morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-05-20
From: Marion, Va

To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

5-20-08 day 51Marion, VA killing timePeregine gets me up at 6 am so we can do breakfast together across the street at the Best Western. Then she's off back to the trail via taxi. I'm back to bed for a few more hours. I got a lot of time to kill today!Marion is a fair sized town with an old downtown. County court house and lots of churches. I wandered up main street looking for a bookstore, but there were none. Very quiet downtown, some vacant store fronts, a few cafes and antique stores. I eventually found the library and got a few discarded paperback books for 50 cents, though I gave the libarion a dollar and told her to keep the change. What the heck?Only 4 1/2 hours more to wait for the bus now. One problem is I'll get to Boston at 7:30 pm tomorrow and will be too late for the Berlin bus. This is a problem. Means I need to spend a nighy someplace and would rather it not be in Boston. My best bet is to get off at Roanoke and take the 1508 schedule bus at 1:05 pm north. That will get me to Boston in the early morning and plenty of time to kill for the 5:30 bus to Berlin. That is if they let me do that.
Date: 2008-06-10
From: home

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Been back home and off the trail for over 2 weeks now and just finding time to add some photos. Sorry I don't have much of anything before Erwin, but that is where I finally broke down and got a digital camara. All my shots before there are on film and I don't think I'll bother scanning them in, even though there are a few good shots in there. I kind of miss getting up and beating my body senseless everyday, but am glad I'm not stumbling up and down the trail in the summer heat like the people I know who are still out there are doing! Sure hope some of them make it up to the Whites here so I can go out and join them for a few days or a week here in my backyard.
Date: 2008-07-18
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: few clouds

Mohican outdoor center day 17/18/08 10.5 milesArrived by bus to the Delaware water gap Tuesday evening. Patti (my sister) came and took me down to her house in Mt Bethel, PA. After a nice visit for a day and a half, returned to the water gap where I ran into my old hiking buddy Key Chain, who just arrived in town. We quickly caught up on events, then some of his family came to meet him. Will likely run into each other again soon. Later I meet up with Peregrine and Ravon, and we had a good dinner at the Deer Head inn. After dinner, Peregrine and Ravon retired to their room to finish up town chores and I went back to the church hostel. A bit later I went back to the Deer Head inn for the jazz jam and a few drinks, both of which were good. During intermission, a large limb from a tree in front of the church fell down for no apparent reason. This disrupted power and blocked traffic until it got cleaned up. It was very hot and did not cool down much, despite a quick T-storm earlier in the evening (which might have weakened the tree limb). Between the sticky weather and the security light shining into the shelter behind the church, didn't get a very good nights sleep. 5 am came way too soon, as I had to get up that early to be ready to meet the girls for breakfast at 6 at the water gap dinner. About 7 we headed out of town and walked across the I-80 bridge into NJ. The climb out of the gap was pretty easy. Although then trail is still a bit rocky, its nothing like PA. Sunfish pond, the first glacier pond on the trail, was nice. At the north end we found a whole lot of high bush blueberry bushes with ripe berries. We ate some and picked some to carry and eat later.By this time it was getting to be late morning and getting quite hot, about 90 and of course very humid. The rest of the trail followed the ridge line with some good views of the Delaware, but without a whole lot of shade. Our pace slowed down considerably. About 2 pm we arrived at the AMC run Mohican outdoor center, where we found cold sodas and $5.00 sandwiches, which of course we could not pass up. We all opted for the egg salad sandwich. Tenting for thru-hikers is free and there is a swimming pond nearby, so we elected to stay rather go any farther in this heat. Ravon and I went to the pond and took a dip. Ravon went into the pond at the first place it was possible, I went to the official ¢beach¢ area, where the water was deeper and there was a group of intercity kids splashing in the water.
Date: 2008-07-19
From: Mohican Outdoor Center

To: Brink Road Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: haze

Brink road shelter 14.3 milesUp at dawn, still warm out. Slept the sleep of the dead though. We saw 5 deer on the climb up to the ridge. Easy trail for the most part with some views, but had one steep but short rock climb. We took an hour break at noon, then slowly did the last 5 miles to here. Another very hot and humid day. Ravon saw a bear off the trail, then we saw another near the shelter shortly after we arrived. Good bear box for food here thankfully. Nice spring with delightfully cold water in it. Pretty busy place here tonight with 7 of us here so far.
Date: 2008-07-20
From: Brink Road Shelter

To: Rutherford Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: clear sky

Humm, Seems I lost the journal entery for this day. Well, it was hot and humid again, we stopped at a 1923 fire tower, there were a few views of the Delaware and thankfully, the springs at the shelters we went by had water in them and it was cold water!
Date: 2008-07-21
From: Rutherford Shelter

To: Unionville, NY
Miles today: 11.4

The Mayor's house11.4 milesA T-Storm did indeed come by last night, our first night in rain. Only the fringe edge hit us, so it wasn't too bad. Was over in a few hours. Except for the tent, everything stayed dry. We stopped at the High Point park visitor center, an old stone building with Indian artifacts on display, and took a break to dry out the tents. While there, we learned of the Mayor's house in Unionville by some slack packers who were staying there. Peregrine and Ravon took some convincing to stop there, but it wasn't hard to convince them as the day wore on and it got hot and humid again. I flushed a large deer the way up to the High Point. He was on the top of a ridge line the trail was climbing up to. The trail didn't go over to the tower, but we had our own little hiker observation platform to get above the trees with a view of the tower and three states. (NJ/NY/PA)When we got to Unionville, we went down to the general store and Butch who rides hikers up to the house happened to be there so got a ride right away. The mayor of Unionville, Dick, has been taking hikers in for 3 years now and the stay is totally free including shower and food (dinner and breakfast). Dick only has a few simple house rules. Take a shower, have a picture taken and watch a inspirational video. Easy enough.There were 17 of us hikers there that night. As we got in late, we slept in the living room. Between the glare of the hallway light and the air conditioner fan, I slept poorly but at least I was clean and dry.
Date: 2008-07-22
From: Unionville, NY

To: Slack pack
Miles today: 17.2

The Mayor's house, day 217.2 miles We decided to do an 18 mile slack pack today. After a breakfast of eggs, tator tots and English muffins cooked by Bill*,Butch drove us up to the Warwick turnpike and we hiked south back to Unionville. This turned out to be a good idea. Overall,the trail was easy, but there was one really long and steep rocky decent, a few short climbs and some long sections without shade. It was of course another hot, humid and sunny day. A long boardwalk took us through a normally swampy area, which of course was dry and very hot as this was one of the areas with no shade. It was still a very interesting place to walk through. We had one stop for ice cream and fruit at NJ17A, which was a nice break. There we meet ¢Alpine Strider¢ a woman from Germany doing a south bound hike. She had past us like we were standing still a little earlier on the trail. She said she moved real fast when there was ice cream and cold drinks waiting near-by!After we returned to the mayor's house, I went to take a shower to rinse off my sweat and found the shower knob had been broken. A major problem with all the hikers coming in, but most of the new arrivals were able to get a shower before the last one broke the handle. The Mayors house is quite full tonight, with the downstairs bunk rooms full, people in the living room and 4 or 5 tents in the back yard. * Bill is some 80 some years old and was being evicted from the senior housing place for some reason, so The Mayor took him in and made him chief cook. Apparently, he was quite withdrawn at first, but opened up once he started mingling with all the hikers and is quite a character.
Date: 2008-07-23
From: Warwick turnpike

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: light rain

Wildcat shelter.11.6 miles The Broken shower handle at the Mayors house got fixed by Butch early this morning. The shower did leak all night into a bucket down in the bunk room, where I was last night. Had to put a towel in the bucket to keep the dripping noise down to a tolerable level. Since we did a slack pack yesterday, after breakfast, the Mayor drove us back up the Warwick turnpike to start our day. We crossed into NY today. Day started out with some rain, then cleared but stayed very humid. We were back on a ridge again today with some nice vistas. I thought we could see the Hudson, but it turned out to be a big lake. About 2 miles from the Wildcat shelter we stopped for ice cream. I had a banana split, it was great. The rain started up again as we left to do the last leg to the shelter. Just as we came to an exposed section of the trail, the rain turned into a full fledged T-Storm. A flash of lightning, then a clap of thunder convinced me not to go any farther. Thankfully there was a blue blaze around the exposed rocks, which we took. Peregrine and Ravon were not convinced this blue blaze would come back to the AT, but after I left down that trail, they followed and it indeed by-passed the ledges. About a mile farther on, there was another set of ledges and another blue blaze. This time, it took no convincing to get the girls to follow the blue blaze, as it was still storming out. The storm abated after we reached the shelter, so set up tents because of the bugs.
Date: 2008-07-24
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Zero day
Miles today: 0.0

Wildcat shelter, day two0 milesThe rain started up again after dark and it rained all night and into the morning. None of us were willing to get out before the rain slacked off, so it was late when we finally did. Pretty much everyone else who was at the shelter had already left, so we moved into the shelter. When I got up, I found my pack cover had somehow come off my pack in the night and the front compartment got filled with water. Sitting in a puddle of water was my MP3 player and solar charger! About noon the sun finally came out. At this point, we didn't feel like going anywhere so decided to take a zero at the shelter and dry out. I took apart the MP3 player and dried it out. It sort of came to life, but not 100%. The solar charger would not come back to life. Previous dampness had started to corrode some wires and the soaking last night did them in. The rest of the day was spent just laying around. Not wanting to risk getting our gear wet again, we spent the night in the shelter, but got eaten alive by sketers.
Date: 2008-07-25
From: WIldcat shelter

To: Fingureboard Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: clear sky

Near Tiorati circle16.5 milesModerately difficult day with lots of short ups and downs. Crossing the Orange turnpike was a game of dogging speeding cars. Next we crossed the NY state turnpike on an overpass and took a photo of the traffic. We took a dip in Island pond and was refreshing. Late in the day we finally got to Fingerboard shelter and found there was no water. I went down the 1/2 mile blue blaze for water and found it ended in the big lake. We were not about to drink from that!So, we pushed on to Lake Tiorati circle, with swimming and picnic area. First we hit the vending machines for drinks. I told the girls if we picked a picnic table with care, we would likely get some free food. So, I went over to a table next to an older couple. Once the girls came over and we struck up a conversation with the couple next to use, we were offered macaroni and potato salad, a couple of hot dogs and some cheese doddles. Ravon and Peregrine didn't believe I could yogi dinner, but it was easy :-)There was no camping at the circle, so after filling our water bottles we hiked the 0.3 miles back to the trail road crossing. There were some campsites near the road, but they weren't very good ones. So we hiked up the trail looking for a suitable spot for the three of us. Just before dark I finally found a grassy woods road, likely used for fire fighting access,to set up on. We had all our tents set up in a line along the road. Nothing disturbed us all night and turned out to be the only suitable site for quite a ways. Finally, no rain last night.
Date: 2008-07-26
From: Fingureboard Shelter

To: Hudson RIver
Miles today: 12.0

Fort Montgomery, NY Holiday inn select12 miles A lot of up and down climbs today, again in hot and humid weather. As we approach the Hudson river, we are cutting across the grain of the land and no longer following the ridge line. Some limited views from ledges on ridge tops, of more ridges and trees. There was a place which we should have been able to see NYC, but it was off the trail. Crossing the Palisades parkway was dangerous with all the speeding cars. The last big climb was to the top of Bear Mt. Part of the trail followed the road to the top of the mountain and we had to careful of speeding cars. At the top of Bear Mt is a stone stone tower. I didn't bother to climb up it, but Ravon said NYC was somewhat visible from up there. Of greater interest was the working soda machines :-)The decent off Bear Mt was steep and ended in a sea of people picnicking. Quite a sight! We stopped for a quick bite at the concession stand, then walked through the zoo and to the Bear Mt bridge. The zoo had some caged forest animals in it, which was quite a sad sight to see, as we had seem many of these critters in their native habitat. At the Bear Mt bridge over the Hudson, we called a cab and went to the motel. I talked the girls into walking up the road to the food and drug store, which ended up being in the next town and a good 2 miles plus away. They were not happy. I was able to find an AC charger for the PDA at Rite-Aid, as the solar charger was no longer working after getting soaked the other day. Ravon and I had dinner at a BBQ place next to the motel. Later I took a dip in the motel pool, which was like a large Jacuzzi it was so warm. Felt good to soak the sore mussels. It was nearly midnight before all the chores were done and we finally got to turn out the lights to sleep.
Date: 2008-07-27
From: Hudson RIver

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: moderate rain

RPH Shelter 10.7 miles Slow start this morning, as none of us really wanted to move. No more rain overnight , but tent was wet due to being under tree. We stopped at RT 301 to dry off the boots and tent on the sunny road side. With all our boots, socks and other gear laid out along the side of the road in the sun, I'm sure people in the cars driving by didn't know what to make of us. The trail was reasonably easy, but we took our time as it was relatively short 11 mile day. Now that we are across the Hudson, the trail is getting much easier again. RPH is a cider block shelter, sort of like a small building with the front removed. It is located next to a road and has a hand pump for water, which was quite rusty until it got used some. I was able to clean it up with my filter, but now the filter looks all rusty on the outside. We had our hearts set on getting pizza delivered, but the place was closed on Monday, and of course, it was a Monday. We tried another place listed in the phone book, but they said we were to far away. The high price of gas and/or poor tips from hikers likely made it not worth their trouble to come out there. The shelter was only about 7 miles from town the best I could figure. Bummer, PB+J for dinner again.Tomorrow will hopefully be a big day for us, mileage wise.
Date: 2008-07-28
From: RPH Shelter

To: Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: clear sky

Telephone Pioneer shelter.16.6 miles We were up early and on the trail by 6:30 today. A pack of barking dogs blocked the path just up from the shelter and we had to scare them off. I though they were in a nearby house yard, but they apparently lived somewhere down the road as they headed out towards a farm when we got them to scat. Wish we had known that earlier, as they had been barking for some time, just up the path. Most of the day was a pleasant walk through the woods. A good climb first thing in the morning with road noise from the parallel highway for a good part of the morning. At the top of Stormville Mt we found a flock of plastic pink flamingos on the side of the trail, it was quite a sight! Not something one expects to see in the woods.At RT 52 I dropped my pack and went .4 miles down to a deli. The girls didn't want to go down, because today was a long day. I had a ham,cheese and egg on hard roll and coke and brought back another coke and Frettos for the girls. I also bought a roast beef sandwich, half of which I ate for lunch at the Morgan Stuart shelter and the other half here for dinner . The last leg of the day was highlighted by seeing a woman carrying her 42 pound kid in a pack on her back and soaking our feet in Nuclear lake. The weather was clear and warm, but with an occasional cooling breeze. An interesting character called Moses is here. A south bounder, he has a tool kit with him and made a dream catcher with found trail materials, as he took a zero here.
Date: 2008-07-29
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter

To: Ten Mile River Shelter
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Ten Mile River Shelter /campsite 13.2 milesAnother poor night's sleep. Inside the shelter as there were no good tent sites there at Telephone. Stereo snorers(Peregrine and Moses), bugs and warm temps conspired to keep me up most of the night. This Z-rest closed cell foam pad isn't too comfortable on a hard surface like a wood plank shelter floor either. Despite this, we were up early and quick walked down hill to the ¢AT whistle train stop¢ on RT 22. There, Ravon decides we should push onto Kent today. Only another 17 miles, making it a 21 mile day. The first few miles were across open farm fields, which got my Boots wet again from the dew. Then a gentle climb up to the ridge, then some minor ups and downs and finally a decent to Wiley shelter. Missed seeing "The gate of heaven", an old and empty cemetery, which was near the shelter. Apparently it is no longer obvious from the trail. It was about 10:45 when we got to Wiley, so pretty fast 9 miles. Ten mile river was only another 4 miles, with only one hill in the way. But the humidity was going up fast after noon. I decided I didn't want to push on yet another 8.5 miles today and elected to stay here. Being still fairly early, it gave me time to rinse out some cloths and take a sponge bath. Peregrine and Ravon pushed on, leaving me alone for the first time on this trip. Kind of nice for a change. Hiking with two women can be a challenge in its own right!The girls have more stuff to do in town tomorrow, so they want to get in as early as possible. Me, I just need a good lunch and some minor resupply for a day or two. It will be much easier for me to do the 8.5 miles to Kent tomorrow than it would have been this afternoon. Camped next to a large and loud river which is pretty full at the moment. First time we have had stream noise on this trip.Saw several more SOBOers today. There sure are quite a few of them out this year.
Date: 2008-07-30
From: Ten Mile River Shelter

To: Stewart Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Stewart Hollow shelter 15.7 milesSlept well for a change last night. Nice soft ground and soothing river noise from the Ten Mile river.It was still very muggy and very hazy in the morning. The climb up to Schaghticoke Mt was long and rocky, it seemed to never end. Even this early in the morning, sweated bullets going up the hill due to the humidity. After a very hard 8.5 miles, finally reached Kent, CT. First order of business was a cold coke and chips. Then was ready to do the rest of town chores. Some stove fuel and a Mountain house meal from the outfitter, a burger and fries at the restaurant and finally the supermarket. Found an open Wi-Fi network at the restaurant, but battery in the PDA is getting low and don't have time to do trailsjournal upload, so just cleaned out my email box. Meet up with the girls at the restaurant. Found out Peregrine camped out at Schaghticoke Mt campsite, a few miles from Kent and Ravon actually made it all the way to Mt Algo shelter. That would have killed me! The girls then went off to the trail. I puttered around some more then took the River road shortcut to the shelter. This avoided going over a bunch of PUD's and was quite a bit easier, as it followed the river all the way to the shelter. I got here a good hour before the Peregrine and Ravon, who left a good hour before I did! (I had did that section of trail before, so knew it was to be avoided.) One strange sight on the road to here, saw a Golden Retriever trotting up the road with a minivan following slowly behind. When the van pulled up, it stopped and I said to the two woman inside "That is the laziest way to walk a dog I've ever seen!¢ Apparently, they had walked the dog for 2 miles, but dog wasn't ready to stop yet, so they just let it run up the road ahead of them. We're going to risk tenting out tonight, the mosquitoes are thick here!
Date: 2008-07-31
From: Stewart Hollow Shelter

To: Falls River, CT
Miles today: 15.3

The Horse Tail B+B Falls Village , CT15.3 milesToday started as a quick walk along the Housatonic River for a few miles. Then the roller coaster started, with a lot of ups and downs. Not too hard hiking, through basic woods. As we approached RT7 again, noise from the Lime race track annoyed us for miles. It is amazing how far the sound of those race cars can carry. We had planned on staying at the Belter campsite, but it wasn't much farther to the road. Both the girls and I were up for getting a room and a shower, as it had been 5 days since our last one and we were getting pretty sticky from all the sweaty hiking this week. The best place to stay, the Mountain view restaurant and cabins, with a flat $75 cabin rate and near the trail was booked, this being Friday night. They told us about a B+B up the road with a $75 a person rate, but this included dinner, breakfast, shower, laundry and ride from and back to trail, so we went for it.The place was nice, with three dogs, six cats and two horses. The lady who ran the place was away, so a guy who has long term rental room and helps out around the place was there. For dinner, we had to order out but got some of the cost refunded. The girls got a little carried away and ordered $54 worth of food, much of which they didn't eat! For breakfast, we had to cook our own. I made pancakes. The guy from the B+B did run our gear up to Salisbury so we could slack pack and dropped us off a few mile up from were we got off the trail to avoid some road walking.