morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-06-11
From: Spring in Clark Valley

To: Stealth Camp on Second Mountain
Miles today: 14.7

Day 28: We went to sleep with a partly cloudy sky. At 4am Spider was awakened by a flash and a rumble. Uh Oh!! As he laid there, he could tell that each rumble was closer. About 5am a big flash and bang woke ET. All we could do was wait and listen. Soon we heard a noise like a train coming, then it began to rain. It came in waves, each dumping more water than the last. By 6:30am the rain had stopped. So we packed up and hit the trail at 7:30am, with a wet tent.Again we started our day with a 1000-foot climb. This time we climbed into the fog and clouds and never got out of it all day. The temperature stayed around 70 degrees and everything was damp. At about 10am it started to rain lightly. However, it was so warm, we decided to ignore our raingear and continue to hike in our regular clothes. What rain got on us was fairly quickly dried by our body heat. The unfortunate result of all the rain was that the trail was flooded in all the level spots, so we were often jumping from side to side trying to keep our feet as dry as possible.Our lunch break was at the ruins of Yellow Springs Village, an old coal mining town in the 1850's. Apparently there are many abandoned towns like this throughout these mountains. Coal was big business back then. We took the attached picture of the hand-dug well we found among the ruins. Spider dropped a rock in it and it appeared to be 15 feet deep, with no water in it now.At 2;15, e stopped at Rausch Gap Shelter for a rest. Just as we arrived, Treebeard caught up to us. He sleeps later, but hikes faster than we do. We sat around talking for about 45 minutes. Our original plan was to stay at the shelter, but it was only 3pm. Since tomorrow would be a 17+ day, we decided to shorten it by hiking on for 3 miles or so, since we had the time today.We said good-bye to Treebeard., not sure we will see him again, and hit the trail again. At 4:50pm we found a good campsite and set up our wet tent. Hope it doesn't rain tonight!Major goal: We passed 300 miles today...Only 200 more to go!Animal sighting: Many red efts on the trail. This is an intermediate stage of some kind of newt or salamander. These efts would just sit motionless in the middle of the trail. So besides trying not to trip on rocks, we also tried not to squish efts!
Date: 2014-06-12
From: Stealth Camp on Second Mountain

To: Days Inn, Lebanon, PA
Miles today: 14.4

Day 29: Well my wish for no rain didn't happen. About 9:30pm we awoke to bright flashes and rumbles. By 10pm, it was pouring rain. Being in a tent in that kind if rain is like putting a bucket over your head and having someone hit it with a stick. It rained heavily for an hour then intermittently after that. Fortunately, we set the tent upon a deep bed of leaves, so no water leaked up from the floor.When we awoke at 6am it was still raining. So we packed up and put on our rain gear. We hit the trail at 6:50amToday we had 3 miles to hike before our 1000-foot climb. Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we finished the climb. What was left, was the foggy, wet day you see in the attached picture. We both like the trade-off of cold and wet for steamy and buggy!The trail was only really rocky in a couple of places, so we made fairly good time. There were thundershowers forecast for the late afternoon, so that also made us want to hustle. We made it to highway PA501 by 3:30pm. Spider had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up there and take us to Lebanon, PA for our zero-day tomorrow. It arrived at 3:40pm.It was a 25 minute ride into Lebanon. The shuttle driver charged us $1.50/mile, for a total of $40 plus tip. We checked into a Days Inn, showered, rested then went to the Inn's lounge for dinner. While we were eating the thunderstorms hit. We're glad we aren't in the tent tonight!Animal sighting: 2 cottontail rabbits and more red efts. Our son Zak did some research and sent us info on these efts. They are the juvenile stage of the Eastern Newt and although they are called "red" efts, they are bright "international" orange in color. How can they be that bright and survive in nature? They exude a poison when stressed and predators stay away. Thanks, Zak!!
Date: 2014-06-13
From: Days Inn, Lebanon, PA

To: Days Inn, Lebanon, PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 30: It rained during night, based on all the puddles. Fortunately we didn't have to listen to it this time. We finally got up at 7:30am and went down to our free continental breakfast.Next we checked on the laundromat across the street. On a hike like this, we appreciate the little things, like running water. In town on our zero days, we appreciate a close-by laundromat!Then went to the Post Office to pick up supply box. Thanks, Ginny!Back at the hotel room, ET picked up our laundry and headed to the laundromat, while Spider worked on drying our boots. Wet boots are giving our room a "funky" smell. At the laundromat, ET made friends with all the other ladies doing laundry because everyone was curious about hiking the AT. Who else but a hiker would have clothes that smelled like THAT!We walked about 1/2 mile to a Golden Corral for lunch. It had started raining earlier, but it was sunny while we walked to the restaurant. While we ate, it poured rain, by the time we walked back to the hotel it was only sprinkling. You gotta love thundershowers.We spent the afternoon resting and repairing gear. The attached picture shows Spider working on his pack. He had noticed 2 days ago, that the hip-belt on his pack was coming unsewn. He made temporary repairs to get him here, but now needed to make more permanent repairs.The intensity of many miles, rocks and weather (i.e., wetness) take a toll on our gear. Our packs, boots, sandals and tent have had to be repaired, in one form or another. So what do we carry to make these various repairs? It starts with a small roll of duct tape (The world is held together by duct tape, .right?), a sewing kit, superglue, safety pins and a small roll of wire. So far, we have needed all of these, one time or the other.Our physical assessment is good. All blisters are gone. Some bug bites have healed as new ones have appeared. Both of us have knees that periodically "talk" to us, but no chronic problems. From what we hear, next week will test our bodies., especially since we will putting in some long miles. I guess the first 4 weeks were the training for this next week.
Date: 2014-06-14
From: Days Inn, Lebanon, PA

To: Eagle's Nest Shelter
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: few clouds

Day 31: We awoke at 6am, finished packing and went downstairs for our continental breakfast at 6:45am. What a difference! Yesterday morning we almost had the breakfast area to ourselves...but today the hotel is full of gospel singers having a convention. We could barely get to the coffee pot.After breakfast we finished packing and headed to the lobby. Our shuttle showed up promptly at 7:30am and back to the AT we went. We stepped back onto the trail at 8:05am.The trail started out really rocky; the kind where there was no flat place to put your foot. It got a little better after a mile or so, but then got worse. The attached picture is a viewpoint we went by, but what you see in the foreground is what the trail was like...boulder hopping!!I'd estimate that the trail was rock-free about 5% of the time today...and we hear it gets worse. It's amazing how much more effort it seems to take to negotiate rocks.The day started out clear and in the mid-60's. Clouds developed and a cool wind started to blow. The temperatures never got out of the 60's. It was a good temperature for hiking, but not the sunny day that had been forecast.We arrived at our destination shelter at 4:45pm. Moneymaker, Taz, Crocs and Scrambles are also staying here.Major Milestone: We passed the 1281 mile mark today which means we have less than 1000 miles to hike to finish the AT.Animal sightings: a rattlesnake. Spider approached what he thought was a stick on the trail...That was until he noticed the rattle on the end of it! The back half of the snake was lying in the trail, while the font half was in the vegetation next to the trail. Spider stopped and motioned ET to stop too. We waited for the snake to finish crossing the trail...bit it didn't move. So we threw a stick at it..still no movement. Then we threw a small rock at it...no movement. Finally Spider used his trekking pole to tap the tail. There was an immediate response of rattles and the tail disappeared slowly into the vegetation. We suspect the cool day had the rattler moving slowly. We waited a minute, then passed by where the tail had disappeared...Keeping a wary eye on the spot. That's our second rattler in over 1200 miles.
Date: 2014-06-15
From: Eagle's Nest Shelter

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: broken clouds

Day 32: We awoke to clear skies and 55 degrees. That's colder than it has been in a while. We packed up and hit the trail at 6:50am.The trail started out rocky but soon turned less so...At one point there were no rocks and we could stride out, just like the good old times. But then it turned rocky again. We had a steep descent to the town of Port Clinton.Now you may ask how does a town get a name that starts with "port" when it is over 100 miles from the ocean and is much further than that from the Great Lakes? It's because it was a major transportation hub on the Schuylkill Canal in the early 1800's.Apparently canals were a big thing in the east in the early 1800's for transporting materials and people. The Schuylkill Canal was noted for transporting coal from the mines to the north. The canals were made obsolete by the upstart railroads.Speaking of coal, the picture of the day is a huge chunk of anthracite coal on display in Port Clinton. That's the biggest lump of coal we've ever seen! It's obvious that we are in coal country. Many of the trains we see are loaded with coal. (Every river gap we have gone through, starting with Harper's Ferry, has had train tracks going through it.) We have passed by several abandoned coal mines and coal towns and sometime we see pieces of coal on the trail.An inviting thing about Port Clinton is lunch at the Port Clinton Hotel. Never ones to miss a chance to eat, we stopped in at the restaurant at 12:30pm. It was doing a booming Father's Day business but we were seated right away. An hour later we waddled out having consumed a couple of the largest burgers we had ever seen. On top of that, Spider ordered a small fries. What he got was a basket full of fries about the size of half a football. He was about to let the waitress know she had made a mistake when he saw an order of large fries. It was the size of the WHOLE football. Try as he might, Spider couldn't finish his fries!!After leaving Port Clinton we had our 1000-foot climb for the day..not much fun in 75-degree weather, on full stomachs. After some rock-hopping near the top, the trail became more reasonable. We finally made it to our destination shelter at 5:20pm.Major milestone: We passed the 350 mile mark on our hike today...only 150 miles to go!!Animal sightings: 2 white tailed deer.
Date: 2014-06-16
From: Windsor Furnace Shelter

To: Allentown Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 33: We awoke to a clear day and a temperature of 60 degrees. Unfortunately neither of us had slept very well because of the noise of I-78 in the valley below. It's amazing how far noise travels. We packed up and hit the trail at 6:10am. We got an early start because we knew it was going to be a long day.We started with a 800-foot climb to a rock outcrop called the Pulpit that had a great view across the valley below...and I-78. Unfortunately, a rock outcrop means more rocks so we had a rocky trail for the next several miles. Some of it was the rock hopping kind of "hiking". But after turning off the ridge we followed an old road for about 5 miles of much easier hiking.Our usual 1000-foot climb for the day came mid-day which had warmed into the low 80's.. So we sweat!! Our climb ended at Dan's Pulpit. Not sure about the "pulpit" theme here! but I do know it's synonymous with big rocks and a lot of rock hopping. In fact, the trail from Dan's Pulpit to our destination shelter was one of the more physically taxing 6 miles we have hiked so far..if we weren't rock hopping, we were walking on a trail that was composed of rocks the size of baseballs. Some were embedded in the ground, but most were loose. Those were not round like baseballs, but multi-faceted, with sharp corners. The only way to walk on them was to try to place your foot squarely on a couple of them hoping they wouldn't move as you put weight on that foot. Needless to say it was slow going.We finally arrived at our destination shelter at 4:35pm. There are about 8 thru-hikers here tonight with us. The only one we know is Naked Ninja.Animal sighting: a box turtle. They don't move very fast, so we were able get the attached picture of it.
Date: 2014-06-17
From: Allentown Shelter

To: George Outerbridge Shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: clear sky

Day 34: According to the forecast last night, there was a 50% chance of thundershowers in the nearby town of Palmerton. At 10:30pm we were awaked by lightning and thunder. Soon we could hear the wave of rain coming. It rained for about an hour, then stopped. We awoke to a clear sky and 70 degrees. Luckily the rainfly on our tent had time to dry overnight. We packed up and hit the trail at 6am.We were a little nervous when we studied the map and found that today's route included "The Knife Edge" and a 3 mile stretch of the trail labeled "Unmaintained, very rocky and open"...Hmmm. We were happy to have a fairly easy hike for about 6 miles...Then we reached The Knife Edge. The attach picture shows that it was everything we imagined. The white blazes mark the trail.Fortunately, the "unmaintained" section was not as bad as we imagined. It was overgrown but the rockiness was no worse than what we have seen in most of northeastern Pennsylvania and it was open on and off. Since the temperature was almost 90 degrees, we felt it when things opened up. Glad there were some patches of trees too.We understand that the rockiness will continue to the New Jersey state line. I'm not sure what magic happens there to make the rocks go away...we will see. We have ~35 miles more in this state. Because of all these rocks, the hikers call Pennsylvania "Rocksylvania".We arrived at our destination shelter to find that it had no campsites. Spiderman, a thru-hiker we saw quite a bit in VA and hop-scotched with all day today, helped us check in all directions. No luck.. So we 3 hiked back up the trail to a nice site we spotted coming in. We were joined by Mike, another thru-hiker (who refuses to take a trailname!) We hadn't seen Mike since Duncannon.. We wonder what they do or where they go that allows us to catch up with them.Animal sightings: a frog and a brown snake
Date: 2014-06-19
From: Campsite near Delp's Spring Trail

To: Red Carpet Inn, Wind Gap, PA
Miles today: 10.6

Day 36: There was a 30% chance of thundershowers overnight. Indeed, it rained at 2am. Fortunately it stopped early enough for the tent to dry out some by the time we woke at 5am. It was an overcast sky as we packed up and hit the trail at 6am.The overnight rain left the rocks wet and slippery, so we took our time. The other thing it did was to bring out the red efts that I discussed in an earlier post. This time we took a picture of one as you can see in the attached photo. You can't tell from the photo, but these little guys are 2-3 inches long. I'm not sure of the purpose/need for them to lie motionless in the middle of the trail.. They are almost asking to get stepped on. Maybe it's an initiation to get into some kind of eft gang.The trail was beginning to dry out when the rain began again at 10am. Fortunately, it was a light rain and only lasted an hour. But it was enough to make the rocks in the trail slippery and put enough water on the vegetation to get us wet as we passed by. And by-the-way, the trail was rocky the WHOLE way today.We arrived at the bottom of Wind Gap at 11:45am and headed down a side road into the town of Wind Gap. 1/2 mile down the road we found the Post Office and picked our resupply box that ET's sister Sally had sent to us.. Thanks, Sally.A block from the Post Office was a tavern, Beer's Stein, known to AT hikers because it allows them to camp on their property for free. We stopped and had lunch.After lunch, we hoofed it 1.5 miles to the other end of town, to our motel. Why walk over 2 miles to a motel? Spider had researched the 3 motels in town and the Red Carpet Inn was the best rated. The other 2 had comments about them like "Avoid this place". So what's another 2 miles, when we'd already done 10+ miles?It was a nice, clean motel and near most of the eating establishments, a must for hikers with a day off We showered and relaxed for the afternoon. We then tried a nearby steak, rib & seafood restaurant for dinner. It sure tasted better than freeze-dried!!Major milestone: We passed the 400-mile mark for this hike. Less than 100 miles to go.
Date: 2014-06-20
From: Red Carpet Inn, Wind Gap, PA

To: Red Carpet Inn, Wind Gap, PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 37: It sure was nice to sleep in a bed! We finally got going at 7am. The Inn offered juice, coffee and cereal, so we took advantage of that for first breakfast.At 8am we headed to the nearby laundromat. While ET got the laundry going (she had to hold her breath as she loaded the washer), Spider headed out to pick up a few things at CVS, get a newspaper and pick up second breakfast.After finishing our meal and our laundry duties, we stopped by Subway to pick up lunch. Notice a theme here?We relaxed the rest of the day and fixed some gear..Our usual zero-day activities..We walked the block to the same steak, ribs and seafood place where we ate at last night. It was convenient and had good food.Tomorrow will be our longest mileage day for the week and it was interesting to see it in perspective today when we stepped outside our motel. The attached photo shows tomorrow's hike. The dip to the left is Wind Gap. We have to hike the 2 miles back to that gap. Then we hike the ridge to the right before dropping into the next gap, Delaware Water Gap., ~15 miles later. It's just that easy!Our physical assessment on this last zero-day is much the same as last time: Spider has a new blister that is now healing and we both have some new bug bites, while the old bug-bites have healed. Thankfully,our knees seem to be holding up, even through this extremely rocky area of the AT..
Date: 2014-06-22
From: Pocono Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 39: We knew we had a short day today, so we took it easy in the morning. After yesterday's long day, it felt good to sleep in. We arose and finally got out of the Inn at 7:30am. We hiked a block to the Water Gap Diner for breakfast and finally set out for the trail at 8:20am. We walked through the town of Delaware Water Gap (It's not that big!!), then shared a bridge with I-80 that crossed the Delaware River.The attached picture shows the bridge at about the middle of the river where we crossed into New Jersey, our 5th state on this hike. Unfortunately, there was no sign to indicate our crossing into a new state.After crossing the river, we walked along a frontage road until we reached an underpass that we could use to get to the other side of I-80. Once there, we began our 1000-foot climb back to the ridge...and guess what?...New Jersey has rocks too!The trail for most of the day was just as rocky as it had been in Pennsylvania. Some were just as sharp and uneven, but many of the rocks had been "softened" in that the sharp points had been rounded off or flattened. In some areas we were walking on flat slabs of rock and we could actually see the striations/scratches made by glaciers eons ago.Spider broke the tip off one of his new trekking poles today. He was boulder hopping and he got the tip caught between 2 rocks. Before he could stop, the pole moved forward and the tip broke off. This has not been a good hike for Spider's poles. Fortunately, he had some rubber tips that he normally uses to protect the tips when in transit. So he put one of those on and hopes it will last for the remaining 5 days of this hike.We made it to our destination by 2:40pm. The Mohican Outdoor Center is run by the Appalachian Mountain Club and is used as a retreat for club members. It also caters to AT hikers. For $9 they can get a campsite that includes a privy, picnic table and a water spigot. They also have access to a lodge which has a deli, small store, a lounge area and showers (for a $5 fee). .We got a campsite and opted for the showers (Our next shower is 5 days from now.). Since the deli would close at 3pm, we also ordered a couple sandwiches.. for dinner tonight.After setting up the tent, we took our showers then rested. At 6pm we went to the lounge and ate our sandwiches. We also hit the store to buy tomorrow's breakfast before returning to our tent. Tomorrow starts a 3-day run of longer miles, so it was nice to have an easy day today.Major milestone: We passed the 1300 mile mark for what we have hiked on the AT.
Date: 2014-06-23
From: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ

To: Brink Road Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: light rain

Day 40: We awoke to clear skies and 60 degrees. We packed up and headed back to the trail at 6:10am. Roads and rivers each mean a descent down to them and an ascent up from them, so we had a climb back to the ridge.Since leaving Delaware Water Gap, we have climbed to a long ridge. To the north we are paralleling the Delaware River and the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For the last 3 miles of yesterday and about half of today, we have been close to the southern edge of the ridge. As you can see from the attached photo, this side of the ridge drops off precipitously for 500 feet. This drop-off gave us great views of New Jersey to the south. Forested rolling hills, small farms and many small lakes are all in view. Spider's impression of New Jersey was based on what he saw across the Hudson River on his visits to New York City...refineries and smokestacks. The part we are seeing now is very different.The trail continued to be rocky in spots, but we also had some abandoned logging road walking. The combination allowed us to make fairly good time. However, at one point we experienced shades of Lehigh Gap. It was a vertical rock wall, where the white blazes went up the wall. After looking around, we finally found a route up using hand-holds and toe-holds. We can see the advantage of light packs now!At one road crossing, we found trail magic. A guy was sitting by his vehicle and said he had one donut left. ET, out of the goodness of her heart, said she wasn't interested. However the guy instantly knew Spider was interested by the drool running down his chin. .Boy, was it good!!We arrived at our destination shelter at 2:50pm. We were the only ones there until about 5pm. When 2 others showed up.Plant sightings: Spider found some ripe wild blueberries, which we both enjoyed.