morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-06-07
From: Church of the Mountain Hostel

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 16.7

Last night i tented in the backyard of the hostel. Since there was overflow from the bunks, several people laid out their sleeping bags on the front porch. Apparently in the middle of the night, a black bear was walking around on the front porch, smelling people's food bags hanging from the rafters. Walking right past people on the floor! Crazy! Meanwhile, I'm tenting in the back with all my food spread out right next to me lol. Oops. I got a super late start today. Didn't hit the trail until almost 11am lol. Since i goofed off last night, i spent this morning uploading my journals online and downloading a bunch of podcasts to my phone to get me through the next couple days. While walking out of town, i crossed a big bridge separating Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It feels great to officially be done with PA. The trail runs through NJ for about 70 miles, so i expect to be here for about 5 days. Just a couple hours into my hike I meet an older guy named "Solo" passing out small bags of chips and crackers to thru-hikers. Trail magic! I sit and chat with him for a bit. He tells me that he hiked the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) last year. It's another giant trail that goes from north to south along the west coast. He spends the next 20 mins trying to convince me to make the PCT my next big adventure lol. We'll see. One trail at a time!My new pack is pretty sweet. I love everything about it, but it'll definitely take some time to get used to it. It puts the majority of the weight on my hips (like it's supposed too), so i can really feel my legs carrying my pack. Today was the first time my quads actually burned going uphill. Thunder thighs here we come! lolIncluding the super late start, i actually fucked up a lot today lol. i collected water from a swamp accidentally instead of a stream, so i had to treat all my water with my emergency iodine pills. Then i overshot the campsite by a mile and couldn't turn around and back-track because i was running out of daylight. So i'm stealth tenting now in some random brush, which is illegal in NJ because of all the bears. Also, i didn't realize that my socks were hording small bits of gravel within the fibers, so the bottom of my toes and feet look like someone took a razor blade to them. And now, as i'm writing this, i can hear a bear breathing heavily running down the ridge line right past my tent! lol What a day!
Date: 2018-06-08
From: stealth camping

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: few clouds

I don't know why, but i'm just not feeling it today. It's only 6pm and i'm exhausted. I already ate dinner and still feel starving. I've drank over 3 liters of water and feel super dehydrated. It wasn't even that hot today and i didn't even do an insane amount of mileage...My feet are so fucked up. Little bits of sand and gravel are tearing up my toes and pads on my feet. I got gaiters to fix this, but somehow it's still happening. I even used a clean, spare set of hiking socks today because i feel like my other ones have sand stuck between the threads. But these ones are doing the same thing! I've taken the soles out of my boots and beaten the crap out of them. I don't know what else to do. A couple more days of this and i'm gonna have open sores all over my feet. I overshot the shelter/campsite AGAIN, i think. It might be a little further ahead or behind me. I have no idea. So i'm stealth camping again. I'm actually on a really nice ridge with a view and you can see the sun setting. I'm too tired to watch it though honestly. I'll be asleep before 8.
Date: 2018-06-10
From: stealth camping

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 17.0

This morning Skywalker and I parted ways. I needed to run through Unionville, NY to resupply and he didn't. Oh ya, i officially crossed the state line this morning into New York! Whoo!!I stopped at Horler's General Store and picked up 4 days worth of food and snacks. Before i walked in the store, i ate 3 peanut butter sandwiches because you don't wanna grocery shop hungry. It didn't help. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff and eating half of it on the front porch. The hike overall today was really nice. At one point, the trail went for about a mile between two giant ponds/swamps that are a designated nature/bird preserve. There were swarms of dragonflies everywhere. About 100 circled me the whole way through. Luckily i like dragonflies lol. I need to stretch my calves more. I don't know why, but they just recently started turning into bricks. Sore bricks. It hurts to move. I saw in the guidebook that the trail was going to pass a country road later in the day and that there was a place called Heaven Hill Farm only 0.1 west. Anytime something is only 0.1 miles off trail, you always go check it out. It sounded like a farmers market kinda place and i really wanted some fruit with my dinner... SO glad i went!! I got an orange, a quinoa salad, a VEGAN BLT sandwich, and 2 VEGAN banana chocolate chip muffins!!! FIRST vegan dessert and sandwich i've seen on trail. It was AMAZING!From the farm, you could see the trail ahead and it was practically vertical lol. I kinda regretted gorging myself right before that mile climb, but better to eat it then carry it, i say. I need to do laundry soon. But laundry mats are never close to the trail. And hitching is illegal in NY, so there's that. Hostels/Motels usually have laundry, but then you gotta pay to stay there and that's stupid. I've only washed my clothes once since coming out here. They don't just smell bad, but like sour. The only time i really notice it is right when i wake up in the morning. Overnight my tent becomes a hot-box of smells, fermented mildew essentially. Yum lol.
Date: 2018-06-11
From: stealth camping

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: moderate rain

Last night i woke up around 1am to what sounded like something INSIDE my tent crawling on top of my ziploc bags of stuff. I was scared to turn on my headlamp because i wasn't sure what i was gonna find. Once i ruled out snakes and opossums and decided it was probably just a mouse, i turned on the light and started slowly moving everything in my tent around. Eventually i see the tent floor move. And then move again! Turns out, i set up my tent on top of a small mouse hole. That mouse was running around right underneath my back all night long lol. My hike started out really strong this morning. Did 7 miles in 3 hours. After lunch though it was all downhill (not the terrain, my attitude lol). All i wanted to do was nap, but setting up everything needed to nap comfortably sounded like a lot of work. So i hiked on. The trail went over some stupid big rocks. Not like a couple rocks, but like 2 miles of boulders. My ankles are feeling it. I climbed up one rock today only to see a bear climbing up the same rock on the other side! He didn't seem very startled by me, so i quickly scrambled back down. I made a bunch of noise on the rocks with my trekking poles and within minutes he moved on. This morning, i met an older guy section-hiking the trail headed south. He told me he was glad that this was his last day in New York. He said that the trail ahead turns into a mad rollercoaster with lots of PUDs. As if i already wasn't super pumped for tomorrow's hike... now i know it's brutal. Thanks. Same guy also told me about this famous ice cream shop coming up on a road crossing, only 0.3 miles off trail. He insisted that i go check it out. I smiled and nodded, but we all know i don't give two fucks. And then a different guy later in the afternoon gives me the same spiel! And then two other hikers i run into say they're headed for the ice cream and tell me i should join. And i'm just thinking if one more god damn person tells me about this slavery-made, hormone-induced, country-ass ice cream i'm gonna fucking lose it. The other day when i hiked a couple miles with Skywalker, he kept mentioning how much he LOVED hiking. After the third time, i told him to shut the fuck up because it really kinda pissed me off lol. I kept thinking about that today.. I don't think i'd ever drop the L bomb when describing my relationship with hiking. I hope that by the end of all this i can say that hiking is something i really enjoy. But i don't know right now, too soon to tell. In case you were wondering, my feet have gotten worse, much worse! They survived yesterday pretty well, mainly because i stopped several times to shake out my shoes and socks. I didn't do that today though because i'm stupid and now i'm paying for it - bad! I'm gonna try to figure out how to upload a picture of my feet because someone needs to see this! I cleaned the bottom of my feet with alcohol swabs and put anti-bacterial ointment on them. Right now, they hurt to the touch. A lot. I'm hoping they scab up a little by morning. Tomorrow should be interesting.
Date: 2018-06-12
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: clear sky

Today was a day. I started hiking kinda late, 9:30am. I was the last one to leave the campsite. Mornings are always pretty slow. I feel like a newborn fawn whenever i take my first steps out of my tent. My ankles feel like glass and the arches of my feet are super tight. By noon i had already stopped 4 times to tend to the sores on my feet. I was beyond frustrated. I have this theory now that it's not actually sand/sediment that i'm feeling in my socks, but rather SALT. Since i haven't done laundry in nearly 2 weeks, my socks are stiff as a board, so that's what's probably tearing up my feet. I won't have a good opportunity to do laundry until Monday (a week from now), so i'm gonna try and rinse one pair of my socks in a stream tomorrow. I don't really care about the pain or discomfort of it all. I'm just really paranoid about getting some crazy skin infection that forces me to a doctor. I felt super discouraged all day. The trail was hard. I didn't even do an insane amount of miles, but i literally spent the whole day hiking. The other day i was starting to think that my "hiker stride" was setting in, but then New York happened. I keep looking at the elevation chart for tomorrow and the rest of the week and it doesn't seem to get any better. I have a nearly 18 mile day planned for tomorrow. Kill me. I like hiking alone, but not having someone to bitch about the trail with at the end of the day makes all of this a little harder. Any "friends" that i have made are all NoBos, so they're already 2-4 days ahead of me. It's so frustrating that i can't keep up with them yet.I'm stealth camping again. This time on top of a mountain with a view of the sunset. I'm definitely not supposed to be camping here, but i doubt anyone is gonna climb all the way up here to tell me otherwise lol.
Date: 2018-06-14
From: Hemlock Springs campsite

To: Clarence Fahnestock State Park
Miles today: 18.0

Got started pretty early today, 7:30am. I knew the trail was gonna run into a road crossing with a gas station, so i made plans to resupply there. Besides being way over priced ($60 for 3 days of food), it had a lot of hiker stuff and a deli! I had a second breakfast involving 2 bagels, an apple, a banana, and mango juice! And they even had these Lenny & Larry vegan protein cookies that are usually a rare find! A bought a ton lol. About 2 miles into my hike, i regretted everything i bought. My pack is SO heavy. It's literally a never ending cycle. Feet Update: they're healing! I washed one pair of socks in a stream 2 days ago and hung them on the outside of my pack. I think they'll be finished drying by tomorrow, so then i should have one pair of salt-free socks. For the pair i've been wearing, i've just been dumping loads of baby powder in them in the morning (thanks taylor!) and it kinda works like a fabric softener and also protects my feet. So that's been a game changer. Camping at a state park tonight and they have showers! I didn't have any soap though, so i just planned to rinse off. But someone left behind their Suave shampoo! Feels so good to be clean. And guess what else i found, the whole gang! I strolled in around 5:00 only to find Skywalker, Rodo, Baby Face, Zoltan, and Caveman all hanging out. I met several of these guys at the church hostel a week ago. Thought they were all light years ahead of me, but here they are! The state park was only supposed to be a pitstop for them, but they ended up hanging out here longer than expected so they're staying the night. Nice to be in good company. They're planning to go 21 miles tomorrow though, so ill probably lose them again. It's tempting to wanna keep up, but i don't know. I only planned to do 14 tomorrow and right now that sounds pretty great. But we'll see. I was thinking a lot today about my post-trail life and what it's gonna feel like to have completed this whole thing. I think out of all the things on my resume, this is gonna be the most impressive. Like a college degree is good and all, but everyone has that. Honestly, graduating college never felt like a big deal to me. It was just something that was decided for me way before i was even born, and i just followed through. Just a check mark of completion on life's big to-do-list. This is different though. No one is telling me to be out here. And not everyone does this. It's a huge challenge that i just chose to do. I think talking about my trail experience during any future interview is gonna be a much better selling point than my degree. For sure.
Date: 2018-06-15
From: Clarence Fahnestock State Park

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 17.0

Hit mile 400 today! Spent most of the day hanging with the gang which was interesting (who refer to themselves at "The Trailer Park Boys"). I learned that out of the 5 of them, one has their dick pierced and another guy is uncircumcised... i appreciate the fact that none of them treat me like i'm the only girl tagging along, but i definitely didn't need to know this lol. There was a freak tornado in NY not to long along that did some crazy forest damage. So all day we were hoping over huge blowdowns throughout the trail. I learned recently that Legs had to hop off the trail a couple days back. He was running out of money, so he's going home to work for 2 weeks and then come back. He'll be way behind us by the time he gets back, so no real chance of running into him again. The gang was going 0.5 off trail to a deli for lunch. I hadn't planned to go because i was skeptical of the veggie options they would have, but so glad i did! I looked at their menu board and couldn't find anything, so i asked the girl at the counter if she could help me out. She made me a custom, foot-long eggplant cutlet sandwich loaded with veggies and balsamic dressing. It was the bomb.comThe deli was also a convenient store, so we all loaded up on chips, candy, and drinks. We ran into a guy named Chip n' Dale who i had only met briefly on trail a couple days ago. They all knew each other well. Chip n' Dale was waiting in the parking lot for his parents to pick him up to go to their family reunion for the weekend. Since he wasn't hiking at all today, he kept trying to encourage all of us to shotgun a beer before getting back to the trail. Before you know it, we're all huddled up behind this store, everyone with TWO beers in hand. I abstained of course. Hiking is hard enough - i don't need the added bonus of being drunk! lol It was the stupidest most ridiculous thing i've ever seen, but of course i got it all on video lol. With everyone blitzed by 2pm, the rest of the day's hike was super entertaining to say the least. The next shelter we passed was the Morgan Stewart shelter. This is where i had planned to stay the night and conclude my 14 mile day. But everyone else was pushing on to the Telephone Pioneers shelter, another 8 miles! They kept telling me that i could do it, but I've never walked over 20 miles in one day. But i also didn't wanna be left behind. So i caved and kept walking.I didn't make it lol. I walked another 4 miles and was done. Most of the group was way up ahead already, but Skywalker (the beer-shotgun contest winner) was lagging behind lol. He also was in no shape to walk the last 4 miles, so we decided to stealth camp together. He probably could have made that last 4 miles, but i think he partly didn't wanna just leave me in the dust. I don't like being dead weight, but i appreciate the company.
Date: 2018-06-16
From: stealth camping

To: Ten Mile River Shelter
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: clear sky

Even though i slept terribly, i had a little bit of pep in my step today. I've been living in the woods for exactly one month now! And i just crossed out of New York and into Connecticut! I feel humbled, but confident. The trail crossed a road today that had a gardening/landscape store right along the trail. The guidebook said they sold a few hiker necessities and i'm officially out of stove fuel, so i stopped inside. Ran into the rest of the gang there! Wasn't expecting to see them again so soon, but they said they got a late start this morning. Not surprised lol. Skywalker was moving slow this morning too, so he's shortly behind me now. I was sitting on the front porch of the store chatting with Caveman and a guy named Foghorn when all of sudden i see a familiar guy walking up the driveway -- my dad! lol I knew my dad was gonna take a road trip up here to visit me, but i wasn't expecting him until Thursday and today's Saturday. Apparently, that gps tracker on my phone really works lol! The surprise was flattering, but also a bit creepy haha! He came bearing trail magic though (some watermelon and a banana!), so i was glad. Eventually we parted ways and i hiked on to the next shelter to stop for lunch. I ran into a girl named Twig there who i hadn't seen in nearly 300 miles! When i first met her, she had only planned to hike the state of Pennsylvania, but now she's decided to just keep walking for the rest of the summer. So that was a cool surprise. A woman and man, Holiday and T-Rex, eventually walked up. They were a fun duo and told us all about their trip to New York City yesterday. They had some cool trail magic happen. While on the subway, they met a young girl who told them she had thru-hiked the AT last year. The girl was so excited to meet the two hikers that she gave them this giant, homemade, VEGAN loaf of chocolate chip banana bread that she was actually on her way to deliver to her dad for Father's Day lol!! And since i had mentioned earlier to them that i was vegan, Holiday and T-Rex gave me a third of the whole loaf of bread. It was amazing!! I don't think i would have shared such great trail magic lol. After lunch, I hiked another 4 miles to the next shelter, which was at the bottom of the next mountain. So i made a grueling 1,000 ft hike up and then right back down the other side. The tenting area is right next to a big river. Since it's the weekend, there's plenty of people here and many swimming. My joints are really starting to get to me. Mainly my knees and ankles. My left knee pops with every step now. If i sit down or stand still for too long, my whole body locks up. A guy named Full Throttle sees me hobbling around camp and offers me one of his 800 mg ibuprofen -- the good stuff. Out here it's called "Vitamin I" because most people take it every morning with their breakfast lol. I might need to get my own bottle soon. It would definitely help me do a 20+ mile day. My other concern are these two giant blisters coming in on both of my big toes. I guess it's always something though! lol
Date: 2018-06-17
From: Ten Mile River Shelter

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 14.4

This morning i woke up to T-Rex leaving me more of the chocolate chip banana bread outside my tent. He couldn't finish his share and didn't wanna carry it anymore. So more vegan bread for me!!That ibuprofen i took last night was a god send. Nothing hurt this morning! I left camp feeling superhuman. I was also pretty excited to drop into Kent, CT today to resupply. I saw the Trailer Park Boys walking out of town as i was headed in. They're so fast. I also saw the Brew Crew drive by in a rented car with Webster and Torino in the front seat! lol I hadn't seen them since Delaware Water Gap, PA. They rolled down their windows and said hey, but i don't know where they're headed. Nice to know that i'm ahead of them now, so we'll likely see each other on trail soon. Since today was Father's day, i invited my dad to meet me in town for lunch. I stopped at the laundry mat first and washed my clothes for the 2nd time since coming out here! I even washed my sleeping bag. It was great. I met another hiker there named Mastachio. He was an older guy, NoBo, and had a black mustache (obviously) lol. We both left our clothes and walked across the street to a grocery store to resupply. I saw him buying baby wipes and stopped him because i have extra i don't wanna carry. He saw me going for the ibuprofen and told me not too because he had extra. So we made a fair trade!Dad, Jacki, and I ate lunch at an Asian food restaurant in town. I got 4 veggie sushi rolls!! Never did i think i'd get veggie sushi on trail. It was great getting to hang out and show my dad this different life i've acquired. After they left, I hung out with Skywalker for a bit at the laundry mat. Seemed like everyone had the same schedule for the day lol. Earlier i saw that the grocery store had my favorite Vegan Ben & Jerry's peanut butter cookie ice cream sold by the pint! So i went back and bought it and we split it! I could have definitely eaten the whole thing by myself, but hiking on a full stomach of ice cream didn't seem like the best idea. I spent wayyy too much time in town. A little over 5 hours lol. The climb out of town was awful, as usual. My stomach was SO full. I felt nauseous the whole way. While i was dying up the mountain, i turned around to see Skywalker behind me talking to his parents on the phone and barely breaking a sweat! SO annoying lol. I had advantageous plans of hiking another 8 miles out of town, but that definitely didn't happen. We stealth camped after 4 lol.
Date: 2018-06-18
From: stealth camping

To: Belter's campsite
Miles today: 16.6

Today was fucking brutal. It was hot, like sunny all day 95 degrees hot. I hiked on and off all day with Skywalker. There were A LOT of steep inclines today that just felt like they lasted forever. I don't like trying to match Skywalker's pace going uphill, so all day i'd make him give me a head start and then we'd cross paths again a couple hours later. It's nice to have someone to hike with, but his upbeat attitude kills me sometimes. He's a geologist major and nature kind of guy, so all day while we're hiking he's pointing out different kinds of rocks and limestones and flowers and weeds. Usually I can patiently listen, but not today. Today i'm hot, super dehydrated, and drenched in sweat. So i tell him to shut up lol. The original goal for the day was to hike about 20 miles to these falls and swim at the end of the hot day. The gang was camping out at the falls, and so we wanted to catch them. We reevaluated this plan as the day went on. Every hiker we ran into looked like a zombie dying in the heat. We ended up staying at a campsite just 4 miles before the falls. A couple miles before the campsite, we both ran out of water though. And the closest water source was a spring at the campsite. We were dying. There's nothing that can motivate you to keep on hiking other than the promise of water at the end. The only highlight of the day was that my dad brought me a trail magic lunch at a road crossing mid day! I got a salad, juice, and some banana and apple chips! He even brought half a chicken wrap sandwich for Skywalker. Skywalker was speechless. He couldn't believe that my dad just dropped off food on his motorcycle and then sped away! lol He seemed jealous and upset that he was nearly 1,500 miles into his hike and none of his family have ever come to see him. Ya, that would be rough. I don't take the support for granite. I couldn't do this without it, for sure.