morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-08-12
From: Kent, CT

To: Stewart Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: light rain

The rest of my posts will now have a format of bulleted sentences without much elaboration, as I will have limited time to update my blog. The more I stretch into the New England region, the more limited internet access will be. -        Woke up very early ¢ around 6:30 am and couldn¢t sleep because of mosquitoes. Went into small town of Kent (great small town btw if you ever want to go) and headed to the Kent Coffee and Chocolate Company for a morning tea and to begin to write up my journal entries.-        Met up with Jungli, headed to outfitter, then to library. Stayed behind at library and then had to run around getting things together. Picked up watch battery at hardware store, headed to outfitter to get new Leki pole and tip replacements, packed up all of my belongings, had to call up Backcountry to order some shoes and a bug net to prevent the mozzies from massacring my body. -        Headed out to trail at 5:30 pm..already started to get dark. Had been learning the lyrics to Frank Sinatra¢s song: ¢You Make Me Young¢ and, in turn, started to belt it at the top of my lungs. Beautiful song. Hiked next to swollen Housatonic River all the way to Stewart Hollow Shelter. -        Accidentally by-passed shelter because of a lack of signs and then finally found it. Completely drenched due to rain. Buttchinz and Big Camera present. -        Jungli had left behind her crocs at the library and I picked them up again. I don¢t mind doing it, but I find it to be quite funny how she has left behind three things and I have picked these things up three times. Ahh, forgetfulness on the trail : )
Date: 2009-08-15
From: Riga Lean-to

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: clear sky

Most incredible sunrise I have ever seen in the morning. The shelter faced the east and this giant ball of fire rose above the horizon and above this sea of clouds in the valley. Great views of surrounding area while hiking on the ridge. Mosquitoes were horrible in Great Barrington.
Date: 2009-08-16
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: broken clouds

Nero-d into Tom Leonard Shelter because the mosquitoes were so terrible. I tried to take a picture of a porcupine that was on the trail and had climbed the tree, but stopping was not an option. It was so humid in the morning and the mozzies were just swarming me, so I put on my rain jacket and just kept sweating all morning. I even had to pee on the trail, while moving, because they were swarming everywhere. They call this area 'mosquito alley' for good reason. While in the shelter, I could hear several thru-hikers passing by cursing and yelling at the mosquitoes. Fortunately, I made the appropriate decision to 'nero'.
Date: 2009-08-17
From: Tom Leonard Shelter

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: clear sky

Left Tom Leonard Shelter at 4:00 am to do some night-hiking to avoid the mosquitoes and get out of the heat. Unfortunately, the 95-degree temp and 80% humidity caught up to me and I was sweating profusely again, thereby getting a bit of heat stroke in the process. My muscles went into a full-body cramp and I was not able to catch up to Jungli in time to meet her at Upper Goose Pond. I saw my first bear (two actually) in a long time, while climbing up the ridge to Upper Goose. While at UG, I met Willing, Able, and Bag Lady, three older hikers out doing a section of the trail. They were incredible people and I'm glad that I had the chance to get to know them. Unfortunately, I was running out of food at the time, so I purchased some pasta packets off Tibetan and Sue Bear donated some energy and Snickers bars to me in the morning.
Date: 2009-08-18
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Dalton, MA (Tom Levardi's)
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

Had some wonderful blueberry pancakes in the morning at Upper Goose and then high-tailed it to the Cookie Lady's house for some fresh cookies and to pick some blueberries in the process. It was such a hot day, so I sat around and hung out with Willing, Able, and Bag Lady some more, chatting the afternoon away underneath some shaded area, while gorging ourselves on blueberries. I arrived into Dalton and stayed at Tom Levardi's house. Tom has been allowing for thru-hikers to stay at his house for 35 years now and he is just the most generous man. Fortunately, I was able to catch up to Jungli and Willow.
Date: 2009-08-19
From: Dalton, MA (Tom Levardi's)

To: Mt. Greylock
Miles today: 17.0

I did a slackpack from the top of Mt. Greylock at 3,491 feet down through Cheshire en route back to Tom Levardi's. My hamstring was a bit messed up today, so I did not want to push it. I passed Jungli and Dah Wah He on the way; Jungli and I would be meeting up in Williamstown the following day for a nero/zero staying at the house of some alums from Williams College, where Jungli had attended school. The view at the Cobbles was an amazing view of Greylock and the surrounding town of Cheshire. I became stuck in a huge storm and, by the time that I reached the road in Dalton, I was just entirely drenched. At night, Tom took me into town (Pittsfield) again, where I re-supplied and purchased a leg sleeve to combat my hamstring problem.
Date: 2009-08-20
From: Mt. Greylock

To: Williamstown
Miles today: 6.3

I slacked the 6.3 miles north of Greylock heading down to Williamstown. My friend Pippi and I had climbed up Mt. Williams when doing our study abroad fair rounds last fall and it was very surreal to be at the exact lookout point where we stopped for a break to have an energy bar and a fruit leather. Once in town, I hitch-hiked to the Ware law office to pick up my belongings and then met up with Jungli in downtown Williamstown. In the evening, we headed to the Ware family house, a couple who had graduated from Williams College in the late 60's or early 70's. They were very generous for allowing us to stay with them.
Date: 2009-08-21
From: Williamstown

To: Congdon Shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: light rain

We left Williamstown a bit late, as I had to wait for my mail drop to arrive at the post office with my new pack, new long sleeve shirt, and food. Bob (Ware) took us back to the trail and Jungli and I hiked out in the toughest part of the day - 90 degrees and 80% humidity. Fortunately, within an hour, the rain came pouring down and we ended up getting stuck in another huge storm. I was happy for the rain; Jungli clearly was not We wanted to get some miles in, so we ended up night-hiking for a few hours to Congdon Shelter. The problem was that Jungli's headlamp had run out of batteries, so I gave her mine and I had to use my cell phone to find good footing on the ground. Ohh...everyone is calling Vermont...Ver-MUD due to the swampy bogs. Our socks and shoes stink horribly, but we are still smiling from ear to ear!
Date: 2009-08-22
From: Congdon Shelter

To: Melville Nauheim Shelter via Bennington
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: moderate rain

After our night-hike, we awoke very tired and left the shelter a bit later than we would have liked. It was still raining cats and dogs. We managed to get a hitch (took a good hour to do so) into Bennington, where Jungli purchased new shoes and we went from place to place, buying our supplies. We caught a hitch out of town, hiked the 1.6 miles up the hill and arrived at a nearly-full shelter. We were happy to be inside, as the remnants of Hurricane Bill began dumping tons of rain.
Date: 2009-08-23
From: Melville Nauheim Shelter via Bennington

To: Story Spring Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: light rain

When we left Melville Nauheim, the rain just came down in buckets. Throughout the entire day, the trail was literally a RIVER! I've never seen it that bad throughout the entire thru-hike. Rocks and gravel were washing away, trees were being uprooted and we were slipping and sliding with each step. Later on in the day, we stopped at Kid Gore Shelter to get out of the cold and to get some hot tea in our stomachs. We were drenched! En route to Story Spring Shelter, Jungli slipped and did a nose dive directly into the mud. For the third day in a row, we arrived late at the shelter.
Date: 2009-08-24
From: Story Spring Shelter

To: William B. Douglas Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained throughout the night and into the wee hours of the morning. The climb up and over Stratton Mountain was beautiful and Jungli and climbed the fire tower on top, where we were able to see Bromley Mountain and the Appalachian range all around us. The air was cool and fresh, but we had sun rays shining through at times during the day. We met a great group of Yale orientation students, who were out on a 5-day hike. Great people and it was wonderful to see young people taking advantage of their 'natural' surroundings. Rather than hike on to Spruce Peak Shelter, as we had intended, we stopped early at Story Spring - hiking .5 miles off the trail - where we rested our wet and weary bodies.
Date: 2009-08-25
From: William B. Douglas Shelter

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 5.8
Weather: broken clouds

Jungli and I woke up very early this morning with the intention of getting into town, eating a good meal, washing our dirty clothing, getting a quality shower...and then, finally, getting out of town. We made great progress early on in the day, doing the 5.8 miles to the road and catching a hitch in the back of a pick-up truck. The problem was that we had so much to get done and...we had our bellies to feed. We also had trips to the outfitter for denatured alcohol and to the post office to pick up a mail drop from my cousin, Alan, who had sent me a wonderful assortment of hiking food necessities. When we made it to the Green Mountain House Hostel, we did our laundry, checked email, made a few phone calls, took showers, and started to organize our food for the next four days. This took quite a while and, after a resupply at Price Choppers, we caught a hitch back to the trail, getting to the trailhead at 7:00 PM. Jungli hiked ahead and followed once I organized my stuff and put on my wet and muddy trail shoes. Not even half a mile into the trail, I noticed that I had left my camera battery and charger back at the outfitter. Jungli was ahead, but I made the decision to turn back around, catch a hitch all the way back to the hostel to pick up the battery and charger, and stay for the night. I wanted to camp at the top of Bromley Mountain to see the sunrise, but I knew that it was important to get the battery back. I cooked some food in the evening and chatted with Blink, a wonderful 37-year-old guy from New Hampshire. He had been struggling with the idea of getting off the trail and we were both going back and forth sharing stories about the trail and our perspective about what is to come - both on the trail and in life.
Date: 2009-08-27
From: Little Rock Pond Shelter

To: Secret Shelter (close to Governor Clement Shelter)
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: clear sky

Highlight: Two owls flew into our camp at 4:00 am screeching: Whooooo Hoooooo Whooooo!!!!!At 4:00 am, several hours flew into our shelter area and started making all sorts of screeching owl sounds. At the time, I was so bundled up in my sleeping bag that I couldn't see anything (only my nose was sticking through so that I could breath). I was caught in finding the zipper to release the sleeping bag, but struggled at doing so. Finally, when I ripped off the bag from my head, I was able to see the owls swooping down and flying from tree to tree. Splice, Tex, Jungli, and I tried to make as much noise as possible to scare them away. To be honest, I had no idea what type of animal it was. It could have been a moose or a dinosaur and I still would have been struggling to get my sleeping bag off my head. Fortunately, we were able to fall back asleep after the big scare. Later on in the day, we crossed the White Rocks Cliff area, which had thousands and thousands of cairns spread all over the place. It was a bit eerie to be walking through and seeing 25 small rocks piled one on top of the other and then this multiplied by several thousand cairns. On one of our descents, Jungli and I heard these hooves again and then a huge THUD (!) against a tree; from what we could gather, it was a moose that became scared, turned in the opposite direction to run, and ran directly into a tree. There was no trace of the moose by the time we arrived at the scene. During our climb up Bear Mountain, we ran into BeeMan and Goodwill. After the climb, I took the wrong turn on the trail and somehow managed to get lost on private property (hearing gunshots every 30 seconds, no less), walking .75 miles out of the way, or 1.5 miles round trip. When I ascended the peak, Jungli had already passed me and I had the chance to stop hiking, turn around, and look at this incredibly blue sky and wildflowers scattered through the fields of these green mountains. Ahh, and the air was so fresh that I just stood there for many minutes continuing to breathe in and exhale. This was the air of the good country. When I re-caught up to Jungli, we had to night-hike for an hour or so until we found the Secret Shelter that had been constructed because local townies were coming in to use the former Clarendon Shelter. It turned out to be one of the best shelters on the trail and get this ¢ inside the privy ¢ there was even reading material!! It was a picture book of OUTHOUSES that have been found across America. Can't beat that when you make a deposit at the bank! The shelter had lanterns and candles, which we lit while we cooked our food and shivered in the cold evening air.
Date: 2009-08-28
From: Secret Shelter (close to Governor Clement Shelter)

To: US 4/ Rutland, Vermont
Miles today: 10.6

Highlight: Riding a gondola (free!) from the Killington Peak down to the Killington village. I didn't sleep too well last night because of the cold. In the morning, it was very slow moving as we climbed the steep Killington Peak, the second highest peak in all of Vermont. When we reached the top, we took the .2 blue blaze to the top of the peak and was able to see all of the surrounding countryside, including the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, at 4,235 feet. We checked out the gondola at Killington and found out that it would be a free ride to the bottom, which we decided to do. It was wonderful to be flying over the hills of ski slopes, especially since I have actually skied here at Killington. Then, we tried hitching the 5 miles all the way down to the village of Killington so that I could pick up my package, but we were largely unsuccessful. It was tourist season and most tourists had no intention to pick up a stinky, dirty, disgusting-looking hiker. We did have two hitches, but this only brought us down about a mile. Fortunately, a man driving a taxi picked us up and agreed to drop us off at the PO. We bargained with him and managed to strike a deal where he would take us back to the top for $10. At the Post Office, there must have been a bit of a mix-up (not on my Aunt's end, but with the post office), as my package didn't arrive. I was a bit bummed, but I was able to get over it quickly. Dead and done. So, we took the ride back to the base of the mountain ¢ the cab driver didn't charge us! - and then we climbed into the gondola, went back to the top of the mountain and then started the descent down the mountain en route to Rutland. We caught a hitch by a young man named Brian who dropped us off in town at the Ramada. Ahhh, time to shower and get clean and sleep. The weather was changing, as another tropical depression storm was coming up the coast, and we had planned on taking a zero, especially for me to rest my right hamstring, which has been giving me problems since southern Mass. At night, Willow and her husband, Tim, picked us up and we went off to have a bite to eat at a local diner for some food and laughs.
Date: 2009-08-29
From: US 4/ Rutland, Vermont

To: US 4/ Rutland, Vermont
Miles today: 0.0

Highlight: Watching movies, resting my hamstring, and taking a much-needed bath!!!Today, I stayed in the Ramada almost the entire day. I watched some good movies, ate some quality food and fresh fruits, took a bath several times, rested my weary legs, and did laundry. It felt so nice to be clean and comfortable and I was happy to see the big tropical storm pass through without dumping more rain on us.
Date: 2009-08-30
From: US 4/ Rutland, Vermont

To: Stony Brook Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

Highlight: Riding the 'roller-sled' down Pico Peak with Willow and her husband, Tim. Meeting up with Dreamcatcher again!I packed up my belongings and prepared to set out in the morning. Willow and Tim came to pick me up to take me back to the trailhead and I had asked if they could drop me off at the base of Pico Mountain to do the roller sled. Brian, the young man who had picked Jungli and I up just two days prior, had said that he could let us bypass the ticket line and ride to the top for free. Fortunately, he allowed all three of us to do it and it turned out to be quite an incredible ride. Tim and I 'rolled' at the same time, but on different slides, and we paused halfway down to take a picture, before another guy came barreling down forcing Tim to get moving. When we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were able to see Willow come flying down, finishing with a huge smile. They then dropped me off at the trailhead, which turned out to be very muddy from the intense rains of recent days and weeks. I passed Willard Gap, where the Long Trail and the AT split. The Long Trail, America's first long-distance trail, would then continue due north to the border of Canada, and the AT would make an abrupt right-hand turn en route to Hanover, New Hampshire. At this point, there was a sign with a countdown of 490 miles to go to Katahdin. I remember seeing a sign at Newfound Gap in the Smokies that listed the distance at 1,700 miles or something crazy like this, so it is comforting to know that we are edging closer!!! Kent Pond was a beautiful sight and I took some time to snap some quality photos of the lake and backdrop of mountains. There were three ducks sitting in a row on a log out in the water and I couldn't help but stand there staring at them in awe for several minutes. The picturesque view became even better when a canoe headed out into the middle of the pond, creating a small ripple that trickled to all sides of the pond. It was a marvelous sunny day. En route to the waterfall, I met two very friendly older couples from New Jersey and New York, who had begun to ask many questions about the thru-hike. It's great to hear that people are so interested! At the waterfall down below, I took off my pack, sat down, and began to have a burrito-lunch filled with hummus, cheese, pastrami and ham. Ahh, it was delicious. Several people came up and asked what I was doing, including a mother and a young couple who were up visiting the mountains of Killington, as they are avid skiers. Wonderful people. I climbed Quincy Mountain at 2,550 feet and then descended to Stony Brook Shelter, where I met up with Jungli and Dreamcatcher, who I hadn't seen since Unionville, NY.
Date: 2009-08-31
From: Stony Brook Shelter

To: Thistle Hill Shelter
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Highlight: The beautiful picturesque view from The Lookout, where we could see Mt. Washington far in the distance. After a very cold night, I left the shelter in the early morning and had planned on doing a big 21.5 mile day. The terrain turned out to be very tough and I immediately hit some bumps early on in the morning. I ran into BeeMan and GoodWill, two late 30's men who are taking their time to hike the trail. I ran into BeeMan several times in the south, but didn't catch up with him until Dalton, Mass at Tom Levardi's. I hiked on and took the .2 blue blaze to The Lookout, a beautiful vista platform on top of a shelter that provides a panoramic view with glimpses of the White Mountains of NH and the Green Mountains of Vermont. It was wonderful! Up top, I talked with a SOBO named Restless, who is from Key West, FL, and has been struggling with the drastic change to cold weather that we have most recently had. He claims that if it snows on him, then he will get off the trail. I hiked on to Wintturi Shelter, where I met another SOBO ¢ this time, a female named Annie ¢ who had decided to leave college and has been a bit nomadic ever since (surf instructor in Cape Town, South Africa, traveling through South America, bumming around in Costa Rica, and most presently, hiking the Appalachian Trail). She was very friendly and I enjoyed listening to her stories about South America, as she had done a very similar route that I hope to do one day. I pushed on solo and continued for much of the day without stopping, bumping into Jungli, GoodWill, and BeeMan once. When I climbed to the top of a hill that overlooked the setting sun and huge green hills, I called my friend Trevor Gorman, who was now the Assistant Coach of the Men's Soccer Team at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH to let him know that I would be passing through the following day. Trevor and I played soccer together with Nittany Quasars during our youth and the last time I saw him was five years ago when I was playing for the University of Richmond and we managed to beat Penn State in overtime (thanks to a Micah Fisher bicycle kick) 2-1 at the Ohio State Tournament in Columbus, OH. Ohh, the memories. It will be good to see him tomorrow. The trail turned into a marshland as I was coming through the fields close to Cloudland Road and I had to bypass the horrible wet marsh by jetting up and over some fields, which happened to yield a beautiful array of yellow wildflowers juxtaposed against the backdrop of green mountains. I reached the shelter just before 7:00 pm and was happy to get in 'early', as it was near darkness. Indiana James, a NOBO starting in Damascus, and Will, a SOBO/NOBO now trying to section his hike, was in the shelter at the time. It was a cold night again and I will be looking forward to getting my cold-weather gear when I hit Glencliff, NH.