morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-07-04
From: Blackburn AT Center

To: HarperÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Ferry, West Virginia
Miles today: 12.0

It was a really hard day for me today. We did pass the 100-mile mark today, which was a huge accomplishment. I feel great about that. And we crossed over the Virginia State line for the last time, finally. It was only a twelve-mile day, and it really wasn¢t very hard, but the rocks are starting. We¢re only forty miles from Pennsylvania, and I feel like the ground is rockier already. To make matters worse, I think my shoes are finally wearing out, after 900 miles. It makes sense, but it still makes me sad. And makes me worried about money. So my feet are sore, my hip is wounded, and my back is aching again since the suspension is utterly destroyed in my pack.Basically I was exhausted by the time we got to Harper¢s Ferry. And when we get there, the trail to town is straight up the side of the mountain, which makes sense, considering it was a military stronghold, but hadn¢t occurred to me, since most towns are flat. And the trail to the ATC headquarters is straight up, too. And, when we got there it¢s closed. We found out from another hiker that the barbecue at the hostel (that we were trying to get to) will be over by the time we get there, and the hostel (the only place we know to stay in town) is two miles away anyway. So basically, I¢m very depressed. We headed down to the outfitter to see if they¢re still open, and that¢s straight down a mountain and about a half-mile away, too. Luckily, they¢re open, but the only guy there says that only the owner knows what deals they have with various outfitters, so I¢ll have to come back in the morning.So we trudge wearily back up the hill, evaluating stealth campsites, to this other July Fourth barbecue, being thrown by this guy Blue Moon. He¢s a local who evidently likes helping hikers out, and had advertised his barbecue at the ATC headquarters. It¢s not exactly the full barbecue with ¢all the trimmings¢ promised by the hostel, but it¢s food and I¢m so relieved to be there. We hang out for a while, watch a movie (Alice¢s Restaurant), he lets us take showers and do laundry and says we can camp in his neighbor¢s yard! Pretty incredible. Later, it starts raining, and he offers to let us crash on his floor. He¢s left us here all alone now, because he went to a fire (he¢s a volunteer fireman) but we¢re staying here tonight. A great end to a rather lousy day.
Date: 2004-07-07
To: Melissa's Dad's update
Miles today: 0.0

Marzipan (Melissa to us at home) called home from Harper's Ferry the other night (I think it was on the July 5th) and is doing well. She has passed the 1000 mile mark and is pressing on. She and County were toying with the idea of trying to do a 40-mile day that would take them from Virginia, through W. Virginia, Maryland, and into PA. I don't think they tackled that because then needed to make a stop at an outfitters because she was having some trouble with the support rod in her pack. Her shoes are starting to give up, too, and she's trying to figure a way to keep both items alive for a while longer.She requested olive oil from her Mom and asked for the dried ham to stop. (I think she's getting tired of that recipe.) I'll sign off and give her mother a chance to speak up.Look for Melissa's trail journal to be updated in the next couple of days. Sorry for the long delay but her transcriber was tied up for a bit. She is trekking on so don't give up on her.Bye for now.Paul and Lois Jenks
Date: 2004-07-07
From: HarperÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Ferry, West Virginia

To: Stealth campsite by C & O Canal Towpath
Miles today: 1.0

So, it¢s been a pretty eventful couple of days. We took two zeroes and only did one mile today, after intending to take none. It was rather unavoidable, though. We went back to the outfitter on Monday, and the outfitter said she thought she could help me, but we¢d have to wait until the fifty since Osprey was closed for the holiday. That was one unavoidable zero.At the outfitter, we ran into this guy Bonzo (AT94), and this other southbounder from last year, Wonder Boy, who offered to let us stay at their place that night. They were just driving around doing trail magic for hikers. They took one guy to the grocery store and picked hikers up as we went¢he ended up with four total staying that night. Bonzo is working at this horse farm owned by this expert at equine dentistry. A pretty amazing place, and very relaxing. I think I really needed this kind of psychological break.So we went back to the outfitter the next day and they replaced my pack (yay!!!) and to make thing better, they also gave me a smaller size which I think I needed. So, I¢m very, very excited about my new pack. Country also bought a new pack, a GoLite that was on sale for $45! And he replaced his trail shoes. We got to the post office too late that day, though, and we had to send all of our old stuff home, so we ended up taking another zero at the ranch. It was really amazing--real beds, showers, unlimited food¢we¢ve just been getting some incredible trail magic lately. It continues to stun me how hospitable people are on the trail. And to stinky ne¢er-do-wells like hikers! Craziness. We finally got to the post office today, but on the way out of town decided to stop for a burger and then just decided to camp a mile out of town. Not exactly the big miles I was hoping for. Oh well. Katahdin will be there when we get there.
Date: 2004-07-08
From: Stealth campsite by C & O Canal Towpath

To: Dahlgren Backpack Campground
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: scattered clouds

We woke up late this morning as usual, despite having camped with Big Tree, who woke up about seven. We really are a lost cause. We still managed to hike almost seventeen miles today, though, the average we need to maintain six days a week in order to hike a hundred-mile weeks. It¢s not the end of the world, I suppose. We started hiking by eleven and as long as we do that we can manage seventeen-mile days.It was a cool morning¢we walked along the C&O Canal Towpath for a couple of miles with the Potomac on one side and the old canal on the other. There was water in the canal, but it was stagnant and covered in green algae. It must have been clean, though because there was a ton of wildlife in it. We must have seen about 100 turtles covered in scum and sunning themselves on logs¢some of them must have been at least a foot across. We also saw a lot of birds¢an unknown large water bird with red feet, ducks sleeping on one leg, geese. The sad thing is that the first thing I think upon seeing an animal these days is how good it would be to eat. We spent the whole morning talking about turtle soup.We stopped at the Ed Garvey Memorial Shelter¢a really cool shelter with two stories with separate entrances, with the loft glassed in and ladders going up the back. We also got some impromptu trail magic there¢someone had left a package of soup and a half pack of noodles. They were both open but seemed untouched, so we cooked them up for a free lunch. That should go on a list of ¢you know you¢re a thru-hiker when¢ things. No negative side effects yet. And then a section hiker training for her ¢05 thru-hike came by and gave us GORP and apples that she wasn¢t planning to eat. Too cool.We headed down to the next state park, after that¢there¢s a string of them in Maryland. They had a drink machine that ate our money when we tried for orange juice, but did bestow a coke upon us. We met up with Big Tree there ¢his modus operandi is to start early and take a siesta in the heat of the day so we ended up doing the same miles. He¢s a former Marine whom we¢ve been running into off and on since Damascus. Tonight, we¢re at a campground¢the only state-funded hot shower on the AT¢but I don¢t have towels. There are two other thruhikers here, Cowgirl and Pippin, both of them young. Pippin does look exactly like Pippin from the Lord of the Rings movies, though he protests. We¢ve also christened a section hiker staying here Method Man, mainly because he¢s a Methodist minister. He¢s doing all of Maryland and the Shenandoahs, since his dad was in the Civilian Conservation Corps and helped build the trail in Maryland. He¢s a really cool guy, formerly a Southern Baptist minister who switched to the Methodist church.
Date: 2004-07-09
From: Dahlgren Backpack Campground

To: Ensign Cowall Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: clear sky

Woke up late this morning, as usual. The great thing about where we are on the trail is that we¢re left with all the slackers like us. All the overachievers have gotten ahead. Cowgirl and Pippin break camp about when we do¢noon. I like them already. Another relationship coincidence happened this morning¢there¢s a big ¢feed¢ (as they¢re called on the trail) happening this weekend in Port Clinton. Three meals in two days and there are rumors of a pig roast. But Port Clinton is more than a hundred miles from Harper¢s Ferry and with my pack woes there was no way we could make it. So Wonder Boy (our SOBO host in HF) offered to pick us up and give us a ride there. So we were trying to call him this morning on County¢s cell phone to let him know where we would be, but neither of us could hear the other. We tried to call him four times but could never get through. Finally, we turn around and there he is walking towards us. He dropped off two other guys to slackpack southbound and had actually been .2 miles away the whole time we were trying to call. If that isn¢t a sign that we should take yet another zero tomorrow and go to the feed, I don¢t know what is.So we set up a place to meet tomorrow morning and tonight we¢re .2 from the road where we need to be. We will have to wake up early, though¢we¢ll see if we¢re capable of it. For food, anything is possible. Cowgirl and Pippin are with us again tonight and they¢re going to try to get in on the deal too. There are also four girls from Messiah College staying at the shelter. They¢re going all the way to the boundary of the Shenandoahs. They made an amazing fajita dinner with a real can of corn, tortillas, rice and beans, a real onion, and a lime tonight. I was jealous as I ate my couscous and potatoes. Oh well¢pig roast tomorrow. In other news, the trail is getting more and more rocky as we approach Pennsylvania. And we passed the first monument erected in honor of George Washington.
Date: 2004-07-13
From: Tumbling Run Shelter

To: Campsite past PA 233
Miles today: 5.0

So we ended up doing even less than expected, unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be. We did five easy miles into the road at South Mountain. Pennsylvania¢s treating us well so far. It is beautiful out here, astonishingly enough, and the rocks aren¢t really bad at all, at least not so far. The elevation barely changes, so if there aren¢t any rocks, it¢s really easy to whip out the miles. We hit trail magic just before we headed into town¢too cool¢a cooler full of soda and juice. Juice is the one thing County craves out there, so we had a couple of cups each and then hitched into town.We had been hearing this chanting as we approached the road and when we got there, there was a school or something at the road called Vision Quest. The guy who gave us a ride was an English teacher there with a free period and told us it was a school for troubled youth¢the chanting was the military department. When we got to the post office it was closed for lunch (we got a late start, as per usual) and so we went and got a lunch of our own. K-Less had told us about this place to eat in South Mountain, where they had bacon cheeseburger hoagies that weren¢t on the menu. So we ordered two of those and some fries. They were amazing. A burger patty, onion, lettuce, tomato, both on each side of the hoagie bun. I hope they have those things all throughout Pennsylvania. That alone will make this state worth hiking, though County claims I¢m too driven by food. I don¢t know what to do about that. I think that sometimes we¢re not carrying enough food. I¢m always craving other people¢s tuna or tortillas or cheese, and we never eat lunch. In towns I eat like I¢m never going to be able to eat again.Anyway, my mail-drop ended up not being at the post office. I went through this whole ordeal getting it forwarded. Hopefully it will be in Duncannon. I had a long talk with my mom on County¢s cell phone, and by the time we got back on the trail it was dark. So we just decided to pitch right there.
Date: 2004-07-15
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Campsite past Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Today we passed the actual halfway point of the trail, a huge milestone for me. No half-gallon of ice cream though. The day started great--we woke up early to a wonderful breakfast put on by the church: coffee, milk, bread, peanut butter, eggs, sausage, potatoes. Perfect fuel for a twenty-mile day. Pine Grove Furnace State Park was almost exactly twenty miles away, and the Cook Doctor offered to slackpack us there. About half of us took him up on it, but not County and me. He hasn't slacked at all, and I have only once. I'm trying to hold it to that. It was a beautiful day for walking and a really easy walk. We went past a cool shelter where the caretaker has hung flowers and lined the spring with rocks. It felt like a home. Passed some beautiful fields filled with ferns and streams, the halfway point, some summer cabins. Then the state park, where the legendary half-gallon challenge occurs. There's an actual furnace here too (pictured). But I wimped out on the ice cream.There were about ten thruhikers there today, and none of them anted up, including County, who claims not to like ice cream, and Backdraft and Digdug. Am I disappointed? Yes. I've been looking forward to the half-gallon challenge since I started. But I couldn't do it alone. It is sad. A missed opportunity for a trail tradition that may not come again. They even had Moose Tracks, my favorite flavor. Maybe I should have done it anyway. I guess the moral of the story is: do the half-gallon challenge. Even if you fail, you'll regret it if you don't try. I'm also realizing some of the drawbacks of being partnered up. You miss a lot of the goofing-off elements of the trail. I'm not going to come away with a network of amazing friends. I probably won't even know most of the people who hiked the trail. It's worth it, when I remember how lonely I was before. I might not have had any of that anyway.
Date: 2004-07-16
From: Campsite past Pine Grove Furnace State Park

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: broken clouds

The first day of the rest of the trail. We have exactly three months until Katahdin closes, as of today. And less than halfway to go. Most people do the trail in six months, which should put us exactly on track. And a six month pace is about twelve miles a day on average, so as long as we stay above that we'll be fine. No more five mile days to take advantage of trail magic, though, I suppose, which sucks. We hit the trail early this morning at about nine or nine-thirty. Maybe we're turning over a new leaf. I had to go in to town, to Gardners, to pick up a mail drop, a five-mile hitch. I chose my mail drops based on the 2003 Companion, and they've since taken out the town. Figures. It was still a relatively easy hitch. We got to town and the post office was closed for lunch so we went across the street and bought sandwiches. Well I bought a hoagie, and County bought a selection of assorted meats from the deli for a buck. I was concerned for his health, fearing that his assorted meats were only a step up from scrapple, but they turned out to be just the ends of the bologna and the ham that the deli couldn't sell. He made a rather ridiculous tortilla wrap with mustard and jalapeno chips.We chilled out at the post office on the grass for three hours, going through my mail drop and beating the heat of the day. Coming out of town, waiting for a train to pass, a car pulled up with an old man and his grandson in it. They were on their way home from golfing and offered to give us a ride. So we didn't even need to hitch on the way back. At first we were a little afraid he would abscond with us---he kept claiming to know where we needed to go and not listening to our pleas to just drive us down the road, but eventually he took us right where we needed to go. It was slow going the first couple of miles. We hadn't had that much food in our packs in a really long time, since I missed my last mail drop. But we got used to it again. Still when we hit the first shelter we called it a day. Mutt and O'Day are here with us---Mutt worked in Chicago as a chef, at the Green Dolphin Street, one of my favorite jazz clubs, so that's pretty cool.
Date: 2004-07-17
From: Alec Kennedy Shelter

To: Near Scott Farm
Miles today: 14.2

Got an early start again this morning, partly thanks to Mutt and O'Day, and also thanks to the motivation of hitting Boiling Springs in the morning. We made good time into town, coming across cornfields mainly. The whole valley was bought by the ATC to make way for the AT corridor a while ago, but they still let private farmers farm the land. So the whole day, basically, was flat. The thirteen miles out of Boiling Springs are probably the flattest on the trail. And it's fun walking through farmland too. Boiling Springs is a charming little town right on a beautiful river. There was a gorgeous trout stream the AT went right over with a ton of fly fisherman at work, and big fat trout you could see from the bridge. There were ducks and swans swimming in the river, and we also saw a river otter! Thought they were endangered or extinct but there one was, swimming on its back right down the center of Boiling Springs. Pretty cool to see one in the wild. We went to the ATC regional headquarters, which was closed for the weekend, walking right through a rather posh wedding in the process, in our stinky hiker clothes. I suppose you want to have a wedding in a gazebo outdoors directly on the AT in the heart of hiker season, you get what you deserve.A volunteer pulled in as we were reading the notice board and offered to show us where the water was. It turned out his name was Ishmael, a former thru-hiker and Triple Crowner. He was a great guy and offered us dinner, eleven miles down the road at Smith Farm. His friend, the ATC caretaker at the farm, was turning fifty today and they were having a party that we'd be walking straight by that night. So we stopped and got lunch at a tavern in town (a delicious blue-cheese burger) and hiked on to try to get dinner too. We hit the farm later than expected, but they were waiting for us and we had a great time eating burgers and grilled corn. The couple who owns the farm are very cool--he's a former AT employee who also winter backpacks and mountaineers. He lost his brother a couple of years ago mountaineering. It's also scary stuff, I suppose. We met his daughter, who's in the Air Force and has lived in Alaska and Korea, and his son, who does NOLS courses.We also had a great time talking to Ishmael about the Triple Crown, a definite goal of mine and maybe, now, a realistic one. He was a great source of information and really made the whole thing sound doable. It was an amazing time, just hanging out on the porch, eating cake, talking, like normal people. What fantastic hospitality. It's experiences like that, that make the trail what it is. True "trail magic."
Date: 2004-07-18
From: New Scott Farm

To: The Doyle Hotel, Duncannon, Pa.
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: light rain

We may be unable to resist a zero tomorrow. We got a late start again today--probably took off at about noon, hoping that we could end the night at the legendary Doyle Hotel. Rooms here are seventeen dollars a piece. It's infamous in hiker circles--perhaps the only truly infamous hotel on the trail. It's a gorgeous old hotel, though, with bowed glass in the windows, a cupola, beautiful old woodwork everywhere. The hotel has stood here since 1905, but a hotel has been built on the property since the 1700s. Duncannon is a ratty old mining town, the province of alcoholics, it seems--there are nine bars on Main Street. But the Doyle is a wonderful old slice of the past. I had heard stories of holes punched in walls with chains strung through for locks, and, of course, the trail legend of Baltimore Jack finding the body of a hiker in his room (which according to the owner is only half true) but the hotel isn't nearly as bad as it's made out to be. It reminds me of old colonial hotels in Latin America. Sure, there's duct tape over our keyhole and paint blotches on the wall, but it's still great. We even have one of the corner rooms with three windows that overlook the street. This is also the only place on the trail that both County and I had looked forward to staying at.So we walked fairly quickly today, over easy terrain that is getting slightly rockier as we progress. We met a couple out for a day-hike, the man an ultra-marathoner. Impressive, even to thru-hikers. And then on to the Doyle. It was actually closed when we got here--they don't have a Sunday license to operate the bar/restaurant--so we hung out on the porch with one of the local drunks while another local called the owner for us. She drove down to open us up a room, and now we are here. The Italian restaurant down the way is open for dinner, but we may have to zero just so we can eat at the Doyle.
Date: 2004-07-20
From: The Doyle Hotel, Duncannon, Pa.

To: Peters Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Yeah, so we zeroed. Woke up, had a delicious cajun omelet for breakfast, did laundry, read a book, had a meatball hoagie for supper, and did absolutely nothing all day. It was great. The Doyle deserves a zero, methinks. And we'd been doing relatively well at mileage. Not as much today, though. We checked out but were unable to resist the lure of the Doyle breakfast a second day in a row and ended up drinking coffee for a couple of hours. I was unable to resist the lure of the NY Times crossword in the paper. Man I miss my crosswords. The owner gave us a hug as we were leaving--what a wonderful person. And a really great experience. So it was slow going those first couple of miles, particularly as we had a brutally hot road walk out of Duncannon for the first two, and the bridge over the Susquehanna River, another river I remember crossing on my bike trip. We took a break at the first shelter and met Yahtzee, a 2001 thru-hiker who gave us great advice on stealth campsites and towns the whole way up the trail. He particularly gave us advice on the AMC and the Whites, something we've been a little concerned about. He even made us notes in our book, making me feel a lot more confident about the New Hampshire situation.We spent at least an hour there with him, so decided to stop at the next shelter. It was a beautiful ridge walk and as we got close it was getting dark and the light took on this eerie yellow quality. Incandescent, almost. It's supposed to rain tonight, and the wind kept picking up, closer and closer and any minute I expected rain, but the wind just kept getting louder and the sky clearer and golden. The shelter we're staying at tonight replaced one built by Earl Shaeffer (the first thru-hiker) with his own hands. Maybe we'll see his ghost, which is reputed to walk here or maybe it was his spirit in the yellow sky.