morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-06-16
From: Ten Mile River Shelter

To: Day 35
Miles today: 10.0

Teen Bean and Green Mile finally ditched us this morning. It's just me and BC now. Just kidding, they had to get to the P.O. is Kent, CT before it closed to pick up packages to they couldn't wait for us to get ready this morning. We did a bit of rollercoastering until we got to Kent, officially entering Connecticut for good. We immediately got a quart of milk and a hot dog from a hot dog stand then went to the library and poked around on the internet for a while. We then went to the laundromat where we had an encounter with the notorious Laundry Nazi of Kent. This old woman runs the laundromat, hates hikers, and forever has a stick up her ass. After a bout of getting screamed at by the Laundry Nazi, BC and I went out for a snack of pop tarts and coffee while we waited for our clothes to dry. When we came back to pick up our clothes the Nazi was gone, so we put her TV on cartoon network, turned the volume all the way up, and stole the batteries out of her remote so she couldn't change it. Then we stopped by the Belgian Chocolatier to take pictures with Kyle's trail-namesake and skipped town before the fuzz could catch up to us. By the time we got out of town (6:30) Teen/Green were long gone but The Samurai had caught back up to us. It was so late that we all decided to just do the 700' climb back up on the ridge and make camp for the night. We probably made it less than 2 miles out of town before we stopped for the night. Never caught up to the others. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Date: 2011-06-17
From: Skiff Mountain

To: Day 36
Miles today: 7.5

Well tomorrow turned out to be a really rainy day.... The 3 of us woke up early enough, but we stayed in our our respective shelters, drinking coffee and smoking our respective substances, until 10:00. We finally decided to break camp in the rain and just start hiking. It kept raining for hours while we did some pretty steep climbs up and down St. Johns Ledges and crossed the Housatonic River. The rain and mist and early afternoon sunlight all came together to make for a really beautiful hike though. After 7 or 8 miles we ran into Green Mile who had come back to the trail to leave a sign for us. Him and his sister had pulled over at the Silver Hill Campsite for the night because they were just as soaked as we were. As good as those two are at getting up early and doing big miles day-in and day-out, they sure don't like to hike in the rain. We decided to join them even though it was only 5:00. The campsite we are at is really nice and has a good water source, which is atypical for this section of the trail. We honestly can't keep doing short days like this though. BC is on a bit of a schedule now; he needs to get to Dalton, MA in 6 days so he can get off-trail and head back to FL. But now that we're linked up with our pacemakers, I'm sure we can make that happen.
Date: 2011-06-18
From: Silver Hill Campsite

To: Day 37
Miles today: 19.0

Speedy day on the AT. We left early, hiked all day, and covered some serious ground. The notable landmark today was Mt. Prospect, which has a nifty campsite right by the Giant's thumb. I kind of wish we had pushed on to this campsite instead of stopping at the Limestone Spring Shelter, but sleeping in a shelter makes for a speedy exit in the morning.
Date: 2011-06-19
From: Limestone Spring Shelter

To: Day 38
Miles today: 15.7

Teen and Green did, in fact, get us moving. We broke a record this morning by leaving camp by 8:30 AM. This means that we cruised right up and over Mt. Prospect and made it to Salisbury, CT before noon. There I proceeded to spend waaay too much money at the snooty grocery store, the bistro, and the outfitter. I had to buy new pair of hiking boots is why; the Merrils that I started the trial with had deteriorated to the point that the inside liner was falling out of the soles. The fact that Salisbury is probably the most expensive little mountain community in the country didn't help either. it seems that everything is just getting more and more expensive the further north I hike. We took off late in the day again and left Samurai behind again because he had "shit to do." I'm sure he'll catch up like he always does.    We were shooting for the Hemlocks Shelter but, after climbing Mt. Race, we decided to save Mt. Everett until the morning and stopped 3 miles shots at the Race Brook Falls Campground. Us and the whole Fantastic Kill Squad (9 thru-hikers total) paraded into the campground around 9:00 and proceeded to pretty much take the place over. The folks who were already camping there didn't quite know what to make of us so they invited us to come cook dinner by their campfire and hang out for a bit. One of the weekend warriors there had a glass piece so we smoked a ton of weed, played the guitar, and sang songs around the fire for a long while. Today in also Ten bean's 22nd birthday so we made her a delicious just-add-water Oreo cheesecake-in-a-bag. It's funny how the little things like singing someone happy birthday can remind you of normal life back in the real world. I guess this life could be considered normal and this could be considered more real than the world back home though. It depends on how you look at it I suppose.
Date: 2011-06-20
From: Race Brook Falls Campground

To: Day 39
Miles today: 16.2

Crazy day today. All of us were up and out of the campsite early . Green Mile, the Kill Squad and I kept a rockin' pace and flew up and over Mt. Everett. We were so in the zone that we missed the trails for both the Hemlocks Shelter and the Glen Brook Shelter. We had to stop at the first water source we came across because we were both dry and hadn't eaten first lunch yet. The others still hadn't caught up by the end of our post-lunch safety meeting so we just decided to hike on. We stopped for second lunch when we got to a road crossing with a monument to Shay's Rebellion. Green stayed behind to wait for his sister while me and the Kill Squad went on. We had to ford a damn river shortly thereafter, where I learned that even brand new Gore-Tex boots aren't waterproof when you have to submerge your entire foot. When we got to US 7 all five of us were able to hitch a ride into Great Barrington, MA in less than 3 minutes. Incredible. We went to the Guidos Grocery store for third lunch, which was great because it stocked nothing but high quality all natural local food. Baby Feet was particularly excited because he's a vegan who live off of primarily pop tarts and candy.    When we left town I decided that it would be a good idea to pack out 11 pounds of beer and hike up an 1,100 foot mountain. My pack weighed just over 60 pounds. It sucked. Thankfully the Kill Squad passed BC, who had skipped great Barrington, during the climb and told him of my predicament. He waited for me at the top of June Mountain, we split up the booze and huffed it 4 more miles to the Tom Leonard Shelter. we found Teen and Green there waiting for us and decided to call it a day while the Kill Squad went on to hike a 25... the whole day was hilariously uncoordinated, with all of us hiking to different places at different paces. No one knew where any one else was at any time. That's what we get for trying to hike in a 9-person-parade I guess. Ridiculous 16 miles today.
Date: 2011-06-21
From: Tom Leonard Shelter

To: Day 40
Miles today: 21.1

Naked Hiking Day at last! We've been waiting for this day to come for a while. BC is especially ecstatic. It's Naked Hiking Day, the longest day of the year, we're planning on breaking a distance record today, and we have beer. We had a grand ol' time indeed. Hiking naked was awesome, very liberating and very comfortable. It was refreshing to hike alone for a change too (we staggered our departure time so we wouldn't have to see each other naked.) Toward the end of the day, about 18 miles in or so, me and BC decided to start drinking while we hiked. Not surprisingly, Teen and Green pulled way ahead of us. The sun went down when we got to Cooper Brook, and we were stuck drunken night-hiking for the rest of the day. I was tired and pissed the whole time. We finally finished the 21 mile day, got to Upper Goose Pond Cabin, and it was full of section hikers. Begrudgingly, we set up camp outside, skipped dinner, and went right to bed. At least it's not raining...
Date: 2011-06-22
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin.

To: Day 41
Miles today: 17.6

Rain today... oh well. BC's stake for his rain fly broke overnight so he's gonna be a wet hiker until Dalton. Also, Samurai finally caught up to us last night. He hiked 31 miles yesterday and crashed on the couch in the cabin after 1:00 AM. that dude is crazy man. Teen and Green took off early like usual but Sam, BC, and I decided to wait out the rainstorm. the caretaker at the cabin cooked us delicious pancaked and coffee. We smoked cigs and sang songs until the afternoon then finally hiked out into the rain. We even picked up a tag-along, this weirdo named Protein Powder who has this autistic, serial-killer air about him. After 8.8 rainy miles we got to the October Mountain Shelter and stopped for first lunch. We couldn't decide if we wanted to hike any more in these conditions so we flipped a coin (a Frank.) The Frank told us to hike more in the rain. We left Protein Powder behind as well as some older section hikers who were there (who seemed a little taken back about us blatantly smoking hash around them without even trying to hide it.) We sang the Indiana Jones theme song at the top of our lungs as we walked the wrong way out of the shelter. After correcting our mistake we did another 8.8 to the Kay Wood Shelter where we found Teen and Green. It's a nice chilly night up in the loft of the shelter. I'm thankful for my dry long johns and sleeping bag. That's about all that I have that's still dry. Sam and BC's last day on-trail was miserable but manageable, which is exactly what the mighty white blazes had in store for them I presume.
Date: 2011-06-23
From: Kay Wood Shelter

To: Day 42
Miles today: 3.0

We woke up pretty wet and pretty miserable this morning, took a long time to get going in the damp and the cold, and made a loooong 3-mile jaunt into Dalton, MA. I was hurting every step of the way because I had a nasty fall less than a mile before I got to the shelter last night. I was crossing a wet slippery foot bridge when my right foot slipped off. I tried to catch myself with my trekking pole but I was already thigh-deep in mud by then. I badly twisted my ankle and bashed my knee on the foot bridge with with my left leg, and bent my right trekking pole clean in half on a rock. I was not a happy camper. Sam and BC had a number of problems of their own, including but not limited to gear and body malfunctions. The three of us literally limped into Dalton with wet socks and low spirits. Luckily there was magic to be found in Dalton, trail magic.   Samurai had heard a tip about a sweet free hostel in Dalton called "The Birdcage" and been given a clue that you can find the place by asking for a guy named Rob at the shell station in town. There turned out to already be a bad ass free hostel in town which is run by a guy named Tom Levardi. We stopped by his house because it is literally right on the AT where it begins to pass through downtown Dalton. We rendezvoused with Teen and Green there, but the house was packed with other NoBo's who had decided to take a 0 because of all the rain. So the 5 us us decided to venture off into town in search of this mysterious Rob character. And, sure as shit, the guy behind the counter knew exactly who we were talking about. He immediately got on the phone and within minutes Mr. Rob Bird was pulling up in his minivan. Rob Bird, it turns out, is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life and by-far the nicest trail angel I've met thus far on the AT. He runs an off-the-books word-of-mouth hostel so that he doesn't get constantly overwhelmed with hikers like Tom does. He threw us all in his van, commented on how we smelled like we'd been wet for days (which we had,) and drove us back to his house: The Birdcage. He then cleaned us up, washed our clothes, even drove us to a dank buffet in town and waited in the car while we ran into Walmart to re-supply.    Then we went out to bar that was almost completely occupied with thru-hikers who happened to be in town. I was so glad to be at the Birdcage because literally everyone else was crammed into Tom's House. No one else had heard about the Birdcage, which was lucky because we ended up pushing the limits of comfortable capacity at Rob's house anyway. Samurai's parents met us at the bar and we all drank for a while and exchanged stories. it was a lot of fun to have so many thru-hikers together, drunk and in good spirits. Then we went back to the Birdcage where we drank, smoked, and sang songs while Rob and Sam's dad played the guitar all night. I drank my first bottle of Jameson on-trail and foresaw many more to come. Then I passed out in my bed sometime after 2:00 Am. Happy night.
Date: 2011-06-24
From: The Birdcage

To: Day 43
Miles today: 23.6

Strange strange day today. Teen, Green, and I took Rob up on his offer to slack-pack us 23 miles up the trail, thus letting us get two huge mountains out of the way without our packs on and spend another night at his house. I left Belgian Chocolate and Samurai at the Birdcage at 8:00 AM and Rob drove us up to where the trail crosses the Hoosic River, which is only 23 trail-miles but took us almost a full hour to gt to by car. I found myself separated from my buddy whom I've had at my side since starting the trail, without my pack which I've had on my back since starting the trail, and SOUTH-BOUNDING which I've never done before. What a trip. It felt great to cruise right over 23 tough miles today though. Without a pack on those miles were a breeze, despite the climbing and the rain. We summitted Mt. Prospect, Mt. Williams, and Mt. Greylock (the highest point in MA) in under 3 hours. It was the first time I've climbed above 3,000' feet since getting on-trail. These mountains sure aren't getting any smaller... The tower at the high point, the lodge, and the visitor center up there were amazing. After we left we ran in to most of our friends from the bar last night north-bounding and tried our best now to tell them how awesome Rob is for fear of making them jealous. Then we climbed up and over Mineral Mountain no problem, stopped off in Cheshire, MA for a milkshake, and walked straight back to Rob's house by 6:00. After we all had showered (2 days in a row!) we went out to this place called Jacob's for the best bowl of God damn clam chowder that I've had since I left Maine when I was 6 years old. I was a great night after quite literally a long day. I'd like to do some big miles again tomorrow but, with an 80% chance of rain, we'll see what happens...
Date: 2011-06-25
From: The Birdcage

To: Day 44
Miles today: 0.0

Yep. we decided to take a 0 today. Rob and the Birdcage are just too amazing to leave just yet. Apparently everything just keeps on getting more expensive from here on out so we really should take advantage of free accommodations while we still can. No wonder every one gets stuck in Dalton. Not only are we sleeping inside for the 3rd night in a row, but Rob gave us a tip about another word-of-mouth hostel up in Vermont, a mere 19 miles passed Massachusetts Ave, where we are getting dropped off tomorrow morning. So , if all goes well, we might be able to keep this thing going and sleep in another super-secret free hostel again tomorrow! How spoiled are we? I spent the whole day today soaking my feet in a epsom salt bath, eating good food, watching movies, using the internet, drinking 6 Long Trail IPA's, and catching up in this here journal. For better or for worse, things are gonna be quite a bit different now that Toe Jam, Samurai, and Belgian Chocolate have all left. I'm finally out here on my own, hiking my own hike. Finally.
Date: 2011-06-26
From: North Adams, MA

To: Day 45
Miles today: 18.4

Crazy tough day today. Rob was nice enough to drop us off back at the Hoosic River around 9:00. Which means that, after 3 nights, we are finally out of Dalton! I immediately realized that my pack is too heavy when we started the day off with a 1,400' climb up to the MA-VT border. I've got like 1.5 mail drops worth of food and a whole bag full of random snacks that I acquired in Dalton. I also realized that I fucked myself up a little bit more than I had thought when I took that spill hiking into town. I didn't notice it when I was slack-packing because I wasn't hiking under load but, now that I weigh an extra 55 lbs, my left knee is really starting to hurt. At least I was able to grab a spare trekking pole for free at the Birdcage so I'll have 2 sturdy poles even if I don't have 2 sturdy legs...    Literally as soon as we crossed the state line into Vermont the trail deteriorated into a mud puddle... a deep, rocky, 15-mile long mud puddle. I felt like I was running an obstacle course all day long, jumping from rock to rock trying to keep my feet as dry as possible. The Seth Warner and Congdon Shelters that we passed didn't offer much respite either because they were just as muddy and buggy as the rest of the trail (and full of trash to boot.) The highlight of the day was running in to a huge Moose that we followed up the AT for about 20 minutes. My first on-trail Moose!    After more mountains, hills, streams, and mud, we finally made it to VT 9 where it took us a good 45 minutes to get a hitch into Bennington, VT. Thanks to Rob, we were able to make our way to this super cool underground hostel called the Vortex. It is run my Arla and Chris, this adorable old hippy couple. Arla is essentially THE artist of Bennington and Chris is an accomplished carpenter and craftsmen himself. They put us up in a big garage behind their house that had been converted in to a game room/hiker paradise. Happy days on the AT, despite the condition of the trail...
Date: 2011-06-27
From: The Vortex 

To: Day 46
Miles today: 3.2

Another near0 today. It's really hard not to take it easy on this section of the trail, with all the mud and the huge mountains and whatnot. Plus there is just so much to do and everyone is just so friendly. I feel like I left the self-absorbed city boys back in NY(Brad/Cari excluded,) the snooty ivy-leaguers back in CT, and the wicked haad headed mass-holes back in MA. Now that I'm in VT, everyone seems more liberated, more elevated, more motivated, more on my level essentially. Especially Arla and Chris. I can't tell you how good it feels to be in the loving embrace of some true hippies again; I get a very distinct Rainbow Family vibe from these two. Having been removed from my little comfort bubble and my circle of friends back in Florida has really given me a whole new perspective of the world at large. Lots of people live their whole lives without really experiencing foreign cultures or foreign dogmas. I'm kind of getting humbled by the fact that I have he opportunity right now to share an experience with so many people from so many different walks of life. We're all out here for our own (selfish) reasons but, somehow, the fact that we're all in this together makes the day-to-day seem worth it. My new environment also really makes me respect and appreciate the Florida Family, the Grateful Dead Family, the Rainbow Family, my immediate family, and especially my girlfriend.    So we hung out at the Vortex for most of the day. We rode bicycles down to the local diner, messed with the internet, tried our best to dry/de-mud our socks and shoes in the sunshine, and were generally just lazy for most of the early afternoon. When we finally left the Vortex it took us all of 2 seconds to get a hitch back to the trail head. We then did a wimpy little 1,250 climb over 3 miles and set up camp at Hell Hollow Brook. Despite the name this place is actually pretty wonderful. It's a quaint little footbridge over a babbling brook, perfect place to hang up a hammock for the night. For dinner tonight we all threw down and made sloppy joe's with hot dogs, real cheese, chili, and Tobasco sauce all on a bun made out of dry Ramen noodles. And for dessert: no-bake cheesecake! That is trail-cuisine with a flare right there. It is very nice, albeit kind of foreign and awkward, to be so full in the woods.    Big miles start again tomorrow. I need to fly through this 100-mile stretch where the Appalachian Trail coincides with the Long Trail and get me ass to CAMP BISCO!
Date: 2011-06-28
From: Hell Hollow Brook

To: Day 47
Miles today: 18.5

We finally did some miles today... some rough rough shitty shitty miles... Playtime is obviously over. Fuck Vermont by the way. This state has so far been nothing but Hellacious mud, tons of rocks, huge climbs and descents, and this new species of little black bug that is like 5X worse than the hummingbird-mosquitoes back in Jersey. If you think this is easy, well good luck to ya! The 18.5 we did today was not easy. I'm not even sure how many peaks I summited today. There was a cool little fire tower on top of today's tallest mountain so that made for a nice little lunch break. Toward the end of the day we linked up with some other thru-hikers: a really funny ex-dready German guy named German Shepard, and two others whose names escape me atm. We all constructed a nice little thru-hiker village on the north side of the foot bridge over Black Brook. We built a thru-hiker-fire, drank whiskey, and even listened to music for a while... That was until a rainstorm came out of nowhere and broke up our little party. I'm holed up in me blackbird now, rain and wind and lightning outside. I'm sure the trail will be in great condition tomorrow... especially when we make our longest sustained climb in a while up Stratton Mt. to start the day off tomorrow. It should prove to be a lot more interesting than the mountain we climbed today:MT. GLASTENBURY!
Date: 2011-06-29
From: Day 46

To: Day 48
Miles today: 17.9

Tough tough day. Vermont is definitely a 'real' state in terms of the difficulty of the AT. The rainstorm that blew in last night turned out to be a beast. It lasted until well after midnight and pushed our gear to the limits of its waterproofing and tensile strength. We woke up at 7:00 and quickly packed up our soaking wet thru-hiker village. Then we started the day by climbing 1,700' up to the summit of Mt. Stratton. We were pretty socked in up there at 4,000' so we couldn't see anything and the weather was quickly making another turn for the worse. So we decided to skip the observation tower, do a quick cold and wet brunch, and get the hell down the mountain before the freezing rain showed up. Then we proceeded to run an 18-mile gauntlet of miserable trail conditions until our feet were so swollen and pruney that we had to stop. It was another one of those days where you're just crossing streams and walking on footbridges all day long. We stopped at some brook just south of Manchester Center, VT and another 1,500' climb. It is actually pretty nice here despite the wet conditions. This will be the 3rd night in-a-row that we will have camped next to a little brook and a footbridge. I think I see a pattern emerging.Going to bed early tonight, my body is beat after today's hike. And these big miles have really turned my entire left leg in to a persistent problem. My whole body is definitely conditioning itself to this whole hiker lifestyle. I practically don't get blisters anymore, don't eat Ibuprofen, and don't experience intense muscle pain like I used to, but I still can't seem to get over that spill I took before Dalton. I'm trying to adjust my walking style so that I take most of my big impacts with my right leg, but I still may have to slow down if this continues to get worse...