morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-05-19
From: Daleville

To: View Entry
Miles today: 19.0

The rest of the day passed uneventfully... Too much so. Ive got more energy since getting back on "people food", but I am definitely bored. My daily internal dialog is something like "only 12 hours today". "7 hours to go". "3 hours now". "1 more (interminable) hour". Since I started slacking off and only doing 18-20s my legs have felt better and I can hardly tell I have a pack on at all, but my brain is crying for stimuli. Josh had a good idea to start filling the ipods up with podcasts. Spoken word is great for engaging the mind, moreso than music. Im also beefing up my dash with two more batteries so I can use it more while I hike.Anyway, last night was fun, I popped out of the woods right at the econolodge, where I consumed an entire large papa johns supreme, then curled up in a daze like a boa constrictor after it eats a village.Josh came and got me after work, we went into downtown roanoke for some pretty good indian food. It was no Flavors, but it helped with the craving. In dallas I eat a lot of "exotic" food, and I miss the strong spices of home.Today wont be too bad, im doing 19 to a turnoff on the blue ridge parkway right by joshs farm, where theyll pick me up for my first zero since damascus, which ironically is where we are going. I am looking forward to at least making an appearance at trail days.Only 9 1/2 more hours to go...
Date: 2007-05-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Today I woke up on the farm, had some oatmeal and drove into town for a massage. It was... different, small town thing. Then it was back to the farm for secondbreakfast - eggs, grits, sausage, potatoes and biscuits. I put a hurting on it. Our adventure for the day was to check out damascus for the end of trail days, but it was as much an excuse to ride fast in josh's souped up miata. Unfortunately trail days was pretty dead, but I replaced my thermarest and ran into donnie quixote, who bore the unfortunate news that it sounds like boat drinks dropped out. Thats what I heard about 501 though, and hes apparently still walking so I am hopeful. Josh drives vigorously, and the ride home involved finding the squiggliest lines on the map.
Date: 2007-05-21
To: View Entry
Miles today: 20.0

P is for punchbowl mountain, where I am meeting josh tomorrow night after the aggressive 45 miles I plan to do over the next two days on some hilly terrain. With luck I wont reinjure my currently healthy knees and ankles. My goal is to crash at his place tomorrow night then press on to make waynesboro friday night to meet Jocelyn.Last night was fun, joshs young cousins came to the farm and were extremely interested in my trip. After four million questions it was clear they were plotting how they might abscond from the fourth grade and hit the trail. Mark twain would approve of the bad advice I gave them, of infinite candy bars and bears and trail characters and sleeping under the stars and doing whatever you wanted.*****Talking with the franks made me think a bit about the challenges and lessons so far from the trail. Easy.The number 1 difficulty facing an AT through hiker is that he can tap out at any time. Every single day we make the choice to lug our backpacks up a mountain, usually in the rain or heat, and every day we cross a road that we can pretty easily hitchhike on that leads to a major airport. Tonight I could be clean, sitting at fogo de chao in a crisp Thomas Pink shirt, surrounded by loved ones who would toast my successful adventure with cold beers and grilled beef until I couldn't stand it anymore. I would go home and settle into my enormous canopied king bed, whose copious blankets' weights are exactly to my taste, and not really have to get up again, or do anything really, until I felt like it. Many hikers are cursed with difficulties back home which make the woods a very inviting place to hide, but I know that waiting patiently for me is familial love and material indulgence. That knowledge and the ease by which I could get back to it - I watch hiker friends doing it regularly - is by far the hardest thing about this trek.The biggest lesson so far is to paraphrase Truman, "the extraordinary power of pressure over time". A normal hiking day is about 20 miles, and takes about 12 hours. All the toil I put in from dawn until dusk adds up to less than 1% toward my goal. Imagine spending all day, every day for a week on a stairmaster (and the AT is a whole lot more stairmaster than treadmill) and being only about one-twentieth of the way toward your goal. And for that first week that's how it feels. But over time you develop a little routine, a new normal, and before you know it someone asks how far youve come and you hear yourself saying "Tomorrow I'll hit 750 miles." An unthinkable sum. Even now if you told me to go walk 750 miles my instincts would say it was impossible. I still take it somewhat on faith that if I keep walking all day most every day i'll have walked 1500 and then 2150 before I know it.
Date: 2007-05-22
To: View Entry
Miles today: 25.0

This morning I got a good jump on today's mileage, leaving camp by 630. I tried out a new oatmeal mixture I eat cold by adding cold water the night before. I also had a protein shake and my requisite snickers. The mileage was flat for awhile then began a hard downhill with "donkey kong" switchbacks and deep brush. Suddenly there was a sound like a tree crashing, and about 100 feet off to my right I watched a bear cub bounding down the hill. Following it was another thunderous crashing, perhaps another cub, but it was hidden by the thick brush. I didnt wait to find out, but I had gone no more than 50 feet when I heard a similar crash, and out popped another cub, directly in front of me, stopped on the trail. Now having been flanked on both sides, I had every reason to believe the mother was about to come bounding down through the impenetrable green wall and find me face to face with her bambino. I clenched my lips and uttered a stern but hushed "yah!" at the cub, who playfully bounded on down the hill. Though I had to cross the paths theyd taken several more times on the switchbacks, that was all I saw of bears 8 and 9.
Date: 2007-05-23
To: View Entry
Miles today: 24.0

A big thanks to josh and the whole frank clan for their hospitality this week. I ended up spending five evenings with josh, eating real food with people who don't smell funny. This morning he dropped me off at punchbowl turnoff, after a 25 mile day yesterday, to begin day three of my waynesboro push. If I make 24 today I will have relatively easier 20 and 21 to get there. The key will be to do it while staying in good spirits and with my ankles and knees continuing to feel good. Jacque gave me some glucosamine I am trying out for the latter. For the former, josh loaded my dash up with npr podcasts to listen to. I actually sort of read a paperback novel while I hiked over the past couple of days. I like that they don't need batteries and youd be amazed how honed your periph gets after 700+ miles. I was able to detect the biggest black racer I've ever seen last night - easily five feet long. Anyway, the content, even for a few hours a day, makes a big difference toward soothing my starving brain here in the big green sensory deprivation chamber. it's funny though, when josh leaves town and turns onto the blue ridge parkway and its tunnel of green I feel myself relax. For what it's worth this is home right now.Red bull didnt help at all yesterday, it just made my heart beat faster. Climbing the 2500 feet out of the james river was surreal, switchbacks straight up further than you could see, like a giant tower.
Date: 2007-05-24
To: View Entry
Miles today: 20.0

I wrote briefly last night but I was so tired I must not have saved it properly. I did another 24 yesterday. It has been hot and every day we go from 3000-4000 then down to 900, then back up again. But I am on track for waynesboro friday night and am looking forward to resting and my new ipod.
Date: 2007-05-25
To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: light rain

Last night I dreamed there was a concession stand on top of the mountain I was climbing, with ice cream, pizza, and hot dogs. It's sad when your fantasy dreams are about the sam's club snack bar. Better than the usual dreams about home though. I usually wake up feeling like Arthur Dent in the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy: I always wake up to the familiar lemon yellow tent which is home, but I am never quite sure what I will see when I look out my front door. It's always the big green sensory deprivation chamber / stairmaster, but the specifics can vary wildly.Today I will do 21 to make it into waynesboro for my 2 days off. The biggest challenge will be to fill my new 80gb ipod with content - a formidible task. We may have to find a university library to get a big enough pipe to download that much content in two days.Anyway this is the first day this week without a 5000+ elevation change, and it's a truism that as long as you get up early you can lollygag and do 20 this time of year - I awake when my tent lights up about 5:45 each morning - so I consider myself home free. This evening I plan to try out my new HIKER TO TOWN sign to see if it makes hitchhiking easier.
Date: 2007-05-26
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hooray for civilization. I am hanging out at the westin arlington today. For lunch we had a taste of home - uncle julios fajitas, and for dinner I ate a courageous amount of really good indian food. We went to a mall for ipod accessories, a new book, and to look at shoes. I am amazed at how podcasting has exploded in the last few months. It is safe to say I won't run out of brain food for a very long time. 80 gb is impossible to fill, but I figure at 2 minutes per meg of spoken word, 6 hours a day, 90 more days on the trail, I only need 17 gb. Audio and movies will fill it up some more. With the latest hurdle -boredom- sorted out, I am very optomistic about this next section of trail.Still working on shoes. I am looking at marathon runners, basically all mesh and padding. Nobody makes wide size 12s.I am working on composing a series of poems and an interpretive dance about ben and jerrys ice cream. My new a-number-one bff is called neopolitan dynamite. Cherry garcia and fudge brownie side by side. It's sublime.
Date: 2007-05-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 22.0

This morning as I was hiking I found something I had hoped not to find... A deer tick burrowed into my thigh. For those who don't know, deer ticks are much smaller than regular ticks, about the size of a head of a pin, and they can carry lyme disease. I really don't want lyme disease. I DEET my shoes and pack cover every morning, but in the tall grass they can just hop onto my shins. This type of tick supposedly only bites for an hour then lets go, so most people don't even know they've been bitten until they develop a bulls-eye pattern that indicates infection.Anyway, one more thing to worry about. There is supposed to be our first wayside up ahead, basically a small counter restaurant. Yum! Planning for a comfortable 22 today.*****I thought I'd start picking out some of the interesting tidbits from my podcasts.I learned about what sociologists call the decoy effect, and how theyre applying it to the upcoming political election. Say you have a choice between a 5 star restaurant 5 miles away and a 3 star restaurant 3 miles away. Everything else being balanced so the choice is purely quality vs. convenience. What theyve found is that if you add a third choice, a 4 star restaurant 6 miles away -demonstrably inferior to the 5/5 but less clearly inferior to the 3/3 - it will make more people select the 5/5. Using this theory on the 2000 election, it is possible that while ralph nader took some of al gore's votes from the far left, he may have actually helped him with centrist voters who thought nader was a wacko. In a modern context, clinton and obama, numbers one and two, could attempt to characterize edwards, number 3, in a similar-yet-inferior way to make use of this.In astronomy news, they've found that certain blue variables (a late period in some stars' lives) can turn into supernovas without becoming wolf-rays (apologies if I am butchering the spellings...) first. This would be pretty arcane information, but theres a blue variable near us, anna karina, which given this new evidence could explode in our lifetime, knocking out satellites, and if the pole was pointed at us at the time, causing all hell to break loose (the professor used the term "mass extinction").
Date: 2007-05-31
To: View Entry
Miles today: 20.0

It is nice to be at the lodge, though it was outrageously expensive. I have decided to take it easy into front royal, 20-13-13, trying to do 26 into a town forces a zero situation for me, and I'd rather do the short miles. Normally 13 would mean getting to the shelter unacceptably early, but there is supposed to be a wayside, where I could eat ice cream and take a shower.So far the good people of aramark have served as a clear reminder of why communism will never work, and I thank them for it.I've been thinking about a competency matrix like we have in the bidness world, only for thru-hikers. My industry focus is walking all damn day with two secondary foci in sending home stuff you don't need and competitive eating. My solution set includes bathing in creeks, making stoves out of empty cans, doing practically everything while hiking, and of course, using the bathroom in the woods.I am apparently feeling ornery today. The unfortunate bear incident last night, the two hundred bones I wound up paying for a warm bed and a full belly, and that my feet really hurt all factor in. The pads of my feet are purple, and fade in and out of numbness.The thing that bothers me about the bears is how easily we went from routine "I make noise, you move out of sight" to a high stress situation for all three of us. A large bear who is very unhappy with you charging out of the forest is not what you want to be seeing, ever. The lessons are that cubs get really big before they leave mom and to keep using a light touch when I am not directly being threatened.Today is supposed to be really hot, we've got a hazy stalled airmass over the area for another day or two. Hopefully it'll rain.*****Today is going pretty well, no bear sightings and breakfast and lunch have both been in dining rooms. As we speak my pocket is full of french fries like napoleon dynamite's tots. So my Uncle John-ism about aramark (and I do love my Uncle John-isms) was premature, as the lunch waiter actually left me the whole pitcher of diet pepsi, which I inhaled.Being overhydrated is good for staying cool. I am doing my best to avoid stepping on rocks today, but otherwise feel fine. I crossed 900 miles at some point recently. At some point I am going to start to contemplate katahdin as the goal, instead of some tolkein-esque mythical mountain that has nothing to do with me running around in the woods. Failure can still come from a thousand sides, but I foresee myself shifting mentally after harpers ferry... Maine will stop being just a fun reply to day hikers' questions, right up there with "I walked", and become a fixed target.*****Cell service is terrible here. I am more cut off than I have been so far this trip.It is hot and muggy and buggy. I wish it would just rain.
Date: 2007-06-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 24.0

Trying to do 13 today was a little hopeful... I passed the marker at 330 and kept trucking. I have been stopping and letting my feet cool periodically which is helping with the pain. Tomorrow will be a really short day into front royal. Otherwise pretty quiet day, started a new novel and caught up on email (finally got service). I might have to solo camp tonight, not my favorite thing but not a big deal either.
Date: 2007-06-02
To: Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 2.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Nero day! I am hanging out at the laundromat after hitchhiking into town. After I run my errands I am going to hide out at the super 8 for the rest of the day. It will be gettysburg before I get another hotel room.I saw something terribly sad on the trail this morning, an apparently abandoned fawn. Who knows, maybe mom was nearby. Knowing the deer are ridiculously overpopulated is no consolation. They're almost like cows lately, you have to herd them off the trail. I talk to them... "Um, helooo... I'm a predator..." but they pay no attention. If you were wondering whether it would be possible to live off the land in the american south in 2007, as long as you like venison and ramps you will never go hungry again.
Date: 2007-06-03
From: Front Royal, VA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 24.0

Back into the woods this morning. My new hitchhiking sign works wonderfully (hiker to town / trail on opposite sides) and I got a ride in no time.It is raining so I keep wiping droplets of water off the pda as I type. Rain is good, it keeps me cool. My gear has 2 layers of protection - a pack cover and individual roll top boat bags, but I don't wear so much as a raincoat normally.I got a wind chime to use as a bear bell, but I will only use it when I am in imminent bear country... Which I am not today. It is pretty jingly; I expect to drown it out with the ipod.I heard this journal appears on Hasita's monitor in the hitachi /ameripath movie... I got a real kick out of that. I miss everybody from back at work.I have been thinking a lot about economic modeling. I have an idea which combines my love for lexical analyzers, data mining, and socioeconomic prediction. that's probably too big a hint, but the hard part is perfecting it.I am supposed to walk 24 today; the rain makes that more likely. I have a heavy boil in bag dal for dinner tonight, I hope it's good. I crave indian food all the time.*****I knocked out the 24 in a svelte 9:45, the pouring down rain all day long helps. My dal was so, so good. Why don't they make freeze dried indian entrees? I'd eat nothing but.My new wind chime scared off a small bear this morning. I also didn't go crazy from the jingle because I had the ipod on. The wall street journal's daily show is really good.Sleeping in a shelter tonight because of the rain. There is an old guy here so I am sure I will need the earplugs. Ha.The rain helps you make big miles because you are chilly and a little miserable so you hike faster and don't take breaks. It also keeps your muscles cooler and softens the ground for your bruised feet. harper's ferry is 26 or 29 miles. If this rain doesn't let up I am seriously thinking about making a dash for it tomorrow.
Date: 2007-06-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 21.0

The roller coaster is a well known landmark on the AT, 10 summits in 13 miles. It is way less fun than the name implies, and is covered with rocks. At least it quit raining, though everything (including me) is quite damp.Still, I'll do 21 today, setting up a short day into harper's ferry tomorrow and a possible maryland challenge bid (the whole state, 40 miles, in a day). Personally I like the "one night in jersey" challenge better, and I am generally apathetic about single day feats, so we'll see.*****Today is a day of milestones. One thousand miles exactly. Two months to the day, and I'm in west virginia. In eight miles I will be in harper's ferry, universally known as the "psychological halfway point."How's it working out? If I could wave my magic wand would I still make the AT end at harper's ferry? No, I don't think I would. I am homesick for civilization, but I am looking forward to seeing the second half. I miss motorcycles, beer (you may not know this, I am totally sober on this adventure), the way eatzi's smells when you first walk in, swimming pools, my robe, a real computer. I am not going to go there about food...The trip definitely has a life of its own now... I can't imagine quitting anymore without something bad happening. I still think a lot with my stripped down mind, though I feed it more with entertainment and information.I saw two baby skunks today. I hurried past but they were cute, black with a shock of white on their heads. I also saw a copperhead.
Date: 2007-06-05
To: Harpers Ferry, WV
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Town day, town day. this'll be another nero (9 miles) into harpers ferry where they will take my picture, give me a number, and then I will rest at the comfort inn tonight.I feel really guilty sleeping in a bed twice a week, and I have trouble articulating why. There is only one person who started after me who is ahead of me, gopher, and he is ridiculous. Three others started the same day... But I've passed over a hundred that I know of. ( I hate even typing that...) So why do I feel like such a slacker? This certainly hasn't gotten easier. Every day I have an "ugh!" moment, though my techniques for dealing with them are vastly improved. If I eat like a wild animal in town I can last until the fourth day before "the hunger" kicks in, or as I like to call it from its primary symptom, "hamburger rocks" since you start foodiemorphizing stuff on the trail. (rubble, rubble.) anyway, hamburger rocks is bad, it implies my Vin Diesel like torso is starting to waste away. I need these biweekly town days. I've also had some of the most memorable experiences on the trip in the various towns, though, and this may be part of it, the last three towns have been much less... memorable.Less controversially in my mind, I am leaning away from trying the 40 mile challenge. My goal is katahdin, and I don't believe the 40 mile challenge is the optimal way for me to get there. (nor is trying to do it fast or avoid getting passed, just in case anyone misinterpreted my statements above). I plan to get a good jump and be walking by 6 tomorrow and get as far as I get.Sorry if today's journal sounds defensive, I have put up with a surprisingly large amount of trash talking from people who demand everyone hike the same speed they do.
Date: 2007-06-06
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: View Entry
Miles today: 23.0

Back on the trail after a night in harpers ferry, a well-preserved civil war town.Maryland is ok so far, rockier and not as flat as advertised but still good trail. Lots of boy scouts today, most are too cool to say hello. I took a side trail a few feet to check out jefferson rock... I've always been a hamiltonian myself, but I figured I could put politics aside (for a view of the potomac, ironically). My grandma billie would definitely have approved. Actually billie would have liked pretty much everything about this trip.Anyway, I upgraded my rain protection at the outfitter with a new pack cover and jacket. The jacket is the ubiquitous marmot precip in "bubba-don't-shoot! orange". The pack cover is clever, it goes under the load lifters so it's locked on. Brilliant. It's green, so when it rains, go canes!My foot is behaving badly; it is swollen all the time but now my pinkie toe has decided he'd rather tuck underneath his neighbor. I put a pad in between them, but they aren't happy. It's like the bones themselves hurt.I have 23 miles to do today, then I'm meeting some family friends who have offered to put me up for the night. I actually indirectly owe Evvie my existence, she introduced my parents back in the early 1870s. The story changes all the time, but as best I can tell dad was a carpetbagger and mom was a plantation owner's daughter. Evvie was dealing cards on a riverboat on the sawanee. Uncle john had lost his leg in the war (only 14 at the time, such a shame) and was doing parlour tricks on the riverboat.