morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-01-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

January is rolling right along and my preparations are finally shaping up. Yesterday I put several services (satellite t.v., trash pickup, phone, internet access) on "vacation" status, thus significantly reducing monthly fees during my absence. I have 2 kayaks and a canoe that must be chiseled out of the snow and jammed into the garage. Most likely they will be okay where they are. I'll look at them this morning and decide later...maybe take a nap on it. I've got to get to the hockey arena and start back on the steps this morning. Entropy sets in so quickly as I get older. 12 degrees at the moment with a predicted high of 17 and low of -4. Not so cold really, but definitely long john weather...folks who've never left this part of the country (and become softened) are likely still just wearing jockeys under their blue jeans. I'm not that tough, or dumb...well, maybe I am that dumb but I'm definitely not that tough.
Date: 2005-01-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning folks. Fighting a cold today...that's sort of ridiculous, isn't it? A person probably has no more chance of "fighting" a cold then they do wrestling with demon rum. Likely best to just relax and allow the body to heal itself. Great idea! I've just now talked myself out of working out today. I will stay home and become friendly with my new digital camera, learn how to use it and how to download on the computer. Being pretty much anti-technology I've avoided all things with moving parts for most of my life. The visual opportunities available on the Appalachian trail demand a camera with more capacity. They also probably demand a photographer with more capacity too, but this is what they'll get. Yesterday I drove to Hayward, Wi and said goodbye to some of my old friends at the Walmart. For about a year I was the manager of the Vision Center but quit because it got in the way of hiking, kayaking, fishing and goofing off. It was easy, I only had to learn to separate my wants from my needs. Lately I've found myself wondering why I even have a house. It's merely a place to store the rest of my stuff while I'm out hiking...and a place to store me when I'm not. A huge garage sale (I mean how many boats do you really need?) could take care of the stuff problem and then I could rent a room somewhere. I'll give this more thought when I return from my adventure. Anyway, on to the camera.
Date: 2005-01-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Still climbing those stairs, but finding more and easier opportunities to take a break. The idea is to climb for half an hour, take a 5-10 minutes break while walking around, and resume climbing. The process is repeated until I've reached two hours or say to heck with it, whichever comes first. Today I just sat around with the ladies from my aerobics class during my break. They were having coffee and graciously allowed me to sit with them so long as I didn't talk (just kidding). Alley Cats Coffee Shop in Spooner has named their new sandwich of the month after me, "The Trailblazer Tuna". I had one today and it was very tasty. If you're in Spooner be sure and stop at Alley Cats. Nice folks...and no I'm not getting a kickback (although they sometimes refill my coffee an extra time or two). I have to close. My tents in the bath tub and I've got to rinse and hang it to dry...only a hiker would understand.
Date: 2005-01-11
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hey folks. Leaving NW Wisconsin 2 weeks from today. Still hitting the stairs and a few other things. We're headed for about a week of below zero weather and I'm giving some consideration to heading for the Virgin Islands, camping on the beach for 4-6 months and posting on trailjournals from there. I figure in most cases a few pictures downloaded from the Superior Hiking Trail will fool most of the people most of the time. Nawww, you couldn't keep me off the AT; I've worked too hard for this. Gotta go, dinner's ready.
Date: 2005-01-12
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It's getting harder and harder to do any working out. I did a little less than an hour on the stairs today and my goal has been 2 hours. It makes sense at this point to recognize that balking at some of this stuff is entirely reasonable. I've been doing one form of preparation or another for more than a year now...and I've not even smelled the Appalachian trail. My revised goal will be to just show up at the gym every day and do the best I can. It's physiologically impossible to make any huge leaps in fitness at this point, so it's best to just try and hang on to whatever I've got. I'll be leaving here in 13 days and will be in Virginia sometime during the first week of February. No doubt my son will have some surprises for me.
Date: 2005-01-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Brrr! It's getting cold. Right now it's 1 above with a predicted low of -18. We're supposedly headed for 8 consecutive days of below zero weather. As the old timers up here say "What the hell do ya expect, it's winter ain't it?"I've been giving some thought as to how I'm going to write this journal. The reason being is that I tend to vacillate between the extremes of wanting to offend no one and really wishing I could piss off everybody. The first gets me in trouble with me and then other tends to get me in hot water with everyone else. I guess I'll just have to be what I am and you, the reader, will have to deal with it. Sometimes it will be poetry and sunshine and other times it will be hemorrhoids and mosquito bites. That's just the way life is.On the other hand, there is the need for the occasional lie. Why tell the truth when a lie would do just as well? What would you do if a life situation arose where you really had to lie and you'd let your skills atrophy? Keep those lying skills in shape, and a journal is just the place to practice.What with the cold weather I've given some thought lately to chucking the whole trip and camping out on a beach in the Virgin Islands for 4 to 6 months...I may have addressed this yesterday. I would take my "Thruhikers Handbook" with me and post occasionally in this journal, describing the miles I've hiked, colorful characters I meet along the way, flora, fauna, topography, geography, various trail towns, etc. At the end of my hike I'd roll (literally) back into Wisconsin, tan and fat, filled with exciting tales of my adventure. I might do this...I just might...
Date: 2005-01-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning. The cold snap is here. Today's predicted low is -13 and it's currently -20. It's very still outside, not a hint of a breeze and sound travels very easily as trees crack and pop; gray squirrels scratching about for the corn I tossed for them last night. There will be sunshine today. Cold is always tolerable with sunshine. Walking in the woods can be a real treat on a cold and brittle winter day. Most critters tend to stay snug in their dens, but the tapping of a distant and unseen woodpecker seems much closer on days like this. Mother Nature occasionally reveals her secrets to those who venture out on such a day. Not me though, I'm looking from my window...there'll be no whispering of secrets to me on this day.
Date: 2005-01-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

26 below zero. Coldest day of the year thus far. Going to the gym today is a must do, weather notwithstanding. I can only take so much of my own sloth and indolence; even my soul craves some physically demanding activity. I need a workout. Yesterday I was sitting around watching playoff football and realized I've never mentioned anything about my overall plans for 2005, the year I turn 60.My plans, though unstated, for an AT thru hike have been existant for a couple of years now. About a year ago while having coffee at Alley Cats I mentioned that it looked to be a long cold winter (Wisconsin, go figure!) and wondered out loud what I could do with that huge amount of time. One of the locals mentioned something about trying cross country skiing, a sport I had never considered because my resilience is pretty much a thing of the past. In other words, when I fall there is not longer any "bounce". I just lay there until I figure out how to get up. My thinking was that skiing would naturally entail a lot of falling and running into trees and rocks, things I like to avoid whenever possible. However, catching me at a weak moment, I was soon over at the Riverbrook Ski and Bike shop getting outfitted for skis, poles and boots. Later that evening, well after dark so no one would see me, I crept out my front door, put on my skis and attempted to negotiate my way down the driveway and to the icy country road in front of my house. The round trip from my door to the lake and back is a little less than a mile. I fell perhaps half a dozen times and it seemed to take forever to either get up or figure out how to get the skis off. But, I absolutely loved it and quickly convinced myself that, with work, it was something I could enjoy and be successful at.Note: There is more to this than intended; I'll do more tomorrow.
Date: 2005-01-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning. It's one above zero with a predicted high of 24. Spring is here! Spring is here!Yesterday I was writing about Cross country skiing, so I'd better start there. After my late night in-the-dark experiment with skiing, I headed for the closest trail the next morning, the Totagatic ski trail. This is a really neat piece of publicly owned property with a series of ski loops with varying degrees of difficulty, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Smarter than I look, the beginner loop was my choice. Since my skiing career was, at best, only 12 hours old you can see what terror even a gradual slope might stir in me. I fell many times and somehow struggled back to my feet, glasses sometimes hanging from one ear, toes seemingly ripped from their roots, but I absolutely loved it.I came back day after day. Days when it was snowing, days when it was below zero, just doing something that I loved. Getting up was quite difficult with this little arthritis, the slipped disc and the numb leg, so I started doing the Pilates, Yoga, Aerobics and Working out with Weights classes at the Northwest Sports Complex in the morning and skiing in the afternoon. It really wasn't that difficult; I'm single and retired. What else was I going to do with my time? And, I loved it. One day, in the middle of the woods, cold and no one around, I just started to grin and then to laugh just for the sheer joy of what I was doing. I've also had that experience while hiking. These activities are really gifts that we can do for the rest of our lives. One day, just for the heck of it, I skiied 20 miles. I was so tired that I drove right into a snow bank on the way home and had to hike 2 miles into town. In February I did 237 miles just to see how much I could ski. Somewhere in there I got the idea of thru hiking the AT and Skiing the Birkie (The American Birkiebienner - alledgedly this country's premier cross country ski race)in the same year - the year of my 60th birthday. But something just seemed to be missing. What was it?
Date: 2005-01-19
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hi folks. Yesterday I was writing about cross country skiing and my plan on skiing the Birkie in the same year that I hike the AT. This seemed like a pretty big undertaking, but somewhere along the way I remembered that I always wanted to run a marathon. Running was important to me for part of the 70's and 80's, but I never got around to a marathon. So, I decided to do that as well. The only way to fit it in is to do the marathon between the completion of the AT and skiing the Birkie - which is in February of each year. It seems reasonable that when I finish my hike I would weigh about 30 pounds less than I do now and be in the best shape of my life. Hiking legs aren't running legs, so I will have to build up a base of miles, but I thinks it's definitely doable. Remember, we're not talking about speed. I'd like to complete both of these events in a reasonable time frame so as not to completely embarrass myself, but it's finishing that counts. It's important to me that I finish what I set out to do, especially in this case. I'll have trash talking rights for the rest of my life. No matter what anyone says to me I will always be able to look them in the eye and say "I hold the world's record in the Old Fart Trifecta"...and as long as no one age 60 or older ever becomes dumb enough to try this, I always will.
Date: 2005-01-22
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hi.Looks to be my last prep entry for awhile. With 2 or 3 days to go I may be tied up with goodbyes and doing all the things I've been putting off. House cleaning (yes, even guys have to clean house...but not very often). Today I shoveled the driveway for the first time of this snow season. It's needed it, but I set one of those weird goals of seeing how long I could go without shoveling. Justified because I'm leaving for the AT, and who cares? I did rather well by just loading the back of my pickup with firewood and driving over the top. Today I had a change of heart out of consideration for my neighbor who will be looking in on the house and picking up my mail. My taxes are essentially done, so the last reason for staying in Wisconsin has been dealt with. My brother Mike works for the Department of Revenue and will take care of the electronic filing so I can have the refund deposited directly to my checking account. I also straightened out my will and life insurance, giving the appropriate documents to a friend that will handle whatever needs to be handled. This is something that is very important and should be properly managed whether hiking or not. That's it folks. Nothing silly and I have laundry to fold at the very least.Peace/OutNimblefoot
Date: 2005-01-24
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning. It's officially "Hitting The Road Day". Got to take a shower, clean the tub and bathroom, dump the trash, turn keys over to the neighbors, put the kayak in the garage, turn down the thermostat to 45, set the faucets to slow drip, throw out some perishable food, pack a small bag of "regular" clothes, pack the truck, look around to see what I forgot and....get out of Dodge. I know I'll forget something, what will it be? Forget to leave? Not likely!Some wonderful friends invited me to their house for a bon voyage dinner last night, and I'm not even "voyaging", I'm going for a walk. These are the Ortman's from Alley Cats Coffee Shop. In attendance were Robert & Michelle Ortman and their son Jordan, Culley & Kathy Hanacek, owners of Hanacek Logging (so, if you ever need to buy a log...)and their daughter, the fair Culleen (probably spelled wrong, but by the time they read this I'll be hundreds of miles removed from danger, and Doug (last name unknown), a friend, fellow coffee shop inhabitor and transplanter of fish for the Wisconsin DNR (and yet he claims to not know where the good fishing spots are). The food was excellent and way too plentiful. Michelle worked all day in the Coffe Shop and then prepared this incredible feast. Conversation alternated between bright, funny and loving...obviously we did not talk politics. At the end of the meal they drank a toast to me, each in turn saying something flattering and fabricated about yours truly. I really was touched; all this for some old guy who has yet to take one step on the trail. I felt a little guilty about my intention of flying to the Virgin Islands, camping on the beach for 4 to 6 months, posting on trail journals, and eventually returning all tan and fat. Well, what they don't know won't....Bye, I'm outta here.
Date: 2005-01-28
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Appalachian Trail.....So, here I am headed to the wilderness, away from the daily grind (not that I had one), the hustle and bustle, the structure and trappings of contemporary society and I am grabbed by that same society and yanked backwards into reality.I stopped in Madison, Wisconsin to get my taxes done. That should really say it all, shouldn't it? There is an organization called the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) that was created specifically to provide free tax assistance to those who need or desire it. Normally I prefer to do my own taxes, believing that no one who would do my taxes for me, paid or not, would have as much concern for my best interests as would I. The nice folks at Vita screwed up my taxes in fundamental ways that boggle the mind. I understand that the responsibility still remains with me, but during all my protests during the processing, they pretty much ignored me because they were "professionals". Due to being extremely tired, I let them get away with it. The next morning, being rested and full of coffee, I sat down with my calculator and quickly figured out their errors. I drove to their office and immediately discovered that they won't again be open until this coming Saturday, the 28th of January and it will most likely be impossible to retrieve what they transmitted to the IRS. I guess what irks me the most isn't the fact that they made the error, but they intentionally ignored my protests of "this can't be right". In a futile attempt to head off the problem, I called the IRS in Washington. I spoke with a lady who was so flat in her affect that I couldn't be absolutely certain that I wasn't speaking with some sort of a recording that was programmed to provide very limited responses. During our conversation I began to picture her as grey and humorless, essentially a cadaver with a barely perceptible pulse. In order to somewhat pleasantly pass the time as she prattled on about forms and regs, I tried to imagine her having sex at any point in her life. I couldn't do it, no way could I picture her with curled toes or the smile of passion...unless she was screwing over a vulnerable taxpayer. "At last", I thought, "finally I have found my real reason for wanting to thru hike the AT...to get away from this very crap". And it is that very same crap that has reached out and dragged me back to the lair to suck that last elusive bit of marrow from my bones.Guess what? I'm still going. The question to be asked is whether I will ever choose to return.
Date: 2005-01-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning,Have to type fast. Only 5 minutes left on this damnned library computer. My tax situation is now as straightened out as it can be for the present. I met with the VITA folks today and they agreed with my conclusions...which is quite a bit more than I ever get from my mother. Ha-ha (at least it's funny to me)The current plan is to leave Wisconsin bright and early Monday morning the 31st of January, with the intent of driving as fast as safely possible (nothing over 85) to Virginia. I need to get connected again with my son and also do some more conditioning work. Nothing particularly funny to report today. It's Saturday and time to visit with the two brothers I haven't gotten a chance to see. I will guarantee there will be plenty of funny stuff from those visits.Adios. NF
Date: 2005-02-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hello everyone,I'm safe in Richmond, Virginia, lounging about in my son's apartment and just enjoying the southern weather. I strolled around the apartment complex this morning, taking no small delight in watching southerners scraping ice from their windshield prior to driving to work. They were so bundled up and looking miserable. It must have been, well, 35 degrees or so. Presently it's 50 above, the sun is shining, and they're still overdressed. As much as I smugly enjoy their discomfort, summer would bring me the pain of the flip side of the coin. I cannot stand the heat, but last night I slept with the window open.Arrival in Richmond was on the 31st of January and I did my first workout at my son's gym yesterday. Cardio and stretching took up about 2 hours and I can feel some twinges today, but nothing serious. This weekend Joe, my son, is going to develop some sort of hellacious medievel training program for me...I can hardly wait. In the meantime I have been doing some grocery shopping and picking up some odds and ends. Every parent will probably understand that if you ever visit an unmarried male child, it will be necessary to buy some groceries. The stuff he eats is positively scarey. He doesn't even own a coffee pot...well, he does now. It's really great to be here and see him again after 15 months. Last night he showed me one of his latest tricks, climbing on top of a large exercise ball and standing up. Competetive fool that I am, it's now a challenge. This I must do. This I will do.
Date: 2005-02-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Good morning,Yesterday I went downhill skiing with my 29 year old son and put my thru hike totally at risk. I have cross country skiied before, but down hill is quite different; shorter skis and poles, way bigger and clunkier boots that hook in on both the toe and the heel. As I was renting my equipment at Wintergreen I told the person at each stop that I had never done this before, as if doing so would get them to say something magic that would fix the whole situation and I would be able to instantly ski swiftly and safely. Never happened. Once I figured out how to get everything on I headed to the beginners slope, thinking that is the perfect place for beginners to start. Wrong choice. The perfect place for beginners is the "bunny" slopes or perhaps, in my case, the parking lot. My son snowboards and has like me has never skied so he brought neither experience or advice to my personal table of survival. He was pretty much restricted to watching and hollering "look out" and "if you can't stop, just fall down". Somehow we made it to the beginners's slope and with my somewhat scant experience with X country skiing I made it down the first gradual incline not knowing there was a considerably steeper incline in my immediate future. It was sort of similar to being in a kayak, cruising through a mild rapids and all of a sudden you're on the brink of serious white water and a water fall; you can only clamp down on your sphincter (as if "that" helps) and hang on. Quickly I was completely out of control, going much faster than I had ever gone before. I knew nothing about turning or stopping and so I just decided to flop. Unfortunately I also knew nothing about how far one will skid and bounce along the path under such conditions...evidently much further than I estimated. I managed to slide into a young fellow and and a ski instructor, performing only what I could describe as the picking up of a 7-10 split while on ski's. Well, one ski that is. As I lay there doing a mental inventory of my body parts I apologized to the two of them and received their assurances that they were okay. By this time my son had arrived and collectively we put me back together and I slinked off the slope in search of ski lessons.The moral of the story for me is "just because you're a beginner doesn't mean you're competent to be on the beginner slopes" Evidently there is a category of sub beginner of which I was completely unaware. Later on I did the free group lesson and successfully, if clumsily, was able to navigate the same slope without taking anyone out. All in all it was a lot of fun and injuries were only to my pride (no biggie, I'm used to it) and a softball size lumpy bruise on my left hip. No real soreness or stiffness today so I can go to the gym and involve myself in my son's workout from hell.