morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-06-23
From: Dalton/North Adams, MA

To: Congdon shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I am grumpy tonight. The weather out here really affects my mood. We got dumped on again this afternoon. We got caught up on the ridge again during a thunderstorm, so we had to ditch the packs and wait it out. ...gosh, that was swell...My grumpiness also can be attributed to leaving the comforts of town and slackpacking, and having to walk uphill most of the day with a fully loaded pack. sigh...Today we left mass. and entered vermont!!So the trail in vermont seems to come in a couple of varieties...mud you can walk on...mud you sink into, up to 3"...leafy compost that you can walk on...leafy compost that hides mud you sink into, or hides a puddle...a puddle...a stream...Suffice to say, we got wet. Soaking wet. I have determined that there is no possible way to keep my clothes dry out here. I have decided that i will start packing my clothes away when it starts raining, and i will either hike naked or hike naked under my poncho. This seems much easier to accomplish than creating my diaper-jacket. I am all about the laziness, and figuring out the way to do the least amount of work for maximum effect.The hike was good - the trail is decent, when it isn't under water. And there wasn't any killer steep sections today.No views yet. We were clouded in at all the viewpoints...Lots of people in the shelter tonight, so good company. snake eyes and trust me are still at the birdcage, so they are now a day behind us.No profound thoughts today. Mostly tried to think of things i need for my wife to bring when we meet for 4th of july, and daydreaming about being warm and dry someplace that wasn't the trail.Time for sleep
Date: 2008-06-24
From: Congdon shelter

To: Goddard shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Another short milage day. We are getting lazy. But we figure that to finish on/around aug. 9, we only have to average 14 miles a day, and with that, we still can take 5 zeros. We will need to make up miles in maine, because the white mountains will slow us down, but we will worry about that in maine, once we know what damage we did to our miles in new hampshire.Today we got another thunderstorm, but the twist for today's severe weather was... HAIL!!. Yes, we were pelted with pea sized hail. But, we got a little smarter today. I heard the storm coming, and had my tarp ready to go. This time, we ditched our packs and poles and set up the tarp, so we had a dry place to wait out the storm. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Maybe we can get some locusts or frogs to rain down on us. According to the text message knuckle's husband sent, tomorrow should be clear. We'll see about that. The chance of rain today was 40%, and we saw where that got us.We still got wet, and all of us have wet shoes which can't dry out. Everything we hike in is wet. We keep a spare set of dry clothes for when we get to camp, but our wet stuff is still wet in the morning. I would try to describe the joy of putting on cold wet socks, but the power of the feeling would cause the computer to explode. So try to imagine it, if you dare. The trail is still the same as yesterday, which also isn't fun. So i am not liking vermont much. This state is going to have to really impress me later on to overcome my bad first impressions.The hike today was fairly good - save for the wetness. A big descent and ascent at route 9, but not too bad. Nothing requiring hands. We still didn't get any views... bummer.Tonight it is cold here. The temp. must have dropped 10-20 degrees during the storm. My thermometer says it is 50 degrees right now, but it feels colder.Tonight tourist caught us... he started on march 26. We also have pete here, he is a section hiker from the boston area. And we have 4 long trail hikers here too. The lt folks are cooking gourmet stuff and sharing it with us. nice.....Tomorrow we will get up early to do a 19 mile day while the weather is good. One big climb up stratton mountain (2000 feet). Otherwise the day doesn't look too bad, i am hoping we can get the miles cranked out early so we have time to relax in camp.Time for sleep.
Date: 2008-06-25
From: Goddard shelter

To: Stratton Pond shelter
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: scattered clouds

The day started off with a bizarre dream. I dreamed that we were facing a big mileage day, because the shelters were spaced way far apart, far more than normal. But then, snake eyes and trust me let us know that their parents had built a secret shelter for them, so they wouldn't have to hike so far in a single day, and loaded it down with snacks for them. The guys told us we could use it, and also eat the snacks....But then i woke up... before we could eat the snacks. So sad... but that was fun dream.I've been laughing about it all day. I know i have been influenced by the knowledge of a secret (not on the maps) shelter coming up, and also i watched the guys open their care-boxes in the van ride out of dalton. Funny how my brain mixed them together in the dream.Today was a great day for hiking. The temperatures were cool, and the sun was shining all day. What a huge difference sunshine makes. We also had only 1 big climb - stratton mountain. It was big and long, but not too steep. A good climb. And, there is a firetower at the top. There were also no big rock scrambles, or trail going over wet rocks, or wet rock scrambles, or giant puddles to circumnavigate, or streams to walk in, or mudpatches, etc. to work around. So the hiking was good.We also got some good views, from the fire towers on glastenbury and stratton mountains. yay! Vermont may redeem itself yet. But we shall see.We got out about 6:40 this morning and made good time. We stopped for a snack break at kid gore shelter and had lunch at story spring shelter. We dried some of our stuff out there, (but mt wet socks didn't get dry), and we continued on. The climb up statton was done by 4, and the walk here was good. We got in by 5:30. We cooked, and got all cleaned up, and now just are settling down for the night.Time for sleep. Looking forward to see what kinds of weird dreams i have tonight.
Date: 2008-06-26
From: Stratton Pond shelter

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm in town again. This time for resupply, and to dry out (it's been raining a lot, and that makes us extra stinky), and to do laundry.Today was a short day because of that; we were considering just hitching in and resupplying and hitching back out, but it was a bad weather day, so we stayed.The morning started off good, and we were out by 6:30. We had good smooth trail, and no major hills to climb, so we made good time. but... it started to rain again. This was a misty soaking type rain, so the trail stayed good, but made being outside very unpleasant. We got to the road about 11, and began our first attempt to hitch a ride. It worked! A nice guy named bob hill picked us up. How awesome. There was another hiker - pete, who we've been leapfrogging with and staying at the shelters with the last couple of nights hitching too, but he was down the road from us. He actually caught a ride just after us, and we all got dropped off in the same place... in front of EMS.We spent some time at EMS, and they were a huge help, and assisted us in getting a place to stay, and all of that. We headed over to sutton house after EMS and got a room there. Apparently, we got the last room, because i heard that another hiker, tourist, was turned away because this place is full. Sorry tourist, we didn't mean to bump you out!So we spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning up. We had linner at a southwestern place - good food (but $$), and we did resupply at price chopper after that. Then we just chilled out and made phone calls to loved ones, because there is no longer cell service in the woods.So a good day, but a wet one. Tomorrow we have a shuttle coming to get us at 7am... so i better get to sleep.Manchester center is a neat little town. Worth stopping in, should you be so inclined.
Date: 2008-06-27
From: Manchester Center, VT

To: Lula Tye shelter
Miles today: 19.5

Today i met my first southbounder. His name was flashdance, and he was from chevy chase, md. Nice guy, and fast. He is down here already, and started about a month ago. And he hikes part-time in flip flops. crazy...Today turned out to be a good day weather-wise. It was overcast most of the morning, but got hazy-sunny in the afternoon, then there was a brief thunderstorm/rain shower, then it cleared up. There was some more thunder, but no extra rain. So by not raining, it was good. or well, by just briefly raining.For views, the day was not so good... visibility was low, or non-existent. Bummer. There were some good view opportunities to be had, that were promptly missed.We took advantage of the not-rainy day, and put in some big miles. We figured it was better to do them today. We got a good start - our ride picked us up from suttons at 7, and we were on the trail by 7:30. Because of the food resupply, my pack weighed about 10 million pounds. oiy! What am i eating???So that made the 1700 foot climb a little harder than usual. I've gotten used to having about 3 days worth of food, and i had 5 days worth in there this morning. I weighed myself in town, and i'm down to 175. Until i gorge on town food, and then i'm up to 180. I need to eat more, but then i am carrying more food, which weighs more, so i have to work harder to hike, which means i need even more food...etc. it's like rocket science, but less fun.So back to the hike... we had two big climbs today, the 1700 footer right off the bat - to the top of bromley mountain. The last quarter mile was up the ski slope. That was fun. We got to the top where the chair lifts drop off the skiers. There was an observation platform there, but it was too hazy to see more than a couple of miles. The second climb was almost 1000 ft. and it came after we climbed down from bromley. After those climbs, the rest of the day seemed pretty easy. Although my pack still weighed a bazillion pounds.The trail itself was good too, not too many obstacles to navigate through.I had thoughts i wanted to put in here, but i forget what they are now. Probably something about how i hate hiking in the rain, and something about how i find thunderstorms to be very annoying. Like i have said before, the weather really affects my mood out here. Looks like we have rain in store for us every day for the next 4 days. I should be a giant grumple-puss by the time it stops. The day after tomorrow is supposed to be the worst - all day rain. blah... Vermont is starting to edge closer to displacing Georgia as my second-worst state in the rankings. Pennsylvania is #1 in the worst-state rankings - forever.So we are all hoping that the weather pattern will break for us when we hit new hampshire, and we get great weather for hiking the White Mountains.Tomorrow we are going to pull an 18 miler, unless the weather is stinky, and we drop into a shelter early.Let's hope the weather holds for us...
Date: 2008-06-28
From: Lula Tye shelter

To: Clarendon shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: broken clouds

Today didn't go as planned... in many respects. First, it wad supposed to be rainy all day - and it didn't really start until 5 or so (a good thing) and then we did shorter miles than we wanted, because my foot was starting to hurt in a new and different way (a bad thing). This time it was the tendons on the top of my foot, close to my ankle. So we called it a day here at clarendon shelter, so i could rest it. I "iced" it (put a platypus bladder full of cold stream water on it), and kept it elevated for a good part of the afternoon, and stayed off it. It feels much better now, so i think if i ace it up in the morning, i should be good. I banged it into a rock earlier in the day when i was hopping from wet rock to wet rock and my foot slipped. I thought i had just bruised it, until it really started to hurt after a rest break. Let's hope this does the trick, because this is the same injury that made gobbles get off the trail earlier...So today turned out sunny for a lot of the day, but it was wicked humid. We got started about 6:15 this morning, and had 10 miles done by 11:30 when we stopped for lunch. I was sweating a lot today, we had to stop for water a lot. The trail was pretty good... still treacherous from being wet, and boggy in places. Lots of mud too, but also lots of good trail. There were some big climbs today, and descents to match. The climb coming up here to the shelter was a killer, and supposedly, there is a 600 foot climb straight up right when we leave here in the morning. yuck....It was nice having the afternoon to relax. I didn't do anything useful while i sat around, and it was good.This is a pretty nice shelter, but it leaks a lot. Glad we are in here though. It is pouring rain now... and i am thirsty, but the water source, a creek, looks like chocomut milk, so i think i will wait to get water.Tonight in the shelter is pete, a cool guy from mass. who is out section hiking, and we've been in the shelters together for the last couple of nights. jake, a long-trail hiker from southern california is here too. and waldo (i found waldo!) and foghorn are here. They caught up to us - they had hiked with knuckles back in VA for a while, so they had a good reunion. Cool guys, and fun to talk to. Then gobbles and knuckles, and me.We are going to get n early start tomorrow, to do 19 miles with some big climbs. We are going to try to get into killington, if we can.Still no profound thoughts, but i do keep getting christmas songs stuck in my head. The other day was god bless ye merry gentlemen, and today was the adam sandler hannukah song. But since i don't know all the words, so it's one half of one line over and over. I think i am going to go insane soon. or perhaps it is time to turn on the mp3 for a while....Things to contemplate...Time for sleep....
Date: 2008-06-30
From: The Inn at Long Trail/Vt. 4

To: The Inn at Long Trail/Vt. 4
Miles today: 0.0

Zero day! Zero day!That's not what our goal was last night. This morning, gobbles came in and declared that we should hike two miles to killington, and stay there tonight. ha ha ha! But then the consensus quickly became let's just stay here, take the bus into rutland, resupply there, and just hike out tomorrow. That will give my foot a chance to heal, and everyone gets to rest. So that became the plan. gobbles is a genius.We took the bus to town after eating an awesome breakfast here at the inn, and we did some internet surfing - mostly emails and trying to find out where other people are on their journals/blogs. Then we had lunch at a really good cafe. Then gobbles, knuckles and jake went to see love guru (they hated it), and i went to price chopper and was going to head back here on the bus. But this awesome guy - jack - gave me a lift. He heard me in the chopper talking about where i was staying, and offered me a ride, since he was headed this way. Thanks! Jack frequents the inn, so the bartender knew him right off the bat when i was telling gobbles how i got back. So i was back here by 1:30, and i spent the afternoon icing my foot and reading "goosebumps" books. I read 3 of them... monster blood, my hariest adventure, and one about piano lessons gone awry. I forget the title, but it had ghosts and a maniacal man who likes to cut off peoples hands, so he could install them on robots to play pianos.I watched some weather channel, to find out how much it was supposed to rain on us, and got nothing conclusive... typical...Ate a good shepards pie for dinner, and i watched a mr. bean movie on tv for a bit (very wierd, i couldn't figure out what was going on), and came up to the room to journal.A quiet and restful day....Tomorrow we are thinking of doing an 18. pete has moved on, so we will catch up with him tomorrow night, and jake will head off to the north to finish the long trail.Time for sleep...
Date: 2008-07-01
From: The Inn at Long Trail/Vt. 4

To: Winturi shelter
Miles today: 18.5

It's july?? How did that happen?Today was gorgeous - perfect hiking weather. I knew vermont would give us at least one good day. well, i was hoping... and i was rewarded....We got a late start on account of the good breakfast they have at the inn. mmmmmmm.... broccoli cheese omelet with toast, sausages and home fries, with chocomut milk....So we got started from the inn about 9am and got to the junction with the AT at about 9:30 or so. We said goodbye to jake and started hiking east. We had a good downhill stretch to start with, and then a big climb up quimby mountain. Of course all i had going through my head as we hiked up were mayor quimby quotes from the simpsons....on the other side of that mountain was a shelter, so we stopped there for lunch. holy moley there were a lot of flies there. I kept looking around to try to figure out why so many flies were there, but i didn't look too hard, because i didn't want to find any dead things.We got back to hiking about 2, and it was a good afternoon... a couple more 500 foot climbs, and a good viewpoint punctuated the day. We have split from the long trail now, so we saw fewer people and the trail has become noticeably less used.We keep seeing moose poop... but no mooses. Hopefully soon. Moose like to poop on the trail, so i want to get to see one as a reward for having to dodge their trail bombs.So we rolled in to this shelter about 6:45. We set up our tents and talked to the nice people here while we ate dinner. Then we hung our bear bags and have retired for the evening.Another long day for us tomorrow...But my feet felt okay today. The rest really helped. Time for my beauty sleep.
Date: 2008-07-02
From: Winturi shelter

To: Happy Hill shelter
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: clear sky

Yes!!Another great weather day here in vermont. This place is really pretty when it's not raining. The hike today was tough, but good. Lots of climbs today, steep climbs that tired us out, but the trail was nice and smooth, and the forest kept changing - so visually it was fun too. We kept shifting from pine forest to birch forest, to mix of evrything forest, to fields, to swamp, etc.. a fun hike. We also got some trail magic in the form of a freshly stocked cooler full of mountain dew and pepsi. That was so awesome to find.And we stopped at two stores - the first was cloudland farm, where we got a pint of organic ice cream, and a local vermont soda, and then at the general store in west hartford, where i got a powerade and a snickers. It took us 12 hours to hike from shelter to shelter... but we got some cool breaks.We got started about 6 this morning... and hiked the first 4 miles downhill. So nice. If only every day could start like that. Then we started the up-down-up-down that would charcterize the rest of the day. Each climb was steep, and by itself, wasn't too bad, but after 20 miles of that, i started to get tired... and my feet got tired and sore too. bummer...Today, a lot of the discussion was of sweet tea, and how delicious it is, and how we can't find it up north. mmmmmm sweet tea.We also got the opportunity to see a thunderstorm off in the distance. That was cool! But it had us very nervous about if was heading for us or not. luckily it did not.Today i had "deep in the heart of texas" going thru my head, which made me think of "yellow rose of texas" which starte going thru my head, and for some reason i had the hokey-pokey also going thru my head. But not all at the same time....I need to have a cooler soundtrack for my brain... this stuff just isn't working for me.So time to massage the feet, and go to sleep. I think i will sleep well tonight. Lots of skeeters here, but i am under my bugnet.... glad i got it.Tomorrow we will hit hanover, and i will take some time to go see my wife. I will fall behind knuckles and gobbles, but hopefully i will catch up to them by glencliff.Look out new hampshire... here we come.
Date: 2008-07-04
From: Albany, NY

To: Albany, NY
Miles today: 0.0

zero day!Hung out with mike in the morning, and i got my pictures loaded onto the trailjournal. We had lunch at a yummy italian place, and then i went to the hotel to meet with my wife.We met up with mike again at 5, and we drove down to the center of albany, and had dinner at an indian restaurant, and then we went to the empire plaza to watch the fireworks. We met another college friend while we were there, and it was good to see him. I haven't seen him in 10 years.The fireworks were fun, but it was more fun to watch the people. I realize now how much i hate crowds, and loud music.... hmmmm... i am becoming a crumudgeon....a good zero day....
Date: 2008-07-05
From: Albany, NY

To: Albany, NY
Miles today: 0.0

Another zero day! but an exhausting zero day. It should have been called "chore" day. My wife and i ran around all day taking care of chores. Not the way i want to spend my precious time with her. but necessary. In the morning, it was taking care of trail stuff... resupply and equipment replacement/procurement. Then we ate lunch, and promptly fell asleep afterwards. Then after lunch, it was taking care of MBA stuff until dinner... and then after dinner, it was MBA stuff till bedtime. My wife takes care of a lot of it (thank you), but there is still a lot i have to do... whodathunk it?So i got most tasks accomplished, but i am bitter about it taking up the whole day, and taking time away from just having fun with my wife.Tomorrow i head back to hanover and resume hiking. I talked to gobbles, and they decided to wait in hanover for me, so i get to hike out with them. That was really cool of them. snake eyes and trust me caught up, so i will see them too. Should be fun.
Date: 2008-07-07
From: Three Mile Road

To: Three Mile Road
Miles today: 0.0

Another zero day. Gobbles is feeling better, so we are going to hike out tomorrow.Didn't do much today. Slept in till 7, hung out here till 11, got a cab into hanover and took the bus to west lebanon. The guys went to EMS, and i went with gobbles to the drug store while he got his prescription filled. We tried to go to the KFC/Taco Bell for lunch, but they had a bunch of workers walk off the job, so only the drive thru was open. snake eyes, trust me, and thud walked thru the drive through, and gobbles, knuckles and i went to a TGIF type restaurant for lunch. The taco bell crew reported that the got the entire meal wrong, and were mixing up KFC items in with the taco bell items, and it was a mess. Glad i didn't try to eat there.We walked back to the bus after lunch, rode back to hanover, then hung out at the bookstore for a while. Then we went to the food store and called the cab to come back for us, but were told the soonest they could get us was in 2 hours. So i bought some snacks to eat while we were waiting, and we had a nice time sitting in the shade.When we got back here knuckles and snake eyes made dinner - spaghetti with homemade sauce and a giant salad. It was really good- and we all stuffed ourselves. We still have leftovers.So i will get up early tomorrow and be part of the breakfast crew, and then once we clean up, we are out of here.time for sleep...