porch, drinking and making noise. Inside, there were two tables full of through hikers. There must have been about 20 hikers there that night, which was the most i'd seen in any one place at that point. I went to the pizza place with a bunch of them - rooster, coyote, michigoose, lefty, and one other guy. The pizza was good, but coyote's ability to immitate various animal sounds made it tough to eat without spitting a mouthful of food each time you had to laugh.We went back to the doyle and hung out on the porch while rooster tried to convince me to slow down and not let hiking get in the way of my thru hike. We got to discussing songs stuck in our heads, and it seems i am not alone in having random songs in my head at all times. It seems everyone else is luky enough to remember those words though. Coyote showed off both her memory of lyrics and her singing voice by singing pretty much every song on the Tenacious D album. The best part was in the middle of FHG, when a drunk guy in the street though that we were trying to pick a fight with him. We tried to explain we were just singing, and he walked away as if he had just lost the fight.The end result was that FHG was stuck in my head for the next two days of hiking. The hiker feed in port clinton was a few days away, so lots of peope finally left the doyle the same day and did the 12 miles to the next shelter. There were 10 of us in that shelter that night, but it was huge and had a loft so there was plenty of room. The next shelter was 17 miles away, then the next was 12 after that. I did that 29 then pushed on the 4 more miles to the 501 shelter because it has a caretaker, shower, running water, etc. It was well worth the trip. I caught up with goose there, and met Angie and Tom, a brother and sister on a road trip for a few weeks. They decided they needed to go get ice cream, and took me with them. I got in their car, and to my surprise, they had the tenacious D cd and i got to listen to the songs that had been stuck in my head for two days.
Date: 2004-07-15
From: Morristown, NJ

To: Morristown, NJ
Miles today: 0.0

Saturday and sunday, a bunch of past through hikers put on a hiker feed in port clinton. Port clinton is essentially one of those spots along the highway that has a few houses, and one street parallel to the highway lined with mobile homes. In the middle of the town is a picnic grove owned by the church. Hikers are allowed to camp there for free. When i got there, there were already dozens of tents set up. there were a few people i had met who got rides in from duncannon, but the vast majority of people there were brand new faces. Some were at port clinton on the trail, but several had gotten rides to port clinton from someplace up or down the trail.The guys running the event are a group of past thru-hikers that call themselves billville. At some point in time, they all went to a rummage sale and all ended up buying the same orange shirts embroidered with the name bill and with a patch for a tractor supply company. The name stuck and every time they do the feed in port clinton, other trail magic, or go to events like trail days, they have a sign for billville.The entire weekend was basically an excuse to drink beer and eat food. The pictures i will get up eventually will definitely support that claim. I took a zero day on saturday, and went to the yuengling brewery in pottstown, PA. along with about 30 other hikers. The tour had about a hundred people total, and it was interesting to see peoples reactions to the smell of some hikers (there are no showers available in port clinton unless you pay $$$ to stay at the B&B) Over the entire course of the day, several other hikers appeared after finding rides with random people. C-legs even made it - he was in duncannon about 3 days behind me and got a ride with wonderboy and a guy whose name i can't remember, but i do know he has a tatoo of the AT map on his back. This was the first time i saw him since davenport gap, just outside of the smokies (~230 miles from springer, port clinton is ~1202 miles from springer.)By sunday morning there were about 60 hikers there for breakfast. I didn't get started hiking until 11:00, but it was well worth it to have the extra time to eat and enjoy the company of other through hikers. I was pretty psyched because i finally knew other people on the trail that i would see again because they were ahead of me.
Date: 2004-07-15
From: Morristown, NJ

To: Morristown, NJ
Miles today: 0.0

I spent the night of the 12th in the palmerton, PA town jail. I didn't plan it that way. I had done 24 out of port clinton, and was looking at doing 30 to smith gap to visit the Mechanical Man who lives a mile off the trail. I met him in the grayson highlands in VA while he was section hiking, and he invited me to stay. When i woke up at 6, it was in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. There were a few bolts of lightning so close that the thunder physically rattled the shelter. I didn't get started till about 9 when it was clear that the rain had no intention of stopping.The trail in PA is generally flat, but has lots of rocky parts. Because it is flat, there are not many switchbacks, and not enough erosion bars. Sometimes, the trail looked more like a riverbed, and in some spots there were puddles almost up to my knees. After a short bit of hiking, i decided 30 miles wasn't going to happen, so i decided to cut it short in palmerton at about 24 miles. The town is 2 miles from the trail on a busy highway. I wasn't able to get a hitch from the intersection, so i walked along the traintracks into town. Palmerton is a great town for hikers because it has pretty much everything in close proximity. The old town jail is open as a free backpacker hostel, and includes hot showers and running water. To make the town even better, there are several good restaurants, and a bar, mugshots, that serves $0.50 drafts to hikers. There were at least a dozen hikers in there, and a round was barely more than $5, so it turned into a competition to see who could buy who more drinks. Every time someone finished theirs and the bartender refilled their mugs, it made no sense to not buy a round.Also of note is the fact that they had a really neat jukebox which was linux-based, and it had a separate net-booting terminal at the bar that you could pick songs from wihtout getting up and going to the machine. I though it was really cool, but i'm sure ben and steve will think it's even cooler....I forgot to mention that the rainy day was a real bummer because it was the first time my feet had gotten wet in a while. I was hoping to make it 3 states with dry feet - WV,MD, and PA, but the PA didn't happen. I shouldn't complain, because in the words of meatloaf, 2 out of 3 aint bad. (i'm ignoring the fact that the past 3 states were the shortest three, and that my feet were soaked at some point in each of the previous 4 states. And that the two states i crossed with dry feet were, combined, fewer miles than any other state.)