morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-09-21
From: Jug End Road

To: Race Brook Falls Campsite
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: light rain

Jess fixed us breakfast again, but we had to get going early because she had to get to the college where she teaches. She delivered us to the Jug End Road trailhead [by way of Bow Wow Road], & we started up.The first part of the morning was the hardest, a steep, rocky slope that has not only rocks to climb but places where a hiker might be afraid of falling off the Mtn. As you might imagine, that was very slow going for Tagalong. With some assistance, she made it up to some rocks where we could sit & enjoy the view back across the valley to the hills we had been on a few days ago. The rest of the day was easier, not because there weren't rocks but because they didn't look as dangerous & had easier, more level spaces in between. We stopped for lunch & water at Hemlocks Shelter. Along the way, we met Chief & Toad (who have a blog), SOBO flip-floppers, & "Risk", plus 2 section-hikers & a couple of day-hikers. A slow ascent & descent of Mt. Everett completed our day, bringing us to Race Brook Trail Campsite by late afternoon. It's 14 mile off the Trail but not a significant change of elevation. I had a surprisingly easy time setting up our tent on the platform ¢ the boards were spaced just right to jam tent pegs between them. Others who came to camp included SOBO Hat-Man & a Father & daughter overnighting. It was another cold night, but Tagalong's additional clothing helped, & the space blanket was available as needed.
Date: 2015-09-22
From: Race Brook Falls Campsite

To: Sages Ravine Campsite
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: overcast clouds

A short day, so we took our time. I think Tagalong is getting better on the rocks, but still has a lot of fear. Today was basically spent going up & over Race Mtn., which isn't as steep as yesterday's Mtns. However, it does involve walking along the edge of a rock cliff for a half mile or more. That provided some good views of rural Massachusetts & Connecticut. We made our way gradually down to Sages Ravine. No need to rush thru this beautiful area.We were the only ones to camp at the campsite, so we had our choice of platforms. These aren't as easy to attach a tent to, but I can always find some way. This was a bit warmer night, in a pretty protected location, so we came thru warm enough.
Date: 2015-09-23
From: Sages Ravine Campsite

To: Undermountain Road, Salisbury
Miles today: 6.8

Awoke in lovely Sages Ravine & headed up the Trail. Nice, easy Trail at first, then it became obvious that Bear Mtn would be a "bear" for Tagalong. The rocks made for very slow progress. She has some fear of heights, plus fear of falling & breaking something (a recurrent thought at our age). When we got to the top, we stopped for lunch in the shadow of the stone structure at the top, announcing the "highest ground" in Connecticut, tho the AT Companion says it isn't. There we were joined by 4 day-hikers from a camp for adults in the area, where staff outnumber guests & people go for spa/rehab/anything else you might want to spend $1,000 per day on. We left them at the top, but they quickly passed us on the way down.The South side of Bear Mtn. is not as steep & rocky as the North, but still slow going for us. We stopped for lunch at Brassie brook Shelter, where I had lunched in the rain in 2002 with a crowd of Yale freshmen, who had introduced me to gorp with M&Ms. We decided to by-pass Riga Shelter & go on down to the campsite on the edge of town.It was a fairly easy trail downhill, except for a bit of a bump for Lion"s Head, a good view-point for much of the same scenery we'd been seeing. My old map & guidebook agreed that there is a Plateau Campsite about 14 mile before Rt. 41; but we could find little conclusive evidence of its existence & no horizontal spots where one could put a tent. The only clues were a privy near the parking lot at the bottom & a sign pointing to a side trail for water. That was a dead-end at a dry creek bed, & there were no other signs pointing to anything. A man I met leaving the privy said he had once been back-packing the area, looked for the campsite, & not found it either.So we decided to walk into Salisbury & stay with Maria McCabe. I had first stayed with her in 2002 & 2004. She's still renting rooms to hikers & still as feisty as ever. She took us to a grocery & a restaurant & told us where to find materials to cook our breakfast, since she regularly sleeps till 8:30. At the restaurant we met her other guest, a long section-hiker named         .
Date: 2015-09-24
From: Undermountain Road, Salisbury

To: Falls Village
Miles today: 7.1

We awoke & made our breakfast with the materials Maria had set out. I walked back to the AT on Rt. 41; Tagalong took a shortcut on Cobble Road. I walked past a large estate with no one living in it, where she had suggested we could camp on the grounds last night. The sprinkler system was going ¢ that would have been interesting to wake up to!!When we got into the woods, we saw a tent where someone was stealth-camped. The ascent of Barrack Mattif has some rocks & so was more difficult than I expected. Then it was a bunch of small ups & downs, past a stone feature called Giant's Thumb (which I didn't remember from my previous hikes), all the way up to Mt. Prospect. From there we texted Hudson at Bearded Woods Hostel, that we would be at the bridge site in 3 hours [3 miles at 1mph]. We actually got there in a little over 1 hour, so we must have been both closer & faster than we thought. We got some good views of the falls & walked partly along the road to the bridge, while Tagalong got to look at some nice houses along the way. We had seen 2 kayakers getting out above the dam & looking for the place to put in again. We thought they would pass us as we sat by the river waiting to be picked up, but they didn't show up. Workers were busy pouring concrete for the new bridge supports. As I understand it, the old steel or wrought iron truss bridge is being widened & strengthened to resist flooding. The river looked fordable at that point, but this year they have a detour anyway. Hudson picked us up & took us to their hostel, where we got cleaned up. A little later, Big Lou drove up with a couple of other hikers: Dream-Catcher & Nobody, both SOBO. She's an author, & he's a remarkable young man, severely injured on his 8th tour in Iraq, now reconstructed & turned into an endurance athlete. A good meal & lots of good conversation.Before dinner we laid out our maps to look at the Trail ahead. Tagalong is convinced that she can't do more than about 5 miles per day; so we tried to lay out a schedule to come near to accommodating that. Obviously, the location of shelters & campsites, plus the prohibition on stealth-camping in Ct, make that tricky. This also means she won't be going as far as Pawling, but there are other places she can catch a train to NY City.
Date: 2015-09-25
From: Falls Village

To: Pine Swamp Brook Shelter
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Today turned out to be a few more miles than we had agreed, but the first 3 were level Trail or road walk along the Housatonic. We went by the impressive regional high school, which apparently covers most of NW Ct, from Kent up. Yes, we avoided the detour by being dropped off across the river from where we left off yesterday. Might as well do the traditional AT, rather than a road-walk detour that no one likes. After crossing the highway bridge, the Trail gets confusing as it loops around a hayfield & a salvage yard, but then it's up Sharon Mtn., past Belters View, to the overlook over the speedway. It's a pretty view if you can avoid listening too much, but even the cars & go-carts running around can be interesting for a while. While on this very long Mtn, we met Dream-Catcher & Nobody, slack-packing. They must have been dropped off much later than we were because we had covered more miles than they had. The water at Pine Swamp Brook Shelter was way down the hill, at the third brook connecting the two swamps. The other 2 were just puddles. Not bad tasting tho. We were soon joined at the shelter by SOBO Smiley, a flip-flopper who will complete his thru-hike at the Hudson River. Then came 3 section-hikers, one with a dog, all of whom tented nearby. We thought this was supposed to be the night with a super-moon of some sort. It was bright, but we could see very little of it thru the trees.This was a cold night, but we each wore all our clothes, & Tagalong used the "space blanket " to good effect.
Date: 2015-09-26
From: Pine Swamp Brook Shelter

To: Silver Hill Campsite
Miles today: 6.7

We got out first, but Smiley passed us soon. Being Saturday, there were a lot of people on the Trail: 2 different Boy Scout groups, one camping, the other day-hiking; a family of 5 looking the trail over to see if they wanted to try backpacking; Dream-Catcher & Nobody, doing another slack-pack; & 4 thru-hikers who had just summitted Katahdin & were coming back to pick up a couple of little sections they had skipped [Bilbo, Finch, Raydon, & Strider/striker]. A couple of miles down the hill, we came to West Cornwall Road, crossed the covered bridge, & had breakfast at the Wandering Moose Cafe. There's not much else there, but we did stop at the farmers market. This is West Cornwall because it has the old bridge ¢ Cornwall Bridge is a different place a few miles downstream. A few miles over the next hill, we stopped for lunch at Caesar Brook Campsite. Then a nice walk up & over Pine Knob. Just before the next road, we arrived at Guinea Brook, which came with all kinds of warnings to take an alternate route because the crossing was so dangerous. That must be in the Spring when the water is high ¢ it certainly didn't seem to be a problem now. We crossed easily on the rocks & started up Silver Hill.That turned out to more difficult than I expected. There were some rocks, & it was a bit steep for a while, but I hadn't expected how hard it would be for Tagalong. She ended up taking lots of breaks, & I carried her pack up the steepest section. Eventually, we made it to the top & found the campsite on the other side. It's pretty nice, with a roof over the tables & a swing & benches to sit & enjoy the view that used to be there before the trees grew too high.
Date: 2015-09-27
From: Silver Hill Campsite

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 3.3
Weather: broken clouds

Last night turned out to be warmer; I think being in the tent (rather than shelter) helped. When I had looked at the map yesterday, I thought that going a mile back to the last road & hitchhiking to Cornwall for church sounded very doable, especially because we had planned a pretty short day today. After yesterday's experience getting up & over Silver Hill, however, that seemed less palatable. Then I figured out that we could go down the hill with the AT to the old road along the river & backtrack on level ground to West Cornwall. When we got to Rt. 4, we found the bridge way above us. I climbed up the steep bank to try to find an easier way for Tagalong, but by the time I found it she had made it up as well. Then we had to hitch 4 miles into the main town. That didn't happen very quickly, but eventually we got a ride, getting to St. Peter Lutheran Church just in time to clean up a little first. We both enjoyed having a Lutheran service again. The former pastor of this church was someone we had known back in Ohio years ago; & we were told he would be back next week for an anniversary celebration. The present pastor did a very good job with the service & the sermon, & the people were very friendly. More than one even offered to drive us back to the Trail. Once we got back, it was an almost totally flat couple of miles to the shelter. 0.4 before it we noticed a brook with water -- the brook by the shelter was dry. So back I went.We thought we might have the shelter to ourselves, but at dusk an English hiker from Ghana named Rupert came in. He was quite interesting, North-bound on a section hike.
Date: 2015-09-28
From: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter

To: Kent, Ct.
Miles today: 7.0

Tagalong has had so much trouble with rocky places along the Trail, especially Bear Mtn., that we decided she could skip St. Johns Ledges by continuing on River Road to Skiff Road & into town along the river. Looking at the forecast of rain for the next 5 days, she had decided to end her hike at Kent & take a train to New York. So we parted after hiking our last couple of miles together on the AT this trip.The Trail up the ledges is unusual for the Ct section, but I didn't think it was overly difficult -- especially, it doesn't have many rock faces like Bear Mtn. Once at the top, the Trail was pretty nice going up a little to Caleb's Peak. After having a bit of lunch & enjoying the view, I texted Tagalong & learned that she was in Kent already. I thought that was pretty fast, even for a flat road walk ¢ later, I discovered she had gotten a ride practically the whole way from a section hiker we had met several times in the past few days. After Calebs Peak, it was easy Trail, mostly downhill thru open woods, with lots of little ups & downs. Shortly after crossing Skiff Mtn. Road, I came to a stream where I had stopped to get water on my North-bound hike & had met my first SOBO hiker (I met several more later at the shelter). Like most of the other streams in the area, it now had barely a trickle of water.I've enjoyed hiking with my wife & adjusted my pace accordingly, but today it felt good to be able to open up & speed down trails that would have seemed more difficult to her. Doing the last 4 miles in 2 hours was the fastest I've gone in some time.We each explored the town a bit & met up at the library. She had picked up my package from the Post Office, so I had some sorting to do, sending home as much as I could. I'll try to go cookless again for the rest of the trip.We had a good meal at the Pizza Garden, bought a few grocery items, & called for pick-up at the Cooper Creek B&B, a nice place a couple of miles out of town.
Date: 2015-09-29
From: Kent, Ct.

To: Kent, Ct.
Miles today: 0.0

Five days of rain forecast, starting tonight. I wanted to start out this morning, try to go as fast as possible to the Hudson River, then pick up at Culvers Gap to finish NJ & go a little bit into PA. As I tried to explore bus & train schedules (to get to Newark for a plane on the 5th), it started looking very complicated. Then I realized that my weak phone battery was discharging faster than expected. To top that off, I discovered that my charging cord was broken somehow & my re-charging devices were not working well anyway. Kent is a town with a lot of high-end shops, but a bit lacking in things a Family Dollar or WalMart might have. I'd have to wait till morning to see what might have what I needed. In the old days, I'd just have continued on without a phone, but now I use it as my camera as well, & Susan has gotten used to hearing regularly about my progress. Altho we've had a lot of easy days on the Trail from my viewpoint, I haven't had a Zero for over a week. Besides, it costs the same at the B&B for both of us to stay as for one; SO I decided to take a day off (& give up the idea of going farther than the Hudson).The innkeepers suggested 3 places in town that might have the cord I needed -- the pharmacy did. So we spent most of the day in town, using the library & enjoying another good hamburger. Except for a few sprinkles in the early afternoon, no rain today (hate to miss such a nice hiking day). But Tomorrow???
Date: 2015-09-30
From: Kent, Ct.

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: overcast clouds

After such a beautiful day of relative inactivity yesterday, this one didn't seem so desirable. But then, I haven't had my share of rain on this trip. It rained, sometimes a lot, in the first hour; then lots of dripping after that. Before Noon, the sun was peeking out, glistening thru the trees & over the rocks. Lots of little red & orange efts on the Trail. We left Susan's hiking poles at the trailhead, & the shuttle took her to the train station. Just as I started up the hill, I met long section-hikers Green Flash & Just Tony, wanting to get out of the rain but not spend much money in Kent ¢ an unlikely goal. Soon I got to the Mt. Algo shelter. SOBO Hawkeye (last seen near Salisbury) was there. I thought he'd pass me after he got going, but I never saw him again. I heard a Train whistle around 10:45 & hoped Tagalong was now safely on the train over in Wingdale. Actually, it was a different railroad, & she was really in NY City already [just barely caught the earlier train]! I got over Mt. Algo with no worse trail than we'd been on for the last couple of days ¢ not counting that easy Monday for Tagalong. A few rocks were slippery from the rain, basically those with lichen on them.   Lunch at noon just past Schaghticoke Campsite. That's a nice flat-top Mtn. It was getting misty; so no good views. I took a little detour at Bulls Bridge, both to see the bridge & to get some ice cream [no cones], which I ate with supper at 10 Mile River Shelter. I'd been seeing the leaves on the ground; now it was nice to see an actual tulip tree over the shelter. It wasn't so nice to see the poison ivy increasing thru-out the day. I made only 14.7 miles today. It felt like more, for my first day without Susan. Wiley shelter is an old one with a low roof, but otherwise OK. Lots of stuff hanging on the outside wall: shovel, rake, fry pan, but no broom. They even provide a bucket to go get water from the well pump (2 shelters in a row have those). Got here at 7:00, i. e., just at dark. I had just crossed the state line 1.2 miles back. The last kiosk in Ct was the only one that actually had a map of the Trail in Ct!   10-Mile Hill has a sign: elevation 1000, 730 miles from Mt. Katahdin -- that's 1/3 of the Trail. When I finish this section, I'll have 867 to Culver's Gap. Just about 40%. Half hour trail work: Mt. Algo & 10-Mile Hill.
Date: 2015-10-01
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Past Nuclear Lake
Miles today: 12.5

I did almost 2 hours of trail work this morning: 3/4 hour on a tangle of vines (so many they killed the tree, which then fell over onto the Trail); 1-1/4 hour cleaning up a deadfall shortly before the turnoff to Wingdale (this needs more cutting, as do some others after that ); & 1/4 more in the afternoon. SOBO Scribe passed while I was cutting the vines. There's really some different kind of woods in NY compared to previous states. Newer growth for one thing, including lots more viney things like poison ivy. Tulip trees becoming more plentiful. I got to Hwy 2 just after noon & stayed an hour at the garden center. Very nice place ¢ it just never quite worked out to stop there on previous trips. The long boardwalk area after that was covered with art students from the high school. I went by the Dover Oak, even larger than the one we used to have in our back yard. Then up the hill to Telephone Pioneers Shelter, where I ate again in memory of Aileen, a 95-year-old who is the only person I ever knew to proudly display a Telephone Pioneers membership certificate on her wall. After a little research, I learned that it was a service organization for telephone company employees. I'd say this shelter was a good service to the Trail community. A little later, I tried to call Susan ¢ no answer: she was probably on her way to a Broadway play with her brother, Phill. Calling the Peekskill Post Office was even more frustrating. Even tho I've forwarded Priority Mail items all Summer, they tried to tell me I couldn't send this package of traveling-home stuff to my brother-in-law's. Finally, the 3d person I talked with said they'd do it ¢ but I shouldn't try it again. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the week-end. Since I can't get to the end before Saturday evening, I'm having to admit that I can't jump down & do any more of NJ. So I'll be spending Sunday & Monday on Staten Island. I continued on past Morgan Stewart Shelter, but after a while it became apparent that I wouldn't make it to the next one. After passing Nuclear Pond, it started to rain; so I set up my tent as quickly as possible. I prepared for a cold, wet night; but it didn't turn out too bad. Lots of train whistle noise in this area.
Date: 2015-10-02
From: Past Nuclear Lake

To: Coming down Shenandoah Mtn.
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: light rain

Train whistles all night; highway noise much of the day, especially along Hosner Mtn. Early on, I crossed I-84, then paralleled Taconic State Parkway much of the day before finally crossing it. Of course, there's also the constant background noise of falling acorns! And yet, there IS a sense of quiet in the woods. I'd been seeing other kinds of hickories for a week or 2, but today I saw my first shagbark too. Light rain off & on. Not too cold tho. The 4 miles or so to Morgan Stewart Shelter took 212 hours! Over some rocks. That means if I'd tried to get there last night I would have been walking more than an hour in total darkness, with light rain. I thought the wind would dry out my tent while I ate at the shelter ¢ actually, it just made me cold. It was nice after that to get over to the less windy side of the Mtn. Certainly a lot cooler than NY a month ago! At Rt. 52, I stopped almost hour for [2nd] lunch at the deli & pizza place 0.4 down the road. Ended up spending $24.65, including gorp. Only hiker [NOBO] I met today was called "Quiet" ¢ he didn't say much. I stopped to eat again [that's what hiking does to you!] at RPH Shelter. Shelters are awkwardly spaced along here, so I've never stopped at this one for the night. It's only 9 miles from Morgan Stewart, but 19 from Graymoor; so the mile detour to Fahnestock State Park camping area seems more attractive than it ought to be. This time, I didn't make it to the state park either. I then did 14 hour of trail work going up Shenandoah Mtn. There was daylight a little longer on the Mtn. top, which is mostly bald. Once I was going down the other side, it got dark quickly, & I had to find a campsite fast as the rain started. Hard to figure out the drainage patterns ¢ hoping I wouldn't be in a pond by morning ¢ I wasn't, but had lots of soggy leaves all around. And I was warm enough in the tent with all my clothes on.