morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-05-31
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Barking Spider and Plodder maybe on to something. They've been basically slackpacking since Damascus or before even. Plodder's wife drove up from Florida when he got shin splints and has been keeping him company since. The two of them have it worked out so they only camp out ten nights from here to Maine. Tough living, don't strain yourself guys. So here's the daily routine: wake up early, hit a restaurant for breakfast, hike north or south (depending on which is easier), get picked up, shower, hit a restaurant for dinner, and sleep on a bed every night. No really, every day till Maine they're doing it. I don't think I can afford a $10,000 hike, so I turned down the offer to go with them, but I am going to stick around for a little while and take it easy.   We did about 20 miles and I finished it just as the rain started to come down. I hit the grocery store real quick and then caught a ride to the post office from a local before walking back to the cess pool of a hotel we're staying in.   When Barking Spider and Plodder showed up a couple hours later, we went to a restaurant called The Bank. Built in 1906, it originally served as a bank for many years, but was remodeled two years ago into a restaurant. We ate upstairs in a former manager's office completely separate from anyone else in the building. The owners are both chefs, one an executive chef and the other, his wife, a pastry chef. The atmosphere is classic and elegant. Normally, a plant growing out of the wall would look bad, but it fit this place perfectly. The proprietor's mother did all the artwork and cuts fresh flowers for each table daily. The food was exquisite and dessert was even better. I had penne in an onion cream sauce with chicken meatballs and The Bombe for dessert. The Bombe looks like half a softball put face down and consists of a chocolate almond wafer with a ball of chocolate caramel mousse and a creme brulee center drizzled with raspberry and vanilla sauces, then powdered sugar for presentation. Not mcuh food for $7.50, but the taste of Ambrosia shouldn't really have a price, should it? I just hate that I'll be doing this again tomorrow. Night.
Date: 2007-06-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

A note from Jenni:Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying Allen's entries as much as I am! You have probably noticed that the Destination and Milage field is blank on the recent entries I have posted. I will mention this to Allen the next time I speak with him, and hopefully he can add it in the next time he is able to upload his photos.Happy Trails!
Date: 2007-06-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Fear. Define it. How about 10 miles to go on a 20 mile day and a severe thunderstorm rolls in directly above you. I could think of only one thing - the time I was almost struck at 16 years old. Everything they say is true. You know it's coming. It feels like an aura surrounds you and every hair on your body stands on end. Seconds later, you know and understand all meanings of "seeing the light" and "silent as the grave." The ligthning has struck down, blinding you and the displacemnet of air know as thunder, has deafended you. Thoughts race through your mind as you begin to recover. "Is this it?" "Is this heaven?" "Am I just dreaming?" "Where am I?" "Somebody punch me to make sure I'm still alive." If this gets any more surreal, I'll be tripping on acid and standing in a Salvador Dali painting." Wake up! My eyes flashed open and here I am on the Appalachian Trail praying that it doesn't happen again, praying that lightning doesn't strike twice. I try to think of other things, try to cloud my mind with something other than whether or not my arm hair was standing at attention. Not possible. The ten miles seemed to take longer than any ten mile section so far; yet, i probably hiked it faster than any ten miles so far.    So what is fear? Fear is motivation. Fear motivates you in all kinds of ways. It motivates to succeed, to fail, to do things you don't want to do, to not do things you do want to do. Fear can turn a non-believer into a fanatic, a honest man into a liar, a liberal into a conservative. It is the toughest drill sergeant you will ever have. And I will be honest now and say I'm afraid of the dark, so this entry is to be continued. Sleep Well.
Date: 2007-06-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

...countinued from last night. Fear is one of the fiercest, "fear-cest" emotions out there. So powerful and so overwhelming, it cannot be ignored or denied. If you find yourself afraid, truly afraid, of something, anything, it can carry just as much weight as love, anger, or the other five major emotions. Or is it three? Either way, emotions are emotional and fear is one of them.    There are so many ways fear influences our daily lives without our realization or recognition that it's essentially fear behind our action or lack there of. When you go buy a car and are afraid of accidents, you get the one with all the 5-star ratings and then when you drive the car, you wear your seatbelt either because you're afraid of getting hurt or getting a ticket. If you're an alcoholic and the liquor store is closed, it's the fear of getting caught or getting mollested in jail that keeps you from knocking it over. Fear is what keeps you from approaching the beautiful girl at the bar, from going for the kiss on that first date, or for asking her to be your one and only. It keeps you grounded and under control in some situations, but can drive you to the brink of insanity and back in others.   Here's the one thing I can say and I truly hope that most people can agree - I'm afraid to die. Because it makes you treasure your life. It makes your life valuable to you. Sure, you can value your life without fearing death, but the value is put on an exponential curve if you throw fear of death in the equation. Besides, it's only natural to be afraid. If you say you're not, you're a liar, and your life will probably be shorter for it. Good luck. So, life is short and it needs to be lived in spite of our fears. Take the motivation and energy that fear brings and live the dream. Live your dream. Then dream bigger.
Date: 2007-06-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

So the slackpacking drug has bitten me again. The last four days have been a blast until tonight's setback. I'm afraid I might be getting off the trail for awhile because of it. Barking Spider and Plodder have been fantastic company and Plodder's wife is truly very generous, but my aggressive and competitive nature has done me in. When I hike, I do it in an extremely vigorous manner. I find that I get a natural high, maybe even a supernatural high, when I push myself harder and further. I hike fast, faster than anyone I've met so far except one, Just James. I pound out each and every mile at my top speed, my upper limit, my end all - be all. I fight back the pain every step and immediately prepare myself for the pain of the next one. The harder I push, the more punishment I receive, but more satisfaction come with it, or a greater satisfaction should I say. But in this particular case, the scales lean toward pain and getting to the top is not enough to overpower that excruciating feeling that surges through my ankle. I've got shin splints, I know it. I'm on top of a mountain with a monument dedicated to Audie Murphy, the WWII veteran. His heroism is noted, but it lacks inspiration for me. I need something bigger and better than that to propel me off this mountain. I need a zero. The promise of a shower and a bed to sleep in is the motivation I need. I have six miles to go and I'm forced to take them slow, something even more painful than the splints.
Date: 2007-06-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

6/4/07 - 6/9/07Normally, a week off would sound like fun, but the majority of mine has been spent laid up on a bed with ice on my ankle watching Saved by the Bell reruns. I've been eating nothing but continental breakfasts for my breakfast and then hauling a ton of food up the stairs for my lunch and dinner. It's the most absolutley mundane and pointless existence. This little blip of my life may be worse than the time I spent three straight days typing in over 8,000 7-digit numbers into a computer for a little extra cash. It's monotonous. It's boring. I can't take it anymore. I am beyond ready to get back on the trail and my shin splints seem to have made themselves scarce. It hasn't been all terrible, though, Don't let me mislead you. I think I may be getting the hotel stay for free thanks to Barking Spider. I also managed to catch a free ride out to Smith Mountain Lake where my buddy Brandon's Mom and sister live. They fed me and gave me a place to sleep, shower, and do my laundry. She mentioned she was driving up to Maryland for the weekend to visit Brandon and I asked to tag along. She said yes and off we went. I didn't expect to be in Maryland this quick, I've still got another 200 trail miles before I hit it. But there I was, enjoying Brandon and Anna's company, eating free again thanks to Anna's grandma, and learning how to conduct myself around an authentic Greek family. I even did the double kiss maneuver, something I recommend trying on close friends or family before attempting it on your buddy's wife's grandma. Just for practice, at least do it in the mirror. It's harder than it looks in the movies. Thank you Nana for dinner! By the way, Brandon, I ate the oatmeal raisin cookies I found in the cupboard, in case you were wondering. I'll send a couple bucks your way if you need it. They were delicious, good choice. It's a long ride back to VA tomorrow and I hear the trail calling me. I've been away far too long and absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. Bring it on Virginia, I'll be ready for you this time!
Date: 2007-06-11
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Second day back from the break and I'm already back in a hotel. But it's a good thing this time because I had to hike an extra ten miles over my planned six to get to town. And the only reason I planned to do the six was because Dr. Mom over in the real world instructed me to keep it to under ten a day for the first week. But after the six, I was sitting at a shelter and just waiting. Just waiting. A few guys showed up and went on, then a few more showed up and they went on, too. I got antsy and couldn't wait anymore. I don't want to rest my ankle, I want to hike. I don't want to to take it easy, I want to make it out of Virginia. So I threw Dr. Mom's advice out the window and knocked down the ten before the rain came crashing down that night. I met three hikers - Chach, Sideshow, and Big Shanty - with whom I split the hotel room. It turned out to be a pretty good day, after all. Lesson learned. Moms that are doctors are way too cautious when dispensing medical advice. It's much easier to just ignore it and do what YOU want to do. It's kinda like criminals and the law. Ignore it and it's like it was never there. Or like illegal aliens and the border. Nope, there's no border. But you mix two already cautious professions like doctors and mothers and it amalgamates to one superhero of caution that is fully aware of any and all dangers associated with even the most mundane tasks. Take care when dealing with this beast since it will be unduly prepared for everything, I, myself, have had much practice and therefore understand what it takes to maneuver around it. If you encounter one, give me a holler and I'll fend it off for you. Until then, peace be with you.
Date: 2007-06-12
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I start out by offering my apologies to my uninitiated readers, It is my fault for not doing it earlier and I am sorry. I feel as thought I have done you a disservice and it has just now hit me. I've been using slang terminology that any average thru-hiker would pass as everyday speak and you may or may not understand it. So today's journal is dedicated to improving that understanding by creating a glossary of hiker jargon. Here goes...and in no particular order, because I'm just writing them down as they come to me.   NOBO - northbounder, hiking from GA to ME   SOBO - southbounder, hiking from ME to GA   PUDS/SUDS - POintless/Stupid ups and downs   Slackpacking - hiking with only food and water   Trail Magic - anything given to hikers for free, usually in the form of food or a ride   Trail Angel - the one administering trail magic   Blaze - the markings on trees or signs that tell us hikers where to go   White Blaze - the actual trail, the AT   Blue Blaze - Side trails to shelters, water sources, or vistas   Yellow Blaze - Skipping sections of the trail via roads   Aqua Blaze - Skipping sections of trail via river   Stealth Camping - Camping in the woods, avoiding detection   Cowboy Camping - laying your pack down and just going to sleep against a tree or rock without setting up camp   AYCE - All You Can Eat   Zero - taking a "zero" means hiking 0 miles on the trail which correlates to having zero money in the bank   Zeek - a string of 7 consecutive zeros   Zonth - uncommon, but possible to have a month off   Vitamin Z - take a wild guess...   Vitamin I - often traded for food on the trail, the "I" stands for ibuprofen   Yogi-ing - much like Yogi the Bear, this is the act of getting food from tourists and non-thru-hikers by looking very deptessed and hungry
Date: 2007-06-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Today, I was a bum. Today, I planned on big miles and only did 13. Today, I wasted hours away and received nothing for it. Today, time flew by like a fat kid running after a doughnut. Today, though was fun. I'm hiking with my new crew known as the Pain Train. I'm the newest card-carrying member and glad to have some good hiking company. Sideshow, Big Shanty and Chach are proving to be a lot of fun and easy-going. We started out planning on 18 or 23, but did ten to Jennings Creek and ended up spending six hours at the swimming hole. Rain was threatening the entire day, but never really delivered as promised, which made the day so much better. So, today, all four of us really did act like bums, we spent six hours in the creek at all times doing one of four things. We were; a) catching a crawdad or in search of one b) catching a frog or in search of one c) attempting to spear a fish (this was just me, probably because I'm the only one dumb enough to think it might work) or d) skipping stones or throwing big and small stones up in the air to see how big or small a splash we could make. Of all the fruitless endeavors, the first and last made out to be the most fun, time-consuming, and easiest to do. I set a new personal record of 23 skips with a stone and most crawdads caught at one time. The first record was quickly tarnished by Shanty who mentioned he saw a guy on YouTube do a 54 skip throw. The second record was a group effort and we scored roughly 80-90 crawdads. what do bums do with 80-90 crawdads caught in a dirty river? Oh, you know...burn, baby, burn. We ate the crap out of those things; unfortunately for us, sometimes literally. The only setback was the size factor. River crawdads are tiny and the calories spent trying to eat them probably outweighs the calories consumed. But we cooked and ate 'em, under a bridge, no less. Like real bums. Then we made real food over the campfire and popped out another three miles to a fantastic tri-level shelter for the night.    Today was a day to remember.
Date: 2007-06-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

How great is it to be a kid? What makes it so much better to be young? Is it the age, the personality, the naivity? How about the inexperience, the innocence, or the haphazardness? What gives kids their character that all adults wish they could have their youth back? And why do most kids want to grow up faster? None of these questions have answers, of course, but they can have personal significance. Everyone can remember a piece of their childhood that was truly joyous and helps to inspire their current lives. Maybe it wasn't even joyous, maybe it was just a warm fuzzy feeling or a time of excitement. But there is something deep down that gives strenght to everyone and makes their puzzle pieces come together. Today, I relived a favorite moment of my childhood thanks to two young boys out camping with their Dad. He was busy setting up camp and they were hanging out near the shelter which sits by a creek with a steep rock face. The next thing I know, they're throwing rocks down into the creek as hard as they can. "What are you guys doing?" I said. "Breaking rocks!", they responded together. "You wanna try?", one asked me. Without a doubt, I thought. I found a good size rock and threw it directly into the rock face with all the force I had in me. I felt so much tension and aggresion leave my body at the same time the stone left my fingertips. The rock exploded into hundreds of fragments and with it so did all the stress of my life. With the first rock, I forgot about the future; with the second, I lost my worries. With each rock I threw, more of the strangling life factors seemed to disappear, exploding into small, insignificant pieces and floating down stream, I am at ease.   For me, that is what is great about child-dom - no cares. Life is simple, life is easy. No worries of tomorrow, no bills to pay, no duties or obligations, and no stress. I am reminded of a time when I was much younger than I am now and it was easy being me. It was fun being me. I remember the mind set I had and I constantly find myself trying to turn back time and return to that beautiful perspective I once had. We should all be so lucky, to relive our childhood as adults. We should all take time and make an effort to act more like children. It's just too much fun not to. Think young, live young, Be young.
Date: 2007-06-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Into and out of Glasgow today. Many strange things abounded there. Who would have thought that a town with a population that never crests over a grand would offer a chance encounter with a dinosaur, a habitual hitchhiker picker-upper, and a phrase out of of a magazine that should never be repeated beyond your reading of this journal. Glasgow, VA, think you for all these things. It was nice to be a part of your strange magic. I met the dinosaur outside of the diner. The story is that no one in town knows where he or she (I didn't check) came from, just that he or she showed up one day and decided to stay. I approached the beast after it looked at me funny. The dinosaur had nothing to say, so we agreed to disagree and went out seperate ways. There is a man in town that does nothing but sleep, eat and pick-up hitching hikers, he showed up with a car and a register, gives you either the 5 or 7 second tour of Glasgow, depending on whether or not you need to go to the laundromat, and drops you off. He sleeps in his Buick, eats at the local diner, and as far as I can tell, has no life but to shuttle hikers. Thank you, Sir. In the laundromat, you will often find a variety of reading material to pass the time while your filth is temporarily washed away. On this day, in the Glasgow laundromat, Chach managed to find an issue of Good Housekeeping that spoke of anything but house-keeping. She read me a story about a cheating husband; now, I don't remember the details or specifics, but I will be forever scared by two words, two words that rarely find company with the other, these two words make it possible for a grown man to cry. With no more gilding of the lily, the words are "geriatric" and "passion." There, I said it. I am now doing my best to expurge the atrocity that befell my ears in Glasgow. I take rest tonight in Punchbowl Shelter, supposedly haunted by a small child that died near here. I am joined by Chach, Sideshow, Shanty, Rosie, Sweetwater, and Mountain Man. I have some reservations about the last guy that I will attempt to cover soon. There is a choir of bullfrogs in the nearby pond that will sing me to sleep tonight. Goodnight.
Date: 2007-06-16
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I've been on the trail for nearly two months and I haven't once thought about quitting or going home. That changed today. I found myself in a new world looking through eyes that weren't mine. I was lost and searching for answers - answers to questions I didn't know. I've never considered myself a quitter simply because I'm too stubbborn and hard-headed. But today I was reasoning and trying to logically explain to myself why I had to go home, as if there was no option. Where is my dedication? Where is my perservance? Where is my (insert ten dollar word that implies I'm going to finish)? I am in darkness without a match or a flashlight. Somewhere in this world, there is a reason for me to complete this journey. There is a reason for me to keep trudging through the woods, eatting the same thing day after day, and waking up in a great amount of pain. I don't know why I'm out here anymore. I used to speak of this trail as a dream of mine. What was once a luscious dreamworld has become a neverending nightmare of green and brown. I do not take pleasure in my srroundings like I used to and I am bored out of my mind. What will make me get up and walk tomorrow? What will be my justification? What will be the fuel for my fire? For now, there won't be anything except the fact I can't stay here. I realize the fact I can't stay here. I realize that leaves so much unanswered, but that's all I have right now. Everything seemed to go wrong today. I walked ten miles with no water. I fell in a creek. I gave out on a 2,600 ft climb to a summit with no view. I fell behind my group of friends I was hiking with. I burned myself. I tripped so many times that my toes are bruised and bleeding. My shin splints started acting up. The only blessing on today is that is didn't rain. Oh, and I saw a beaver. I want to go home, but I know that if I did, I wouldn't be able to face myself or people that I know. It's a pride thing and I know it. I also know that those people at home would understand if I did quit and that they would still support me. I called Jenni and I'm glad because she told me what I needed to hear. "No, you're not quitting. The only time you 're getting off the trail is when I pick you up in Maine." She's right. I'm not done yet. This trail will not beat me. See you tomorrow, A.T.
Date: 2007-06-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Reversal of fortune for this hiker. My depression on the A.T. seems to have lasted only a day. Did I get off easy or is there more to come? They call it the Virginia Blues and I have quite a bit of VA left to do. But yesterday is gone and today is a clean slate. I'm resetting my mind and adjusting my heart to take on another 800 miles. I caught up with the Pain Train again today. I was at the Dutch Haus, a bed & breakfast in Montebello, when a while SUV rolls up and three people are screaming "Rebel!" out the window. What in the world? I thought these guys had made it another seven miles down the trail and I'll catch them in a few days, but oh no. No, they got invited to a couple's house at Wintergreen Ski Resort. I was at the shelter eating peanut butter and ramen while they were pigging out on a seafood feast. I was sleeping on my pad and in my bag that hasn't been washed since I got it, while they were dreaming happily on feather beds with fresh linens. What did I do wrong in my past life? And here's the worst part...I was only 20 miniutes behind them when they got picked up! If I hadn't taken that hour and a half break at the first shelter, I too would have been savoring the life of luxury. Alas, I was once again denied the glorious trail magic of a perfect stranger. Maybe next time!