morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-07-23
From: Long falls dam road

To: Steves Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

Today it seemed like every pond I passed I wanted to spend another few days at.But as is normal with me I kept on walking rarely stopping but for a few pictures or a snack.We did manage to swim in one of them which had a nice sandy beach spot.I almost decided to stay at the last shelter before here but it was only like 130 so WE kept going and got to the river at about 300 i think.Once there we saw the orange flag hanging there which was about the only indication I saw that I was in the right spot. We then saw Steve on the other side and he waved to us and we waved back. He got over and we filled out a paper signing our lives away whole heartedly. It was fun rowing across the river and a nice change of pace. The whole day today was literally the best walking I think ive had on the whole trail.Now were just sitting around the bunkroom drinking soda and having B&Js typical nero. This may be my last update before the BIG K. I may go into Monson for one last resupply but I have not decided yet. All I know is im going to get there if i Have to drag myself with my pinky finger. GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!!!!!      HELLBOY,,,SIR WALKSALOT,,, MR. AT,,,,                            SUMMITING HELL OR HIGH WATER   THE BEAST
Date: 2005-07-24
From: Steves Hostel

To: moxie bald lean to
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

Woke up at rivers and trails hostel and store.WE ate some hotpockets and had 2 dr peppers. Plus we both took a red bull to lug out with us.Easy walking today we sat on Moxie bald summit and soaked up the sun for an hour or two.Then moved on to moxie bald lean to where we stayed for the night.                                    SIRWALKSALOT AND BLOODYSHANKS
Date: 2005-07-25
From: moxie bald lean to

To: SHAWS
Miles today: 17.9

Rain lots of cold , miserable rain. Headed strait for shaws. Got there very quickly.We resupplied for 27 bucks and just sort of hanged out all day.At this point im not feeling very rushed anymore.Maybe the cold rain took it out of me.                        Sirwalkalot
Date: 2005-07-27
From: stream past cloud pond lean to

To: logan brook lean to
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was very good for the first half of the day. But the latter half turned nasty cold rain and sleet on top of white cap, it kindof reminded me of my trip over mt washington. We got to logan brook lean to early in the day and really wanted to go farther but the chill that we got in our bones killed off all of our motivation. So we called it a day.                        SIRWALKSALOT
Date: 2005-07-28
From: logan brook lean to

To: Potaywadjo spring shelter
Miles today: 23.1

Woke up to a freezingn cold morning. It took me about 10 minutes to work up the courage to put on my wet socks. But once on we got movin. We found some soda by a road at about 8 oclock. Luckily the sun was just starting to warm things up, otherwise I might have passed it up in favor of being warm. We stopped at 5 pm after an easy terrain walk. I didnt really want to sleep at the white house hostel so I put up at the lean to, the spring at this leanto is awesome, though hard to pronounce. We ate what little food we had left here and then went to bed.                                    SIRWALKSALOT
Date: 2005-07-29
From: Potaywadjo spring shelter

To: North end of rainbow pond
Miles today: 25.4

We woke up, walked directly to White House landing and blew the air horn. We stood around for about ten minutes on the dock and then decided to lay down and go to sleep. So thats what we did.Eventually Iceman showed up and he sat down as well.After about 45 minutes we finnally heard a boat coming our way, but I have to admit I was kind of liking the laying around in the sun and doing nothing for a change. They didnt have breakfast at the White house unless you were an overnighter so we sat around till about 11 oclock. Well I also played horse shoes with Iceman for a while. Me and Bloodyshanks each had a 1 pound burger amongst other things and I resupplied there. We got motor boated back to the trail and took off. I caught sight of Mt Kahtadin from Mt Nesuntebunt. Seeing how close it was I completly zoned out, but bloody shanks was not zoned out with me so I had to stop often and wait for him to catch up. Still we managed to do about 23 miles in 7 hours not bad.Late in the evening we ran into Shera, Ranger and Leisure, all camped out at the northern end of rainbow pond and they invited us to camp there with them and we excepted.
Date: 2005-07-30
From: North end of rainbow pond

To: THE BIRCHES
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up very excited, knowing how close I was, I took off like a rocket. We got to Abol Bridge and ate alot there. Luckily the camp store takes credit cards even though the book said they didnt. We continued on to the Birches sign up sheet and signed in. I considerd blue blazing down the blueberry ledges trail for awile, just because it seemed so much easier. But we ended up going down the white blazed trail. We walked the whole way to the Birches with Team Blonde, it really made the day go by fast because we were talking the whole way.Im sure it would of been much longer for me if I had to think all day about how close I was to finishing. We got to the ranger station and paid the man his money for the shelter. This was the first time I had ever paid for shelter use on the whole trip. We could have summited this day but decided to wait until the next day. When I got to the shelter it was early so I found my self eating just for something to do. The result of this was way to much energy so I did alot of sit ups and collected alot of fire wood and had a big fire. A former through hiker later came by and offered to barbque for us so I ate again. But by that point it was pretty late so I was able to get to sleep.Oh and I was the 49 hiker to finish so far this year.                        SIRWALKSALOT
Date: 2005-07-31
To: MOUNT KATAHDIN
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

Well its the last day. I didn't really sleep much last night. I got going around the time that Ranger and Shera showed up and started handing out lots of snacks and a set of camera batteries for me. It all went by very fast for me. I ran or rock scrambled about the whole way up. We got to the top in a hour and a half. Took many pictures up there,Drank a Dr Pepper ,ate all my candy bars and then we ran the whole way back down. And now its over. Is this the greatest thing I've ever done? Well it is assuredly a great accomplishment, but for me the greatest thing I do is always going to have to be the thing I'm doing next.And what is next, well for the next few weeks I'm thinking ill sleep for long periods of time, And maybe through in a little horse riding on my parents paints. But after that im still undecided. I would like to through out a BIG THAAAANKSSS as well to the many nice people who have helped me along the way, and maybe apologize to the many people I passed along the way going light speed and saying little, probably more sorrys go to former half before I picked up Bloodyshanks than to the latter half at which point I was going a little slower and stopping occasionally to chit chat. My only excuse being that At some point I decided I no longer wanted to be on the trail, but also decided I was not going to be a quitter, so I just tried to hurry up the finish date. And now I am indeed finished. Ill add some pictures here as soon as I get them developed. And good luck to all the hikers behind me.                                       HELLBOY to start SIRWALKSALOT ti finish                                 and BEAST to start and BLOODYSHANKS to finish                                 or
Date: 2005-03-07
To: None Yet
Miles today: 0.0

I told myself I wouldn't start another journal for one of my hikes ever again.   I hate when I don't listen to myself!   Well here I am again. Still with that crazy itch to walk.   You think after the 3000 miles in 2004 and the 500 miles so far this year on the Florida Trail I would want to just sit around and relax. You would think! Not me I got to keep moving or I go insane.   So because of these problems I am planning on leaving once more to hike the A.T.   I need a new trail!!!   I'm not sure how far I'll make it before I have to return to work but I'll walk until that time comes. I should make it at least back to New Jersey from the Smokey's if I save my money and move my butt.   I'm not planning anything, just deal with everything as it comes at me. I do better that way.   If I've learned anything from my thru hikes It's take it as it comes, there is no controlling life.   There is just living it and I live it well!I will try to keep this journal going. You know me sometimes life needs to be lived and not written about.   So please be patient I'll do my best to keep the journal going.
Date: 2005-03-14
From: Fontana Dam

To: Birch Spring Campsite
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Oh yes back to the A.T. This I like. I wasn't that happy with the Florida Trail. All I thought about hiking in Florida is those cold mountains springs here in the Smokey's.   So here I am in the smokey's looking forward to my walk home to New Jersey.   You know most people prefer to Fly or even drive that distance, not me I want to walk!   That's just the kind of girl I am.   Not one to bring home to mother or even marry but if you're looking to walk all over the world I'm that girl!   I'm looking forward to all the hikers I will meet along the way and all that adventure I'm about to live.   Hiking the A.T. is like nothing else I've ever done my entire life.   It's more addicting then the strongest drug, more exciting then christmas morning when you were 8 and more thrilling then the tallest roller coaster ride.   If you've done it you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't I don't have the words to discribe the feelings, the strength and determination you have when you finish this trail. I can tell you that after my first thru hike I read the meanings of the words Strength and Endurance and I truely understood them! Today I've spent the day alone except the few miles Tripod walked in with me.   I was hoping to stay in the Shuckstack firetower but the trap door was missing and I didn't feel like sleeping up there alone. So on to the campsite I went.   I had the entire campsite to myself except for one deer who stood outside my tent door and looked for some food.   Alone at last!
Date: 2005-03-21
From: Standing Bear Tree Farm Hostel

To: 03/23/2005
Miles today: 0.0

I love Slacking.   It makes it so much easier!   I hiked up to the top of Max's Patch. I love camping out on the summit.   Today it's rather winding and cold. So we camped out in the back of the truck for the night.   We took the walk to the summit to watch the sunset behind the smokey's.   I love this spot.   All you hear is the wind.   And you always hear the wind!There was a group of boy scouts at the summit to watch the sunset too.   We got to talking with them and they looked and sounded like good hikers. Normally I look at boy scouts and wonder why they are over packed and under experienced. These kids knew what they were doing. Well except they had the smallest one, who I think was someone's kid brother, carrying a pack that weight too much for me.   This I found out when I passed them while slacking the next day.   I had passed one set of boys all moving slowly but moving.   Then I came quickly up on one of the leaders and the small scout.   Pour kid looked like he was ready to cry. I felt so bad for him I took him pack and carried it for him.   This made that kid happy.   He moved a lot quicker without his pack.   I was happy to help. It was like a dream come true you know that one where you just want someone to offer to carry that heavy load to the top of the mountain for you.   This kid got it.   Glad I can help the scouts out!After slacking stumpknocker told me we had an appointment later that night at the Hot Springs.   Yes!!!!!! Sounds good to me- really hot water.   Let me tell you it wasn't hot enough for me.   I wanted that chile taken right out of me.   After an hour in 104*F water I was nice and warm!   That was perfect.   We camped again that night in the back of the truck along the trail at Tanyard Gap parking area.   There were thunder storms all night and early morning but I slept like a baby through it all.   It was the best night sleep I have gotten.   I hated waking up but it was time to start hiking again.We left the truck at the parking area on US25 and starting walking.   We made it to the Little Laurel Shelter that night. We found the story on the wall about Mailar.   He was a hiker last year who had to be rescued out of this shelter due to medical problems. I was the one at Miss Janet's to get the call for help.   I never met Mailar but Stumpknocker was friends with him.   He was ahead of us by a few weeks.   I couldn't wait to meet him.   This shelter always has this weridness about it.   2001 I found a ton of stuff left by 2 hikers who had to leave with an emergency in the middle of the night.   Last year it was Mailar. This year it better not be me! But there is a good spring here, just for your information. Almost to Miss Janet's in Erwin. I can't wait. I got a 12 pack of Yuengling waitting on me.   Yeah now that's my kind of care package.
Date: 2005-03-25
From: 03/24/2005

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 73.4
Weather: few clouds

I think this is the longest stretch between resupply points for me. I know this section between Hot Springs and Erwin takes about 4 days.   It's always a heavy load to carry in this section.   It's a nice section. We actually met up with a few trail angels from the area who offered us food at their home.   We were packing heavy loads so we actually turned them down.   I hate to turn down food but I really wanted to start eatting my weight down.   I like this sectin of trail.   It's got a mountain just for me. Big Butts!   Yes I could not resist. I got naked and took a picture of my big butt sitting ontop of Big Butts! I really do have too much time on my hands!   I don't know why I didn't remember this climb out of Devil's fork, it's a tough one, but that one kicked my butt.   We ended up loosing daylight by the time we reached the top of the mountain here.   Now Stumpknocker got a little ahead of me at this point. I wanted it that way so I could try to get used to being alone in the dark.   I was ok with it. This might just be the year I get over my fear of the dark and hiking alone at night. That would be nice.   We walked for about an hour in the dark. This is never a problem for the 2 of us. We like night hiking.   We climbed Katahdin in the dark we can walk Tenn in the dark.   We arrived at Hoback Ridge Shelter late.   There was someone in there when we arrived. We were about to walk away and camp out when the hiker yelled out to come back. I knew that voice! It was DUDE!   We hadn't seen him since we met him around christmas up in northern Virginia.   It was so great to see him again.   We hung out chatting for another hour and a half.   It's always so great to see people you know again. The next day we said our goodbye's to Dude. We were off to Erwin and that 12 pack of Yuengling. We actually jumped off at Sam's Gap and try hitching for a while. It took us about 45 minutes but we got a ride to Miss Janet's. My package arrived a little damaged. Well damaged and smelling of beer. Well you know how well the post office handles our mail. 2 cans got holes in them while being shipped. The entire closet at Miss Janet's smelled like yuengling. Sorry Miss Janet! So me and my 10 pack loaded up and headed out of town. We jumped ahead to Iron Mtn. Gap, neither one of us thought we were thru hiking this year so we just skip a section. I'm guessing now I'll have to go back and slack that on my way to the south to finish my thru hike. We arrived at the gap later in the day. The sun was still up so that was good. We hiked into Clyde Smith shelter that night. There were people there so we camped out back while drinking our yuengling. Good thing for the snow. Perfect place to keep yuengling at the perfect tempature. What a wonderful day!
Date: 2005-04-03
From: Kincora

To: Damascus
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

The morning's weather did not look good for trail maintance. We were hikers we were going no matter what.   We loaded up in Bob's truck and headed out to meet the rest of the group.   We were all meeting in town. There was a group from a college in Boone, NC helping with the trail work today. It's a once a month thing for them.   We weren't sure if everyone was going to want to do this today with the storm.   It was already raining pretty good where we were at and we could only imagen it had to be snowing up at the trail. We got everyone together and loaded up for the drive up the mountain.   We were working on the section of trail down near Elk Park that has a lot of trash on it. One of the locals comes by and throws all their trash onto the trail. They aren't happy with the trail going through their neighborhood.   We went out there to rebuild sections of the trail and some of us cleaned up the trash.   I worked along side Wanna Be Swinger, who was currently was named Katz but that didn't last long after hanging with me all day. He got his name because he just kept saying to me and this other kid "not fare I want to swing" "I just want to swing!" I told him his name should be wanna be swinger after this. He liked it so it stuck.   He finally got to swing his ax on a few roots but he sure was jealous when me and that kid were swinging our axes!   The other side of me was Wazu! I think that's how he spelt his name. Now me and Wazu got a lot of work done together.   We cut side trail around these large rocks.   And we had a bunch of fun joking around with him as we did our work. I even laughed so hard I fell and got all muddy.   Here we are having a ton of fun swinging our pulaski's (I think that's how that is spelt) in the rain, snow and sleet.   Finally around 1:00 us thru hikers got hungry.   We got a lot done that morning. I was very happy with our work.   Another section of Appalchiain Trail that I have buildt.   We all ran back to the cars to warm up. I was out there working in my skirt and t-shirt after a while. All those college kids were all bundled up with rain gear and warm clothes.   I guess I'm just used to the weather.   We headed back to pick up dinner (burgers and root beer floats) and warm up. After arriving at the hostel we sat there in front of the wood buring stove keeping warm and watching the frozen hikers arrive.   They were all glad to see that wood buring stove.   I always liked staying at hostels. It makes everyone like one big family. You get to make a lot of friends when you stay there. Now that's if you don't snore!
Date: 2005-09-05
From: Piscataway

To: Baxter State Park
Miles today: 0.0

I figure I would write before I head off to Maine. It's now 3:06 am I just got out of work at the bar and I look forward to a 9 1/2 hour drive ahead of me.   Good thing I can sleep just about anywhere.   I should be used to sleeping in pickup trucks I spent a lot of time last year doing just that.   After 3 months of nonhiking I'm ready to get back out on the trail.   It was a good rest but now it is time to move again. I can't wait to start. I've been wanting to hike Maine since Mother's Day weekend. If it wasn't for the 39 inches of snow that sat ontop of Mtn. Katahdin I would have gone up there back then. I guess this might be better. I get to see all the fall colors in Maine. I haven't found a place like it when the leaves turn. The colors are so beautiful. I can't wait to share my photos with you all.   Not to worry I will be taking tons of photos.Oh well it is almost time to leave.   This has been a fun summer. I met a lot of great people. I had a job with a moving company that was exciting.   The people there are so wonderful. And of course there is shitty bartender who I worked with at both job.   They made it difficult to leave to go hiking.   But as always it is time!!! And it is really time now.   Can't wait to see what great adventures are ahead.   You know I'll be sharing whenever I get the chance to write.   Until then..... keep hiking.....
Date: 2005-04-17
To: Committed!
Miles today: 0.0

Yes! I am going back to the AT this summer. I don't know the start date yet, but it will be in June or July. Tomorrow morning I will call my supervisor, tell her that I am going to request an unpaid leave of absence for the dates from 6/01 to 6/24/05. This will actually give me 30 continuous days off from work because I have already received approval for May 31 as a Personal Holiday and May 30 is the Memorial Day Holiday.If leave of absence is not approved, I will tender my resignation for sometime in July, the date as yet undecided. I prefer to start my hike in July so that I can enjoy the company of this year's thruhikers. But June is reputed to be the slow month in my job, so in order to have a job waiting when I return instead of a period of unemployment, I will request June.Either way, I am going. The only real obstacles are paying bills at home without an income while I am gone and surviving unemployment when I return. I can handle one month without income, but more than that depletes what remains of my savings. It is risky but worth the risk. As long as I have good health and am physically strong, I can find work as I am not choosy. I am working on reducing my expenses at home: switching from aol to free hotmail, changing my separate dsl line to a shared network line with my wife, reducing coverage on auto insurance, taking out a home equity loan to pay off credit card balances, suspending my cell phone service, and whatever else I can cut out that I don't need. What a tangled web we weave that becomes our prison!