morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-05-19
From: Vienna, VA

To: Fayetteville
Miles today: 4.7

Day's Inn, (1:36 PM).We were dropped off by the walking train wreck that putting Q-tip near Butler, and hiked an easy bit to the shelter. We stopped for dinner, and hiked out into the rain and onto Fayetteville. The four zero days for Trail Days and Hardcore left me dirtier and smellier than when I hitched down, so we are taking a full town day here -- although I'll be hiking out tonight, so it won't be a zero day at least.
Date: 2004-05-21
From: Fayetteville

To: Backpacker's Campsite
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: overcast clouds

(2:15 PM)Today's 14 miles went by quickly -- I'd go further but will wait for Stanimal to catch up; He's got my green Photon, attaches to my little (and only) knife.One of the burner holes in the stove I threw together yesterday is too large, but it was a good first effort.
Date: 2004-05-22
From: Backpacker's Campsite

To: Cove Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: light rain

Cumberland Valley, VA. (11:38 AM)Yesterday we hiked hard to get to the Backpacker's Campsite just outside Boiling Springs. It was a nice spot, except for the bugs, the rain, and the heavily-trafficked train tracks 30 feet off. A light rain kept us in bed this morning til 8:30 at least, and we ran into Q-tip and Butta at the Mid-atlantic ATC headquarters in Boiling Springs.Tonight's goal is Cove Mountain Shelter -- about 21 miles across flat, if muddy, terrain. Tomorrow we will check into the Doyle.I got my Gators visor today, sent home "The Book of the Dun Cow" and picked up Peral S. Buck's "The Good Earth".I would be hiking on now, but we've stopped for lunch and to dry out our gear (tents, tarps, etc.)
Date: 2004-05-23
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: The Doyle
Miles today: 4.1
Weather: few clouds

The Doyle in Duncannon, PA. (Noon)We are waiting to check in on the balcony of the Doyle, with the hope that we won't be taking a zero tomorrow, but every hiker has warned us "get out of there as fast as you can -- don't get sucked in."Yesterday was long and exhausting; we ended up night hiking into the shelter, and missed the 7 course cookout put on by the PATC ridgerunners. Q-tip and Butta are the class clowns, and we caught up with the gang in the morning. And it was a pleasant 400 foot drop off the AT to the shelter. And another to the water.On our way in we met Waldo and Deja Vu on the way out. I give Deja the postcard she missed in Pearisburg.I hope the bars are open tonight.(5:26 PM)The long, slow process of cooling off has started, but my room will probably be in the 70's when it's time to fall asleep. Below, cars drive through town. The engine noise rolls in and out -- waves at the beach.Duncannon is a tired, old main street community. The Doyle is just about a century old, and she shows it. The electrical and telecommunication grids are retro-fitted like someone dropped a bucket of giant spaghetti from a few thousand feet.Stanimal and I met Briar at The Pub for lunch and a pitcher of Yingling. I took a salad and a half-pound burger: vitamins, minerals, and greasy calories. And beer. I've really grown fond of cold beers this summer.Stanimal is just back from draining his heel blisters; he say "they don't look that bad."
Date: 2004-05-24
From: The Doyle

To: The Doyle
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

(unknown time)I'm at the Doyle, taking a zero and seeing if I can move back my start date this September to get a couple more weeks to hike. I should know by this evening, and am rather anxious.(a few emails later)Thruhika say WHAT!My start-work date is now in late September, giving me plenty of time to take. I was grinning ear to ear and bouncing up and down quite carelessly in my seat. My gosh, I nearly bought a round for the several people at the bar.My inner postmodernist is being fed by this hike; I recall Italo Calvino's "If on a winter night a traveler" teaching me that communication through language is bottomless and unbridgable chasm. That lesson has stuck, but we have other channels: the eyes, an embrace, shared pain. This thru-hike sets me yet further apart from, I imagine, everyone else except the other hikers. How does something as simple as walking irreverisbly transform the soul? It's easy when you're an introvert!There is a good vibe here at the Doyle. A soul-sucking, zero-day black-holing vibe that I sense even through this greasily fed hangover. Maybe I'm in a good mood. Q-tip and Butter would nod, laugh, and mock today's zero day after yesterday's insistence that I had not slowed down enough to get locked into an orbit.Stanimal and I resupplied today for Port Clinton, hopefully four days away. I sent home my Data Book (the one I was keeping a dutious record of all my sleeping stops for posterity); it weighs 4 oz. I sent home another SD card loaded with pictures along with the data book, and picked up 10 feet of Tyvek for Stanimal's groundcloth. He picked up hanger wire for his gaitors. I'm especially curious to see them in action; hanger wire was the solution I was about to move to last time I hiked with gaitors.(...still later)"Helm" (Steven Gould) is a good enough book; the detailed Aikido and hard-enough-to-be-pleasantly-crunchy science fiction blend well. I was hooked from these two different angles, and thoroughly drawn out of myself. Now that I have put the book down, I slowly become myself again. The noise of the cars rolls in and out, wave-like. A suspended tangle of wires pumps around energy and information (the same thing, really) to be converted into useful forms like the rotation of a dishwasher or an array of bits steering a beam of energy painting out a pop-up ad for pop-up ad-blocking software. People live and move and perform exotic contortions to modulate information onto sound pressure waves. Sunshine, across from me at this picnic table, has lobotomized a watermelon and turns to the first Harry Potter book.   Across the valley, through the houses and between power-lines, I see a small exposed rock-face with toy cars and trucks slowly rolling on the road below. And I'm slowly falling back into myself.I think speech, socialization and perhaps beer will assist the process. It's back in to the Smokey Doyle for me -- I wonder . . .
Date: 2004-05-26
From: Peter's Mountain Shelter

To: Rausch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: mist

Briar is a retired fighter pilot, sixty-eight years old with a dozen grandkids. His voice is rough and gravely as if from too much yelling and too many cigarettes. He's having hip problems -- pack abrasion -- but he doesn't really complain. We've been passing the evening while Stanimal sleeps, This is the second night he's been asleep before seven.
Date: 2004-05-27
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: 501 Shelter, PA
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: scattered clouds

501 Shelter, PA. (7:30 PM)This shelter has four walls, two doors, and a massive skylight. The plastic shine from a battered red and white tablecloth spread over a ten foot table scatters the light so that it's as bright in here as on the picnic table outside. Ten high-backed chairs -- padded, and with wooden armrest -- ring the table; they are beaten and comfy. Eight double bunks are scattered around the walls of the one-roomed shelter, which is about the size of a double trailer. Briar, Stanimal and I are lazily digesting an order from Original Italian Pizza: one 16" supreme, two orders of jalepeno poppers, and an order of breadsticks. Rambler was in and out for dinner -- he's trying for Delaware Water Gap on Tuesday.Stanimal took a good spill today, ending up like a turtle flailing on its back. It's his fourth fall in the last week; we've agreed to blame bad traction on his new New Balance trail runners -- even if he perfers them to his old boots.Today was a good day. It started poorly enough; a thunderstorm last night kept anything from getting dry, and got a few items wet, critically including Stanimal's footwear. The sky cleared quickly this morning, and we found flat, sunny concrete under a small bridge over a muddy, swollen stream. Briar smartly crossed the water on the road. Stanimal and I dumbly forded it barefoot. Our stuff dried quickly and I took at least one good picture -- although my camera gave me a scare when I thought it fogged up. We've been dry since the rest of the day was [illegible] except when it got rocky and except for the thousand foot climb outfrom the under-construction I-81 overpass.An odd note: Stanimal calls me Tom, not Bigfoot.
Date: 2004-05-28
From: 501 Shelter

To: Eagle's Nest Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

Eagles Nest Shelter. (7:29 PM)After getting off to a rocky start, we flew through today's miles -- even Briar kept to almost 3 mph on one stretch. Even with long, lazy, breaks -- Stanimal cooked lunch -- we still arrived before 4:30. I stubbed my left toe pretty bad at the end, and the shelter (nice, but dark) is a fur bit off the trail.At one point the trail was following an old, graded road. I missed where the trail turned off onto the rocks; Stanimal was nice enough to yell out and stop me.Two weekend hikers finishing off PA have pulled in, sharing some good intelligence.
Date: 2004-05-30
From: Port Clinton Hotel

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: broken clouds

Briar, Stanimal and Shush ended up at the Port Clinton Hotel. We split a room and drank ourselves silly. A local called John shuttled us around town and then bought the first round of shots after dinner. Most of us had one of their football-sized cheesesteak sandwiches -- I also ate half of a huge salad. Once dinner was over, we relocated back to the bar and got drunk, although Briar dropped out early.We were hammered by 8 and passed out by 9:30. The next day Stanimal and I hold the fort down for checkout, getting out around eleven with very full packs. It was a short hike to the shelter and we staked our claim early. It's full now, us and two weekenders and Scorpion and Tell It Like It Is.
Date: 2004-06-01
From: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

To: Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 17.5

Here with me: Stanimal, The Divas, Unfinished, Pill Pro, and probably more. Found out that Briar got off with a knee injury--and I still have his water bag, but that's not the reason I'm sad. Don't know where Tell It and Scorpion went to. We are in the public burough, an excellent building with a pay phone in the lobby for making late-night calls.Luck smiled and we didn't get hailed on today, or wet. Got to dry out (from yesterday) over lunch. Got an excellent ride into town. Got a hot shower. Hiking goes well. Meeting people and making noticable progress on the trail. Not many thoughts today, It must be that I'm hungry--haven't eaten in a couple of hours.
Date: 2004-06-04
From: Delware Water Gap

To: Backpacker's Campsite
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Pissing me off. I've got too much to do, and no time to do it in. Want to buy a fleece liner; need to get in touch with Montbell; should upload pictures with the new card reader. Only 10 minutes and the shuttle returns to bring us back to D.W.G.I can't wait to get back on the trail. Didn't even have time to check my email--to busy sitting in traffic on the bus and waiting for flash to crash IE on a RAM-choked public access internet terminal.
Date: 2004-06-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Backpacker's Campsite. (8:33 PM)We are tarped out up here with the big fin of coffee ridgerunner we met north of Boiling Springs. It was a tough five mile walk out of D.W.G.; it will be a tough five tomorrow. Too many bugs to write. Retreating to bug bivy.
Date: 2004-06-05
From: Backpacker's Campsite

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 5.7
Weather: light rain

Backpacker's Campsite. (5:35 AM)It is trying to rain again--a light, tentative sprinkle--but there is no condensation on my tarp and there is plenty of room in my bug bivy to read and write, so I'm quite happy, if a little tired. This morning about half past two I decided to spend a few hours listening to the bears, squirrels, raccoons, and purple people eaters; they all had a merry time crashing through the brush in front of my tarp on their way to check out the bear-bagged food. First I was frightened. Then, after a while, with my heart still pounding, my eyelids started drooping in the lulls. Some time later the urge to urinate started building. Finally, after four, hunger rumbles were added to the mix. But as the morning passed everyone went home except the birds, which are singing in the pre-dawn light. Maybe I week ago I finished Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth": a fictional tale of a Chinese farmer living through the cultural revolution. Now I'm working on Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose." It's a very literary murder-mystery set in a 14th century abbey. Later I would like to reread Tom Brown's "Tracker," and maybe get it to Adam. (9:05 AM) I solved the riddle of the bug bivy, so that I can easily fold it now; I retrieved our food (including breakfast) from the heavy metal bear boxes; I finished off "The Name of the Rose"; I must carefully avoid boredom. Gear miscellanea: my Marmot Arroyo is an excellent down sleeping bag, one that has lost significant loft (and warmth) over four years and maybe fourteen hundred miles. I've placed an order for an Equinox fleece liner for me to use over the summer. It will give me time to solve the bag problem. Either a good washing will put everything in order, or I'm plunking down for a new bag. Furthermore: the fleece liner will not keep me warm enough if I am not wearing an insulative layer, if Adam's experience holds. My jacket--an ultralight synthetic-insulation wonder from the Japanese Montbell--has been sent off for repair; sticking under the armpits is coming out. With luck, the old jacket and the new liner will be returned to me simultaneously, and my sleeping bag will go home. That business explained, I turn to breakfast now.
Date: 2004-06-06
From: Mohican Outdoor Center

To: Brink Road Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: overcast clouds

(5:02 PM)Yesterday we packed up in the rain after noon and crawled over to the Mohican Outdoor Center, paying a necessary twelve dollars for a dry bunk and a shower. This morning we packed up our slightly drier selves and hiked over in what Adam calls a "light rain." Aside: I'd like to see what he calls the Florida downpours which we measure in inches per hour. The sky never cleared, but the rain passed, and we've been hiking wet through blooming mountain laurel. We're in bear country now, and the shelters around these parts come with fortified bear boxes set away from the shelter--for food storage. A man called Desperado puts yummy treats and other things in some of these boxes. Tonight's theme: lemon--lemonade, lemon drops, lemon creme cookies, even lemony citronella candles to ward off (or summon, perhaps?) the mosquito swarms.
Date: 2004-06-07
From: Brink Road Shelter

To: Rutherford Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: clear sky

Brink Road Shelter. (7:29 AM) This shelter nominally sleeps five. I think it was full--Happy (a nicely lightweight hiker), Stanimal, two married section hikers in a four-season Marmot tent, and I were joined later by: first Mrs. Gorp, then Haiku (whom I met at Trail Days slash Hardcore) and Sugar Daddy. These last two met the remnants of a Kerry-for-president fundraiser and walked off with a bottle of merlot--cheap, but still merlot--after gorging themselves. Also, Haiku told an amusing story about long miles and a six-pack of Guiness maildrop (three of which he still carried). Last night--the last several nights--have been un-seasonably cold. Adam wrapped his tarp around him and for the first time slept comfortably. We both made coffee this morning. ?. (8:21 PM) We're joining Haiku and Sugar Daddy in taking slow time to get into Bear Mountain on Sunday. Sugar Daddy is hosting a barbeque. On my sleeping bag: "It's grown legs and now it's on its last."Rutherford Shelter. (8:30 PM)Every else has pressed on, leaving Stanimal (Adam) and I in this lovely shelter. Did I say lovely? I meant "mosquito infested and nowhere near good water and even further from the trail down the side of a ridge," but the shelter itself is nice. In the fading light we both scratch out journal entries, to be transcribed in Vernon on Wednesday or Thursday. We got a decent start this morning, but took our time, with only fifteen miles planned. We chased Haiku and Sugar Daddy into Carver's Gap, and stopped there to dry our--and especially Adam's--wet socks. The hiking was uneventfully and unremarkably pleasant: some rocks, some hills, some ridge-walking, some brush. We are eating our way slowly to Bear Mountain through Desperado country. Towards the end of the day today we met Desperado with Haiku and Sugar Daddy. He loaded us with even more simple sugars and arranged to meet us for dinner tomorrow at the hidden hostel and again the next day in Vernon. To dark to continue writing; too many mosquitos to sit out; too hot to sleep.
Date: 2004-06-08
From: Rutherford Shelter

To: A hideout in NJ
Miles today: 9.7

Rutherford Shelter. (5:45 AM) Adam was up before me--he is complaining about mosquitos, but only moved over six feet to read "The Jester." I'm about 40 pages behind him, now that I finished "The Name of the Rose", which I gladly unloaded on Haiku. Murray Property, NJ. (2:31 PM)Stanimal and Haiku pass this hot-in-the-sun, cool-in-the-shade afternoon reading; and I'm writing. It was a muggy, buggy, and rock ten miles in. And hot; so hot-water outdoor showers after a few loads of manual laundry have us feeling "cleaner than I have in weeks" (Adam).
Date: 2004-06-09
From: A hideout in NJ

To: Vernon, NJ
Miles today: 13.6

After being kidnapped by Desperado, Stanimal and I have arranged something like a slackpack to Bear Mountain. He sent us off just south of Unionville, and then again from the next road crossing, and then again from the next road crossing after that. Each time, I unloaded more of my gear. The second time, Stanimal put everything back into his pack (out of the daypack he was using). The heat stifled; we loved the car support and cold juice it brought, but sweated it all out again climbing over Pochuck Mountain. The mosquitoes got bothersome, and my heel started hearting.I'm upset by my heel pain, a night's rest may bring enough healing (and lightening a few pounds of food out of my pack shouldn't hurt), but I am psyching myself for a few extra zero days. Blegh.
Date: 2004-06-10
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: moderate rain

Haiku with his camer is off stalking a small bear that ambled past the shelter 20 yards uphill. Stanimal is pulling in now and saw the bear--his first! Yesterday Adam made the call to stop at the church hostel in Vernon. My right heel was aching sharply, but thanks to a slow pace today, or maybe the light packs, or maybe the ibuprofen it hasn't bothered me today. We stayed with Haiku, Zip and Tikka, and Amber. Haiku joined Stanimal and I for dinner with Desperado.Today I slipped out at seven, leaving everyone behind, asleep. I hiked very slowly add day--over swamps ridden with mosquito, through forest ridden with mosquito, and up on top of rocky ridges. Those ridges were generally mosquito-free, and the hiking was nice and technical in spots--almost bouldering. I'm looking forward to more of that kind of trail up north. Now I have set my alarm for 4:40 AM; tomorrow we try for 26.7
Date: 2004-06-11
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Bear Mountain, NY (Fingerboard Shelter)
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: overcast clouds

We got up before 5 planning for a 26 mile day, leaving Haiku with Waldo and Deja (the later pair brought up a pint of ice-cream for us: thanks!). We picked, apparently, he worst 26 mils in NY to pull a 26 mile day. I hiked without any of the earlier hints in my right heel of planar fascitis, but by Fingerboard shelter, I was hobbling; my left achilles had flared up. I stopped there, in the beautiful Harriman state park, while Adam continued on to Bear Mountain to meet his family. The hiking today, along with being painful, was very much fun and beautiful--and also mountainous, very mountainous.After Adam left (with 13 miles to do, starting at 3 in the afternoon), I met three slacking sectioners who gave me food and offered to drive me to Bear Mountain. As I was mulling over this offer and its various implications, Adam returned (coming up a blue-blazed side trail) with a ride into town ready and waiting (thanks, JB!!). Neither of us likes long days, and with the terrain as nasty as it was, we were glad to get off after 14 miles. Now I have two zero days to heal with Adam and his family and the upcoming picnic.
Date: 2004-06-12
From: Bear Mountain, NY

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up this morning and wrote four good postcards, then went back to bed, waiting for Adam and everyone else. Adam woke his dad with coffee, and everyone followed. We've been to breakfast, and I to the post office. Now we are catching up with internet business, and this afternoon we plan to hike into Fingerboard and visit an outfiter. I'm glad to take a zero today, and glad for the excellent weather, and glad to meet Adam's family. I'm so happy out here; I hope I can make it to Maine, but am coming to realize that I should relay on nothing in this world, not even a good thru-hike, for happiness, and that happiness is not a goal, but a byproduct of love, and that sadness and pain are also byproducts, and that is the love underneath both that drives life. Looking forward to tomorrow's picnic.
Date: 2004-06-13
From: Bear Mountain, NY

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Had quite a time last night with Adam, his dad, his step-mother, a step-brother, and another half-brother. Enjoyed Sugar Daddy's picnic today, attended by a dozen hikers (or so) and a dozen (or so) family and friends. Picked up our stuff from Desperado and walked up to Fingerboards. Connective tissue foot pains have been really wearing on me. The pain less than the threat of hike-halting injury. Adam tries to encourage me by describing similar pain he went through after a moth-long break-in period. Light miles, taken slowly, should help. "A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it." --D.L. Sayers, Have His Carcase.
Date: 2004-06-14
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: West Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: light rain

With a short day planned, we happily waited out this morning's rain, and made the walk to West Mountain Shelter. Few thru-hikers come here; the shelter is six tenths off the AT, and has no water. But on a clear day you can see the New York skyline; it's still overcast this morning. Perhaps we'll get a good sunrise tomorrow. The short ascent up West Mountain was not bad, and I have no particular foot pain (thanks to the Bear Mountain zero days, I bet). Adam is annoyed that he can't remember today's quote from an earlier conversation with section-hiker Perry. She is a retired teacher, and this is our second night with here; she has a wise perspective. The day is ending with a quiet and pleasant breeze. Traffic sounds float in behind bird calls and crickets. Adam and Perry are reading their books while I'm lazily working out a few postcards; soon it will be late enough to crawl into bed. Gear talk: my shoes and their superfeet have 400 miles; they will be replaced by an identical setup in Kent, CT. I'll probably also spring for one of the new Thermarests--Stanimal says he will be jealous of the burnt orange (his favorite color) and the non-slip surface. I need something softer than my z-rest to lay my head on. I would also like to get my fleece liner in Kent so I can send my worn out Arroyo home, saving maybe a pound. Mainly I'm excited about the fresh footwear.