morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-14
From: Blue Mtn Lakes Rd, NJ

To: Day 77: North of Crigger Rd, NJ
Miles today: 20.6

On AT Day 77 I got up at 4:40 a.m. and found that the weather had deteriorated from the clear skies of the night before to a light mist and wind. By the time I finished packing and hit the trail at 6:40 a.m., the mist had thickened and within the first 10 minutes, it started to rain. I immediately stopped, dropped my pack and put on my raingear, but to little use as I was already soaked ¢ great way to start the day¢¦ I hiked on for an hour or so in my raingear until I passed Swiss Miss still asleep in her hammock alongside the trail near the Blue Mountain Lakes Road. At this latter intersection, I changed out of my raingear and tried in vain to restock my dwindling water supply from the old-fashioned water pump. I kept my raingear handy for the rest of the day, but the rain did not return, leaving instead a warmly humid ¢ and clearly less pleasant hiking condition.As before, the trail was quite rocky in places and with the rain and high humidity, the footing was particularly tricky. To make maters worse, for some strange reason, my right ankle started to hurt early in the day giving me even less confidence in my footing, let alone dealing with the pain without the benefit of vitamin I. Since I was moving exceptionally slowly, I decided not to stop at either the Brink Road or Gren Anderson shelters and thus I ate both of my Power Bar snacks and my lunch along the trail. I did stop to load up on five quarts of filtered water at the trail leading to the Gren Anderson shelter, but my goal was to try to go an additional six miles to ¢waterless¢ Mashipacong Shelter. Unfortunately, as bad as my feet felt I did not make this goal. Instead, as soon as I found an acceptable camping site after covering a day¢s total of perhaps 20.5 miles, I pitched my tent for the night.One of the additional advantages of camping near a shelter is that you can use their bear boxes, poles or pulleys. Thus, recognizing that this region of NJ is clearly considered to be bear country, as soon as I finished with my dinner, I spent the next half hour or so trying to hang my food bags and dishes from a tree. After many failed tosses of the rope over the limb 12-15 feet over my head I finally succeeded only to discover that the stick I had used to weight my throw was not sufficient to draw down the rope. Retrieving the rope, I switched to a rock weight, and was successful on my second toss. A good sign I thought, but when I tried to raise my food bags the branch broke. By now it was getting dark and I was tired so my patience was wearing thin, but after searching out another branch I repeated the process as was marginally successful after my second toss. I say marginally, since the branch was severely bent under the weight of the food bags. All in all, I thought this experience was a symbolically fitting ending for the day¢¦
Date: 2004-06-18
From: Quarry Rd in NJ near Unionville, NY

To: Seg 20: Seven Lakes Rd @ Lake Tiorati, NY
Miles today: 0.0

AT Segment 20: June 18 ¢ June 20, 2004Starting point = Quarry Rd in NJ near Unionville, NYEnding point = Seven Lakes Rd near Lake Tiorati, NYTotal miles for this segment = 47.8 (3 days @ 15.9 miles/day)Total miles to date = 1383.4 (81 days @ 17.1 miles/day) The highlights for this intentionally short AT hiking segment were crossing the border from NJ into NY and a reduction (not elimination) of the rocks, the first real attack by mosquitoes, falling twice into water and mud, more rock/boulder climbing and ridge traverses, crossing swamps/wetlands on long boardwalks and a general reduction in my injuries. The chronic injury to my left knee appears to be nearly healed, my right ankle is fine, my stone bruises seemed a little better and the chemical treatment, padding and (during the June 21 break) surgical trimming of the pinched callus on my right big toe seems to have worked. Another highlight of this segment was that my wife had loaded my MP3 player with three complete recorded books, giving me nearly 30 hours of entertainment to look forward to. As you can well-imagine, my spirits are now greatly improved.
Date: 2004-06-22
From: Seven Lakes Dri ve near Lake Tiorati, NY

To: Seg 21: CT 55 in CT north of Hoyt Rd
Miles today: 0.0

AT Segment 21: June 22-25, 2004Starting point = Seven Lakes Drive near Lake Tiorati, NYEnding point = CT 55 in CT north of Hoyt RdTotal miles for segment = 63.7 (4 days @ 15.9 miles/day)Total miles to date = 1,447.1 (85 days @ 17.0 miles/day) The highlights for this AT hiking segment were crossing the border from NY into CT, fewer rocky miles, more mosquitoes, more lakes and continued reduction in my injuries. Both of my knees and ankles appear to be fine, my stone bruises are a little better and the chemical treatment, padding and surgical trimming of the pinched callous on my right big toe seems to have worked. My wife, loaded my MP3 player with two complete recorded books (¢The Insider¢ and ¢Cold Case¢) and multiple copies (caused by a virus attack on our computer) of a few pop music albums (including six copies of Cher¢s ¢I Believe¢), so along with my radio I had lots of entertaining distractions to diminish the repetitive nature of the trail¢s scenery.Clearly the fear of contracting Lyme disease from infected ticks was a major concern during this portion of the trail, as there were frighteningly stern warning signs at many of the road crossings. I became very self-conscious of these warnings and checked myself often for ticks, but with the heat I decided not to heed their advice to wear long pants tucked into my socks and sprayed with insect repellant. Time will tell if this somewhat cavalier attitude was mistake. Although it worked out fine in the end, the weirdest part of this AT segment was my forgetting to carry my cellular phone and the subsequent four-hour wait my wife and I both had for the pick-up at the end the fourth day (see below for explanation).
Date: 2004-06-23
From: Graymoor Monistary, NY

To: Day 83: RPH Shelter, NY
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: scattered clouds

On AT Day 83 I got up at 4:30 a.m. and hit the trail shortly after 6:30 a.m. The weather was nicer than the day before with the temperatures ranging from the low 60¢s to the low 80¢s under partly cloudy skies. Although as usual I was the ¢early bird¢ through hiker, I was passed by Hemlock when I stopped to change MP3 disks and then I hiked the rest of the day without seeing another soul. One of the highlights for the day was viewing Canopus Lake, first at water level where the AT crosses NY 301 and then from 200-feet or so above this lovely lake (and Fahnestock State Park) as the trail rounds an overlooking ridge.Even though there clearly were some hills to climb and descend, in a welcomed contrast to the hiking conditions we had faced in PA and NJ, the trail through this portion of NY was actually quite forgiving on my sore feet and I had a restful 18.8-mile day reaching the RPH Shelter around 6:00 p.m. Hemlock was already at the shelter and in the process of making his dinner. As was the case the night before, even though this lovely shelter had lots of room, I decided to pitch my tent on the surrounding lawn so that I would not disturb anyone when I got up the next morning.The water at the RPH Shelter was derived from a hand-powered well and proved to be loaded with rust. Some of the other hikers who had visited this shelter earlier wrote in the registry that they moved on without stopping because of the rusty water, but Hemlock and I simply purified the water and drank up. Later on a NY/NJ AT Ridgerunner showed up to check on the shelter (he graciously collected our trash) and informed us that the water had been checked and it was fine to drink. Coming from North-Central FL where we have dark tannins in lots of our water systems, drinking this iron-enriched water was not much of a concern for me. After I went to bed, Swiss Miss made it to the shelter for the evening.
Date: 2004-06-28
From: CT 55 in CT just north of Hoyt Rd, NY

To: Seg 22: Kellogg Rd Bridge over Housatonic Rv, MA 
Miles today: 0.0

AT Segment 22: June 28 ¢ July 1, 2004Starting point = CT 55 in CT just north of Hoyt Rd, NYEnding point = Kellogg Rd bridge over Housatonic River, MATotal miles for this segment = 66.5 (4 days @ 16.6 miles/day)Total miles to date = 1513.6 (89 days @ 17.0 miles/day) The highlights for this AT hiking segment were crossing the border from CT into MA, the beginning of the reintroduction of real mountain climbs with their glacier scraped tops, the longest ¢river walk¢ on the AT, more ticks and mosquitoes, and a continued reduction in my injuries. Both of my knees and ankles appear to be fine and with the reduction in rocky trails, my stone bruises also continue to improve. My wife was unable to load my MP3 player with any recorded books or music, leaving me with just my radio which failed to pick up a signal most of the time. As was noted last week, this is the national focal point for Lyme disease and whereas I have so far been able to avoid being infected, my wife has not been so lucky as she contracted the disease and had to be treated at a local hospital. Pictures and other gruesome details of the huge bulls-eye welt on her right hip, the dizziness, nausea, etc. will be found in Hot Chocolate¢s trail journal.
Date: 2004-06-28
From: CT 55 near Wingdale, NY

To: Day 86: Stony Brook Campsite, CT
Miles today: 18.2

On AT Day 86 Hot Chocolate and I got up at 4:45 a.m., ate our now traditional hike-day big breakfast of fried eggs, corn beef hash and toast. We then packed up and drove from the Black Bear Campground in Florida, NY to just across the CT border on CT 55 where I was able to start my hike by 7:50 a.m. The temperatures were mild all day (60s ¢ low 70s), with partly cloudy skies in the morning, followed by light rain and then solid overcast in the afternoon and rain most of the night. An overall view of the day was that there were lots of moderate hill climbs of 500-1000 feet and given that the trail during the past several weeks had been relatively flat, the change was noticeable ¢ A good warm-up for the much bigger mountains to come. The Ned Anderson Memorial Bridge built for the AT over the Ten Mile River at its junction with the Housatonic River was also quite impressive.One of the curious features of the day¢s hike was the two and half mile loop back into NY as we climbed Schagticoke Mountain, but the most memorable, and painful aspect of this day¢s hike was the extremely steep climb down the HUGE stone steps from St. Johns Ledges. Given that I am only 5 feet 4 inches tall, I was very worried that I would re-injure my knees, as I did descending an even shorter and less rigorous series of steps down to Laurel Falls in northern TN. In the end, my plan of intentionally going slowly, using my hiking poles to cushion the jolts and taking lots of vitamin I to ward off inflammation appears to have worked, as my knees felt fine the next day.Since I knew these ¢steps¢ were coming and given that I was concerned that I might not finish my hike before darkness, I decided to not stop at either the Ten Mile River or the Mt. Algo Shelters. I did, however, stop at the Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter so I could deliver a through hiker message from Swiss Miss to Dharma. Less than a half mile further down the trail, I crossed Stony Brook and camped at the designated campsite after a total day¢s hike of 18.2-mile hike.
Date: 2004-06-29
From: Stony Brook Campsite, CT

To: Day 87: Belchers Campsite, CT
Miles today: 14.8

On AT Day 87 I got up at 4:45 a.m., hit the trail around 6:45 a.m. and stopped hiking around 4:45 p.m. after covering a ¢mere¢ 14.8 miles. Once again the temperature was mild (60s ¢ mid-70¢s) all day under partly cloudy skies with no rain. This nice weather and the start of summer vacation for the local schools were probably contributory to the relatively large number of SOBO day and section hikers I met including what appeared to be a troupe of Boy Scouts complete with a rather bedraggled adult leader struggling to stay in contact at the rear.Once, when I had just returned to the trail after stopping to answer ¢nature¢s call,¢ I was passed by a young NOBO hiker, named Bull who started his AT section hike at Harper¢s Ferry, WVA. Our meeting on Sharon Mountain was also marked by the fact that while I was ¢out in the bushes¢ I found a lovely three-point rack of deer antlers and even though they easily weighed more than a pound or two, I attached them to my pack to bring them back home as a souvenir of my AT hike in CT. This meeting was also marked by the fact that for the past half hour or so I had been hearing the sound of high-powered automobiles racing their engines and when Bull and I passed ¢Hang Glider View¢ we could see the source of the noise, the Limerock Raceway where they were preparing for a 4th of July weekend Grand Pre style sports car race. It was sure fun to watch these expensive cars whiz around the track.Following up on yesterday¢s terrain change, Sharon Mountain was just one of many we had to climb in the 500 ¢ 1000 foot range and I have to admit that I was sure glad for the opportunity to rest at the end of the day. The latter was also marked by my concern that I had somehow missed the turn-off to Belter¢s Campsite, and its water source. But just as I thought the trail was about to start its rapid descent to US 7, and another four-mile gap to the next marked water source, I came to a sign pointing to a ¢water-basin.¢ Curious as to what this was I stopped to investigate and found a small spring, where after checking to make sure it was not polluted with food scraps, I went ahead and loaded up on water for what I assumed would be a ¢stealth camping¢ experience for the evening. Then, just as I was finishing my filtering a NOBO section hiker happened by and after inquiring about the location of the ¢missing¢ campground and scooping up a couple of quarts of water, he moved on only to discover the Blue Blaze turn-off for the campsite less than 50-yards away. I thanked him for the information, and quickly found a lovely site to pitch my tent, make dinner and get to bed as early as possible since I had a long day planned for tomorrow. Luckily the Limerock car racers appeared to have also quit for the day, as the evening was quite and serene.
Date: 2004-07-05
From: Kellogg Road Bridge over Housatonic River, MA

To: Seg 23: US 4 near Killington, VT
Miles today: 0.0

AT Segment 23: July 5-8, 11-15 & 18-20, 2004Starting point = Kellogg Road bridge over Housatonic River, MAEnding point = US 4 near Killington, VTTotal miles for segment = 178.3 (12 days @ 14.8 miles/day)Total miles to date = 1691.9 (101 days @ 16.8 miles/day) The highlights for this extended AT hiking segment (actually a series of mini-segments due to a hard disk crash preventing the transcription of my hand-written diary until a new computer could be purchased) were the crossing of the border from MA to VT (soon to cross into NH), the return of multi-thousand foot climbs with the trek through the Green Mountains, the flooding caused by beavers damming streams and culverts and the fun of dealing with lots of MUD and RAIN. All of my previous injuries appear to be resolved and (with the exception of stone bruises) I am now hiking injury free. As will be obvious from the text below, I have elected to take more ¢zero days¢ (and early stops/pick-ups and late starts/deliveries) so that I could spend more quality time with Hot Chocolate and so that I could watch the Tour de France on our satellite TV. One more day and this exciting bike race will be over and then I plan to make a concerted dash to finish my AT hike before the Olympics start ¢ we¢ll see¢¦
Date: 2004-07-06
From: Shaker C ampsite, MA

To: Day 91: October Mtn Shelter, MA
Miles today: 18.7

On AT Day 91 I got up at 4:00 a.m., but because it was still raining and the mosquitoes were now looking for breakfast, I took my time eating and protecting my gear as I packed so that I was not able to hit the trail until nearly 7:00 a.m. The hike began with a relatively easy trek over Cobble Hill and then a more serious climb up Webster Mountain, followed by a plateau walk past Knee Deep Pond (reminded me of many similar ponds in my home state of Florida) and swampy traverses of bogs and beaver-flooded trail on the way to Upper Goose Pond ¢ a popular local swimming site, but not for me on this drizzly day.As I approached the pond, I ran into Northern Harrier doing a SOBO slackpack section hike before he returned to his NOBO AT through hike. I was glad to see him, as it was my first opportunity to once again apologize for interrupting his sleep back at Leroy A. Smith Shelter in PA. I also told him that since this June 9-10 exchange I had foresworn shelters completely in favor of my beloved tent ¢ and the now near daily attack of mosquitoes. Northern Harrier told me that he too was now using his tent nearly every night and that he hoped to see me later on as we both trekked northward.Finally, after a surprisingly hilly day¢s hike totaling 18.7 miles, I reached the October Mountain Shelter around 6:15 p.m. where I met three female NOBO section hikers who encouraged me to join them in the shelter, but once again I ¢bashfully¢ opted to tent-camp for the night.
Date: 2004-07-07
From: October Mtn Shelter, MA

To: Day 92: Crystal Mtn Campsite, MA
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: clear sky

On AT Day 92 I once again got up at 4:00 a.m. and hit the trail by 6:30 a.m. The weather at the start of the hike was surprisingly cool (low 60¢s), but it became very warm (mid-80¢s) and humid by early afternoon. The beavers were especially active at many locations during today¢s hike, at one time forcing the GMC to create a detour for the AT since the original trail was completely submerged due to a beaver dammed stream, and at another site forcing the Forest Service to create a wire cage around a road culvert that used to be targeted by the pesky beavers. The flooding due to the beavers, and the rainy weather for the past week or so also created many boggy mud walks accompanied with active and hungry mosquitoes ¢ thank God for DEET.Shortly before reaching Blotz Road I encountered another wonderful example of trail magic, this time a cooler filled with soft-drinks and Snicker¢s candy bars provided by the former AT through hikers, Greylock and Scamp. Naturally, I enjoyed my share and when I reached the summit of Mount Greylock the next day, Hot Chocolate and I got a chance to personally thank Greylock as he was operating the snack bar ¢ souvenir store at the CCC-constructed Bascom Lodge.The hike through the town of Dalton, MA was not very pleasant as it was mainly on hard, hot surface roads and sidewalks on this partly cloudy day, and because I once again missed an in-town turn-off and was forced to backtrack a quarter mile or so.As I neared the Crystal Mountain Campsite at the end of this day¢s 16.5-mile hike, I met three SOBO day-hikers, a boy of 12 or so and two 50-ish men who appeared to be brothers. The only reason I mention this meeting, is that I was surprised by the boy¢s sole comment, namely that he liked my beard, especially since both of his adult companions also had beards. Now theirs were closely cropped, whereas mine is now quite long, bushy and snowy white ¢ a traditional AT through hiker look.Shortly thereafter, around 5:30 p.m., I took the quarter mile Blue Blazed trail to the campsite and quickly set up my tent and filtered my water from a near-by stream as a light, night-long rain storm began. Given that I and much of my gear was now quite wet with the daily rain storms, I decided to give Hot Chocolate a cellular phone call to change our pick-up target from MA 2 in North Adams, MA, to the summit of Mt Greylock. In addition to chopping off six miles and thus hopefully allowing me to finish in the early afternoon before the expected rain, changing to this new pick-up target also gave my wife a chance to see the famous war memorial at the summit.
Date: 2004-07-08
From: Crystal Mtn Campsite, MA

To: Day 93: Mt Greylock summit, MA
Miles today: 12.6

On AT Day 93 I got up at 4:15 a.m. and hit the trail at 6:15 a.m. The weather was warm and mostly overcast with significant humidity, but there was no rain until after I finished the 12.6 miles to Mount Greylock at 2:15 p.m. Once again, because of the recent rainstorms I had to deal with lots of mud and slippery puncheons all day. Following a gentle descent from Crystal Mountain the day¢s hike included a surprisingly easy 2,500 ft climb to the summits of first Saddle Ball Mountain and then Mount Greylock itself, the latter being the tallest peak in MA at 3,491 feet. Unfortunately, because of the clouds the views from these vantage points were non-existent.At the summit of Saddle Ball Mountain I came upon a father and his three sons who were clearly having a great time sloshing through the mud and we traded places back and forth all the way to Greylock as I and they stopped for snack breaks. Later on as we checked out the large three-dimensional topographic map of the park near the beautiful light-tower war memorial at Greylock¢s summit, one of the boys asked me if I was an AT through hiker because they were about to leave MA for NH where they would next go for the summit of Mount Washington as he knew I would also need to accomplish this before my hike ended. Sounds like this family is having a great summer!When I reached Mount Greylock summit parking lot I found our truck and I soon tracked down Hot Chocolate relaxing in the Bascom Lodge lobby. After eating lunch in the lodge¢s snack bar we checked out the gift shop, met and thanked Greylock, ate a blueberry yogurt frozen bar and left for our new campsite just north of Bennington, VT.
Date: 2004-07-11
From: Mt Greylock summit, MA

To: Day 94: Seth Warner Shelter, VT
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: clear sky

After a much-needed break to rest and restock my pack, Hot Chocolate and I got up at 5:00 a.m. on AT Day 94 and drove back to Mount Greylock where I started my hike around 9:00 a.m. In contrast to my last visit to this site, the weather today was great, clear to partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-60¢s in the morning rising to the mid 70¢s by mid-afternoon. With the better weather, I got some great pictures of the Mount Greylock War Memorial and the vistas of the surrounding countryside. Despite the sun and drier weather, the day¢s hike still included lots of mud and slippery puncheons and rocks as I descended 2,800 feet down Mount Greylock and then ascended 1,700 feet up to the MA-VT border.At the base of this giant U hike, I ate lunch just north of MA 2 on the shore of Sherman Brook and soon thereafter I passed the AT through hiker, Dharma, who was eating his lunch and conversing with a NOBO section hiker who was just starting his trek. I sure hope Dharma gave him some advice about being careful, because the climb from MA 2 up to the junction of the Pine Cobble trail and the MA-VT border was very steep and slippery in places. At the border the AT joins the even older, Long Trail for 104 miles as the LT winds its way all the way to the Canadian border after another 165 miles.When I reached the Seth Warner Shelter and Primitive Camping Area around 5:00 p.m. after a day¢s hike of 13.2 miles, I was surprised by the large number of people already camping in tents or in the shelter. Most notable was a group of perhaps 8-10 teenage boys camping right next to the shelter who became my nearest neighbors. Not the best idea I¢ve ever had as they were quite noisy in the early evening making it a real challenge for me get to sleep in my tent.