morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-06-06
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park

To: Shippensburg, PA
Miles today: 0.0

Ah, the first zero day in almost a month. GLORIOUS! We woke up early, enjoyed a yummy breakfast, and James and I headed towards Gettysburg. We met Jelena (sister) and my dad who produced a wonderful birthday present (it's not for a few weeks) from themselves and my Baka - an Ipod! I never figured myself for as an I-pod kinda gal, but I've missed music so much on this hike. Jelena even put TWO episodes of Sex & the City on it. Joyously awaiting the terrible day where I set up my tent in the rain, shiver in my sleeping bag, and lull myself to sleep watching "Models and Mortals." We had a great day enjoying each other's company, hiking to the mid-point marker just north of the state park (I guess it wasn't technically a zero day...), failing the half-gallon challenge (ok, well, Jelena came in and finished the 2/3rds I couldn't in approximatley 12 minutes), hanging out with Wag's family, and overall having a wonderful time not hiking.Next mail drop (I'll probably be there in about a week):Nevena MartinGeneral DeliveryPort Clinton, PA 19549Please Hold for AT Thru-Hiker
Date: 2009-06-09
From: Shippensburg, PA

To: alec kennedy shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: clear sky

so i ended up taking a third zero day. Yep. It was great! Me and jamestoured gettysburg all afternoon and enjoyed each others company. We'reboth into history and we're both nerdy and thats a-ok!! We also saidbye to wag's family who put us up for the weekend and fed us. All inall, i had a great weekend!james dropped me off at 1130 and i did the hike to the shelter wherewags was waiting. Hey what kind of weather do you think i encounteredafter 3 gorgeous zero days?!? An all afternoon thunderstorm?? Dingding ding! It didnt rain very much but enough to get my clothes damp.Thats ok though...no downpours. Also the terrain was pretty sweet -mostly 1s, 5s and some very small boulderingish 9s (see my scale froma few days ago).rocking out the shelter with wags, the three amigas, western, andrawhide tonight. A good crowd for sure!its aways hard to say goodbye to james but i thought of this passagefrom "the big year" (a hilarious birding book wag's mom sent her and now im borrowing it): "al and ethel had been marriedthirty seven years, they had never - not once - lived together thirtydays in a row.... When al told his wife he wanted to take off againand spend a year chasing birds, she wasnt quite sure what to say. Butshe knew they had managed to stay married 37 years. Plenty friendshadnt. Maybe the key to a marriage, she thought, was to keep it fresh,to let one go off and follow a dream and bring it back home for bothof them to celebrate."
Date: 2009-06-10
From: alec kennedy shelter

To: darlington shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

i cant lie. Last night me and wags watched an episode of sex&the cityon my new ipod while we were in the shelter. And it was GREAT.we hiked the 4 miles to boiling springs and stopped by the atc office.Then i spent $4.83 at a gas station and had a hodog, bag of herr'ssalt&vinegar chips, a gatoade (blue of course) and a recess softbatchcookie. Yep. Over 1000 calories. It was glorious. We also past areally pretty lake with lots of mallards and ducklings, a coupleswans, and a sure-nuff loon. We spotted a loon on one of my zero days,but it was a juvenile and didnt have the same plumage as our loondishes back home so i didnt want to count it as my first loon ever.The fella today looked like my dishes so now i've officially seen aloon. Go team.we kept hiking and crossed over I 81 yet again. About that time athunderstorm rolled in so rather than crossing a field we soughtshelter at the edge of a yard. The owner of the house saw us andinvitedInvited us in to get out of the rain (score one gangsta!). The lady -ironically named june - sat us on her screened in porch and told ushow her and her husband (jim, mind you) have lived in that house for40 years. Isnt the trail great!the storm and hail blew over and we headed out. We got to the shelterand decided to tent and built a huge fire. Wags and i chatted aboutlife in general and were enjoyin the fire until...thunder. Yep. Itstarted pouring, the rain put out our fire and is still raining now.Score one rain. Love all. Hope i don't get washed away!ps. Hardly any rocks at all today. Glorious. I hear they dont startuntil bake oven knob. We'll see.
Date: 2009-06-11
From: doyle hotel

To: peters mtn shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: light rain

back on the trail today! I slept great last night and we had adelicious breakfast at goodies this morning. Me and wags left town ata record setting early and enjoyed a leisurely hike. We were planningon doing more miles today but got to this beautiful shelter, saw thethree amigas here and realized we werent sure where a good camp spotwould be. Good company and a nice shelter vs. stealth camping at anunknown location....tough decision!i've decided i have to learn to balance my desire to finish this andgo back home and enjoy life here on the trail. Its hard for me to notput in big miles sometimes...if i put in 20 mile days for the nextmonth and a half i could be done in early august. If i put in morereasonable miles for me i'll be done in late august. Like wags says"i've never heard anyone say they wished they had done the trailfaster." i definitey have a home life i miss a lot, but im also outhere for the journey not the destination.Thats why im a-ok with putting in 11 miles today and callin it quits.Balance...the key to happiness.a different kind of balance...the rocks today werent too bad but alittle rougher than the rest of pa. A small section of 9s and somelarger sections of 5s and 7s. There was some easy terrain too.Yesterday wasnt too rocky except for the descent into duncannon. Pa isdefinitely a lot better than its reputation would have you believe...
Date: 2009-06-12
From: darlington shelter

To: doyle hotel
Miles today: 11.4

we woke up a little later than normal this morning and were the lastto leave camp. It was great. It wasnt raining anymore but the treeswere spitting on us all day. When we got to town we popped out on theroad and were greeted by a group of folks singing and clapping andwaving us over - skittles family had come to meet her and were doingtrail magic! Me and wags were pumped. They fed us yummy food and werevery welcoming and interested in our hike. PA you're winning me overone day at a time..we checked into the doyle hotel which is a building thats over 100years old and is kinda run down but has a ton of character. Its a thruhiker must. We met the traveler, micha, gutsy rabbit, radio freq,snake eyes, snuggie and western who are all stayin here. One of theperks of zero days is you get to meet cool folks who have been behindyou for a while...we drank some beer, had some yummy dinner, and got some ice cream. Meand wags are sharing yet another not-so-Romantice room...its glorious!
Date: 2009-06-13
From: doyle hotel

To: raush gap
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: scattered clouds

girls dominated the shelter last night: me, wags and the three amigasfilled up a 20 person shelter with giggles and insight. The threeamigas are moonwalker (marit from virginia), skittles (dede from pa),and no nails (kathy from virginia). They're in their 40s and metsomehow before the hike - we met them during the first week of thiscrazy adventure and are excited to be hiking with them again!i woke up this morning and saw that wags had set up her tent insidethe shelter to ward off the skeeters. Good thinkin...we had a niceleisurely hike along yet another ridge. Wags and i decided to pitchtents next to the creek near the shelter - its a gorgeous spotespecially since i can give myself a little defunk bandana rubdown! Asection hiker named carl cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner for ustoo! We also finally met loon who is a super cool chick that we'vebeen leap frogging for a while.rocks are getting a little worse but still lots of sections of 5 and 6s Some 8s and 9s thrown in. Good day.
Date: 2009-06-14
From: raush gap

To: hertlein campsite
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: few clouds

last night i flipped through my guidebook and read about katahdin.Apparently the indians said a deity lived on the mountain and wouldtry to destroy anyone who got too close. Three months in to this hikei experienced, via my own stupidity, this rancor. Ok so now that we'reout of bear country theres no need to bear bag food. I keep mine in mytent. Correction, kept. Why? I couldnt really tell you...maybehardheadedness. Well it came back to bite me in the ass. I woke upand started packin my stuff. I cleared out most of my tent and wasfixing to pack up my sleeping pad when i noticed some pellet likeformations. Hmm...that looks kinda like mouse scat. Howd that get inhere? Wait..theres a hole in the mesh of my tent. Oh no! Theres a holein my pack! Ahhh my trail mix is eaten. Yep. Im living proof that amouse will chew its way into your tent even if youre in it! I know, iknow. Rookie move gangsta. Score oneOne rodents. Wait till hunting season comes around. We'll see who getsthe last laugh.we had a great day after that. Nice hiking for the most part, goodconversations, great weather, etc. We even ordered pizza from the 501shelter 6 miles south of here! Yummmmm.congrats to carrie and chase, and krista and dustin who are allexpecting! How exciting!rocks were rough again in small sections todays but nothing thatlasted for more than 1/8 of a mile at a time. 5s 6s and 8 and 9s.
Date: 2009-06-15
From: hertlein campsite

To: port clinton
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: overcast clouds

wags and i woke up this morning with good intentions of gettingstarted early but were drawn to a slow start by not worrying aboutmuch. We wanted to get to the post office by the time it closed at 5but it wasnt a necessity. We met 4 ladies who thru hiked in 04 andwere out for a section hike - they were a great group of ladies and wechatted with them for a while. Then we got to hiking.....and we metloon and hot sauce (super cool chicas!) who we also chatted with for awhile. Noticing a trend? Its awesome when you stop to enjoy the dayrather than being focused on deadlines and whatnot. Then we hiked on.The rocks are definitely getting worse and we especially hated them onthe terrible decent into town. And PA ive got a bone to pick - therewere about 4 miles today where your trail was basically a creek andhikers had bushwacked their own, better trail parallel to it. Andalso, your blazes stink. We've lost the trail more times in the pastfew days thanThan during the whole trip. You're not doing much to improve yourinfamous reputation. The potomac atc sure is showin you up....we limped into town a little after 5 and decided to try our luck atthe post office - maybe they stay open till 530? Nope. Closed. Butwait....a man inside opened the door and welcomed us. "erskine andmartin," he asked. We stared at him astonished that he knew our names.Russ gladly stayed past closing to give us our packages and pass onthe offer debbie the trail angel had called in that morning. Heshandsdown the nicest and most hospitable government employee ive met.all told i got 3 packages and 1 card. Thanks so much to my mom, mikeand nicole, and kara! Grey, i havent opened your card yet! Wags and ialso got a carepackage from the kellers in mississippi! Everyone did afabulous job with picking goodies to send us! Thanks for thinking ofme out here...ya'll are awesome.we crashed at the local pavilion where hikers are welcome free ofcharge and had a great night chatting With loon and hot sauce. Wags and i watched sex&the city again and islept great. Its been yet another good day on the trail.
Date: 2009-06-16
From: port clinton

To: eckville shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: overcast clouds

rundown of the day: breakfast at 3C's resturant, a pleasantlysurprising birthday card from rusticus left at the first shelter wepast (a little early but it was great), a happy and surprising reunionwith paulman, cuppa joe, double vision, and jukebox, a fun photo shootat the pinnacle which boasts the best view of PA on the AT,mudwrestling with a snapping turtle, a dog named joe, and the enclosedbunkhouse known as the eckville shelter. We took our time again andreally enjoyed the day. Who would think 2 chicks who have hiked 1200miles together would still be able to talk for 15+ miles a day? Yeahsometimes our conversations become really obscure but its entertainingnon-the-less.here's my million dollar idea...it's been improved a little via one ofthese conversations. Now to grasp the notion you have to have seen the Movie best in show. If you havent, its a hilarious, mostly improvisedjab at dog shows and the folks who are obsessed with obtaining blueribbons. Well a similarly quirky and entertaining group of folks arebirders. So i think somebody should make a movie combining the idea ofbest in show with the hilarity of insane birders. And the book The BigYear would be a great starting point. So any screenwriters orcomedians out there, get on it!!the rocks are steadily getting worse. Sections of 5s, 6s, 7s and 8sare pretty common. My feet are bruised and arches sore. Im over thisstate. Only a few more days!
Date: 2009-06-17
From: eckville shelter

To: bake oven knob
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: light rain

dread. My first thought this morning. Rumors are the rocks might beterrible today. 17 miles on the agenda. Good grief. Yeah ok whoremembers rule #2? It wasn't as intimidating as i imagined but theknifes edge (maybe 1/4 of a mile long) was scary especially since itwas raining. But wags and i conquered that pile and moved on to thenext - bake oven knob. Once again scary and invokes evil thoughtstowards the trail maintainers but nothing that'll stop us badasses!Basically there were big sections of 7s and 8s and a couple 10s today!we got to the shelter and found a group of guys out for a weekend hike- 2 brothers and one of their 2 sons. Wags and i grabbed spots in theshelter and let it rain! Supposedly a black rat snake lives in theshelter so im thinkin mice wont be too bad.we were really excited to see paulman, cuppa joe, jukebox and doublevision show up. Jukebox woke up feelin gross so he pulled a huge dayfeelin ill. We're headin into town tomorrow so excitement is high - our first shower in a week isawaiting! Lemme take you to funky town....
Date: 2009-06-18
From: bake oven knob

To: slatington pa
Miles today: 7.4

6.18 bake oven to slatington pa 7.4 miles hoteli woke up this morning giddy. I reached for my pink hiking shirt andslipped it over my head. "what the....?" "omigoodness. Are youserious?!?" wags and i couldnt control our laughter which woke up oursheltermates. My shirt (expensive icebreaker...) now looks like one ofthose fashionable one pieces with the sides of the middrift missing.And a mouse somewhere has a pink nest. And micelets somewhere aregoing to have a paris hilton complex. I showed my latest fashionableattire off and mimiced kurt russell in overboard. While itsfrustrating when the one, very expensive shirt you have to hike ingets chewed to pieces, the only thing to really do is laugh. No onegot hurt and its fixable. Mice 2. Gangsta the ole goose egg. I mightswing by a hardware store to even the score.wags, hotsauce and i hiked into town and got a hitch with a retiredChristmas tree and blueberry farmer named scott. We checked into finelodging (doyle-esque as described by loon), did laundry and ate andate. Its still raining out so its great to be inside and drying outright now.the rocks werent too bad today - we encountered one boulder field (a9) and 5s-8s. What was worse was the creek-status of the trail.Trenchfoot here i come! It was great to hike with hotsauce and passthe time by getting to know her!
Date: 2009-06-19
From: slatington pa

To: leroy smith shelter
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: overcast clouds

happy birthday to me!! Last night the girls surprised me with icecream and candles. Yum! I woke up this morning to my phone ringing -james was the first to say happy birthday! Then wags busted out someyummy food she picked out for me and a new pair of sunglasses!we left town around 1 and were greeted by leighhigh gap. Im prettysure pa's reputation stems from this section. But to be honest theclimbing/boldering was awesome! It was really fun and challenging. Ithink the hike today was an excellent summary of hiking the pasection: boldering, ankle twisting rocks, head high stands of stingingnettle, open views, ridge walking, dirt road walking, ticks, andhoneysuckle. I rocked out my ipod for a long part of the day anddanced my way towards the shelter. I was happy and relaxed andintrospective and so happy to be a thru hiker.we got to the shelter kinda late but the festivities werent over yet.Wags packed out 4 lbs of cosmopolitan andHotsauce busted out some sour gummi worms and loon gave me some yummycandy. I felt amazingly special. We sported some princess birthdaybling courtesy of my mom today too. A great party all around.the rocks werent too bad today: leighhigh gap was a 10 but the restwas about 6ish.
Date: 2009-06-20
From: leroy smith shelter

To: kirkridge shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: light rain

despite the rest of the shelter leaving by 630 this morning, me andwags slept in. We woke up at 8, basically spooning in the middle ofthe floor, to an empty shelter. I guess everyone else was headed intotown today. Not us. We did a big day....to the next shelter. I love patoo much to want to leave it just yet....hotsauce and loon felt thesame.of course it started raining the minute we were packed. And the rockstoday were the worst so far. It was an 8 the whole way. Imagine hiking14 miles looking at your feet the entire time. I made myself carsickfrom it. Oh pennsylvania...your jagged beauty does nothing for me. Iam a married woman afterall...tomorrow is naked hiker day. Yessss. Of course we have somethingplanned but not what you're thinkin...mail drops!a week and a halfish ill be in kent:nevena martin5 bridge steetkent, ct 06757please hold for thru hikerin about a month (july 25thish):nevena martingeneral deliveryhanover, nh 03755Please hold for thru hikerand my last (!!) mail drop will be in about 2 months from now (midaugust) right before i go into the famous hundred miles of wilderness- isn't that wild?!?:nevena martinc/o shaw's lodgingp.o. Box 72monson, me 04464please hold for thru hikerwe're hoping to rock out this shelter tonight and head into delewarewater gap tomorrow to dry out!
Date: 2009-06-21
From: kirkridge shelter

To: deleware water gap
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: overcast clouds

happy father's day! Happy summer solstice! Happy naked hiker day!we woke up to rain. Shocking, i know. But waiting around and and dillydallying at the shelter until 10 paid off - the rain stopped! Wecelebrated this particular AT holiday in a private manner that willforever live in infamy.... Maybe wags will go into further details inher tj but i'll leave it at that.so today we got the hell outta pa. Thank God! And i didnt fall down asingle time in the state. Go team! The same cannot be said forwags...she fell victim on the decent into town. So here's the LD onPA. There are rocks, yes. No, there is no 8 mile stretch of jagged,rickety rocks. Yes, youre pace slows but you can still pull big miledays. There are like 3 fairly rough stretches of rocks that are allless than 1/2 a mile long: the knifes edge, bake oven knob andleighhigh gap. Put it this way - pa is the annoying kid in your classthat you can handle for a while but extendedPeriods of time with its enough to drive you bonkers.we had a great day in town today. We met back up with saint and windupand went to lunch with their parents. We also met wag's familyfriends, sarah and chris, who were nice enough to tolerate our stenchlong enough to drive us to the grocery store. We hit up The Bakerywhich is a delicious place i highly recommend. I also checked out edgeof the woods outfitter which was great.i really enjoyed all the company at the hostel tonight. Today has beena WONDERFUL town visit for me - one of the best so far!
Date: 2009-06-22
From: deleware water gap

To: campsite
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: clear sky

another early town departure! Im really feelin the hiking part of thistrip... Wags and i crossed the deleware river bridge into new jersey.And it hit me. I WALKED from georgia to new jersey. That's insanity!We stopped by the visitor center to see the note wag's friend leslieleft for her, checked out the "touch table" which reminded me ofundergrad, and kept hiking.on the hike up to sunfish pond wemet a man on a world tour. He is a huge bill bryson fan and was goingon a sort of pilgrimage by following the same route bryson took 10years ago on his section hike. Needless to say he was happy to meetthru hikers and we enjoyed the ego boost for a mile or so. And i feelterrible because for the life of me i can't spell his name! But it wasa pleasure chatting with him.wags and i chilled with sawman and intense for a while on a vista.They enjoyed my mountain lion explanation regarding my holey shirt.New jersey is a gorgeous, rocky, flat state. We found a campsite andpitched our tents and enjoyed a relaxing evening. Its our first timecamping totally separate from anyone else andim excited. Ohwait..there's a road like 1/8th of a mile from here. Well, we'll justpretend we're back country badasses...
Date: 2009-06-23
From: campsite

To: culvers gap
Miles today: 14.9

micha and rabbit past our campsite this morning and showed off theirbear pictures from yesterday. Wags and i dont see bears. Maybe we talktoo much?? They also reminded us of bunyan's offer to crash at hishouse so we cut our mileage down a little to enjoy yet another randomexperience on the trail.today was gorgeous again. It was sunny and warm. We saw a black ratsnake and 2 other snakes i couldn't ID - Dr. Castleberry would bedisappointed. We also flushed a covey of grouse - the chicks flushedand momma puffed up and mock charged us. I stared at her in curiositybut noticed wags began to southbound. I guess avoidance is one way todeal with animal attacks (ha!). Me, ive got my hiking poles... Mommagrouse veered off at the last minute and ran down the trail squawking.I guess i have yet another explanation for my holey shirt - rabidgrouse. A good day for wildlife viewing. We also saw lots oflakes/ponds. I was shocked. When i think of new jersey i thinkindustryShopping malls, roads that lead to "the city," big hair, spandex andfunny accents. Yeah i was wrong. Partially. Folks here sound weird.wags and i got to culvers gap and realized we didnt have cell serviceto call bunyan. What to do? We were just starting to come up with aplan when i looked up to check out a truck (i cant deny my attractionto trucks and i wont try to)...and then i looked at the driver -bunyan! He happened to be on his way to get the three amigas who are alittle further north...so in we hoped and now we're enjoying hiswonderful hospitality and an amazing hubba city in his backyard.really is somethin to this soakin up all the experiences the trail hasto offer...Happy birthday James!!