morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-10-07
From: buttermilk falls trailhead

To: Delaware water gap PA
Miles today: 20.9
Weather: clear sky

We're in PA! crossing the Delaware river was a super scary and bouncy bridge with a 3 foot concrete wall separating your face and semis going 80 miles an hour by about 10 feet. It was an ugly concrete couple if miles to the NJ section, which was beautiful. We passed sunfish lake and a really long brook that are part of the "7 natural wonders of NJ", a glacier fed lake. Earlier we passed by a fire tower that was one of the first places kate and I hung out together, right before we started dating. I get my confusion now on why I thought DWG was in NJ. the park is all in jersey, it's just the town that's in PA and I don't think I've ever been here before. We were on rocky ridgelines most of the day with great views. I saw a big old rat snake and then a baby rattler. Lot if folks warning about the rattlers today and it did feel like ideal snake terrain. Hot rocks and underbrush. One if the peaks was rattlesnake mountain even, so we've been warned. The rattler I saw sprinted away from me though while the rat snake blocking the whole trail made it clear I was going to have to go around. I got to see a bunch of hawks and vultures spiraling up in the thermals too.  We're in prob the dirtiest, creepiest, most run down motel ever, the pocono inn. I had my new shoes sent here and in the book they were the only ones with laundry so we were kinda locked in. The lady was super nice and the water pressure is great . Everything else is nasty filth and we slept in our sleeping bags. If you want a laugh look at the reviews of this place online. It must be a front or something because i think they were surprised someond was actually staying here. And its frickin huge!Pretty pumped about these shoes though. Same ones as I had but you can see the wear of 900 miles on them. And i got them for like half the pri e as i originally did from rei, 60 bucks. It's really rocky trail coming up so I'm happy to have new treads. Honestly my old ones could've gone more miles. They hadn't completely disintentegrated yet. And they're trail runners to boot. If these new ones hold up the same I might be a vasque brand devotee for life.
Date: 2016-10-08
From: Delaware water gap PA

To: past wolf rocks
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: clear sky

Kate has diagnosed me with chronic giardia and I'm taking antibiotics now. After still feeling a little upset stomach this morning and not eating like I should, it's the most plausible thing. I never had any of the acute symptoms but apparently it could be mild and the reason I don't have the hiker hunger. That's what scares me is if I keep eating like this and walking these miles I'll disappear. So the antibiotics are definitely worth a shot. to put in perspective, last night kate had a giant steak dinner, salad, wheel of brie appetizer, a piece of cheesecake, some of my fries and a beer for dinner. I had half a veggie burger, half plate of fries and a beer and the thought of eating any more made me sick.  I did get down a couple delicious donuts and delicious egg sandwich this morning at the best bakery ever, the Apple pie bakery. The place was awesome. Full of pies and tons of baked everything. They have a special too: a hot dog and slice of apple pie for 2.95. Their sign has a picture of a hot dog and pie slice holding hands. If you're ever in DWG you have to go. They do bbq on the weekends and a fellow sobo cricket said when he got there last night they were closing up and gave him a tray of turkey legs and like 5 full sides for free. We resupplied at the gas station which actually had a lot of the items that are tough to find lately. They had caffeine pills, Gatorade powder, triple a batteries, and a new Indian ramen thing I'd never seen before. We hung out at the church of the mountain hostel with cricket and some other hikers on the way out. Really nice digs in the basement of a Presbyterian Church with nice gazebo and covered picnic tables outside. They ask for 3 bucks donation and have bunks, showers, common room with guitars etc. Looks like they've been open to hikers for a while. We finally got out to the trail around 1 and it was crowded with day and section hikers. Lot of nice folks to talk to though. Sounds like water is still going to be an issue for a while. I heard of a 27 mile dry section. Hope there are some trail angel stashes in that one. it was nice to have a short day. Kate and I had enough daylight and energy to play a few games of backgammon even.
Date: 2016-10-09
From: past wolf rocks

To: wind gap, pa
Miles today: 6.2
Weather: light rain

So we got to wind gap at noon and there was a sports bar about .8 from the trail. Since the circumstances were aligned I made kate indulge my nfl sickness and we had planned to watch some of the Bengals game and move on after lunch at the sports bar. I found out when we got there that they weren't playing until 430 tho. We still needed to resupply and I had my heart set on town lunch as I was getting my appetite back. So we still went to the sports bar. Seeing everyone else there about to pig out on terrible food and beer just really started to pull on me and I roped kate in to getting yet another hotel and being total bums the rest of the day. We watched the Bengals play later and they looked so terrible that I think I'm cured of wanting to see any other game this season. I thought they could've won the superbowl last year and retained enough key folks to do it this year, especially on defense. But man. It's for the best. Hiking on and not worried about stupid football.
Date: 2016-10-10
From: wind gap, pa

To: Lehigh river
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

We got a late start after some delicious dunkin donuts and a hitch from a very nice former thru hiker. Luckily we made it to the rocky descent into the gap while it was still light because there were a couple hairy sections to the climb down. Kate came scarily close to a spill that would not have been good and I'm still recovering from watching it almost happen. She crouched down to I think kind of butt slide to the next foot hols but when she did the rock wall pushed her pack out and she almost lost balance and would've fallen not feet first. She had twisted her knee a bit earlier on a wobbly boulder and that was hurting her enough we decided to get a hotel room again instead of the steep climb in the dark to the next shelter over possibly more boulders. The previous part of the hike was really pretty too. It was up on a Ridgeline with great panoramic views the whole time. Although the reason for the great views was that it was the Palmerton superfund site. They did a 100 years of zinc smelting there which they tried to clean up in the 80s. There were some really young pockets of trees but it's mostly still deforested and all the springs through there have "high" metal content. Before and after the site they have boot scrapers on the trail too. When we first saw them we were like oh that's prob to prevent tracking a non native species in. Then we realized oh, more likely to not spread contaminated soil outside the site. Gross.
Date: 2016-10-11
From: Lehigh river

To: Allentown hiking club shelter
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: clear sky

Got another late start due to difficulty getting back to trail and weren't hiking until 10. The climb out of Lehigh gap wasn't as bad as the numbers suggested. The spring near the shelter was flowing well but had a strong suggestion saying to treat as well as filter so I just went with the water I had already, being so close to a super fund site and all. In fact the zinc smelting plant that caused the superfund status on the ridge is still operating in the valley, so I erred on the side of caution. Luvkily there were some trail angel water drops like before. It was a really flat day and we were only slowed up at times by a few larger rock scrambles and climbs. We met some cool folks counting hawks and other birds at bake oven knob, which is a beautiful outlook. They put up a giant owl on a stick over the ridge to get some of the other birds to attack it. I learned what a sharp shinned hawk is and right after they explained that I saw one dive in. And try to slap the fake owl in the face. They're cute, smaller hawks and if I were them I would not be messing with a great horned owl. Apparently they hate them though. I got to see a few others but they fly so high most of them were just specs.
Date: 2016-10-12
From: Allentown hiking club shelter

To: hamburg, pa
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: overcast clouds

We're total hotel rats I know, and I don't care. If we needed an excuse before it was my stomach. And now it's that I need the town food to help make up lost calories. I'm scared to weigh myself because I know I took a hit, but really glad I think I've just about got the hunger back. On the hike We s got a few good views from what they call pulpits around here and i gof to check out a little astronomical park by one of them. This amateur astronomy club has three sort if mini versions of those big telescopes with the covered domes. They do public stargazig parties too which i could really see myself getting into. We got a hitch from a super nice guy who drove us straight to cabelas and offered us a place to stay and a ride tomorrow too. Got nothing but gratitude towards him but he also shared his hatred of Mexicans with us and drives like a maniac so well prob pass on the additional offers. This cabelas is apparently the largest in the world. We got ourselves some blaze orange hats, splurged on the hiker meals which we haven't seen in forever, then ogled all the cool fish in their giant walk in aquarium. We then gorged ourselves at red Robin and walk to the hotel.
Date: 2016-10-13
From: hamburg, pa

To: past fort Dietrich Snyder monument
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: clear sky

We got an uber back to the trailhead instead of calling the very nice racist man who gave us a hitch yesterday. Right after starting out and seeing the Schuylkill river (an old friend from Philly btw) the trail walks through port clinton, pa. We were about to make the turn across the river when a guy starts whistling like crazy at us. I was super skeptical about chatting with this guy buy he ended up being a lasher, long ass section hiker, and was telling us about the barber shop which had donuts, coffee, and a little jam going on. Half the town was in there. I was still in make miles mode since it was already 10, but glad we stopped. A fella had brought a banjo and he was playing guitar while an older lady sang and yodeled. Holy shoot could she yodel too. I played banjo with them for almost an hour. It was a lot of fun and only the second time I've touched a banjo since we started. I will soon be famous too as there was a reporter and photographer there from the local paper doing some piece for Schuylkill living or some magazine they put out. He's gonna email me the article when it comes out. I'll keep you posted. Another hiker in there had a cute little dog named rooster which when he told me the dogs name I remembered seeing a lost dog poster not long ago for that same dog. Poor guy had spent a day and a half looking for him. He'd been hiking a lot with the lasher, walrus, and one morning walrus left the shelter early and the dog followed him out, but then got lost I guess trying to get back to the shelter. Anyway, those two had left the barber shop a bit earlier than us but we caught up to them and hiked and chatted with them for a while. Think rooster's owner is named ax. The trail name things funny. You get used to it but forget it's weird. When the reporter asked my name for the photo credit I was like, mr. Tuxedo and he was all, uhh...do you have a real name? It rained for the first couple hours of the hike then cleared up. We did pretty good for not actually starting until after 11. We made our daily goal before dark. I called amy and we set up a time to meet saturday. Excited to hike with her and her new dude.
Date: 2016-10-14
From: past fort Dietrich Snyder monument

To: lickdale, pa
Miles today: 20.9
Weather: overcast clouds

We decided to continue the hotel rat wave and get a room before amy comes to visit. there were a couple really nice benches under the highway bridge and i waited there like a troll a while playing cpu 6 in chess. We got the weirdest hitch ever in to town. I hadn't waited long at all when a car going the other way stopped to ask if we needed a ride. It was a guy and two women and we scrunched up in the front seat with the guy and our packs in our laps. About a mile in he sees a cop pass us. He was worried we'd get pulled over and I assumed maybe because we were overcrowded upfront without seat belts or he thought hitchhiking was illegal. The cop didn't turn around and he didn't panic or seem stressed. He just pulled over and asked us if we could get out as quickly as possible. Then he kept going in the direction of town. Again, he was pretty calm and popped the trunk for us. It wasn't like a crazy scramble to get out. Just didn't make a lot of sense and now we were about a mile out of town, which is kind of an awkward distance to hitch so we just walked the rest. My theory is he was protecting us from getting involved in something he was wanted for or had in the car, had he been pulled over. Or he thought hed get a ticket for picking up a hitch. If they meant to do us harm somehow I don't see how just seeing the cop would've put a wrench in that. When we got to town there were three hotels and a campground, all completely booked. We're right by a big army base, everyone in fatigues, and there must be something going on there. We found a hotel an exit down and got an uber out there. Unfortunately it's right in Hershey by a casino so it's double the price. Oh well, really good bed at least.
Date: 2016-10-15
From: lickdale, pa

To: spring past pa325
Miles today: 17.7

Amyamyamyo came to visit and we got to meet her boyfriend jeremiah. I was planning on a shorter hike but they both wanted to go all out. It wasn't the most exciting section but still pretty with the fall colors and creeks. They went halfway out with us then back to their car to come pick us up for dinner. We were hearing the usual hunting gunshots, but then started hearing massive explosions followed by machine gun fire. Then we remembered we were right by the army base and it must be training grounds. That made more sense than the scarier notion of hunters gone wild. The morning hike went by so quick with them there. Chatting the whole way just made time fly. We went to this great little hole in the wall bar called nook for dinner. The waitress had a great southern accent and the food was good. They dropped us back off at the trailhead and headed back to philly. It was short but sweet. So much fun getting to hang with them for the day and have company on the trail. And thanks for the gifts yall!
Date: 2016-10-16
From: spring past pa325

To: duncannon, pa
Miles today: 17.8

We're at the doyle in duncannon. A historic hiker friendly hotel and bar. It's a really cool old building, albeit kind of filthy and rundown. It's not as offensive as the pocono inn though. Probably because it's 35 bucks for the two of us and it's got that rundown quirkiness vibe. The bartender/housekeep was really friendly too and showed us a bunch of history books about the place. Right before town we crossed the susquehanna which was really beautiful. AWOL had a warning that peregrine falcons nesr along the bridge and have been known to dive bomb hikers. We were kind of disappointed when we didn't see any.  The hike today had a few good views but was pretty uneventful. Much less bombs to worry about. We did have lunch at the largest shelter I've seen, Peters mtn shelter. Sleeps 16 and had two stories and a covered picnic table on sort of a wrap around porch. Brand spanking new log book though so we couldn't tell how far behind some if our friends we are.
Date: 2016-10-17
From: duncannon, pa

To: darlington shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: few clouds

Had a bunch of town errands this morning. I went to the post office to bounce our box and picked up a package from my dad with our absentee ballots and loads of goodies including the super fancy maine brand hiker meals. Thanks dad! My food bag is now 100% hiker gourmet. We then spent a good couple hours looking up all the smaller races on the ballot from the really nice 2nd floor porch of the doyle. It has a great view of the town and hills. We were hanging with ax and his little dog rooster who had skipped ahead a bit after his friend walrus burndd himself on his alcohol stove. Mustve been right after we left him anc it sounds bad but at least localized. He thinks hes going to be able to start hiking again in a bit. Sounds like ax saved it from being much worse. Thats how chet of chets place in north woodstock ended up in a wheelchair, alcohol stove incident apparently. By the time we finished the ballot it was 11 and thd doyle bar had opened. Our friend cricket showed up in town and joined us. The owners were manning the bar and grill and they were funny, nice folks. We finally got on th ed trail about 130 and cricket hiked with us all day. We were a day ahead of him and he took a day and a half zero and still caught up to us, so he's fast. He wanted to chat though since we were headed to the same spot, which was nice to pass the time.
Date: 2016-10-18
From: darlington shelter

To: boiling springs, pa
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: broken clouds

We were vortexed partly by Vortex. We were chilling at this cool, old spot called boiling springs tavern eating delicious food and beer/cider when that f it vibe crept in and I was all, we'll do 25 tomorrow. Cricket knew where to find us and hung with us and the bartender and regulars. He'd been in town for a bit. The spot had a cool mascot/logo of a mallard in an old school duck hunting sweater and blazer with his hands in his pockets. This dude vortex offered us a free night stay at his place including hot tub. I was almost sold but he was drunk already and the thought of not going straight to bed at 6pm and possibly partying all night seemed no good. Cricket took him up on it and Kate and I hit up the only other game in town. It's this cute bnb with a lot of mostly working instruments. I got to play some upri g f bass and organ. We also met her 40 something year old son she was cooking dinner for, who came down from his room in the attic in his underwear. Hiking today was super hot, flat, and exposed. A lot of farmland and road walks. I met a group of super friendly cows. One of them perked up when I came close and I started talking to them like people. When the rest heard me they all came trotting over to sa hi. Tots adorbs. Later when I met up with kate there was a horse literally standing on the trail. Also friendly. So it was a friendly farm animal day. Well, short day. Whatever. I weighed myself for the first time since NH, and I needed every bit of those 6000 town calories. I've lost 27 lbs. I think 10 was from the stomach bug recently and ima need those back.
Date: 2016-10-19
From: boiling springs, pa

To: pine grove furnace sp
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: light rain

As usual, a late start out of town. We had a pretty good breakfast while the nice old lady innkeeper waxed on about her disdain for hikers, murders on the trail, and how Californians are stupid. A real charmer. It didn't quite fill us up so we hung out eating donuts at the coffee shop for a while and I ordered a new phone. I really liked the town overall. It's filled with friendly people, but the down side to that is everyone wants to talk to you and ask the same questions, and its hard to leave. We had to sprint out of there and avoid eye contact on the walkway. Even as I'm basically running out of there a dude still shouts at me, "where ya headed?!" I shout back, south, and he's like good! You're too late to go north. Thank you kind sir, etc. Man its still real hot out there and I was dripping sweat most of the day. There were a couple cool rock mazes and the fall colors were great. About 11 miles in we took a little side trail to a deli and got some fried food, milkshakes, and resupplied some items to make sure we didn't have to stop before harpers ferry. Right afterwards we ran into cricket who got a late start too. He hiked with us til nightfall but wasn't into night hiking. He'll definitely catch us early tomorrow. I has vowed to go 25 today to make up for laziness yesterday, then 20 when we didn't leave til 1130, then eventually crapped out at 9pm when we passed a really cool looking hostel called iron masters mansion and I realized that it was another 2 miles to get out of the park and off the road walk. Kate was pissed. But now she's eating pizza, watching the debate and drinking Bourbon with two women cursing at trump and she's happier than a pig in shit. The dude at the inn was nice enough to fire up the oven for us late. This place looks huge, cool, and old. I'm eating pizza next to a walk in fireplace right now.
Date: 2016-10-20
From: pine grove furnace sp

To: past Fayetteville pa
Miles today: 20.0

I woke up early and got some eggos and coffee from the innkeeper, who I later found out is also a practicing exorcist. Kate got his website. They had a beautiful baby grand that I got to play for a while now that everyone was awake too. We then got an early-for-us start on the trail around 8. It was another colorful and warm fall day. and we passed the halfway point. Theres no marker for this years halfway, but we got a goid pic at thr traditional sign. Well, the new, new one. I think my favorite was the carved stonr knob out of boiling springs. The Potomac atc does a great job maintaining and they have some of the fanciest shelters I've seen. Covered porch picnic tables, separate covered picnic areas and THE nicest shelter I've ever been to, the rock quarry gap shelter. It's really two shelters joined by a covered common room with table and skylight. Thr caretaker also stocks it with fresh potted flower arrangements, board games, stone animal decorations, a porch swing etc. Cricket caught up to us mid afternoon and we had hiked with him to the shelter. He had a package at this restaurant .5 off trail so that was all the convincing we needed to get some more town food. It ended up being an ice cream and diner called timbers run by a nice couple who had just opened it. The guy was saying they actually had no idea the AT was so close when they bought it and after getting hundreds of hikers this year switched gears to be hiker friendly. They put a few giant, cheap items on the menu and are putting in a resupply store for next year. We got back in the woods and set up camp as soon as we found a decent spot. We all stuffed and exhausted.
Date: 2016-10-21
From: past Fayetteville pa

To: past pen Mar park
Miles today: 18.2

We're in the south yall! It's good to be back. We crossed the mason Dixon line into Maryland. I learned from awol that msrs mason and Dixon were commissioned to make the line 15 miles south of the southernmost home in Philadelphia. Tbe PATC is still killing it with these shelters too. Kate and cricket almost convinced me to stay at the tumbling brook one or whatever about 8 miles back. It was really nice. Covered picnic table area, a snoring and no snoring duplex shelters, good water, forest view. And it was starting to rain. If they'd have put the pressure on a half hr before I would've gone to sleep too, but I somehow started feeling motivated. Knowing we could order pizza at the park and we'd be in the south def helped. Luckily we only got sprinkled on. Earlier I was really struggling. It was also like 20 degrees hotter this morning. Last night I couldn't sleep well it was so hot and now after the front passed I'm in my down jacket in my sleeping bag. The pen Mar park is cool spot with an super friendly caretaker. He made sure we could use the bathrooms before he locked them, told us about the pizza and said we could loiter illegally after dark to eat it under the shelter, where we could find outlets to charge our phones... it'd be a cool park to live by. Real small but has huge pavilions with great views and the AT goes through it.