morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-05-24
From: Delaware Water Gap (Church of the Mountain Hostel)

To: Random Campsite #3
Miles today: 17.8

9:11 p.m. Today was pretty cruise-y. So far, I really like NJ. There have been a few PA-like sections of rocks, but so far we've had almost as many views in a day as we had in all of Pennsylvania. There was a glacial pond, Sunfish Pond, which was beautiful. Had it been warmer out, we would have gone for a dip, even though it's prohibited. Today was gorgeous weather: sunny, warm, but slightly breezy and not humid. After Sunfish Pond, we came to a nice viewpoint from which we saw planes towing gliders and releasing them. That was cool, and as so often happens, I got a lesson from Kaptain, this one on gliders, planes, and thermals. From there we continued to an Outdoor Center that had a small store with snacks and soda that was our lunch spot, .25 off the trail. It was a nice stop, and we took our time because we had a shortish day planned and only about 7.3 to go from there. Moses caught us here and ate with us. A couple of miles further we came to a fire tower, where a church group or something was hanging out. We climbed, and Jolly, Fat Camp, and Slip n' Slide showed up. They all left the hostel well after us. We probably won't see them again util they take another zero or two, because they do more miles than us. We'll probably see them, though, because they plan to take their time in finishing. We pulled up at a road with a water spigot and are camped nearby. We have a fire, and Coconut Monkey is here too, although I suspect he'll leave and night hike instead of staying here. I just ordered a hammock. All those guys' packs are so light, I got inspired to try to lighten mine. I'm most likely going to switch to an alcohol stove, and going to lose 1.5 lbs. with the tent-hammock switch. I'll ditch some clothes too, for a total loss of probably 4 lbs or so. Hurray. That'll be nice when we get to hard stuff again. I feel bad about money. I'm paying for part of this trip, and I'll probably have virtually no money when I'm done. But still, my parents are fully supporting my hike and probably paying for a ton of it. Granted, it's a lot cheaper than Vassar tuition and therapy, but still, most of the people out here are financing their own hikes, and this is one more thing to make me feel young, in addition to the guilt I feel towards my parents. I'm not even sure how much I've spent or how much I owe them or how much I'll give them when I get a job and some money. My elbows hurt, goodnight.
Date: 2006-05-25
From: Random Campsite #3

To: Mashipacong Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: clear sky

7:44 p.m. Today I was "off". It wasn't that the miles were hard, but my brain wasn't in the right place, so it was hard. At lunchtime we got to a road crossing, Culver's Gap, that had a restaurant. I had a sandwich and two bananas. My feet hurt. The balls of my feet aren't getting any better. After lunch I was just getting really pissy, but then eventually with about 3.5 miles to go, I cheered up a bit. I talked to Lockjaw on the phone, too. He was at Delaware Water Gap. I miss him. We met a section hiker named Rabbi. Nice guy who hopes to be a thru-hiker next year. Now we're having a fire (even though it's prohibited here)and talking. I'll talk to Lockjaw again soon. The spring here is the best yet. Talked to Lockjaw. He only did like 18. Not going to catch up that way. I'm sad.
Date: 2006-05-29
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: William Brien Memorial Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: clear sky

8:25 p.m. New York's a bitch. Maybe it was the fact that it was about 90 degrees today. Literally. No wind either. There were lots of ups and downs too, for the first time in a while. Lockjaw and I started at 8:00, and it was already warm. It wasn't long before we were both hot and fatigued. What kept us going was the promise of a swimming spot 15 miles or so into the day. We almost didn't make it though. There was a horrible downhill that killed my knees. Shortly after that we stopped for lunch, but we both felt bad still. Then we got our first trail magic of the North. A guy named Paddy-O gave us cold drinks, refilled our water, and had salty snacks too. It was just what we needed. Not long after that was the Lemon Squeeze, one of the features of the trail you see in videos and read about. It's a long, narrow, slanted space between two enormous rocks that the trail follows. That was really neat. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we got to the park with the lake. It was our luck, however, that they couldn't find enough lifeguards, so the beach was closed and we weren't allowed to swim. It was like 4 p.m., but still really hot, and we bought some sodas from a machine but were still disappointed. There were tons of people there, even though swimming was not allowed. We decided to just hang out there, not walking, until it cooled off some. We actually went for a dip, too, behind the backs of the park rangers. Cleaned up a bit. We also cooked dinner there, waiting out the heat. At about 6:45 pm. we finally left, and hiked the 4.2 to this shelter. By the way, there were also some great rock-climbing parts right after the Lemon Squeeze. I wish it had been better weather so we could have enjoyed it more. Who's here: Lockjaw, Kaptain, Jolly, Coconut, Pilgrim, Red B. We have a fire because the bugs started being real crappy this evening.
Date: 2006-05-30
From: William Brien Memorial Shelter

To: Random Campsite #4
Miles today: 18.3

Another hot, rough day. Maybe even hotter and rougher than yesterday. I woke up, and the balls of my feet, which have been extremely sore and bruised and swollen, hurt more than they ever have without already having hiked a bunch of miles. That was worrysome. Also, Lockjaw got something in his eye first thing, which was really bugging him. His groin also hurt, and he had to take out his contacts, so he was pretty blind. So we set out at about 7:10 a.m., as planned, but it was slow going for the two of us. He was blind, grumpy, and in pain, and I didn't really know what to do about it. We got to the top of a hill, and Lockjaw had to lie down to try to clean his eye out. It was getting hotter and hotter, and Kaptain was waiting for us but didn't know what was up. We were there for quite some time. Lockjaw was having just a horrible time, and sounded like he wouldn't make it the 21 miles we had planned. Finally he felt good enough to go on. The A.T. passed through a zoo today. After climbing a few more hot, grueling hills, we came to it, hoping to find hot dogs, ice cream, and frosty lemonade. Sadly, it was kind of a poor excuse for a zoo, and had none of these. We saw Kaptain, but he had already been there for a while waiting for us. We hung around for a while, hiked about a mile, then hung around for a while eating lunch, trying to avoid the heat of the day. Finally we set off for Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, a Friary that has a shelter, privy, and shower. Upon getting there, we found out that it is also a place you can order pizza from, a lovely surprise. So we ordered pizza, and ate with two section-hikers and Pilgrim and then Jolly and Coconut showed up and everyone was happy. We planned to camp 5 or 6 miles out, by only made it about 3 because it began to get dark, stormy and rainy.
Date: 2006-06-02
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Silver Hill Campsite
Miles today: 22.9
Weather: overcast clouds

8:54 p.m. Last night I slept pretty badly. One of the guys and the dog were snoring loudly and irregularly. I honestly almost left the shelter at 3 a.m. because of it. We started at about 7:30 and hiked 12.4 miles to a shelter for lunch. I practiced setting up my hammock, then after we all ate we continued to do the 10.5 remaining miles. It was a really uneventful day. Wasn't bad for the mileage. One super steep downhill and a 5-mile flat section along a river. That was nice. We're at a terrific campsite. It has a privy, covered cooking area, and a ? It's wonderful for a campsite. I'm in my hammock, but have it slung under the shelter of the cooking area so I need no rain fly. Into Salisbury for a shower and laundry tomorrow. Thank goodness!
Date: 2006-06-05
From: The Hemlocks Shelter

To: Shaker Campsite
Miles today: 25.6
Weather: overcast clouds

8:52 p.m. If I'm not mistaken, today was our highest mileage day with full packs so far. If all goes as planned, tomorrow the record will be broken again with a 27-miler. We're trying to get to Bennington VT in 4 days starting today. It'll be a stretch, but if we do it, it'll give us some slack on what we have to average, which hopefully we'll take advantage of. Work now, and have a little more time later. Today wasn't so bad. We did about 14 miles to lunch, though, which was an exhausting stretch. We actually intended to stop short of the shelter at 14.4, but then had troubled finding a spot. We started getting really famished, so we just plunked down on a rock (turned out to be about .1 before the shelter anyway. I felt better after eating, and we did 5 or so more miles to a shelter where we had an early dinner. We stayed with Moses last night and ran into him while eating. He's camping with us tonight and plans on a schedule similar to ours for the next few days. The hammock is working out well so far tonight. This campsite kind of sucks though; it's in a swamp and the mosquitoes are terrible, plus this one (like several before it that we've passed through) is totally infested with caterpillars. They crawl all over us and our stuff, throw threads (like part of a spider's web) across the trail and down from trees, eat away the leaf cover of the trees , and (literally) it sounds like it's raining lightly right now from all the caterpillar shit that's dropping down on us. Lovely. Anyway, today was uneventful. My feet hurt, but not as bad as they might I guess. I'm pooped. Tomorrow will suck, but I will survive. Sleep!
Date: 2006-06-06
From: Shaker Campsite

To: Kay Wood Lean-to
Miles today: 27.5

8:38 p.m. Today was too many miles. Woo! Oh well, we did them, and I guess I could feel worse. My feet hurt, but it's not terrible. We stopped for an early lunch past Upper Goose Pond Cabin, at a spot that supposedly had a vista, but didn't. From there we hiked to our dinner spot, the house of the "Cookie Lady". She wasn't in, but her husband was, and brought us freshly baked cookied after we cooked on a picnic table outside the house. We also got water and played with the dog. This was me, Kaptain, and Moses. Lockjaw was behind and never actually found the house. All day it was really swampy, which meant muddy boots and lots of mosquitoes. The shelter's nice though, and on a pretty spot. I'm just glad to be done with the longest day yet, and I hope the longest day ever!
Date: 2006-06-07
From: Kay Wood Lean-to

To: Mt. Greylock (Bascom Lodge)
Miles today: 20.0

Today was interesting. We woke up to a light rain, which is always a little depressing. But we hiked 3 miles into Dalton for a delicious breakfast, which was totally worth getting up for. I had a blueberry pancake and coffee and two poached eggs on toast and home fries. From there we went back into the wet and hiked about 8 miles to Cheshire MA, where I had eggplant parm for lunch. The rain was harder when we left the restaurant. We were back on the trail at about 1:45. Basically the afternoon was spent "climbing" Mt. Greylock. It wasn't a hard climb, but it was very rainy and grew cold as we gained elevation. The trail was basically covered with standing water, and it was very wet, wild going even though it wasn't particularly hard terrain. Once we got to the top, we went into the Lodge, where there were snacks and hot soup and a fire. We had planned to hike 3.3 miles on to a shelter to give us fewer miles into Bennington tomorrow, but the storm was too rough and the fire too nice to justify leaving. So a scalding shower and some cornbread later, I'm happy and dry and although 24.7 in the rain tomorrow doesn't sound good, I'll do it.
Date: 2006-06-09
From: Bennington VT (Autumn Inn Motel) 

To: Story Spring Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

8:27 p.m. Yesterday the hiking was pretty much a mindless slog. We went 13 or so miles to lunch, and then nearly 12 more into town, all of it through mud and drizzle. We took only a lunch break and maybe two other short breaks all day. We were machine-like, or at least I felt that way. Parts of the day really sucked, but the last 4 miles actually didn't drag as much as they might have. Actually, for a couple of brief moments between pangs of foot pain and wet puddles, I felt an odd exhilaration. My legs just worked, and I felt it in my hips as they went through their range of motion, stepping each time with precision. A little before 5:30, we reached the road crossing for Bennington. We got an easy hitch (as usual) from a very nice lady who took us to the Autumn Inn, a place that wasn't terrific but had laundry and wasn't a dive either. We took showers, watched TV, and it felt like a proper hotel-style town stop. We ate at a pizzeria, watched more TV, ate snacks, and crashed. This morning we slept in, kind of. I woke up early, but we lingered in bed, waiting because we planned to hit the outfitter, which opened at 10. Eventually we went to a nearby grocery to buy food for today, then back to the room. As we were leaving again to walk downtown to the P.O. and outfitter (a bit of a hike) , we ran into a fellow hotel patron who was also a hiker. He had a car, though, and explained that he was doing a section, but had rented a car and was taking a day or two off to avoid the weather. He gave us a ride downtown, waited for the outfitter to open and for us to go (wasn't a good outfitter, it turned out), and then drove us the five miles back to the trail. Up there on the list of amazing rides, I'd say. We hiked out at about quarter to 11. A late start, but no big deal. We went for a couple of hours, then stopped for lunch at a random spot during a period of break in the rain. The hiking was boring and uneventful. We stayed at a rather crappy little shelter with some Long Trail hikers and a sectioner. The whole front was muddy.
Date: 2006-06-11
From: Bromley Mountain 

To: Greenwall Shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: overcast clouds

8:03 p.m. Hmmm. Yesterday we woke up earlier than necessary to a cold, muddy, rainy, ugly morning. We hiked 1.5 miles to a forest service road, where we waited for my parents who were coming to visit and slackpack us. The showed up with Dudley and bread, jam, and coffee. After eating we packed our daypacks and set off in the rain. Mud, mud, mud. We have been consumed by mud for about a week. The trail yesterday had ankle deep standing water at several places which was unavoidable. Elsewhere, we would dance from rock to rock or along steep banks along the trail, trying to preserve some degree of dryness, which didn't work. Eventually we gave up, and slopped through everything. Our socks and shoes have been wet and cold for as long as I can remember. We stopped at lunch at a gorgeous shelter and ate the food my parents brought (delicious sandwiches, chips, bananas, brownies and sodas). Then we stomped on. At about 4 we met up with my parents again at a road crossing near Manchester Center, VT. They brought us to town, where we went to an EMS, ate at a pub, and resupplied. It was a great visit, useful and not stressful. We needed to resupply, and to get out of the rain for a while. They brought us back to the trail at a little after 8, and we hiked 2 miles in increasing darkness to the shelter, which was a terrific one (there was a loft and a covered porch). This morning was cold! Last night was too. It was hard to get out of the sleeping bags and face the first really frigid day in a long time. We hiked out late, about 8:20. The morning went fairly quickly, although it was more of the same mud. The rain held off at least. We stopped for a snack at 8.1, then for lunch at 12.8. Lockjaw never showed up there, and we kind of wondered what was going on with him as we chatted with a section hiker. We left the shelter at about 2:30. The afternoon dragged. We kind of got a view from one of the peaks because the mist lifted a bit. Our first view in at least a week. There were a few nice spots of trail, with pine needles underfoot and pretty woods. Mostly, though, it was mud and cold water. It didn't get above 55. Last night was below 40 and I'm hoping tonight won't be the same. Anyway, I got here at about 6:15. Kaptain and Moses came shortly after. A little before 8, Lockjaw came in. I was happy because I had actually been getting pretty worried. Turned out he got out of the shelter a while after us this morning. His shin is killing him, and his platypus started leaking (meaning he had to stop and get all the stuff out of his pack to try to keep it dry-ish) Poor thing, he had a really rough day. I hope the shin is a temporary thing, more along the line of shin splints than a stress fracture. We'll see. For now there's some grumpiness to deal with and a little worrying and a lot of walking to be done. Today was day number 100. Wow.
Date: 2006-06-12
From: Greenwall Shelter

To: Churchill-Scott Shelter
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: overcast clouds

8:47 p.m. Today was actually pretty interesting. I slept famously last night. I only woke up about twice, and what I thought more than anything was how comfy I was. Beautiful. Anyway, I decided to wait for Lockjaw this morning, which wasn't maybe the smartest idea, because he took forever to pack his pack. We hiked out a little before 8, hoping to catch Moses and Kaptain for lunch. Several miles later we stopped at a shelter for a snack, where we encountered several LT sectioners. Out from that shelter was a steep rock section, ascending to a viewless peak. We crossed a gorge, a beautiful, deep cascade of water, gushing down beneath us as we crossed a rickety suspension bridge. Later on, we came to a water crossing that resulted in soaking feet. This was quite the disappointment, because I had tried hard all day to keep my feet out of mud and puddles (and succeeded) because I put on fresh socks this morning. Ah, well. We passed along a beautiful section of pine forest between two branches of the small river. We ran into Kaptain and Moses, still having lunch, and stopped to eat. This was at about 12:40. From there we ascended Mt. Killington. Boy that was an interesting stretch of trail. It seemed like a new piece of trail, but it wasn't ready to be opened, in my opinion. The whole trail was a series of cut trees, most of them balsam firs. It smelled nice, but most of the time there wasn't really a trail to follow and we were constantly going over, under, and through trees or pieces of trees that obstructed the trail. Roots became stairs, and flat spots that looked like dirt path turned out to be dangerous webs of small roots with dirt in between that a foot would plunge right through. From the top, though, it was a cruise down to this shelter. My feet and legs hurt though. My legs are more tired after today than they have been for a long time. Mt. Killington was a 2000+ foot climb. Today: The sun came out!We passed 500 miles to go!Hurray!
Date: 2006-06-13
From: Churchill-Scott Shelter

To: Wintton Shelter
Miles today: 21.8

8:32 p.m. I guess, in a way, I'm proud of today. I didn't stop before where we planned to get, and didn't even seriously consider it. I didn't snap at anyone or even bitch much. But I had a hard day. Physically and mentally. I am tired. We had several pretty steep hills today, and my legs almost ached, which they haven't since Georgia. For the past couple of weeks we have been doing really big miles. Averaging maybe 22 or 23 I bet. It's wearing on me. Thankfully after tomorrow we shouldn't be doing many or any days over 20 miles. I kind of remember Friday backwards, so I'll tell it that way. We got into the shelter at about 6:50. We came from a viewpoint called "The Lookout" that was about 2.5 before the shelter. Basically, it was a cabin with a ladder up to a platform on the roof. It was a terrific view, almost 360 degrees, probably the best we've had in over a month. Very much worth the .1 off the trail. Before that we stopped for a break on top of a hill. I was dying. Lunch was at a shelter 9.9 from the end of the day, but we weren't as ravenous as usual because of a stop we made at Mountain Meadows Lodge at Kent Pond. At about a quarter to 10 we (Moses, Kaptain and I) arrived at the Lodge, where we were immediately greeted by a pig! Her name was Alice, and she was fantastic. It was kind of a farm there so we got to meet a pony, too, and a peacock. Anyway, they sold us a great lunch for $7.50 each. A bit pricey, but the sandwiches, chips, sodas and watermelon were delicious. We ordered some for Lockjaw, even though he was a bit behind. He took forever to show up, and was only two minutes before the deadline we'd set when we'd eat his share and take off. Before we all left, the owner gave us some extra food that another hiker had left there. That was very nice and we needed it, because trying to ration 5 days of food is tough and we're all almost out. That was basically it today. It was beautiful and sunny. The first half of the day was splendid, the second half brutal. Now it's just 26 miles to rest. Phew.
Date: 2006-06-14
From: Wintton Shelter

To: Happy Hill Shelter
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: light rain

1:51 p.m. Lunchtime and it's started to rain so we're kind of waiting it out. Hopefully it'll pass, because I'm pretty sick of rain. Earlier today, though, it was sunny and hot. I left late this morning, about 8:30. Lockjaw's shin isn't getting any better, maybe worse, and I might have to decide between taking a couple of zeros with him and hiking out with Kaptain. I'll have to keep pondering. And I guess it's possible I'll avoid having to make the choice. 7:45 p.m. Didn't see Lockjaw all day, but he turned up as we were eating - not too grumpy or in pain. Kaptain and Moses saw a porcupine today! I'm very jealous. Overall, pretty normal day. Walking and stopping occasionally. I'm so excited for Hanover tomorrow, although it might be a little sullied by worrying about the Lockjaw issue. 6 miles to real food.