morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-07-21
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Prospect Rock, NY
Miles today: 10.0

This morning we met Stewball and Otter at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and then made a quick run to the grocery store to resupply for the next 3 days. Stewball spent most the morning trying to find a barber shop that was open on Mondays- he finally did find one. We walked with Otter back to the hostel and speedily packed up our bags to meet Jersey Dan for a ride back to the trailhead. The hostel was very nice and hard to leave. Stewball decided to "0" for the day and Otter was on the fence as to whether he should take a day off too. We already knew that our "0" day would be in Fort Mongomery- just 3 days from now. We said goodbye to Stewball and Otter and planned to meet up with them at Bear Mtn/Fort Mongomery in the next few days. Jersey Dan picked us up at 10:30am and we were hiking by 11.Goodbye NJ... Hello New York!! We crossed into NY today. In fact, we are camped just inside the NY border at a magnificent vista overlooking the mountains and Greenwood Lake.Today was a relaxed day for us. Our only goal for the day was to make it to NY and take it slow. It was nice to walk and talk with Berry alone today...we need those times. The past week and a half have really been fun. We've stayed at 3 hostels and had a blast with the other hikers. Everyone knows everyone and it's becoming more like family as we head north. I hope that the hospitality of towns, churches and individuals continues as we head to Maine. The hostels have been free or donation (usually $5-$15). This is good because everything up north is so expensive. We've really appreciated that!As we were sitting on the rocks this evening enjoying the view and reading, Blackbird showed up.... we haven't seen him since before Front Royal, VA. He's camped with us now and we have planned to watch the sunrise in the morning. We've been catching up with him for the last couple of hours.Blackbird's family just came to visit him and brought him some "special" Maine hot dogs. They are bright red. We tried one and enjoyed it very much. I am exhausted this evening and looking forward to a good nights rest. Today I've been drained. A big THANK YOU to my lovely wife because she's been doing everything today- all the cooking, cleaning, etc so I could get some rest.
Date: 2009-07-24
From: Bear Mountain, NY

To: Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 2.3

It is good to be in Fort Montgomery, NY! We are currently sitting at only 7.5 miles south of the 1,400 mile marker- unbelievable. We woke up early this morning with the smell of town motivating a quick hike down Bear Mountain. As we were heading north we ran into Moe and Lucky Joe who had also decided to camp off the trail before coming into town this morning. Turns out, last night a giant tree collapsed just inches from their tent-truly scary. Since they had a near death experience, we all felt that a group celebratory breakfast was in order. I have personally been looking forward to walking through Bear Mountain Zoo since before we ever entered NY and today was the day it was supposed to happen. The white blazes literally go right down the sidewalk of the zoo. To my immediate disappointment the zoo was not set to open until 10:30am and we were there at the gates by 7:45am- oops! Not to worry though, it seems as though a few other hikers from seasons past have had the same problem and found a way through the chain link fence, so we followed suit and ended up having a private viewing of a few exhibits. It really made my day! Off we went, making it out of the zoo only startling one zookeeper. Bark and I made it into the post office in Fort Montgomery, picked up our bounce box and then headed to breakfast with Moe and Lucky Joe. Bagels and doughnuts all around! We enjoyed their company for a couple hours then said goodbye as we hobbled down to our hotel for the night. Luckily we were able to check in early and start the clean up process! Showers, laundry and resupply all completed by 3:30pm- time to rest. We are enjoying a nice dry night in the hotel and watching it rain outside thinking about the other hikers who we know are out on the trail. Tomorrow will be the first day in almost 500 miles that we will not be walking or hiking somewhere for any distance. We will hopefully get a chance to catch up on calls and emails to friends and family and of course, get in a good long nap!
Date: 2009-07-25
From: Fort Montgomery, NY

To: Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 0.0

Today will be a solid rest day for Berry and I! We've got all our little chores out of the way and don't plan to leave the hotel. It will most likely be a day for reading, napping, phone calls, tv and enjoying the company of eachother! Back on trail tomorrow- we love our job!!!!We forgot to mention yesterday that if you are planning a thru-hike in the years to come make sure you do a food drop in Fort Mongomery. The only grocery store is 3.5 miles from the trail- it's very small and expensive. There is no hitching in NY and the road is dangerous. Thankfully, we made a friend and got a ride.Enjoy this picture of me and Walt Wittman. I found him in the Bear Mountain zoo yesterday.
Date: 2009-07-26
From: Fort Montgomery, NY

To: Canopus Hill Campsite
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: light rain

After a couple days of great rest, Bark and I were on the trail by noon. It was a beautiful morning in Ft. Montgomery and quite breezy as we crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River. The temps have stayed in the mid eighties with pretty stifling humidity on some days. The weather channel is predicting storms (some said to be severe) over the next few days, but we have our fingers crossed that either it will not rain or there will at least be room in the shelters. It does not make it easy to leave town with bad weather predictions. Bark and I started the trail with a pretty steep uphill climb, but eventually leveled off to some rolling hills. We could definitely tell that it was the weekend as we ran into several day hikers from the area. About 6 miles into our hike we walked right by a convenience store where we decided to fill up our water bottles and sit down in the a/c for a little while. As we were leaving we met two thru hikers for the first time- Spoon & Croc Star. Bark and I had planned to only hike about 10 miles today as the "out of town crawl" had creeped in and the miles just were not passing too quickly. Tonight we are camped alone close to a vista. After our 100th meal of Ramen noodles we shared an apple we brought from town- quite a treat! We are now tucked away in our tent safe from all biting insects and don't plan on leaving until the sun is up tomorrow. I should add that during the process of taking a good fall today I somehow managed to bend one of my trekking poles at a very nice angle- oops! We are hoping Leki can help us out and replace it quickly, we love our poles!
Date: 2009-07-27
From: Canopus Hill Campsite

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: clear sky

The rain started last night. It caught us by surprise, no sprinkles or sign of rain...just a sudden shower out of nowhere. It was off and on through the night. I had a hard time sleeping because of the mosquito's too. They weren't biting or anything, but they were buzzing very loudly all around our tent trying to get to us- hard for a light sleeper. Finally I remembered that Stewball had given us some earplugs a few days ago, so I put those in around 2am and slept soundly the rest of the morning.We moved out slowly this morning, hanging around in our tent until the rain cleared. It was a very muggy day...gray and heavy most of the morning with spurts of pelting rainfall. On the gray and rainy days it's getting harder to stay motivated with a positive attitude. We just put one foot in front of the other, lift our heads and keep moving. We were by ourselves for half the day. Around 2pm the sun came up for a short while and we sat out on some exposed rock on top of Shenandoah Mtn. We heard the click of trekking poles and watched Bones hike toward us. He stopped and took a break with us and we visited for a while. He was recently diagnosed with Lymes disease. Bones is one of several hikers we know that are on antibiotics for Lymes... pretty serious stuff. Around 4pm we made it to RPH Shelter. It's a nice shelter built like a shed. It also has a water pump right beside it. We rested there and debated whether or not we should go further for the day. Bones rolled in a half hour later. The caretakers of the shelter stopped by and gave us the weather report- heavy storms all night with chance of flash floods. That sealed the deal for us! We were staying put. Within the hour Otter and Stewball showed up. Some new hikers arrived that we've never met before: C-Bazz, Superglue, Bison, Swifty and Navigator. It was a full house at the shelter and a lot of fun. Everybody was full of energy and happy to be out of the rain. Superglue played the mandolin very well. Otter plugged in some tunes on his ipod and we all sang along. My favorite part of the night was laughing hard at everyone's picture as we all passed around our drivers license.We were glad we stopped, not only because of the rain, but also beacause it was good to see everyone. Tomorrow is a smaller chance for rain in the area so we're hoping for a dry hike.
Date: 2009-07-29
From: Campsite near stream

To: Schaghticoke Mtn Campsite, CT
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up this morning and did not want to step out of our tent. Everything was a soggy mess. A bazillion mosquito's were swarming between our tent mesh and rain fly. You know it's gonna be a bad day when mosquito's wake you up - our new alarm clock.Eventually we did put on our wet socks and shoes, scramble out of the tent and got moving around 8:40am. The morning started out pretty rough. Very dense fog and over-saturated ground made for difficult walking. At several points I almost lost my shoes because the mud was so sticky and deep. The sun chased the fog away by 10 but we were still in the thick of it. At low lying areas of standing water and muck we could both hear what sounded like a distant lawn mower...it was actually all the mosquito's buzzing over the mud and water. We moved fast and tried to out run them but it never worked. I had on long sleeves and a bandana over my head and neck, Berry bundled up with her rain jacket.Boy, sure glad the day didn't end there! By lunch time we had made it to a shelter, rung out our socks, set up our tent and laid everything out to dry. We took a nice break there and did some reading while things dried out. By 1:00pm we were back on trail with dry gear and smiling faces. Within the hour we set foot in CT, officially making it to New England! Thank you, Lord! We are so glad to be done with mucky, humid, mosquito infested, New York.At first CT didn't impress us, but after the first climb we descended into a beautiful forrest skirting the path of the Ten Mile River. The river was roaring! We watched a few kayaker's brave the whitewater. One guy did a roll and that was neat to see. The trail along this stretch is some of the best we've seen yet- wonderful! It takes you high above the river and along ridges and the water channels below. The roar of the water was fun to hear and a nice change.Our biggest climb of the day came at the very end.. Schaghicoke Mtn. While it was only a smidge over 1000ft, it was no cake walk for Berry and me. After a good break on the summit we moved on another slow and painful 2.2 miles to where we are camped now. We have a nice cascading stream about 20ft from our tent. While fixing dinner, Old Hobo and Bison joined us and the 4 of us are settled in nicely. Oh wait, Otter just showed up! We knew he'd catch up. We are excited for tomorrow. As promised- our old AT friends, Lady B and Italian, are coming to visit us!
Date: 2009-08-01
From: Campsite near Skiff Mtn Road, CT

To: Pine Branch Swamp Shelter
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: scattered clouds

One more day of rain- we didn't think it was possible, but anything becomes possible on the AT.Bark and I woke up to an unusually dry morning and decided we had better pack it up and get going before the rain started. We were on the trail by 7:00am and on our way. By 8:30 the rain had started and we had picked up the pace. It was a very hard morning in the sense of facing another day of rain. We found out from a NY section hiker that we walked through their second wettest summer in history. We are pretty sure that CT is working on a record setting summer as well.We were very thankful to make it up and down a big rocky section before the rain started. With the rain coming down we made it to the next shelter where we found Otter and Bones also waiting out the rain. We ended up staying there and snacking for a couple of hours while the rain poured. It was so nice to be sitting in a dry shelter and watching it rain instead of being out in it. Around 11am the rain let up and we all headed out ready to face the gray skies above. The trail was pretty nice for a few miles as we walked along the swollen Housitanic River. At one point Bark almost lost his footing and came close to going for a swim.As we hiked along soon Otter was right there with us and the three of us continued hiking through the next few hours of continuous rainfall. There are always two good things about the rainy days: you don't sweat as much and the bugs hide for a little while.We had all been hiking for a while and soon saw a sign for the shelter. It was way past time for a snack so we headed off down the blue blazed to seek shelter and food. As soon as we got there we saw a familiar green backpack and its owner- Stewball was taking a break too. The 4 of us spent some time drying out and talking about the day. It was not much later that we had come to the conclusion that we would not be leaving again, especially since the rain was back. We came up with some great games to pass the time and before we knew it we saw Bones, Goose and Chewy walking up. They sat close by and we all had a good laugh during game time. They all hiked out leaving the 4 of us to our dinners and hunting down the obscure water source infested with mosquitos.By the time we had returned from the water source Coolio was setting up his tent and Dillon, a section hiker, was hanging up his pack in the shelter. Stewball, Otter, Bark and myself are now hunkered down in the shelter fighting off mosquitos and making up a song about a hiker's favorite things.Keeping the laughs coming are good for rainy days. It is not easy to slosh in your shoes all day, peel off wet clothes and keep a positive attitude, at least not day after day. Tomorrow is a new day with expected sunshine and our plan is to make it 16 miles into Salisbury to resupply. With a new song in our heads and 4 fun personalities to create conversation we should be good to go.
Date: 2009-08-05
From: Great Barrington

To: Wilcox South Lean-to
Miles today: 11.7

The town bug did not bite too hard this morning. The 4 of us woke up around 8:30am and hobbled downstairs to breakfast. Check out was at 11:00am so after eating we headed back to the room to get organized and head out to the trail. We all felt the itch to make some good miles today, even though that is never too promising if you are starting from town. Well 11:00am rolled around and we were leaving the hotel room only to get distracted by the thought of eating another good town meal. While walking down to the local diner we saw Coolio headed our way. It wasn't too difficult to convince him he needed lunch too. After lunch Stewball was on the hunt for a milkshake but Bark and I still needed to hit the grocery store. We walked about a mile and got our supplies we needed for the next few days, enough to get us to Dalton.Aft er our resupply it wasn't long before we got a hitch from a very friendly local named John back to the trail head. He told us about his summers in Maine where he used to rake bluberries with broke thru hikers on their way to Katahdin. Otter was not far behind and soon we saw him walking up to the trail head too. We all tackled the long climb together and we were smoked by the time we reached the top. Long climbs in the South are very different from these climbs up North- more rocks and much steeper. Even though we didn't hit the trail until almost 2 o'clock, we were determine to get some double digit miles in today.By 7:00pm we were just a short climb from the entrance to the shelter. The three of us stopped for water in a steep, bouldery draw with a creek cascading down the rocks. Goose and Chewy were there and had gotten turned around. It was getting to the end of dusk and the trail was hard to see. We loaded up on water, flicked our headlamps on and started climbing to the shelter. Tomorrow we are focussed on getting up and out early enough to get in a full day of hiking. We are just shy of 16 miles south of Upper Goose Pond Cabin where the caretaker has been known to make pancakes for breakfast. That is, of course, our goal for tomorrow!As for tonight we are in the shelter, but we have pitched our tents to avoid the mosquitos. Otter, Bark and I were the only hikers here until we heard a very distinct "honk" come from the direction of the trail. Stewball always makes noises to identify himself to other hikers ahead or behind him. We knew right away it was Stewball, and with him was Coolio and a big bag of McDonald's cheeseburgers for everyone. After a late night snack everyone followed our lead and set up their tent inside the two story shelter. The bugs are still out.It has been a great day with a lot of fun people, but it is definitely time for sleep!
Date: 2009-08-06
From: Wilcox South Lean-to

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: scattered clouds

I can't believe we got up this morning at 4:30am!!! It was a crazy night/morning. A hiker had come into the shelter pretty late and put their food on the shelter floor, along with some open food containers and trash. The mice were having a buffet all night and making a lot of noise. We were wired and couldn't get to sleep. I got up around 4:00am and moved the food outside. Stewball was wide awake and I made the joke that we should just start hiking.... A few seconds later Stewball said, "I'd be up for that." And so began our day!Yesterday while at the outfitter Stewball was looking for Nuun electrolite tablets. The owner of the store said we could have what was left because they were 1 month past the expiration date. That was a great offer considering that Nuun is pretty expensive! Berry and I took two tubes and Stewball grabbed 5 tubes. We all grabbed at least 1 cola flavor. As it turns out, cola flavor has caffeine in it. Stewball, Berry and I don't drink caffeine. Last night Berry and I had the cola mix right before bedtime... and Stewball had 3 liters of cola! Today we put the pieces together and read the cola label to discover the caffeine.... no wonder we were wired all night and couldn't sleep. We were on trail by 5:30 and our energy soon began to dissapear. The hike became difficult...as we struggled with the difficulty and weariness we began to laugh constantly at eachother- no doubt we were feeling a bit loopy. In any case, the day held much laughter for the three of us. At one point Stewball laid in the grass beside a road crossing and we almost couldn't get him up.We took MANY breaks today and moved so, so slow. It seemed forever, like slow motion VHS. Finally we made it to Upper Goose Pond Shelter, what we've been waiting for and working toward all day. The shelter is a closed-in cabin with a caretaker. It sits right above a beautiful lake. After claiming our spots in the bunkhouse upstairs, we canoed in the lake out to an island, basked in the sunlight and cool breeze, and swam our hearts content! We were in the lake for 2 hours. Afterward we cooked dinner and headed straight to our bunks for some good rest.Otter and several other hikers are here and many southbounders that we have enjoyed meeting. We heard last night that our old friend Flatlander is off trail. Sorry to hear about it. It is time for bed my friends- some much needed rest awaits us.
Date: 2009-08-07
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Dalton, MA
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: few clouds

It was a hiker's perfect morning. Bark and I woke up in comfy bunk-beds with the sun shining brightly over Upper Goose Pond, and the best part, the smell of pancakes and coffee coming from downstairs!One of the other hiker's watch alarms went off pretty early and from then on I was awake. Bark woke up soon after and as soon as we heard that "pancakes are served" we hurried down to the table. Breakfast was great and the perfect meal for the day to come. We took a look at the elevation profile for the day and toyed with the idea of pushing the 20 miles into Dalton, MA. The terrain has not been extremely conducive to big miles so at first we were a little skeptical.Around 8:00am Bark, Otter and I headed out of the cabin and back to the trail. The weather was beautiful- cool, clear, breezy and bugless. The miles came easier than usual today with slightly flatter trails throughout the morning. We stopped for lunch at October Mt. Shelter and then continued on. Thanks to good conversation and beautiful landscape we made it all the way to Dalton by 6:30pm. After setting up our tent we headed right down the street to grab dinner with Otter and Mass Gardener. While there we saw Goose, Chewy, Grits, One Step and many other hikers. We are camped in the yard of Tom Levardi, a local hiker who understands the plight of a thru hiker. We are surrounded by about 10 other tents with more hikers inside as well as another full hostel on the otherside of town. With Northbounders and Southbounders meeting in these towns it makes for cramped quarters. Tom offers a shower, laundry, dinner and did we mention slackpack opportunities? Tomorrow Tom will be driving us 23 miles north of Dalton to North Adams/ Williamstown so we can hike south back to Dalton with very minimal gear (aka lightweight slackpack). It will be a big day going over Mt. Greylock, but we are glad to be getting it done with a little less weight on our backs. We will return to Tom's tomorrow night then head back to Williamstown on Saturday to continue heading North. We have the Vermont itch and are ready to scratch it!