morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-05-15
From: Peters Mountain Shelter PA 

To: Rausch Gap Shelter PA
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: light rain

Day 88 ¢ Thursday May 15 ¢ Rausch Gap Shelter PA ¢ Miles Today: 17.5 Total Miles: 1164.2A delightful day on the trail. We woke to the sounds of rain at 5:00 a.m. I think it rained off and on during the night. At 6:00 when the alarm went off, it had tapered to a sprinkle and by 6:30 when we crawled out of the tent, it had stopped. We did not have to use our rain gear at all today, which was a very sweet deal. We had a couple ominous clouds in the afternoon but they never opened up on us, so we were happy about that. It was a bit humid and hot but probably just in the 70s. Army Reserve fighter planes entertained us today. The first batch were Wart Hog A-10s and the second batch were F-16s and boy were they loud. The F-16s circled above us - there were 2 of them - about every minute or so   The Wart Hogs circled above us about every 2-3 minutes. They were quite loud; talking back and forth was not possible. Luckily, each show lasted only about a half an hour. The rocks are definitely getting worse, though they did not hamper our pace much. We finished our 17.4 miles in 9 hours including breaks for breakfast, lunch and our normal afternoon break. So not too bad. We arrived at the shelter junction trail at 4:00 and decided to set up camp along the stream just off the trail, rather than hike the .3 miles to the shelter. It's 7:00 p.m. and we've had cowboy TV going for about 3 hours ¢ Chris would be so proud to hear that we started our own bonfire tonight, as that is normally his activity! We're waiting for Chris to show up. We're slightly past the junction for the shelter but we don't think he snuck into the shelter without us seeing him, though it is possible. We know for sure that he did not pass us before our 4:00 arrival to our campsite, which is odd, as he normally passes us about lunchtime. We have no intentions of walking a roundtrip of .6 miles to the shelter to see if he is there. Sorry Chris, the feet come before you!We were hoping to see Chris tonight to learn more about the section hiker at camp last night with a potential stress fracture in his leg. We¢re wondering if the injured hiker needed assistance getting off the trail. If he headed north, the nearest road was 6 miles. If he headed south, the nearest road was 3 miles. He was hiking with a few buddies, so they easily could have redistributed all his gear and helped him off the trial.It's about time to put the cowboy TV out and call it a night. We ran into trail maintenance volunteers today who shared with us the forecast - showers are to arrive tonight and last into tomorrow, perhaps clearing by the afternoon or evening. We're really hoping that they do clear by afternoon as we need a hitch into town for 4 more days of food and I don't know how many people are going to pick up hitchhikers who are wet and muddy. So let's hope it is another beautiful day like today and if it needs to rain, that it rains tonight. Goodnight from middle Pennsylvania where we anxiously await Chris' arrival with news of the injured hiker.
Date: 2008-05-19
From: Windsor Furnace Shelter PA

To: Unnamed Campsite PA
Miles today: 21.6

Day 92 ¢ Monday May 19 ¢ Unnamed Campsite PA ¢ Miles Today: 21.6 Total Miles: 1233We actually woke up to a chilly but dry morning. It was 42 degrees. We didn't have any rain last night! During the dry night, light breezes pretty much dried our tent! Due to the coolness, we headed off with our #1 tops, hats and gloves, things we have not worn in quite a while!We had a bit more of the Pennsylvania rocks today for about 2-3 hours. We were expecting them, so it wasn't too bad. We reflected back to southwestern Virginia where we had unexpected rocks for 2-3 hours and did not have much fun at all. I guess it¢s easier to be mentally prepared for them. Apparently tomorrow we will hit more rocks, as well as when we head out of Palmerton, where apparently we'll have a good 1/2 mile climb up through a mountain of exposed rock. What we're really hoping for is dry weather in these rocks. We had some wet slippery rocks today and both of us nearly fell. We can tell the importance of taking our time in the wet conditions and hiking longer days when it's dry and shorter days when it's wet will be the key to our safety. We had sprinkles on and off today.   Although it never rained, it seemed like we spent a lot of time adding and removing rain gear throughout the day. Most of the day we hiked in our T-shirts, shorts and rain jacket, as it was a bit chilly.We had lots of good trail today, including lots of old roadbeds. When we got to our designated campsite for the night, The Allentown Hiking Club Shelter at 16.5 miles, we decided to continue on, as it was still early. We had tossed around that idea of just winging our destination throughout the day. We set up camp about 6:20, just off the trail around mile marker 1233, with a beautiful view of the Pennsylvania valley below us. It was a long day, about 21 miles, and we're pretty tired. We filled up our 3 water bottles at the previous shelter in case we didn't find water tonight. Not having to filter water made the camp chores quicker. The food bag is hung and now we can relax and enjoy the valley view. A day hiker told us it is to be about 40 degrees tonight! We're going to put on more sleeping clothes and use our mummy bag liners for extra warmth, as these older, lighter weight sleeping bags are definitely not as fluffy and warm as our new ones. It's 8:15 and in the 50s. We're tired and going to call it a night. Plans are to get up early tomorrow and get into Palmerton, which should be exciting. The hostel where we are staying is an old jailhouse! We're really hoping that we get to sleep in a jail cell but I'm sure it has been renovated and the cells no longer exist. Apparently the library, grocery store and the hostel, which is now the Borough Hall, are all real close together making running errands much easier. We have a 12-mile hike, then a hitch into town, which will give us a few hours for chores before everything closes. Goodnight from just short of Palmerton, PA.
Date: 2008-05-30
From: Graymoor Spiritual Life Center NY

To: RPH Shelter NY
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

Day 103 ¢ Friday May 30 ¢ RPH Shelter NY ¢ Miles Today: 18.8 Total Miles: 1415.7It was a pretty uneventful day with clear skies. The morning was in the low 50s with the afternoon in the upper 70s. It felt hotter than yesterday. We stopped at a couple streams during the day to wet our shirts and our hair to help cool our bodies. We also really tried to concentrate today on drinking a ton of water as we had 18.8 miles to hike. Yesterday, we felt drained with just 15 miles, but today went really well. The terrain was softer on our feet, we kept our water and food intake up, and we're feeling good. We walked across an old railroad bed today that was pretty neat. A stone wall was supporting the railroad bed and the edges of the bed were lined with ferns making it look quite pretty. The bed was small, so obviously it was used for smaller gauge trains. Our guess is that the timber companies used it. We tried to get a picture of the built up area and railroad bed, but not sure if it will come out. It was pretty cool. The RPH Shelter is a nice cinder block structure with nearly 4 full walls. The one side is partially opened to a covered porch with picnic tables. Inside are some carpet remnants, 6 bunks, a little desk and some books to read. Outside is a nice grassy area with a few mature trees to camp under. We had been contemplating taking a zero here as it's a very sweet place, but we're moving on cause we're feeling strong. While at the shelter, we enjoyed talking with Nevada, a tall lean middle-aged man full of energy. He¢s a section hiker from where else, but Nevada. He started in Harpers Ferry and has been putting in some big mile days already, but fears he has a stress fracture in his foot. He¢s contemplating seeing a doctor in Kent. We hope he gets better news than a stress fracture!Grasshopper switched to lighter weight socks today to see if her left small toe would feel less squished. Either switching the socks or perhaps not having so many rocks on the trail made her toe feel better today. It's about 7:50 and in the 60s. Brakeman has reviewed the schedule from here to Kent and then to Great Barrington for food purchase and drop planning. We've had a few sprinkles this evening while in our tent and they're calling for a chance of rain tomorrow. Hopefully we are in the weather pattern of 6 days of sun to one day of rain, rather than visa versa! Goodnight from the RPH Shelter. Still in New York.
Date: 2008-06-04
From: Limestone Spring Lean-to CT

To: Limestone Spring Lean-to CT
Miles today: 0.0

Day 108 ¢ Wednesday June 4 ¢ Limestone Spring Lean-to CT ¢ Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1483.0Guess what?   We're at the same place today! Why? Well, because we've been thinking about taking a zero day or doing a couple low miles days for quite a while and this morning we woke to rain and tired bodies and decided it was time for a day off! So although this shelter area was not what we deemed as the optimal zero day location due to the mosquitoes, we took the day off anyway. We spent the day in the tent - literally. We had breakfast in the tent, napped, had a snack in the tent, napped, had lunch in the tent, napped and had dinner of granola bars and snickers in the tent. OK, we did a few productive things today. We washed our underwear and bandanas, though it never got hot enough for them to dry. We also laid out the schedule for the next couple weeks, slowing things down a bit to increase the odds of our muscles, minds and bodies getting us the remaining 700 miles to Maine. We also touched base with both sets of parents and Harry to let them know about our day delay in the woods. It rained last night and we had early morning drizzles. The remainder of the day was gray with the sun never coming out to dry things out.   It's 5:00, we've been on our feet for less than 30 minutes today and soon we're going to go to bed. Life is good! Goodnight from the same location as yesterday.
Date: 2008-06-13
From: Seth Warner Shelter VT

To: Melville Nauheim Shelter VT
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

Day 117 ¢ Friday June 13 ¢ Melville Nauheim Shelter VT ¢ Miles Today: 13.1 Total Miles: 1599.9Last night we had a bit of excitement. There was an old woods road nearby and obviously it¢s the local kid¢s party area. They were shooting off fireworks, including M80s! Then they decided to play around with the cars on the woods road and apparently got one stuck as we could hear tires spinning. Then shortly after that we heard the noise of a chain saw. So a little excitement for us but they were far enough away that we weren't too concerned.It's Friday the 13th and we had a great day!We had cool 55-degree temperatures in the morning again, with the afternoon temps hitting 78. This was the second day in a row we've not worn DEET! Again, that is not to say there were no mosquitoes ¢ it¢s just saying that we were able to swat at them and keep them pretty much at bay.   Though when we get to camp each night we hide in the tent rather than sitting outside. Today's hike was pretty uneventful. It was just 13 miles because we had the choice of doing13 miles or over 20 miles. We opted for the 13 miles. And tomorrow is going to be the same thing, as the choices are 12 miles or over 20 miles. But we had clear skies, a light breeze and just a delightful day. Nothing noteworthy. We have started a list of things we are going to ship home from Hanover and another list of things we're going to send home after the Whites. We're thinking of sending home our pot, stove and fuel to cut a couple pounds off Brakeman's weight. So tonight we had cold mashed potatoes to see how we liked them. They were actually quite delightful. On these hotter evenings, the coolness of the mashed potatoes is nice. I think our stove-less routine is ¢a Go¢. Tomorrow night we're going to try cold stuffing. We eat our oatmeal cold, so why not our mashed potatoes and our stuffing?We spent several hours again tonight looking at the schedule trying to lay out from Hanover to Maine and it looks like the first crack of our agenda that we did sitting on the nice comfortable couch is actually going to work this time. At least we're going to attempt it. However, once we get into Maine, we need to rework that schedule as there are way too many 20 mile days planned and that just ain't going to happen for both of us. It's 7:15 and just over 70 degrees in the tent. The chores are done so I guess it's time to chill and get ready for a nice relaxing day again tomorrow. Goodnight from just shy of that big 1600-mile marker!
Date: 2008-06-18
From: Manchester Center VT ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Carriage House Motel

To: Manchester Center VTÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Carriage House Motel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 122 ¢ Wednesday June 18 ¢ Manchester Center VT¢ Carriage House Motel ¢ Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4Still at the sick ward in Manchester Center Vermont. Today we went back to the doctor with Granny behind the wheel. Dang, Brakeman, why did you not offer to drive??!!   Good news and bad news. Good news: No fever last night. Temperature normal.   Pulse normal.   Weight - up 3 pounds in just 2 days and while sick!   Obviously Grasshopper does not have an illness where one of the symptoms is "loss of appetite". Of course, the weight gain could also be partly due to Brakeman¢s excellent shopping!!Bad news: More blood tests are being done to rule out other illnesses including other tick borne illness. These results will not be back until Tuesday of next week. When Grasshopper hinted to the doctor that she¢d be headed back to the trail soon, the doctor looked her square in the eye and forcefully said, ¢YOU will NOT go traipsing around the country in this condition.¢   OK, now we now. Later we realize he was really concerned about the possibility of hepatitis and ordered a hepatitis screen after we had left the office.   He left a message with us at the hotel at 9 p.m. this evening. We found out via a post-em note attached to our door the next morning. Grasshopper¢s blood numbers related to the liver are worse.                                      June 16        June 18Temperature                             102.2           97.5Pulse                                      100           73Weight                                      105        108.4Blood Pressure                             114/68        101/64Lyme Disease        Negative        White Blood Count(Normal = 4.3 ¢ 10.8)        2.12        4.8Platelet Count(Normal = 150 ¢ 350)        94        120Liver ¢ AST (SGOT)(Normal = 15-46)        53        86Liver - ALT (SGPT)(Normal = 11-66)        42        90Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper arrived safely just before dinner. We spent some time visiting with Jackie, AKA Granny, who was doing landscaping work. She is really quite the character. She told us about how she used to shoot her gun in the field across the street, before the current business was built. She really must have been the model for Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies!We headed out to the pizza place by the grocery store for dinner. It was very good and filling!
Date: 2008-06-19
From: Manchester Center VTÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Carriage House Motel

To: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 123 ¢ Thursday June 19 ¢ R&R Ward ¢ Conneaut Lake PA - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4We drove back to the homestead in PA (8 hours) with Grasshopper's parents who came to rescue us.   Dang man, this is our second "rescue" on this hike. The first one was in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in NC/TN when both of us were sick and the park rangers drove us off the mountain in the snowstorm.So for now, we will continue to relax and recover and await the test results to see when we are released for the woods again. I'm sure Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper are hoping sooner rather than later! We have just 6 weeks of hiking left and the best scenery is yet to come, so we must march on - soon!   1638 miles done and 537 to go! Grasshopper is feeling better - not ready to run any marathons or climb the White Mountains - but sleeping a bit more normal amount of hours each day.
Date: 2008-06-24
From: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA

To: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 128 ¢ Tuesday June 24 ¢ R&R Ward ¢ Conneaut Lake PA - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4Bad news. There was not enough blood drawn while in Vermont for the Hepatitis Screen to be performed. Drats. We spent 6 days waiting for test results just to learn that we are back to square one!The Vermont doctor will fax an order to our local (Meadville PA) hospital. Grasshopper will go there tomorrow to have blood drawn.
Date: 2008-06-25
From: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA

To: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 129 ¢ Wednesday June 25 ¢ R&R Ward ¢ Conneaut Lake PA - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4Grasshopper had her blood taken at the Meadville hospital. The only challenge seemed to be confusion over the need to fast. She did not fast for the Vermont tests but was directed to for these tests. Weird, but whatever. Results should be back Friday or Monday.
Date: 2008-06-28
From: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA

To: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 132 ¢ Saturday June 28 ¢ R&R Ward ¢ Conneaut Lake PA - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4More bad news. The Landlords, Harry & Marian, informed us that our rental storage unit personnel called and said that the water main in front of the building had broken and our storage unit was flooded.   Oh great.   Not that we have much in there.   It's just 99.9% of what we own, since we are currently homeless. To make matters worse, since the whole place was flooded, our stuff could not be immediately moved to a dry unit. Harry & Marian did a super job for us Saturday night working until midnight, mopping up as much water as they could, so at least further damage would not be done. It appears that 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water was in various spots of our unit. Oh joy.
Date: 2008-06-29
From: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA

To: Sherrills Ford NC
Miles today: 0.0

Day 133 ¢ Sunday June 29 ¢ Sherrills Ford NC - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper drove us to the Pittsburgh airport this morning where we rented a car and drove home to North Carolina. Tomorrow we will head to the storage unit to see how bad the news is.
Date: 2008-07-02
From: Sherrills Ford NC

To: Sherrills Ford NC
Miles today: 0.0

Day 136 Wednesday July 2 ¢ Sherrills Ford NC - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4We spent a little more time this morning at the storage unit, putting everything back in place and ensuring that we have identified all the damaged items. We have filled out the insurance form stating our damaged items and have submitted it to the claims department. All in all, we probably moved 75 boxes, repacked about a dozen or two boxes replacing the water logged boxes with new ones.   Now we wait the news from the insurance pricing department who will assess the value to our damaged goods and of course, then we await the arrival of the check. Grasshopper visited her North Carolina doctor today. Her records from Vermont, including the Meadville PA results, were faxed to North Carolina. Since she was with her family doctor, she basically started from scratch again. The doctor reviewed everything that was done so far and was complimentary of the Vermont doctor¢s work. She said that the game plan from here would be to do the Liver Profile as well as Complete Blood Count, retest for Lyme Disease since there are known to be false negatives, and also perform tests for other viruses such as Parvovirus and Cytomegalovirus. Grasshopper¢s eyes got huge as the doctor continued to rattle off tests to be performed. She explained that she has a really high insurance deductible, and asked if we could not do a staged approach to the tests. For example, if the Lyme Disease comes back positive, could we cancel out the need for the Parvovirus and Cytomegalovirus tests. The doctor agreed. Enough blood would be drawn for all tests, but the Parvovirus and Cytomegalovirus tests would only be performed if the Lyme test came back negative. Would you believe Grasshopper has gained another 3 pounds! Six pounds total since coming off the trail!
Date: 2008-07-03
From: Sherrills Ford NC

To: Sherrills Ford NC
Miles today: 0.0

Day 137 Thursday July 3 ¢ Sherrills Ford NC - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4Wow! Finally a day with good news!! Grasshopper has been released back to the trail! Her blood numbers have returned to normal or ¢nearly normal¢. Her Lyme Disease test results will not be in for a few more days, but the doctor said she would call us on the cell phone on the trail with the results!   WOW WOW WOW!   Things are back to normal, despite the fact that she never took any antibiotics.Tomorrow we¢ll drive to Pennsylvania with our own car. Saturday, we¢ll drive to Vermont with Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper and Sunday we will hit the trail again. We are two excited hikers!
Date: 2008-07-04
From: Sherrills Ford NC

To: Grasshopper's Childhood Home - Conneaut Lake PA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 138 Friday July 4 ¢ Conneaut Lake PA - Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 1638.4One step closer to hitting the trail again. We had an uneventful drive back to Pennsylvania. Motel reservations have been made at The Carriage House in Manchester Center Vermont, but unfortunately the rates have gone up substantially. But we were lucky to get rooms, given that it¢s the holiday weekend.This time off has allowed us to research via TrailJournals.com and via personal blog sites, the location of many of our new hiking friends:· Willy Boy, Piper and Dartman, who we met our first week in Georgia are still going, but are still a week behind us despite our nearly 3 week medical break, so I don't think we'll meet up with them again. · Brer Rabbit, who we met in North Carolina, finished on June 18th! He was flying!· Donkey Legs, who we met on Day 2 in Georgia, is in Maine! · Liquid, who I don¢t believe we met but was a hiking partner of Donkey Legs, broke his leg on wet slippery rocks in Vermont just 30 miles past where we were detoured....bummer!   · Trailfoot, another hiking partner of Donkey Legs, from Grand Rapids Michigan, who we met in North Carolina, decided he was no longer having fun and went back home to his wife and kids after 1484 miles (Salisbury, CT)· Our very dear fellow NC friends, Josh and Amanda, who we enjoyed lots of fun bantering with, also decided to take a break from the trail and complete it another year. We will miss them. We met them in North Carolina. Hiked a bit together in the Smokies and the last time we saw them was nearly 1000 miles ago for one night in Virginia right before they got off the trail for 5 days to visit family. We were thinking that any day they would catch up to us and we'd be back hiking together again. Little did we realize that they were hiking less than one day behind us when they got off the trail. Every time we would see a south-bound hiker, we would send a trash talk message (we'd call them GIRLscouts!) back to them knowing full well that they would eventually pass us and we would pay dearly...but heck...got to have some fun out there in the woods! Who are we going to trash talk now?   · Two other hikers, who we did not meet, have contracted Lyme disease and are off seeking treatment.