morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-09-04
From: Danby

To: Greenwall Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: broken clouds

9/4 2Danby to Greenwall shelter6.8 milesShelterI had to adjust my hipbelt again this morning. The pockets had started to slide under my fanny pack again, and the ends of the straps dangled nearly to my knees. I used the next,  last, available setting. The one marked XS. My hipbelt is now extra small. In case you couldn't hear me in the back, I said EXTRA SMALL. I've never been an extra small anything. If I kept hiking to Katahdin, I'd need an entire  smaller backpack in about three weeks. Likewise, the snug pants I just got? Not so snug anymore. All of you who ever struggled and failed to lose weight may now dance a little jig(gle) with me. The rest of you talk amongst yourselves. And of course as I write this I'm having a high test coke chaser with my vitamins. These shenanigans won't be continuing much longer. When I get back home and am no longer burning four thousand calories a day, I'll have to eat like a normal person. I am slightly horrified by the thought of gaining weight back, but it is inevitable. Virtually all thruhikers do it. Your body thinks the long famine is over and pushes you to stock up for next time. Plus now you've accustomed your body to massive infusions of calories at every opportunity. This is not something bodies like to give up. In the past I've dealt with lingering hiker hunger by eating small but frequent meals. That's what I plan on this time too. Any former thruhikers have other suggestions?I've also noticed in the past that any form of exercise when I get home immediately makes me hungry. I like exercise, so this is a problem. I can't wait to ride my horse (who is starting to approach beloved status) and get back to my weekendly hikes with DeLee. And even though I walk all day, I miss my daily walks with Alex. As I began to repack everything this morning, I came across my dehydrated meal - jerk chicken with rice. Every time I see the words "jerk chicken" I think "poultry with attitude".For Ellen: yes, I'm using the iPhone to listen to audiobooks. I download them from the iTunes store and listen to them using the iPod app. By the time breakfast was over and I was able to get a ride back to the trail, it was eleven. Not an auspicious start to a hiking day. Literally dozens of dayhikers passed me. After a while I clues in that it was a Saturday. Fortunately they all stopped at a nearby pond and the trail was much less crowded after that. I met Tigger and Sheena section hiking. They're very nice and end up with a similar pace to me. I walk slower but steadier so we leapfrog a lot. I was kind of horrible company though. I had cramps and other muscle pains, plus it rained off and on. I had intended to go to a shelter further on, but after four hours I was so ready to stop. So I'm at this shelter with them and two other sectioners, Viola and Zach. They're sharing their booze, which totally works for me.
Date: 2010-09-05
From: Greenwall Shelter

To: Clarendon Shelter
Miles today: 8.8
Weather: overcast clouds

9/5 2Greenwall Shelter to Clarendon Shelter8.8 milesShelterWhat I should have mentioned yesterday, but was too dispirited to, was that White Rocks mountain was fantastically beautiful. It held mature evergreens high overhead, several natural nurseries of shoulder high evergreens, and beautiful white rocks. In two places people had stacked rocks into mysterious shapes that really caught the eye. The smell of the mountain was so piney it was almost minty. Conditions are conspiring again today toward a short hike. My shelter options are at 8.8 and 14.6 miles. The latter would be a push, and is also not recommended for thruhikers because it's right near a road and gets a lot of partyers. And of course this is a holiday weekend. On top of that, the trail is in a narrow no camping corridor here. So I guess I'll be going 8.8 today. This is the first day that really feels like autumn. The air is cool. I don't think it ever got up to 60 degrees. There is a gusty wind that pulls at your clothes and hair. The ferns are all dying, and though the trees are mostly green there are dead leaves all over the trail. The hike down into Clarendon Gorge was slippery but gorgeous. The hike back up was markedly more difficult than the profile made it look. But it was happened in between the two halves that flavored the ascent. I've been hearing for days about the Whistle Stop restaurant. Only .5 miles from the trail, diner food, and open on Sunday. I hiked down with visions of French fries and cokes in my head, dancing like delicious hiker sugarplums. I got there at 3:20 and it was closed!  They had summer hours starting in May. I was so dejected. I sat for a few minutes on their bench, then uttered a heartfelt "Dammit!". And then I shouldered my pack and headed back toward the trail. I consoled myself with a granola bar. I met up with Jessica and Kate at the road crossing, and walked to the shelter with Jessica. The shelter is a bit decrepit but pleasant. There are actually flowers in planters in front of it. Jessica and Kate took pity on me and my French fry obsession, and offered to share their yummy dinner with me. I was happy to accept. Tonight they made peanut noodles, and the meal was excellent. Viola made a nice fire in the firepit directly in front of the shelter. It's a convivial evening. I'm feeling less verbal than usual, so I'm tucked away in a bunk working on my journal and staying out of the hubbub. I'm going to be tossing my leftover Jamaican jerk chicken dehydrated meal. It didn't taste that great, and it made my stomach go crazy. It started making loud growling noises that everybody else could here. I put my hands on my belly and it felt like something was trying to get out. It did give me good energy today, but I don't think it's worth the hassle.
Date: 2010-09-06
From: Clarendon Shelter

To: Pico Camp
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: clear sky

9/6 2Clarendon Shelter to Pico Camp12.6 miles plus .5 on Sherburne Pass TrailShelterIt was so cold this morning that my steripen wouldn't work. For the first time since the spring, I had to take out the batteries and warm them up. Yikes!I ate my first oatmeal on the trail. Jessica gave me a couple of packets. It was okay but I don't see how people eat it every morning. I also made hot chocolate, and then Jessica made me a nice cup of coffee. It was a very hot food morning. It was enjoyable hanging around sipping the coffee, and I must admit it made me feel very perky. I will really miss Jessica and Kate. They've been wonderful company. But of course they went home, and soon so will I. Viola and Zach are parting ways with me as well. Tomorrow the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail diverge. It was nice to spend another night with them in a shelter. The trail went through an incredibly gorgeous piney river gorge area today. It was very peaceful. You could see individual rays of sun shining down through the trees, looking very much as if they were coming through stained glass. The overall effect was cathedral-like. The morning weather was perfect, too. Blue skies, and just windy and cool enough to discourage bugs. It's been really nice to walk without being tormented by flying things. In the afternoon we started up Killington. It was a long, draining hike. I felt tired. I am starting to feel like I need a day off. I'm not sure if I can wait until after JD picks me up on Saturday. I might have to take another zero on the trail. If I do, tomorrow holds really the only places where it's possible - the Inn at the Long Trail, and another place a mile or two away.  After that my options are extremely limited for several days. I haven't taken a full day off since Great Barrington. And that one was unintentional. I had to take that day off due to chafing, not to do anything fun. In fact this whole hike has not involved a lot of fun days off.  I think the best day was the day in Kent. I didn't have to heal anything, and the town had plenty for me to see and do, all conveniently located. After the tiring climb and the internal discussion about days off, I arrived at Cooper Lodge. It was a really horrible shelter. The wind blew straight in, the bunks were falling apart, mice ran around unafraid, and the floor was made of huge unevenly laid rocks. I checked the weather (chance of rain all week) and then moved on to Pico Camp where I knew Zach and Viola would be. Pico Camp is half a mile off the AT and looks very much like a chicken shed, but it is a vast improvement over Cooper Lodge so I am happy. With luck no porcupines will invade tonight. Apparently they're a problem here. I've decided to stay on the Sherburne Pass Trail tomorrow. I can do laundry and eat at the Inn, get resupplied in Killington, and if there's a room I may stay at the motel a bit down the trail. They have breakfast there. And I do like breakfast.
Date: 2010-09-08
From: Inn at the Long Trail

To: Inn at the Long Trail
Miles today: 0.0

9/8Zero day Inn at the Long TrailMotelI feel so close to the end. I keep doing last things. Last night in a motel. Last resupply. Last fruitless outfitter visit. Last shower. Last town dinner. Last map. Last phone charge. I am so full of mixed emotions. I'm sad to be leaving the trail. It's been hard, mostly emotionally, but there are things about it that I love every day. People I meet, places I see, and of course the incredible luxury of having the time to be out here. Eating whatever I want while losing weight hasn't sucked either. On the other hand I've missed friends and family terribly. I want to be back in their lives. I want to be back in MY life. And I can't be at home and on the trail at the same time. It's definitely an either/or thing. So I'm happy to be going home. I don't think this will resolve. I'm going to be both happy and sad for a while. Tomorrow I'll have breakfast here at the inn, then head out for my last days of hiking. Two more nights in the woods. Then my beloved will pick me up and take me home. And my long adventure will be over.
Date: 2010-09-09
From: Inn at the Long Trail

To: Stony Brook Shelter
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: light rain

9/9 2Inn at the Long Trail to Stony Brook Shelter8.6 milesShelterThe weather is helping my mental transition from trail to home. The long streak of mostly dry weather has broken. It is cool and rainy, and forecasted to be majority cool and rainy for a while. This is not weather I like to hike in. This is good weather to curl up on a sofa with a blanket, a dog, and a hot cup of tea. At home summer is still going on, but in  New England it is over with a capital Ovuh. I like fall, but I like it at a comfortable distance. Maybe from horseback, after which I go indoors and have a hot shower. As opposed to the total lack of hot shower and the mildewy tent I am currently experiencing. Which serves me right because I knew I packed the damn thing up wet days ago and I never dried it out.  So now I get to live with tent stench. My text to JD  today was "Bleargh."I woke up to nearly whiteout foggy conditions at the Inn today. You can imagine how enthusiastic I was about leaving. The drumming of the rain on the metal roof reinforced my dog/sofa/tea fantasies. If the Inn had a dog I might not have left. But there was no dog and I did leave. I wore my raincoat and buff most of the day, for warmth. The trail was niceish. I was in my head too much to really pay attention. What I was noticing was the lack of wildlife. These woods feel dead. They're silent. No deer, no groundhogs, few chipmunks. I did see moose and bear scat, and I did hear a bird. But I should be hearing lots of birds and startling all sorts of animals, and they're just not here. Where are all your animals, Vermont?  Where are your bunnies and vultures and frogs? It's unsettling. I stopped to listen many times and heard only the water running in the stream and the leaves blowing in a breeze. I'm surprised to be at the shelter tonight with several other hikers. I really thought I'd be alone my last two days, since I was meeting so many Long Trailers. But I have two southbounders, a flipflopper, and a section hiker here. I'm actually in my tent in the shelter, trying to drycand de-stank it. Fortunately there is so far plenty of room. I'll pack it up if we get lots of company.
Date: 2010-09-10
From: Stony Brook Shelter

To: Winturri Shelter
Miles today: 9.9

9/10 2Stony Brook Shelter to Winturri Shelter9.9 milesShelterIt's another chilly one today. I've been listening to crows and admiring fall foliage while I walk. And birch trees. I love birch trees!  Did you know they turn gold when they're wet? It makes sense if you think about it, that the darker inner bark would show through after the thin white top bark got soaked. But if you don't think about it, it's magical. I didn't see any other hikers today, which was an appropriate way to spend my last full day hiking. I've spent many days alone on the trail. I've always thought of the AT as being very social, but this year's experience was different. Not bad, mind you. Different. While I sometimes craved the touch of humanity, I found that I liked my own company. It's a good thing to know about yourself. Likewise, it seems that my last night on the trail might be solo. There was a sobo here getting water when I arrived at four, but he left. At six pm I am the sole occupant. And if it stays that way, that's okay too. For the record, here's my last dinner on the trail: oriental flavor ramen cooked in a ziploc, hot cider, teriyaki beef jerky, almonds, cheese sandwich crackers, prunes, and a shot each of kahlua and bailey's. The sounds I hear are my own breathing, crickets, and an airplane. Sometimes the wind blows a little and I hear the leaves. It's a very quiet spot. I was chilled when I got here, but I find myself hoping the temperature will drop more so the last mosquitoes will go away. They are far too interested in me. I've been thinking about whether or not I could sum up my hike in a few words. And the answer is that I can't. Not in any meaningful way. It has been a long journey with very real ups and downs. Every day involved new sights, experiences, and sometimes new people. I can't sum that up in a pithy comment. Ginny Owen said that a thruhike changes you. And that you shouldn't do one if you already like how everything is - you might not be as happy afterward. I could easily see how someone could acquire a wanderlust that couldn't be quenched, or maybe couldn't face working in an office again.  But I think I'll be all right.  Like most thruhikers, I feel more confident. I think I have more patience. I find it easier to talk to strangers. I have the desire to do more hiking, but I had that before. I think perhaps the most unexpected result of this trip has been my discovery of how much I like writing. I like it so much that I have a new set of perfectionist anxieties regarding whether or not I can write well. So in addition to going back to work, living with and loving my husband and our child surrogates, riding my horse, and restarting my yoga practice, I'm going to be poking at this writing thing. You never know. Something might come of it.
Date: 2010-09-11
From: Winturri Shelter

To: Vermont Route 12
Miles today: 3.9

9/11Winturri Shelter to Route 123.9 mileshomeSleeping alone, of course, I heard a lot more wildlife, which made me feel better about Vermont. At 5:30 I got up to pee and heard a fox crying down by the water. I don't know if you've ever heard this, but it's a lot like a woman screaming. Fortunately I was already peeing so no harm done. The tops of the trees started to glow as I packed up. Dawn had come and gone, but the sun was just starting to peek over the ridge. JD texted me that if I got to the pickup point by eleven, I could have a shower and change into clean clothes at his motel room before we started home. Thus motivated I got underway by seven. Hiking in the first, scarce, horizontal rays of morning light has lost its novelty but not its delight. The profile showed a gentle, sloping downhill to VT rte 12. It was hilariously wrong. In fact there were several small peaks to climb. But they weren't that bad, and I made it to the road by 10. I found Eddy, my car, in the parking lot. No sign of my husband, though. I set down my backpack, moved to where I found a little cell signal, and texted him that I was at the car. Then I waited. Turns out he had tried to meet me on the trail, but made the same mistake some sobos had described and had followed a cowpath through a field rather than the AT. And while he was following the cowpath into the woods, I walked by in the field. While he was fooling around in the woods, I was standing at the car wishing I could drink the cold coke I could see sitting in the cupholder.When he eventually showed up, I got a passionate kiss and then that cold coke. And coffeecake. And then he took me back to the motel for a shower, because he's awesome. And as he pointed out "When I said I'd get you hot and wet, I knew it was a single entendre." As a stinky person I was far more interested in being clean than in hijinks. I showered, dressed in jeans and a tshirt (Cotton! How I missed you.) and we started the long drive home.Usually car rides lapse into silence after a couple of hours, but we'd been apart a long time. We chatted the whole way. I kept sneaking looks at him. I had texted him nearly every day while I was gone but seeing his face was something I had missed. I'm glad I'll get to see it every day now.
Date: 2010-09-12
To: First day home
Miles today: 0.0

9/12I am ensconced at home. It doesn't feel as weird as I thought it would. Once the dog stopped shrieking at me for leaving forever again, it was all pretty normal. It seems wrong that you can jump directly from a half year journey on foot to regular suburban life. There should be a hiker halfway house where you can dip your toes into real life more slowly. I am pretty awkward on stairs but otherwise I'm fine. No blisters to heal, not even any leftover poison ivy to scratch at. A bug did fly up my right nostril and bite me a few days ago, and that is still invisibly healing. My left nostril has formed an internal  sympathy zit the size of a manatee, so I'm not really breathing that well through my nose. Still, I would have thought I'd bear more marks from thirteen hundred miles of walking. I do look different, though. For one thing I now seize up if I'm not in constant motion, so every time I stand up from a chair I walk like a grandmother with a bad back. Five steps or so sees me right. And despite not losing any more weight in the second half of my journey, I lost inches from all over. My clothes are loose. I'd like to maintain that and even improve on it, but first I have to ramp down the hiker hunger. I'm used to eating small but frequent meals on the trail. I'm forced to continue the practice at home until the drive to eat lessens. JD and I went grocery shopping today. I bought a whole bunch of veggies and the makings of black beans and rice. I'm hoping they'll keep me full without adding too many calories.  It rained my first day home. With no incentive to go outside, I had a nice lazy day. Tomorrow I'll start making calls. I have six months worth of catching up to do. The dentist, doctor, and equine vet have all sent pointed reminder postcards. I'll start with them.
Date: 2010-09-15
To: Recovery
Miles today: 0.0

I feel like I'm recovering from a long illness.All I want to do is sit in a chair and stare into the distance. And eat and drink a lot. I go to bed early and sleep as long as I can. I get up not because I feel rested, but because I'm too stiff to lie down anymore. Now that I have no more reason to get up and exercise all day, my body is making its voice heard on the issue of slack. It wants more.If it weren't for JD and the various appointments I've made, I probably wouldn't leave the house. Or get dressed. I'd still eat, though.I had a blinding flash of insight while driving to the doctor's office yesterday. One of the reasons I love hiking is that when you're walking up a mountain, you don't have the energy left to think about your problems. But also (and this is what caused the temporary blindness, and don't worry because no other drivers were hurt in the making of this insight) your overwhelming, immediate physical needs trump your small day to day ones. The thumping of your heart, the need for more air to power up the hill, the search for water, and the nightly hunt for a place to lay down the weary bones totally drown out the little aches and pains that have accumulated over the last forty years. For the duration of a hike, I effectively don't have them. I do have much larger pains impinging on my consciousness, of course. Sore feet, knees, and hips scream for my attention every day and are subdued with ibuprofen. Mileage induced fatigue often overrules any other sensation. And, oddly, the sense of wonder at what's around me can even overrule the pain and fatigue. That's the best. Being taken out of yourself by the splash of a tree against a deep blue sky is a peak moment.What it works out to is that while I'm hiking I am a much healthier person, as far as my internal barometer can tell. When I stop, the old familiar pains immediately come back. They weren't really gone, they were just shouted down. It would be awesome if I figured out some way to shout them down in daily life without having to hike for ten hours. I know that if I give in to my desire to sit in a chair and not move, I will feel worse and worse as time goes on. So I'm forcing myself out of the house. First I'm dosing myself with ibuprofen, caffeine, and sugar. (Does anybody know why nobody makes a soda with ibuprofen in it? Maybe I will make my first million on geezer soda.) Then I'm going out to see my horse. Worst case scenario, I'll sit in a chair at the farm and stare at Pluto. Best case, piaffe. Reality is probably somewhere in the middle.
Date: 2010-09-20
To: Work
Miles today: 0.0

Ways you can tell that I am no longer thruhiking:I am counting calories, but not to try to pack as many in as possible.Removing my boots is no longer a semi-orgasmic experience.I can stay up past dark. I'm not saying I do, but I can.My voicemail no longer says "I'll be gone until late September and I won't be checking messages".My food has been refrigerated, or is heavy, or is bulky, or has been cooked by a method other than boiling.I don't take ibuprofen every day.I don't start to feel uncomfortable if I'm carrying less than a liter of water with me.I have bathed quite recently. My clothes were put on fresh this morning.The blanket, sheets, and mattress don't get packed up every morning.There's no map in my pocket.I haven't listened to a podcast in a week.
Date: 2010-10-01
To: Finis
Miles today: 0.0

Since I'm now working most days, not hiking, most of what I have to say isn't really appropriate for trailjournals. I'm off to greener pastures, more zeroey bits, what have you. If you care to, you can follow me at blogspot. http://plutosonium.blogspot.comBut before I go, I have one last thing to say.I dedicate this journal to my mom. I wrote it in the hopes that it would keep her from worrying about me while I was out there. Because despite the fact that I'm now 40, and Mom is the one who started me hiking, she still worries when I go backpacking. I don't know if it worked, Mom, but I tried. I love you.