morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-15
From: pass mtn hut

To: tom floyd wayside
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: scattered clouds

day 82 tue jun 15   23.6 mi 951.2 totaltom floyd wayside   some of us meet for a mid-morning break at a campstore where we catch up to caterpillar, who camped nearby. lots of raccoons, he tells us. octane wants to see a bear, bad, and lint comes out of the woods with news he (lint) just saw one, two minutes before. halfmoon calls back from the road where i can find the next internet.   this shelter's got a porch deck and there's thunder and now rain and it gets a little crowded but everyone fits and we make do.
Date: 2004-06-16
From: tom floyd wayside

To: front royal, va
Miles today: 2.9
Weather: light rain

day 83 wed jun 16   2.9 mi 954.1 totalfront royal, vathey will question thee concerning what they should expend. say:"the abundance."               -Koran   seize the day, yes? give it all you got.   the trail runs beside a long, tall chain-link fence, and there's a young woman with a notebook on the other side. her name is jessica; from atlanta, and she's counting indigo bunting and warblers caught in mist nets. it's part of a study on how deer adversely affect songbird populations. for the smithsonian, no less. she thinks the property is theirs, too. later someone in town tells me it's a big complex, that they work with endangered species there, and they might lose their funding and have to close.   four of us get a ride with a black fellow, who says his name is suleiman. he's a muslim, just got his master's in islamic law. when i ask him if he knows about the Rumi, he says that the Rumi was a sufi, and that he, suleiman, is a sufi as well. all too soon we get to town, and he is gone.   i see quest, and later hawk, then lonesome dove, woolly, and enormous monk. i hope i didn't get that last name wrong.   we hear scholar got off the trail, and that lumber may have to, later, because of work. it's 3 in the afternoon. i'm on a bench in the shade in front of martin's supermarket, with a pint of organic strawberries and a pint of coffee ice cream. an attractive young woman in a beige summer dress and a daughter in hand walks by, and with a smile, she says, "what you're doing is sooo sinful." i explain i'm doing freelance quality control research for a major ice cream consortium all the way up the east coast. she laughs all the way into the store.
Date: 2004-06-17
From: front royal, va

To: manassas gap shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: broken clouds

day 84 thu jun 17   10.7 mi 964.8 totalmanassas gap shelter, va   it's nearly ninety degrees, with extreme humidity, and i've just hiked eight miles through deep woods to this remote paved road. crossing it, and on the verge of entering deep woods again, i hear a car stop behind me. turning around,i see a fellow thru-hiker,lonesome dove, behind the wheel. neither of us knew the other would be here. just like that, she offers to take me to the linden village post office, to pick up my maildrop package. then she takes me to a private residence where she's staying. it belongs to a friend of a friend, as does the car. and both house and car are very air-conditioned. for a short while,i become quasimodo, seeking "sanctuary", air-conditioned "sanctuary". when i'm ready, she drives me back to the trailhead, it's 3:30, and the worst of the heat is past.   it was pure miracle; no coincidence about it.   that evening at the shelter, critter, diego, poco, bucket, and i are settling back in our sleeping bags. critter reads in the register that this shelter is infested with copperheads. some of the guys start to freak at the notion of a close encounter with snakes, but it's getting dark; we decide to stay put.   around nine, a storms starts to blow through. there's thunder and rain, heavy, then heavier still, and lightning again and again, further, then closer, and the wind blows big time and the trees dance a wild, weird, and woolly macarena and we're all sitting up in our bags, cheering and in awe of the storm's performance. it was fierce, brutal, magnificent.   the next evening, another hiker, eels by name, catches up to us, and mentions he'd stopped by that shelter after we'd left it. seems it was empty. well, almost empty. he'd found two copperheads just out in front, and one inside.
Date: 2004-06-18
From: manassas gap shelter

To: rod hollow shelter
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: few clouds

day 85 fri jun 18   13.4 mi 978.2 totalrod hollow shelter   it turns out to be another hot and humid day, at mid-day i follow pavement for a mile offtrail in quest of a cheeseburger and ice cream. later at the shelter, lonesome dove mentions there's a primitive shower to the far left of the spring. it was excellent. a bit later critter and company, and eels come in. there's another downpour. but otherwise, everything else is fairly quiet on this western front.
Date: 2004-06-19
From: rod hollow shelter

To: blackburn trail center
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: broken clouds

day 86 sat jun 19   17.8 mi 996 totalblackburn trail center   hot and humid again, but that's okay, 'cause there's a solar shower at blackburn, and a fraggin' hewge wrap-around porch, where we are spoiled with a monster spaghetti feast with great garlic bread, provided by host bob, whose just retired as a vet from the army. he and his wife are spending their second summer here as hosts, but have also bought a little land to build a place on up in randolph, n.h., facing the northern presidentials, which with the pemigewasset wilderness nearby, comprise what i consider a little bit of heaven down here on this mortal coil. i'm really, really looking forward to hiking through the whites and across maine. if i manage to stick to my tentative schedule, i will have passed my halfway point, in terms of time, yesterday. in miles, i think halfway will be at 1088, about a week away.   most of us sleep on the porch where the air and ventilation are excellent. the no-see-ums were bad for about an hour, but we think they all froze to death over night; it was 48 at 5:30 am. many of the guys have extremely light sleeping bags or even just fleece blankets, and suffered a bit from the cold.
Date: 2004-06-20
From: blackburn trail center

To: harper's ferry, wv
Miles today: 12.0

day 87 sun jun 20   12.0 mi 1008 totalharper's ferry, wv   it's a beautiful morning; one of the best so far. there's a delicious breeze blowing and it feels like a september day in maine. there's all sorts of changes in the air. i'm about to reach 1000 miles, and two major rivers, and a new state line: west virginia. from the bridge across the shenandoah, i can see kayakers, canoers, fishermen wading in the shallows, and all sorts of canadian geese, who mimic the kayakers, some of them going sideways or even backwards through the eddies.   wandering into town, i run out of blue blazes, and get lost trying to find the ATC office. eels shows up and together we find it. a crowd slowly forms: there's lint, lonesome dove, diego, poco, hermes, critter, hans, and others. i get a room at the hilltop hotel. there's a great view to maryland heights cliff. later i wander down to the historic part of town. there's cobblestones and ironwork grilles and whole houses built out of fieldstone, ornate brick sidewalks, wonderful gardens and walkways, shops tucked into impossible spaces, and hedges and hummingbirds.   though things are less than convenient for AT hikers here (there's no laundrymat, fr'instance), this is the prettiest town yet.
Date: 2004-06-21
From: blackburn trail center

To: ayh hostel, knoxville, md
Miles today: 3.6

day 88 mon jun 21   3.6 mi 1011.6 totalayh hostel, knoxville, md   it's summer solstice! i get up early and go downtown for breakfast, but there's nothing open yet. back at the hotel, LD and i have breakfast in their restaurant. after a visit to the post office, library, and country cafe, i see crash!bang!, and then nameless, hermes, and willy wonka, who are going to try the quad state challenge: 43 miles in 24 hours. they try to get me to join them. ha!   ten days ago, i was four days behind my schedule. today i am caught up! i decide to cross the potomac river into maryland to camp out under the stars in the backyard of this hostel. pennsylvania is two days away, i think. and that should take about two weeks. virginia was such an ocean of a state, over 500 miles, it's strange to consider i'll be in new jersey in about 18 days, barring any problems.
Date: 2004-06-22
From: knoxville, md

To: pine knob shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

day 89 tue jun 22 20.0 mi 1031.6 totalpine knob shelter, mdnext to a nice old stone church, where the trail crosses the road in turner gap, there's a young man mowing a patch of lawn. we both stop and talk for fifteen minutes. he's full of questions about thru-hiking. he's ex-navy, a stone mason; his name is lawrence stoddard. we shake hands and i hike on. about 5 o'clock i reach washington monument (the one in maryland). there's a shelter here, and a thunderstorm fast approaching. i get permission to cook dinner and wait out the storm in the shelter.five miles later, at the next shelter, among some hikers settling in, there's lawrence. he's driven his truck to catch me here. it's his birthday and he invites me to his home nearby, where his girlfriend cooks us steak, corn on the cob, and broccoli. they put me up for the night. i am floored by their generosity.
Date: 2004-06-23
From: pine knob shelter

To: deer lick shelters. pa
Miles today: 22.3
Weather: broken clouds

day 90 wed jun 23   22.3 mi 1053.9 totaldeer lick shelters, pa   it feels so good to have reached yet another state. pipesmoke (from new hampshire) is here. i have not seen him since georgia. he's looking trim and fit and rugged. and the guy is 60. we reminisce about the white mountains and get excited at the thought of reaching them.   john and mary share his shelter. mary tried this hike in '01, until she broke her leg in new jersey. she went home to recover, met a man who seemed interested in doing this trail, married him, and they started from scratch in georgia. go, mary!   i share the other shelter with 65 and alive (one name, one man, one trail). he's from new hampshire too, and chipper and in great spirit. he's averaging almost 20 miles a day in this area. he mentions enduring a lot of sleet and rain in the smokies.
Date: 2004-06-24
From: deer lick shelters. pa

To: quarry gap shelters
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: clear sky

day 91 thu jun 24   15.8 mi 1067.7 totalquarry gap shelters   i share these shelters with gaiter, pipesmoke, 65, and dreamcatcher. there's flowers in baskets, beers in the brook, a roof over the table and walkway, air freshener in the privy. it's one of the nicest shelters we've seen. there's a spring right in front, and a clothesline with clothespins. we feel downright spoiled.
Date: 2004-06-25
From: quarry gap shelters

To: pine grove furnave hostel, pa
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: overcast clouds

day 92 fri jun 25   17.4 mi 1087.1 totalpine grove furnace hostel, pa   this is the new halfway point of the whole A.T., and there's a tradition at the general store nearby. if any thru-hiker can eat a half gallon of ice cream, they get their money back, a small spoon with an inscription, and cheers from their peers. pipesmoke and lonesome dove finish theirs just as i arrive. 65 takes an hour, but he finishes it. i decline to try, and instead go for a cheeseburger and a lowly pint. then the young, strapping, dynamic trio (nameless, hermes, and willy wonka: stalwart ice cream warriors all) come in fresh from the trail. wonka says he will eat a whole gallon if i will eat a half gallon. i laugh at the thought. no thanks.   hermes and wonka face off. hermes chooses cookies and cream; wonka goes for banana split flavored with his seriously large spoon. hermes gets three-quarters through his and bogs down, hitting "the wall". wonka plows through with his big spoon and big smile, and polishes it off in 16:20. he shows absolutely no pain. we think he has powers and abilities far beyond most of us mere mortals. or he's a very good actor.   it was both impressive, and a bit unnerving, to watch.
Date: 2004-06-27
From: carlisle, pa

To: duncannon, pa
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: broken clouds

day 94 sun jun 27   14.7 mi 1129.2 totalduncannon, pa   pipesmoke, luna, tapeworm and i treat halfmoon to breakfast for his birthday. the food is incredibly good at the middlesex diner.   on the trail, there's more cornfields, and sugar beets, and a pond with a large pure white egret. then there's a bridge over condoguinet creek and woods and hills, and a great panorama from hawk rock overlooking the town of duncannon and the juniata and susquehanna rivers. some local folks treat me to a beer and conversation high up here. we can see farms way, way off, tucked in amongst rolling hills to the horizon.in town, at the doyle hotel, pipesmoke greets me on the balcony porch. he's got a room for us; it turns out to be the best room in the place, with fresh paint, new windows with screens, a fan on the ceiling. there's fresh salads and subs at lorenzo's, and a great hot fudge sundae up the street, and good conversation with gaiterwoman and wonder lost, aka newt, the fellow whose camera i found and returned, way back, the second day in georgia. luna is in town, and lint, wonka, nameless, and hermes pull in later.
Date: 2004-06-28
From: duncannon, pa

To: peters mtn shelter, pa
Miles today: 11.3

day 95 mon jun 28   11.3 mi 1140.5 totalpeters mtn shelter"i think," said christopher robin, "that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."                                             -a.a. milne   pipesmoke and i get a late morning lunch at lorenzo's, and hit the trail through town, across one bridge, and then the big one across the susquehanna. that's one wide river. then it's up, up, and more up, and that pizza i just ate, and all the new trail food i'm carrying, makes me feel like a double wide heading up the highway. this too shall pass.   we find cold sodas in an ice chest, and later a family with two little girls who have all sorts of marvelous questions, such as "which of you two guys is the better hiker?" pipesmoke and i point at each other, and say "he is", simultaneously.   later, pipesmoke tells me, "i had a great time hiking with you this afternoon, mr. thal." "mr. thal". he cracks me up.   at the shelter are gaiterwoman, pipesmoke, krispy kritter, lint, john, mary, and 65. lint's snoring is dream-shattering. muleskinner sleeps in earl schaffer's lean-to nearby.
Date: 2004-06-29
From: peters mtn shelter, pa

To: rausch mtn, pa
Miles today: 17.5

day 96 tue jun 29   17.5 mi 1158.0 totalrausch mtn, pa   mallaguez and i miss the turn for the shelter, go on and camp under the stars, near a very old cemetery. a sign nearby says there was a community of one thousand people here a hundred years ago. yet there's almost no trace of them being here. it's wild and wooded.   we get a good fire going, and he tells me about a weeklong fishing trip to ontario he took with some buddies (14 of them). they flew in with sixty cases of beer, and 14 bottles of whisky. one guy didn't know what water was. it was beer, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. out in a boat, one of them says "throw out the anchor," and of course, it's not tied to the boat. good-bye anchor. someone else loses a camera overboard.   he says the beer lasted four days.
Date: 2004-06-30
From: rausch mtn, pa

To: 501 shelter, pa
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

day 97 wed jun 30   17.4 mi 1175.4501 shelter, pa   it's got four walls! and doors! and a solar shower. it's called 501, 'cause the road close by is route 501.   there's 65, pipesmoke, gaiterwoman, kk, lint, and flipflop, a nurse grad from illinois.   kk (krispy kritter) is around 60, from florida. he was a fireman. he's got an impressive white beard like hemingway's.   lint is from chicago, worked with park maintenance there. he's intelligent, with a caustic wit, and he's extensively tattooed.   pipesmoke is from hampstead, nh; he's a mechanic with a shop back there. he's thoughtful of others, tries to stay positive, has gone to Wales seven years straight to hike. he knows the white mountains of nh very well.   65 is, well, 65. he's upbeat, also from nh.
Date: 2004-07-01
From: 501 shelter, pa

To: port clinton, pa
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: scattered clouds

day 98 thu jul 1   23.7 mi 1199.1 totalport clinton, pa   it's rocky, very rocky, and many of us agree it was not an easy day, and that maybe we should have done it in two days instead of one. but i for one really needed some good town food. and the hotel bar here has excellent steaks, burgers, salads, and french fries. some of the guys are excited at the chance to visit the yuengling brewery in nearby pottstown. and one report says the new cabela's store just two miles away is the biggest thing in pennsylvania right now.   among those refueling here are pipesmoke, kk, papabear, badger, john and mary, and hobbits. yes folks, i'm hiking with actual hobbits. from vermont.   there's free lodging in the open-air pavilion nearby.
Date: 2004-07-02
From: port clinton, pa

To: port clinton
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

day 99 fri jul 2   zeroport clinton   the drinking dens are spilling out   there's staggering in the square   there's lads and lasses falling about   and a crackling in the air                           -mark knopfler   in the morning, at the pavilion entrance, i hear someone calling to me from an suv stopped in the road. i walk close. the driver's face is familiar, but the name...of course, it's aka. he'd gotten off the trail about 5 weeks ago due to illness and low funds; went home to long island, got a job, woke up in the middle in the night and drove down this way to hike for the weekend and meet up with people still hiking north. we have breakfast together at 3C's restaurant. it's good to catch his perspective as he's missing the trail, and it colors his view of it, in a good way; while i've been hearing a lot of complaining from some other thru-hikers lately. i've been resisting the temptation to ask them to aim their negative energy at someone else, please. i guess i need a break, a little rest, so i can get to where that stuff rolls off my back again, like water.   i hope you get another chance at thru-hiking, aka.   gaiterwoman and roberto leon come into town. kk and i split a room at the hotel, and then wish we'd camped down near the pavilion. at least we get showers and a chance to do laundry. the doyle in duncannon was better. oh well, the food here is very good. nameless, flipflop, hermes, willy wonka, luna, lonesome dove, lint and i put a serious dent in the beer supply here. ld and i try chilly-willies. all i'm saying is that it involves whisky. so, dave ball, have chilly-willies reached downeast maine yet?   i catch a fluke shuttle ride to cabela's. i try buying a full-sized stuffed black bear to sneak onto goodtimes' lawn in conn., but they say it's not for sale.   hermes shows me his new camera that he got for graduation. he's all of 17. that's a good thing, in spite of what wonka says. nameless, with a gentleman's charm, invites me to nyc for a few days, and also to join them on a cross country bike trip next summer. sorry guys, but i'll be back at work, thinking of you on your next great adventure.   on the shuttle back from cabela's, the driver eric tells me about getting bit by a rattlesnake just north of here last year. he says it felt like someone was holding a lighter to his ankle. he killed the snake with a rock (other hikers coming), took a pic, hiked down to his car, and drove to a doctor. the snake had not sunken his fangs in all that deeply. the doctor said he would be alright; that he would not require medicine.   he says when he goes hiking now, he "sees" snakes everywhere.
Date: 2004-07-03
From: port clinton

To: allentown shelter, pa
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: scattered clouds

day 100 sat jul 3   22.6 mi 1221.7 totalallentown shelter, pastay downunder the treelineyou might be alright                  -stephen stills   it's some hot today and all too soon i realize i started out of town with nowhere near enough water, and then run out. lonesome dove gives me a half liter of hers, and a local woman at the pinnacle offers me some carrots and celery, which i share with ld. thank you again, ld.   two ultralight planes fly over. one's a replica of a WWI monoplane. the motor sounds real thin, like a weed wacker.   at the shelter, there's just ld and me, and the sound of some serious fireworks display to the south, through the trees. we can't see them, but there's some real boomers.
Date: 2004-07-04
From: allentown shelter, pa

To: palmerton, pa
Miles today: 17.5

day 101 sun jul 4   17.5 mi 1239.2 totalpalmerton, paand something from my paststares deep into my soul.                        -mark knopfler   word is you can stay for nothing in "jail" at the borough hall in palmerton, up ahead.   mid-afternoon i find myself in blueberry fields high on a ridge above the lehigh river. they're great, lush, sweet berries. i gather thirty handfuls. i have a weakness for fresh blueberries, and these are every bit as good as back home. holly hobbit comes through and forages with me. we're in hunter-gatherer mode, on a long trek. we feel primal, almost prehistoric, in touch with something in our genes that reaches back a million years.   further down the trail, just before the lehigh river, i catch up with two women hikers, one of whom looks like gaiterwoman from back to. and then it dawns on me; it's someone i have not seen for a month, back before glasgow. "no way!" i shout. it's poler and pilot, but without jack, the golden retriever; he's off the trail, and no hotrock; he's ahead of us a few days.   we go directly to jail and do not pass Go.   also posting bail are pipesmoke, southern man, lonesome dove, the hobbits, papabear, badger, and now or never, an eye surgeon from skowhegan, maine, who frequents blue hill.   we're in our bunks in the basement as it gets dark, and the citizens of palmerton start letting loose with clandestine fireworks in alleys close by. it sounds like beirut. i expect to hear a hand grenade clatter down the steps toward us.   but we live to see another dawn.
Date: 2004-07-05
From: palmerton, pa

To: leroy smith shelter, pa
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: scattered clouds

day 102 mon jul 5   16.0 mi 1255.2 totalleroy smith shelter, pa   we have a great breakfast at a crazy diner where songs we haven't heard for forty years are on the juke and in the air. in the presence of my (female) peers, the waitress condemns me as a typical male. i think she likes me.   trail angel garcia shuttles us to the trailhead by 7 am, and we manage to get across the very open expanse of blue mountain under cover of heavy clouds and fog, before the sun burns through. we were lucky.   poler and i share this shelter, while our friends tent nearby. we are visited by a deer, a porcupine, and two hobbits (heidi and holly). poler is a schoolteacher from wyoming, between teaching jobs. when i mention reading about a fellow (with connections to people in blue hill, maine) based in landers, wyoming, who helped with a cleanup on everest, she says, "oh, he probably worked with steve gorrill (at NOLS, Landers). i answer, "that was his name: steve gorrill."