morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-06-10
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Cove Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: scattered clouds

An uneventful day. Came to a river with a great swimming hole, but did not partake in the swimming as the water was too cold. So far this is my only regret since I started the trail.... I SHOULD HAVE jumped in! Since there was no water at this shelter and it was on top of a ridge, we spent the night there alone.
Date: 2003-06-11
From: Cove Mtn. Shelter

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: broken clouds

We missed the thunder storm by only an hour this after noon. It moved in with full force just as we finished setting out our stuff for the night. Later we were joined by The Viking, Flatlander, Smokey, Hiker Biker Babe, Southbound Homer and some other guys (I forget their names). We had a great time watching the rain pour down from the shelter and listening to the thunder. I recorded a sound byte on my MP3 player.
Date: 2003-06-16
From: --

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

With my mom joining me for the week, I fell behind my friends again. I made the tough decision to "Yellow Blaze" up to Waynesboro there by skipping a 94 mile stretch of trail :(. My mom has agreed, however, to return with me next year to complete this skipped section.
Date: 2003-06-19
To: already back in CA
Miles today: 0.0

*My mom joined me for a week, these are her thoughts**I had the most wonderful week backpacking with Two Dog Night. Could not believe how beautiful the trail is, how many people I met, and how nice everyone is! The people on the trail are all so different - ages went from 16 to close to 80!Having never backpacked before, I really didn't know what to expect. I was surprised at just how much I loved it! I thought the main challenge would be the pack, but after awhile you stop noticing. The weather was awesome - laying in a sleeping bag and watching lightening, listening to thunder and rain - it was wonderful! I'm home now (with Cade) and back at work. I'm looking forward to joining Two Dog Night and her friends in Vermont!LoveSistuh Sledge
Date: 2003-07-08
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Hello All....I am currently at mile # 1131.5 in Duncannon, PA. I've had a great few days of hiking. After being dropped off on the trail I was surprised at the reunion we encountered at Pine Grove Furnace. All of my hiking buds had kicked it into high gear to make sure they were there to say good bye to my friend who is leaving the trail (sorry I can't say who, they want to disclose the info on thier own)... anyway.. it was great to see Iron Chef, Sleepy Floyd and others who I hadn't seen in awhile. Pipes negotiated a discount for us at the AYH that was located there....$10 per head plus 30 min work in the am. Which was basically $14 per hr... not to shabby! I hiked out with Moxy and Crazy Talk Monday am and hiked 15 mi. (everyone else stayed behind planning to hike only 7-don't know where they are as of now, but they are all behind). We hiked 18.2 yesterday with a stop at a restaurant in the middle of the day. It was a little freaky as we encountered this weird guy who invited himself to join us. We all caught on tho and didnt disclose any info about our hike (just to be on the safe side). Got up early this am and got here around 1:00. Now staying at the Doyle Hotel which is a a AT historical reminant. Thru Hikers have been staying here since the begining. Its this old hotel that was one of the original Budweiser hotels in the 1900's. Anyway.. this place is a pay by the 1/2 hr so I gotta go.
Date: 2003-07-20
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Location: Delaware Water Gap ---- Mile: 1277.8Well, its been awhile since my last entry. After I last updated, I was packed up and ready to leave Duncannon. On our way to the post office Dylan got sick (he exploded from both ends) and I quickly decided that we couldn't leave town. I took the following day off and did a shake down of my pack with Karma. We also set up a 35 mile slack for the next day. We got up at 4 am and set out for the trail. heh... yea, we didnt exactly find the trail and our ride got frustrated so she let us know that we could either vacate her car where we were or go back with her. As we were out for an adventure we decided to get out. So there we are standing on an on ramp for I-81 with no clue where the trail was or how to get there and no ride. After 30 mins and no sucess on the hitching (it was only 5:30 am after all and we probly looked pretty sketchy hanging out on the highway at that hour), we decided to split into 2 groups. Karma and Windsong went off to find assistance and Trauma and myself worked at hitching. We finally got someone to pull over and they actually knew where the trail was but Karma and Windsong weren't back yet so Trauma offered to stay behind and I took the ride. I started hiking at 6:50 am and made it back to Duncannon around 9:45 pm just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. It was a hard stretch and I honestly didnt think I was going to make it, but I did and as I crossed over the Susquahana River on my way back into Duncannon Enya started playing on my MP3 player, the sun was setting and it was one of those movie moments with triumph at the end of the day. It was pretty cool... (cheesy i know, but it made me happy). Anyway... after the 35 mile day, 15 miles doesnt sound very far anymore. I spent the next week hiking 17 -24 miles per day. After a few days of that, I was well past my main group of friends and had been hiking with Karma, but was then ready for a break. As trail magic would have it , a fellow hiker (Loser) was being picked up on the trail and offered for Dylan and myself to join him .... Iron Chef was there too so the 3 of us set off for a day off. Susan was SOOOO wonderful! She has a beautiful property with 10 acres and a pool with a deck that has a view of the trail. Loser and I enjoyed lounging in the pool knowing that others were just a few miles away suffering in the heat (heh, sick I know...).We zeroed at Susans the next day spending our time relaxing and reading. Later in the evening we headed into town to see Pirates of the Carribean (great movie, just like the ride). Dylan and I were dropped off the following morning and we pushed 2 15's into Delaware Water Gap. The hostel here is great (AND FREE!!). Dylan has not been very enthusiastic about hiking lately so the pastor here has been helping me to find someone to take care of him for me until I can either make other arrangements for him or until I finish the trail. There's a 2 night max at the hostel here so we'll be departing shortly. :)
Date: 2003-01-07
To: TORE MY ACL :-(
Miles today: 0.0

Well tonight I tore my ACL in a Ski Patrol Training Excercise.I am very very bumbed as I have no idea what my fate is going to be now.I am to see the orthopod on Wednesday and I am supposed to get my MRI Thursday night.I hope that I will still be able to make this attempt in March.
Date: 2003-01-10
To: The preliminary verdict on my ACL
Miles today: 0.0

Well after what I think has been a very huge scare I have some info on my ACL.First off my MRI is positive for an ACL TEAR. The good news is that me knee feels really good and it is probabl that I have not done as much damage as I thought and that I will be able to attempt this hike afterall.I have an appointment on Monday and I will be getting with the DR to order a knee brace from djORTHO (DonJoy) to use for skiing/hiking and other activities.I ordered a CATS MEOW Sleeping bag to use as a cold weather bag for the start of my trip. I am pretty much set with equipment except for a snazzy LED headlight that I would like have, and possibly a leatherman tool of some type. I also need to work up some kind of food hanging device. I have thought about using the top part of my Lowe Alpine Countour IV pack. I will probably be packing my toilet items, and my food in that part of my pack. Has anyone used this part of your pack to hang your food in??OK more later
Date: 2003-01-21
To: This past weekend, my ACL, and more!!!
Miles today: 0.0

Well the past few days have been hectic. Last Friday I got to meet Goldberry at Journey03's house. She came up from the great blue grass state to meet LeapYear my Journey, and my self. Very interesting girl I must say. I am not sure what she thinks of my self and LeapYear... we were acting like Beavis and Butt Head before we went to bed on Saturday night. Anyhow before all of this happened my Labrador was hit by a car on Friday. She is OK thankfully. The vet determined that she has a pulmonary contusion (read brused lung). She was favoring her right rear leg for a few days but she appears to be just fine now except for some sounds when she is breathing.So I went out with the group on Saturday to the place where we have been hiking in Beaver County and decided to walk a mile or two and see how my knee feels. I did about three miles total and I felt really good except for some minor stiffness. I decided to cut my day short as the others hiked what had to be about nine miles. We pigged out at Pizza Hut for dinner and miss Goldberry picked up the tab which for once in my life I was so very greatful for some one else to offer to pay. Typically I am one who insists on paying for my portion, and any time I have ever been on a date I typically demand to pay. I guess that I dont ever want any one to feel like I owe them something. Saturday my wallet was very close to being empty. I was actually thinking while we were ordering that my wallet was going to be empty when the night was over. So it was a very pleasant surprise, and one that I am greatful for because I least expected it.OK so the past few days I have been organizing my sched for the next few weeks. My massive food drying binge is going to begin next week. I hope to package about 50 meals in less t..... to be continued
Date: 2003-01-28
To: Awating my cold weather bag and meal planning
Miles today: 0.0

January 28thToday is probably the coldest day of the year. It was down to nearly ten below last night. The K9 appears to be making a full recovery from her little incident with the car last Friday. She is back to her normal ways chasing the cat around inside the house and she usually runs three laps around my house every time that she goes out to go potty. I think that today she ran like six laps, she must be trying to make up for laps lost over the last few days while she has been in the house.I am still awaiting the arrival of my cold weather sleeping bag. I ordered the big guy version of TNF¢s Cats Meow. The name of the bag is the Big Fella. It is about 6 oz heavier than the regular Cats Meow.I am going to go shopping this weekend for all of the food supplies that are going to be needed to make all of my meals that I am going to prepare before I leave. I am pretty much set to the following diet guidelines. Breakfast will consist of instant cereals like oatmeal. Since I will be heating water for most of my breakfasts I will probably include coffee, tea, or cocoa with each of those meals. I am going to plan on my morning snack being dried fruit and a meat jerky of some type. My lunches will be high protein meals like cheese and crackers, peanut butter and rice cakes, foil pack tuna and mayo on crackers, or something else like that. Between lunch and dinner I plan to munch or GORP of different kinds. My dinner meals will be a vacuum sealed one pot hot meal. A typical day from my menu planner looks like this.BreakfastInstant Oatmeal (2 packages)Cup of Coffee or TeaBreakfast Snack BarMorning SnackDried Banana ChipsJerkeyLunchFoil Pack TunaFoil Pack MayoCrackersAfternoon SnackGORP and or a chocolate barDinnerOne Pot MealDecaf Coffee or Tea
Date: 2003-02-01
To: Gear orders screwed up... and hitting the bottom??
Miles today: 0.0

February 1stIt has come to me the last few days that my mental status is not really much better than it was eight or nine months ago. I find that I have a hard time getting out of bed in the mornings. There is nothing that is really motivating me right now. I have pretty much been sleeping life away. That is so unlike the way that I have normally been in life where I got up early to goto workouts, and to goto work, and to do many other things. I have found that I have a very big problem trusting people. I am not sure why that is. The last five things that I have purchased that have been delivered to me by UPS or USPS have not been what I paid for. My mother says that much of this is my fault because I wont goto a retail store and by and item for full price. Without a long description of what I am talking about quickly I will explain. 1st Lowe Alpine Order no jacket in box with the other items, box appears to be tampered with. 2nd Lowe Alpine Order, power stretch gloves fall apart in about three days. Parts order for my Jeep from Tomken Machine in Colorado, leaf springs and coil springs never show up. Parts order for my Yakima rack direct from the company took three shipments of the wrong parts to finally get what I had ordered. And to throw another wrench into the equation the only thing that I have bought retail and paid full price for was a Slumber Jack Denali Super Guide 30* sleeping bag. It fell apart in two months so buying retail items does not solve the problem¢¦. I just wanted you to know that MOM!!!So I guess that when I deal with people, I expect that they will screw up. I don¢t expect to get what I pay for. I don¢t expect to get my napkins in the bag when I goto drive through fast food. That would just be to much to ask for I guess of a six dollar an hour employee¢¦ oh and by the way that is about how much my ski patrol pays me to be responsible for your first aid and safety at the ski area where I work¢¦.I am just really scared that I have not hit the bottom yet. I still feel like every day is worse than the day before. I hope that my experience that I will have on this hike might be a turn of fortune and that I might find that for at least the 150 days that I am on the trail that each day might be better than the one before.I will write more later
Date: 2003-02-05
To: Sneaking around to communicate
Miles today: 0.0

02/05/03It is weird how you find your self sneaking around in life just to communicate. I have grown so accustom to having access to the internet for survival and for sharing of information that is it hard for me to understand how this ski resort where I work at, as a professional rescuer/ski patroller cant give us access to computers so that we can communicate with the rest of the world. The building where I work has a router hub in it with four connections wired through the building. Two of the connections goto the UPMC medical clinic that is operated here on the premise and the other two goto our patrol office. I have been yelled at for being in the office so I don¢t go in there any more. I am not real sure what the whole deal is with things because there are other patrollers and other people who work here who bring there lap tops to work with them and they plug into the cable connections that are here and many of them use those connections to conduct there own personal business for there own other forms of employment. If I were to want to use the computer to contact a ski company or to learn about some aspect of first aid or to communicate with other patrollers at other ski areas I have to sneak into the UPMC clinic and essentially steal bandwidth from the resort in order to do so. I guess that while working at Virginia Power the one thing that I did learn is that there is a lot of good information on the internet and not just a bunch of advertisements and porn.So here is sit right now typing away in my little journal here enjoying the last 40 some days until my departure for the trail. Today I hiked Meadow Run Trail at Ohiopyle State Park. I hiked the trail from the bottom to the top which is a distance of about for miles and has a vertical of some where in the neighborhood of 800 feet. I hiked in blue jeans carrying on my back most of what I will start with except for water and food which I hope will add less than 10lbs to my load. The pack total weight today was about 29lbs. I have shaved off some weight by getting rid of a few things that were not needed and re-packing a few items to get rid of the ditty bags and containers that the items go in because the container has weight to it.I have been working with a sheet of Tyvek trying to come up with a good design for a light weight shelter that I will use when it gets warmer out. I hope to have that design perfected before I leave. If not I might just go with the tent the whole way.
Date: 2003-02-26
To: Well I updated an posted all of my recent entires!
Miles today: 0.0

I have been keeping trac of my Journal entires on my lap top and on paper because I have not had regular internet access latley.I cant believe that I am leaving for Georgia in just two weeks. I have been in panic mode the past four or five days now trying to get everything finished up. I tore a huge hole in the seat of my rain pants that I must get repaired or replace the pants before I leave... and I have million other little things that are exactly like that.One person wrote, "dont sweat the small stuff" in just a few weeks I will be out on the trial and non of this nit picky prep stuff will matter any more. All that will matter is walking in the woods, and enjoying my journey.So anyhow I believe that I have four posts to add before this one that date back to January.
Date: 2003-02-28
To: Finalized my clothes list
Miles today: 0.0

Ok.After collecting a mass of synthetic fabric clothing items over the past three or four years and listing many of them under equipment etc. I have finally come down to a list of things that are going to be in my pack or on my body.Upper Body Clothing.1 Silk Wt long sleeve crew1 Light Wt short selve crew1 Vapor Wick long sleve cycling shirt1 Rain Jacket1 Goose Down VestLower Body Clothing1 Silk Wt long bottoms1 McDavid silk football girdle2 synthetic briefs1 fleece lined shorts1 nylon shorts1 Rain PantsFeet, Hands, and Head2 synth blend socks2 synthetic sock liners1 Pr of Gaiters1 Pr of power stretch gloves1 power stretch hat1 pr of BootsOther equipment includesObviously 1 packand 1 tent1 Therma Rest1 Water Filter1 Stove1 11oz fuel bottle1 Pot with cover/fry pan1 cup2 nalgene bottles1 soft large volume water bag1 hydration pack with hose and bite valve1 knife1 head lamp1 mini flashlight1 hygene/first aid kit1 spoon1 set of pack-a-towell1 length of chute cord for hanging food1 locking beaner2 key chain mini beaners1 pack cover1 small sheet of tyvek to sit on trail side1 compass1 journal pad and pen1 set of relevant pages of the companion and the guide book for the section currently being hiked.Please read over my list and tell me if I am forgetting anything
Date: 2003-03-01
To: Edited a few of my recent posts
Miles today: 0.0

Took out some subjective material that were in a few of my posts after reading back over them. I guess that there are some thing that just dont need to be in this Journal.I have found that I tend to sit and write when things bother me. I dont typically write when things are going good. I find that when things are going bad that writing is a way to vent my self. If I go back to my very first journal entry I wanted to try and keep this journal on the subject of prep for my trip and not lead a stray line off on a tangent to stuff that really has no relevancy to help others in there prep for there trip.So here is sit looking back over my entires and I find that I stuck with what I set out to do about 50% of the time. I suppose that is enough to satisfy me becayse much of what caused me to persue this hike are the things that still constantly bother me.I am going to make a rule for my written journal for on the trail. I have to write ten good things in my journal for every one bad thing that happens that I write about. So if I fall and rip the back of my rain pants (like I have already done once) I will have to write about ten good things like the nice lady who showed me that rip stop nylon repair stuff that is self adhesive, and how her and I shared a wonderful luch in a sunny spot on the side of a trail in the snow near these great big pine trees and this little babbling brooke and how that day was a very good nine mile hike for both of us... Well... I have to get some things done before it is time to goto bed tonight.SMILE!!
Date: 2003-03-04
To: Trip to Exkursion Outfitters in Monroeville PA
Miles today: 0.0

Last min preperation has become and interesting thing for me the past week or so. I have packed and re-packed 12 mail drops. Each mail drop is packed with enough supplies to feed a hungry hiker for six days. I also have four additional gear packages. The first package contains my summer sleeping bag. The second package contains my spare pair of Asolo Hikers. The third package contains a complete set of replacement clothing (This package is not sealed in the event that I just want one item out of it) The fourth package is a smaller lighter pack that I may start to use some place in southern Virginia when I might switch to a slightly lighter format with summer sleeping bag. That package also includes light wt Columbia hiking shoes, a replacement for my tent floor with a sheet of TYVEK, a replacement for the dragon fly stove that includes a switch to the pepsi can model, and so on...Yesterday I took a trip over to www.Exkursion.com outfitters in Monroeville PA to get a few very small odds and ends tied up with little gear supplies that I needed and I wanted to discuss pack loading and pack fitment with Fred who owns the place. I had never been to the shop or met anyone from there before. I had heard so many good things about this place from Journey03 (Diane) who I have been consulting with and have befriended during this prepeartion process.I want to make sure that any one who reads my journal that is from the Pittsburgh area knows that Exkursion exists. I am so very happy with Freds expertise with helping me to get my pack fitted properly and to get the aluminum stays in my pack bent properly. I had bent the bottom of them, and the top of them but I did not know much about bending them to the contour of my back and frankly if I did it is a little hard to do on your own. I met two or three of the other employees, and one girl friend, while I was there. I did not catch her name but definatly an attractive interesting individual. This was the kind of girl that would rather have snowboarding equipment for holiday gifts than some cheesy clothing or jewelery, and who would probably find Valantines Day a romantic getaway only if it included lift tickets and a hot tub ride at say, Stratton Mt. VT or Sunday River ME. So my experience at Exkursion was definatly a good one. Fred helped me get my pack to fit in a way that is unblelieveably comfortabl and removed nearly all the wt from my shoulders. I wanted to make sure that I thanked him so I sent off and E-mail doing just that today.Wow. One week from today will be my last day here in southwestern PA.