morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-09-11
From: John and Susan's

To: Greenwood Lake
Miles today: 0.0

On the trail before 7AM, we only had to cross the road once more and we're done with it forever. Agony Grind was the name of the climb, and it was right out of Maine. Quite a way to start the day.A few hours into the day it began to POUR. It was a cold, miserable, dumping of rain that was reminiscent of the bad days in Maine. I was a puddle of unhappiness.We got to a road that was not anywhere near anywhere, according to my guidebook. However, a sign on the road said that we were entering Greenwood Lake Fire District. That meant, in my mind, that there must be civilization somewhere near. I had heard of Greenwood Lake from a section hiker who raved about the town. If it had been just me, I never would have gotten into town, but Phil scoffs in the face of illegal hitch-hiking and tried it. And within ten minutes we were in a lady's car zooming toward Greenwood Lake. I didn't catch her name, but she was awesome to pick up two drenched and miserable hikers. And Phil was awesome to break the law but save our sanity.First things first: food. There was a Chinese buffet, and we were excited. We were also sopping, so being super stealthy Phil suggested I go into the fenced area by the dumpster to change into dry clothes. I did, and there was much happiness. Then he went by the dumpster to change. We went inside and ate and ate and ate, and it was good. Then I noticed the video camera surveillance tape playing above the checkout counter. So much for being stealthy while changing. Oops.We went to a cheap-looking motel and when the owner finally condescended to answer her buzzer, opened the door and barked, "I hope you're not looking for a ROOM!" Oh, no, there's a LOT of other reasons I'd be standing in the pouring rain outside of a motel . . . Wonder of wonders, as Phil harassed his father for information about the town (ah, to have the internet at our fingertips) a man pulled over his big car and got out. "Heading back to the trail?" he asked."We're trying to find a place to stay," I said.He introduced himself as Gene, the head of the New Jersey section of the Appalachian Trail. Small world! He offered us a ride to a VERY cheap and PERFECT motel. Sometimes, just the right person turns up at the right time.And so we got beds two nights in a row, I got a bath, and we did not freeze to death.
Date: 2009-09-12
From: Greenwood Lake

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

We didn't leave Greenwood Lake til after noon, well after noon. Before leaving we got sucked into a library sale. And I, um, ate two foot-long subs at Subway. I was hungry. We were slowed down by wet and slippery rock ledges and some rock scrambles (go out with a bang, New York) but at least it was no longer raining. Then we entered NEW JERSEY! State number 7!At some point Anya and Josh got ahead of us, but only by a few hours (they have had their own share of adventures) and we barely missed them. They headed into the Mayor's House in Unionville for the night and we stayed at the shelter. It was cold. We heard a bear. And I read Bridge to Terebithia in one night. I hadn't read it since 4th grade. I lead an exciting life, I know.
Date: 2009-09-13
From: Wawayanda Shelter

To: The Mayor's House
Miles today: 17.0

Today I got to hike without a pack!We knew that Anya and Josh were slackpacking today (hiking without all the unnecessary gear) and we managed to throw our stuff into the truck and slack as well. It felt great to go 17 miles from 8 - 4 with a long lunch break. The day was warm and beautiful. There was a long, long boardwalk, a huge and ostentatious bridge, beautiful fields filled with flowers in the last throes of summer, and good company with Anya and Josh. We finally made it to the Mayor's place (the former mayor, I should note) and we reunited with Light Weight, G Fog, and met Shoe. It's great to see them all. We were fed an amazing meal, treated to pop, and got the rules of the house:-The first beer is free. The second and third cost 25 cents.-If you call anyone sir, you will get slapped.-Excluding the place you're from and anything that has to do with the trail, if you use a word with more than 3 syllables you owe the house 25 cents-You are not allowed to do your own dishes-You must watch about an hour of required inspirational videos about following your dreams (No, I am not joking.)-The toilet in the basement is for liquids only.I like this place.
Date: 2009-09-14
From: The Mayor's House

To: The Mayor's House
Miles today: 23.0

For weeks I had looked at the map and hoped to slackpack 23 miles from Culvers Gap back to the Mayor's. It's a northbound slack, but it's almost all downhill if you go north. Going south, it would suck. This was my plan. I talked to Anya and Josh about it, got them on board, we arranged it. Then my legs struck.For the past week or so I'd been waking up in the middle of the night and scratching myself. I thought I was simply disgusting and itchy. I am a hiker, after all.Last night my legs started oozing yellow puss. They puffed up. I could no longer deny that something was up. That something, I now assume, must have been poison ivy. My legs are covered, my feet are covered (tops only, thank God) and I am miserable.In other words, no way am I hiking 23 miles today.So this morning at the crack of dawn and after an amazing breakfast, the four SOBOs took off without me. Phil will take lots of pictures and I will feel like I was there. I am missing, oh, perhaps a third of New Jersey, which is a bummer because I LOVE New Jersey (I never would have guessed) but I can't hike today and I don't want to get behind.Sigh.On the bright side, Phil's doing smashingly and I get an entire day to relax and try to nap, since I did not sleep last night.
Date: 2009-09-15
From: The Mayor's House

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I did survive the poison ivy.Though I will say, it is not fun hiking when you'd rather tear off your legs and put them through a blender because (you think in your itch-induced hysteria) perhaps then you'd stop wanting to scratch them. Is that too graphic?'Twas a lovely hike today, even if I had mildly oozing poison ivy on the tops of my feet and very much on my legs. We departed sadly from the Mayor's, and within five minutes on the trail I was sitting down, head in hands, sure that the poison ivy would drive me to madness and that I'd never make it the 18.2 miles to the Mohican Outdoor Center which offers free camping to AT thru-hikers.But it's funny what a person can do when they think they would rather scream and go crazy. I made it the 18.2 miles, hiking most of the day with Anya and Josh (Smokin' Loon and Mountain Yogi) and Phil, of course.When we made it to Mohican, the caretaker told us that fellow thru-hikers were already there: Lightweight and Zeus. ZEUS! Let me tell you about Zeus, for I can't remember if I've written about him yet. Zeus is vile and creative. He loves to write long journal entries in every trail register along the way. He goes off on crazy topics like moon landing conspiracies and aliens, not to mention topics like drugs and women. He has the time to write so much because he hikes 7 - 10 miles per day, regardless of how flat the terrain may be. Rumor has it that he once hiked a 20-mile day in order to watch a football game on TV that night, and he complained about the hike for 2 hours. He started the trail in May and planned to be done by Halloween, but he pushed it to Thanksgiving, then to Christmas, and by now he's at Valentine's Day. I first read a Zeus entry on Smarts Mountain in New Hampshire (that's where we slept in a fire tower) and I've been waiting to meet him ever since. And there he was.He was sitting at a picnic table with a hand-held radio, rocking out to some tunes."ZEUS, you old stinker, how are you?" I shouted as I went to him."I'm good! Who are you?""I'm Someday!""Someday! Sooommmeday! I love it. If I had a trail name, that would be a great one!"Yes, Zeus is his real name. And in a way, I think, that kind of sums him up.
Date: 2009-09-16
From: Mohican Outdoor Center

To: Church of the Mountain Hostel
Miles today: 10.8

Seven down, seven to go!Today was a short day into Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania where I got my resupply box and where we were tempted to stay in a beautiful church basement. Okay, maybe it wasn't the church that tempted us to stay (although it was quite nice) but rather the bakery in town.I'll be the first to admit that I have not been a fast thru-hiker. It's been frustrating for ME that I'm so slow, it's been frustrating for Phil that I'm so slow, and it's been frustrating that Phil is frustrated. Basically, I'm slow and that's that. Right after crossing the bridge into Pennsylvania we were routed on a roadwalk and had a frustrating interaction.A man with an annoying bowtie came up to us. I am a fan of bowties, I swear, but something about this guy's bowtie was so cocky that when he jauntily walked up to us and started talking to us, I may have already been mildly annoyed. (In my defense, I had just crossed what felt like a mile-long bridge on a freaking highway and the whole time the bridge was shaking and I'm from Minnesota, okay? The idea of a bridge falling down is not so foreign. I hate bridges. I hate shaking bridges even more.)"I work for [obscure bridge federation] and hey, we're trail maintainers!" he said jovially."Oh really?" We were tired, we were hungry, we were mere FEET away from the end of our day."Yeah, we maintain this road right here!" He laughed at his joke. "Are you going all the way?""Yep, we're southbounders," we replied."You're so LATE!" he exclaimed "Man, are you guys late!""No we're not," I snapped. This is a sensitive topic for me. "Yeah you are," the middle-aged, non-hiker, bowtied man argued. "We don't get hardly any hikers this late!""We're in the bubble," I retorted. "There are a bunch of us. There are a bunch of us behind too."He scoffed. He didn't believe me.At the church hostel I opened the door. There were the Graff brothers: Slip 'n Slide and Blue Rhino, who we hiked with in Maine for awhile! We hadn't seen them since Lincoln, NH, and even then they were ahead of us and had hitched in on a different road we had. There they were!That night Firebuilder showed up. We hadn't seen him since Mount Madison in New Hampshire. He started before us and hikes FAST but he takes a lot of zero days, so it all evens out.Every bed that night was filled with a southbounder, except for one lonely northbounder. (Zeus, of all filthy hypocrites said "You just wanna hug him, don't you? Hug him and say 'You'll get there someday!'")LATE. I may be slow, we may not be perfectly on schedule, but we are NOT late. Jerk.
Date: 2009-09-18
From: Church of the Mountain Hostel

To: Stealth site by freeway
Miles today: 0.0

Maine was covered in mud.New Hampshire was covered in tourists.New York was covered in trash.And, of course, Pennsylvania is covered in rocks. But at least all the other states had water. Pennsylvania may be my least favorite state, although on day 2 of hiking in the state I can hardly claim that. But it's been a shock to go from states where the trail literally was a stream . . . to this. There is no water.The plan was to make it to the next shelter and water source, a mere five miles away, which would have worked well if not for the severe mileage drop in my hiking. PA is famous for its rocks - small, jagged rocks that cover the trail. Hiking through the northern part of the state makes me look like the sugar plum fairy, as I dance from side to side of the trail trying to not bang up my feet completely. I can get barely 2 miles an hour. Still I'm sore.So today was a full day of fifteen or so miles (I'm behind on figuring out math. When I have to spent my day worrying about water I'm less inclined to do math at night.) and we made it to Wind Gap waterless and exhausted.We hiked up from the highway to find a stealth site. I set up the tent and bear bag while Phil hiked a good mile into town to get water for us both. He's a nice guy.Water . . . I'd have laughed a month ago if I knew this was going to be an issue.
Date: 2009-09-19
From: Stealth site by freeway

To: Leroy A Smith Shelter
Miles today: 4.3
Weather: clear sky

This was a bizarre and wonderful day. Maybe I should blame it on the fumes of the highway wafting up over us all night as we slept, or maybe it was just the impact of Day 1 of Rocks . . . whatever it was, we slept til 10:30 or so. It was awesome.By the time we were packed up it was almost noon. That late in the day, it was pointless to NOT hitch into town. It was Wind Gap, after all.I used to be a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian for about seven years, and I was quite happy with my meatless way of life. It seemed like an easy, environmentally-conscious way to reduce my impact upon the Earth. And that was great - until I went to Chile and started having dreams about (for whatever reason) Arby's roast beef sandwiches. Every night I would see these sandwiches, a beautiful pile of thinly-sliced roast beef between two sesame-seed buns. . . and maybe a side of curly fries. What was worse, I could even taste it all. But there is no Arby's in Chile and no way to satisfy my inexplicable desire. These sandwiches haunted my dreams for roughly three months until I returned to the states and gave up my meat-free ways. Fast-forward a few years to Maine. Somewhere in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, I started craving Arby's regular roast beef sandwiches. At every maildrop I would peruse my guidebook pages, looking longingly for any sign of an Arby's. I never saw one. I asked northbounders if they had seen one. Someone told me that I wouldn't find one til Pennsylvania. In Maine, this seemed a world away. A hundred days I waited, every day thinking about them, thinking about what I would order when at last the clouds would part and I would stare at an Arby's.Wind Gap.We hitched into town, technically to resupply but really to stop my craving. We got to Arby's and we went up to the counter. The big deal of the week was 5 regular roast beef sandwiches for $5. I ordered the 5 and two orders of fries. The gothic, depressed teenager behind the counter was unimpressed. Then Phil ordered his 5, and she became even more unimpressed. The pile of food on our table was ridiculous. But hey, I had hiked 900 miles to get that meal.It was GREAT.We did manage to pack out a few sandwiches between the two of us, so that night we had a supper of cold roast beef. And even though we only went a few miles, it was an amazing day.
Date: 2009-09-21
From: Sherpa Spring Stealth

To: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Whoa.I didn't know that Pennsylvania had this in it.Today we encountered some of the strangest terrain on the entire trail. On a grassy ridge, a Superfund site of ore mining, remains of terrain environmentally degraded, views of a small town (Palmerton), and then a decent just as wicked as anything we had in the Whites.Really, where did THAT come from?Peeking my head down over the rocks my stomach flip-flopped as I watched the tiny cars drive far below. It took me an hour to go less than half a mile - a reminder that once, the entire trail was like that and the measly two miles an hour I have been averaging was just a dream.Pennsylvania has a little bit of everything. Perhaps at this point we've seen most everything, from easy grassy fields to hardcore rock scrambling, so we're no longer encountering brand-new terrain, but the mixture is always interesting.
Date: 2009-09-22
From: Bake Oven Knob Shelter

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: light rain

This is where the magic is. Right here. Right now. This is the time to be here.Sometimes I find it hard to write about hiking. There were rocks. I climbed over them. I slipped. I caught myself. I hurt. I kept going. I ate lunch.Lunch, today, is more interesting to write about. Not that the food was any good. I have eaten more than my share of bagels with peanut butter (bleeccch). In fact, I have tried very hard to make bagels with peanut butter interesting, adding such culinary delights as coconut, pixie sticks, peanut butter chips, and gummi bears . . . but I digress.After a morning of hiking alone I decided to plop down and wait for Phil to catch up so we could eat together. (Truthfully, I just wanted to read my book for awhile. I picked up Julie & Julia in a shelter after Zeus finished it, and even though it didn't seem terribly appealing to me I had just finished reading Twilight, and nothing could be worse than that, so . . .) (Also, an update: I really enjoyed Julie & Julia.)Phil came and we were eating and all of a sudden Lightweight and G Fog came hiking by. Remember, Phil and I just took two ridiculously short days. We thought we were behind all the southbounders. But those two were slackpacking due to a random connection. Five minutes later, Anya and Josh came by. They had just visited friends and were back on the trail. I sat there, shaking my head. So much for being the last southbounders!The rest of the day was nondescript, but the shelter is anything but. It's more like a barn with bunks and pizza delivery (thank you, O Wise Shelter Builders). We came in and were greeted by Zeus, Blue Rhino, Slip 'n Slide, and later came Anya and Josh, Firebuilder, Petunia and Treehugger, and Dick Freeman was camped out somewhere nearby. Here we all are.
Date: 2009-09-23
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Port Clinton Pavilion
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: overcast clouds

The find of the day was a dandelion-yellow caterpillar with big porcupine-like needles sticking straight into the air off its back. Coooool.Also, I found a bright blue rock.And then I ate a mountain of French fries.
Date: 2009-09-24
From: Port Clinton Pavilion

To: Hertlein Campsite
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

It took me ten entire hours to hike the measly eighteen miles to this campsite. Phil did it all after lunch.I hiked all day with Anya and Josh, and I am very grateful for them because this morning I was in a place where nothing was beautiful and everything hurt. After making a wax sculpture during lunch, things turned around. I saw a turtle on the trail this morning and saw it as an omen.
Date: 2009-09-25
From: Hertlein Campsite

To: Pine Grove Comfort Inn
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: clear sky

I couldn't sleep last night and when I woke up this morning I cursed the light for making it morning. Some days are awesome. Some days I just don't want to move. I waited with a heavy heart to hear Anya and Josh's tent zipper, knowing that would mark the end of my glorious moments of pretending to sleep.I think they were waiting for our tent zipper too.Eventually Anya shouted "There's a hotel in six miles!"Turns out this Comfort Inn has a hiker rate of $60. Split that between four people, and . . . it's better than any hostel.We called to see if they have an indoor pool. As it turns out, they do.We almost called to see if they have a waffle-maker. As it turns out, they do.We wanted to call to see if we could eat waffles in the pool. We refrained.The choice was easy. We were tired, we were hungry, we really, really, REALLY smelled bad.And so we made it here, to Pine Grove. And it is faaabulous.
Date: 2009-09-27
From: Pine Grove Comfort Inn

To: Stealth site by PA 443
Miles today: 12.8

It was really, exceptionally hard to leave Pine Grove - even after two very relaxing nights there. We had the opportunity to meet Bearwalker, who came to visit Anya and Josh, I got to swim (I float less than I used to, that's for sure), and we all got pillows. Ah, pillows!This morning after our ComfortSunshine Breakfast, I made friends with a man named Oskar who has a well-developed sense of humor. We volleyed jokes back and forth for quite awhile, and it was fun to learn that he had once lived in Minnesota, not far from where Phil is from! It's a small world.Trying to get four people to an end location while hitch-hiking is next to impossible even when it's not raining, so the four of us decided to split into two groups of two when Oskar went to check with his wife to see if she'd take pity upon the stranded hikers. Lucky for us, Ruth was just as kind as Oskar was and drove us in twos (the van was rather full) to the trail head. It was an amazingly kind act, one that we deeply appreciated.At some point that day we crossed the 1000 mile mark! There is no sign, and I even missed the supposed oil pipeline that marks 1000.1. But woohoo! 1000 miles. Not too bad.It was a long day, even though we didn't get started til noon, and we'd hoped to reach the next shelter but after a surprise stream ford (really, PA? Wow. That was kind of fun.) we all stealthed with the promise to ourselves that we'd wake up before the crack of dawn tomorrow.I would also like to note that I jumped in the freezing cold stream to rescue Phil's towel that he unsuccessfully flung across the ford. Hurrah!
Date: 2009-09-28
From: Stealth site by PA 443

To: Peters Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 22.7
Weather: light rain

Today was beautiful, horrendous, and in retrospect very important.This was my longest mileage so far, and in the beginning it was great. We all woke up at 6 and I left the site at 7, ahead of the rest. The trail was in great shape with hardly any of the famed PA rocks, and I was making around 2.5 miles an hour - the best I could ever hope for, especially with a pack.Walking along, out of nowhere there was a dilapidated sign for a cemetery - finds like this make the trail so much more wonderful. I never would have expected to see such a thing, and though it was undoubtedly creepy, the sign made me smile. Half a mile later I walked through the remains of an old town that now is no more. (That at least explains the cemetery.) The sunlight was streaming through the leaves and the air smelled like fall and it was beautiful.I stopped for lunch by Rattling Run, got water, visited with Zeus when he passed by. He expected never to see me again, but our two days off in Pine Grove put him back on our track. Phil showed up almost an hour later and we ate lunch. While we were eating, the sky turned from clear to black in a total of five seconds and the wind kicked up scarily fast. Sitting right by obvious stealth sites, we threw up the tent in about a minute flat and got inside, hoping to wait out the worst of the weather's wrath.. . . the wrath that never came. Man, did we feel silly when Anya and Josh came by fifteen minutes later. We took down the tent and kept hiking. I'd taken a 2-hour lunch break.The rest of the day was pretty terrible for me: my feet ached, my knees ached, and even after two days of rest I felt absolutely exhausted. I was a mess til we reached Peters Mountain Shelter. I didn't want to see anyone, I didn't want to do anything, I just wanted to sleep.
Date: 2009-09-29
From: Peters Mountain Shelter

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Blessedly, today had to be a short day due to my plans to visit my friend Leslie in Duncannon. Crazy woman that she is, she agreed to drive two hours for a visit that couldn't have lasted more than five. She also spoiled us rotten: taking us to buy Phil a new phone, wandering through a grocery store with us, taking us out to eat, buying us a room for the night . . . it was unexpected and wonderful. We got to hear about her adventures working for a Hollywood production, dreamed about joining her, and reminisced about all the adventures she and I had when once we lived on a ship together.After a long, different day we went to sleep at the Doyle Hotel, which is an establishment really beyond words.The following day, Phil woke up with a fever and other various maladies that I won't go into here (you'd thank me if you knew). He spent the day sleeping and eating two pancakes (you know he's sick if he's not eating). I spent the day reading, writing, bouncing off the walls, and eating two pancakes. So, it was another day before we headed back on the trail.