morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-02-09
To: Another Kind of Cold
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we are dealing with another kind of cold, the kind that means you are sick! Jim has it the worst but I have been trying to keep it from getting its grip on me by taking Cold-Eze on a regular basis. So far so good, but time will tell. We did not get our usual training walk in this morning, but went for 4.5 miles this afternoon, when Jim was feeling up to it. Hopefully this cold won't hang around too long and we can get back to our training routine.Recently, I was wandering around on WhiteBlaze.net and saw a thread about dehydrating toothpaste and the use of toothpaste powder. I must admit that last year when I was the dehydrating queen, I wondered about toothpaste, but never did anything about it. With nothing left to dehydrate this year, a few days ago I decided to give it a try! Jim and I each have our favorite toothpastes so we squeezed dots about the size of a chocolate chip on the solid sheets that go on the dehydrator trays. We put two trays in the dehydrator, set it on high heat and went for a walk. After 4 hours, the dots were still wet, after 8 hours they were still wet, and after 12 hours they were sticky and I called it quits! That was too much time for something I wasn't even sure was going to be useful. So we are back to our original plans to each carry a small tube of our favorite paste. I did keep track and I can get 11 days (2 brushes/day) out of one of those small tubes. Our trail master will send us new tubes in our mail drops. That's enough about toothpaste!We gathered what we think would be a 5-day supply of food and it weighed in at about 13 pounds, which we think is manageable for us. After a week or so on the trail, we should know if we need to carry more.We see that there are some hardy hikers that have started north already and we wish them well and will be sending our good thoughts and warm wishes to them!Happy Trails!
Date: 2014-02-14
To: New Packs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

We thought we were set on what packs we would be carrying on the AT, but we did think they were heavier than they needed to be so Jim started doing some research and thought the new version of the Osprey Exos might fit our needs. When he tried to order them, we found that the packs were on back order, with a due date of "Spring 2014," which left us wondering if we could get them before our March 14th start date. Jim continued doing his research and regularly checked in with a variety of outfitters and finally he saw that Osprey had gotten the packs out there. Jim ordered a medium-48 for me and a large-58 for him and they will arrive early next week. That will give us plenty of time to see if the fiit works for each of us and how best to pack our gear in them. These new packs would save us each a couple of pounds on our pack weight, which is significant. We own a variety of Opsrey packs and have always been pleased with their quality and user-friendliness. Stay tuned to see how we feel once the new packs are actually on our backs!This has been a tougher week of training for us as we have both had a nasty cold which limited what we felt like doing for a day or two. But Jim seems to be fully recovered and I am getting close so next week we should be back on our training regiment. I have not been sick in about 2 years so this cold got the best of me. We are hoping to be able to stay healthy while hiking. We're doing some cross-training this weekend! More on that in the next journal entry!
Date: 2014-02-15
To: Cross Training
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: snow

We have come to Ottawa, Canada to celebrate winter and enjoy the annual Winterlude festivities. Winterlude is on for the first 3 weekends in February and I think this is the 38 year of this celebration. The focal point of Winterlude is ice skating on the very frozen Rideau Canal which bisects the city of Ottawa. Down and back on the canal is a skate of 15.6 kilometers (just under 10 miles). We skated these kilometers after arriving in Ottawa yesterday afternoon and then again this morning. What a workout! Overnight crews of ice magicians plow and sweep all the snow that has accumulated on the ice during the day. Then they pump water up from under the ice on the canal and flood the skating surface, resulting in 15.6k of beautiful skating ice! We were out early this morning before it got too busy, but by the time we left, thousands of skaters were out enjoying a skate. So our workout the past 2 days has been ice skating, working some different muscles!If you are a winter lover, put a trip to Ottawa's Winterlude on your Bucket List. In addition to great skating, there are XC skiing opportunities, a huge snow playground, ice and snow sculptures and competitions, and fabulous restaurants! We'll skate again tomorrow and maybe Monday before making the 5 hour drive home. Happy Hiking!
Date: 2014-02-18
To: New Gear!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Yesterday when we arrived home from Ottawa, we discovered a large box had been delivered to our door and in that box were our new Osprey Exos packs! We checked out the new packs, looking in each pocket and compartment, snapping and unsnapping each clip and trying on the empty packs to see how the hip belt feels. Jim is tall and very slender and ordered a size Large to accommodate his torso length, but was concerned that the hip belt may be too big. But the hip belt fits, although there is not a lot of strapping left to pull to make the pack tighter through the hips. I told Jim that since he has no fat around his hips, he would not be losing any weight there and the hip belt should continue to fit! Now for me, I do have some extra padding on my hips and if I lose some of it, I definetly have room to tighten up my belt!This morning we filled the new packs with the weights we had been carrying in our old packs and set out to see how they felt on our backs. We hiked 8 miles and all was good. The packs sat nicely and the shoulder straps were comfortable. We will have to practice putting all of our gear into these packs to see what fits best where and how to divide up all of our stuff. Jim has the 58 L pack and I have the 48 L pack. We are excited about these new packs for a variety of reasons, but mostly because we have just cut at least 1.5 pounds from our base weight. There is more good news related to our hike and that is that we now have a house-sitter! We had such a good house-sitter last year when we were in Australia for 6 months but she was unavailable again this year, so we asked a lot of people if they could recommend a responsible person who might want to live in our house. Several parents, who had adult children living at home, thought that child might like to live in our house, but we never heard from the kids. I think the kids realized if they moved into our house, they would have to cook their own meals and do their own laundry~things their Mom's were probably doing from them at home! But a former colleague of Jim's had a friend who is an experienced house-sitter and might be interested in staying in our house. We met with her tonight. After talking with her with think we have another winner! We will meet with her again in a week or so to go through the manual we've written for living in our house. We are greatly relieved to have the house-sitter situation resolved. We really didn't want to leave our house empty for 6 months.We are having a bit of a winter thaw this week and it is welcomed. We will probably be doing our training in the rain later this week but that is OK as we've heard the saying, "No rain, no Maine!" We can test out our rain gear and hiking layers for when it is raining and just above freezing. We are thinking of the hikers that are already out on the trail and hoping they are finding some relief from the recent wintery weather.Happy Hiking!
Date: 2014-02-20
To: Back to Some Hills
Miles today: 0.0

Our schedule and hiking conditions both allowed us to return to Cobbs Hill Park in downtown Rochester to get some hill training. We carried our new Osprey Exos packs, fully loaded, and did 10 hill repeats and then set off for a hike through the woods. When we returned to the "hill" we were greeted by the happy squeals of children sliding down the icy hill. As we did 5 more hill repeats, we were entertained by this group of kids who were loving their chance to go sledding during their February recess week. After a few runs by the kids, the squealing significantly dropped off as the kids got winded by the climb back up to the top. We had to be careful on our line as we hiked up and down the hill, being sure to not be cross paths with these youngsters who had no control over their flying saucers! What fun!We were glad to once again have our YakTrax stretched onto the bottom of our boots as there was ice and well-packed snow on most of our hiking surfaces. Our list of "Things to Do" before we leave home is growing. Jim realized he should prune our 2 apple trees before he leaves so that was added to the list. We each have dentist appointments in the next week or so and I think I would like to treat my feet to a pedicure before I embark on this adventure. I was going to get my hair cut short before we left, but I'm thinking it is short enough, especially if the weather is going to be on the cool/cold side~a bit more hair might be a bit more warmth!I also need to think about how I am going to participate in the March Madness pool I've been part of for many years! I love college basketball and have always been an enthusiastic pool participant and would hate to miss a year. We are Syracuse fans and were sad to see them lose their first game of the season last night, but knew it was bound to happen. 21 days and counting!Back to the Olympics. . .
Date: 2014-02-21
To: And the Prep Goes On
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

The photo to the left is a close-up of some of the molasses cookies I made today. This is recipe is from Jim's Mom and has been a favorite for many years. They travel really well so we've taken them on backpacking and canoeing trips since our boys were little. They will be a nice treat when our Trail Jeannie includes some in our mail drops. We love the Olympics and all the events that go along with it. We've been glued to the TV, enjoying the highs and lows that sports can provide. Here are some lessons I have learned from the Olympics that may be helpful on the AT:* There will be good days and less good days. * Fancy clothes don't make winners. * Be ready for assistance from an unsuspected helper. * Age doesn't matter~youngsters and oldsters have found success. * Conditions change - adjust. * No matter where you are from, we can support each other.* The latest and greatest equipment doesn't guarantee success. * Things aren't always as they seem. * A smile is a universal language. * Everybody has a story. * Sometimes you have to pick yourself up and try again. 20 days and counting Happy Hiking!
Date: 2014-02-26
To: More of the Same
Miles today: 0.0

I am ready to go. I am tired of walking the streets in our neighborhood to get some training miles in. We try to find new routes but the snowy, icy conditions have limited our options. I will be happy when the view along the trail is always changing and I enjoy looking forward to seeing what is around the next corner! Since we were all ready to hike last year when the opportunity to live in Australia came up, I feel like I have been anticipating this hike for over 2 years now! We are definitely counting the days until we make our first steps on the AT!Yesterday we went through our dehydrated dinners once more to get an accurate count of what we have. We are at 87, which is a good number because that will allow us to mix the meals we have prepared with some meals from local resupply. I also had dehydrated a good bit of fruit for snacks as well as some beef jerky for some protein power! Again, I am ready to go!Today Jim walked his 1,000th training mile! I'm back at the mid-600's but I do a good bit of cross-training which doesn't add miles to my log. We are ready to go!On Facebook, I follow Mountian Crossings at Walasi-yi, in Neel Gap and it has been fun to see the photos of the hardy souls who got an early start on the trail. They all looked happy to be hiking! We wish them the best of luck and hope they are keeping warm! Neel Gap is 31.7 miles from the trail's start at Springer Mountain and none of the hiker's in the photos looked beaten down or ready to quit! We plan to stop at Mountain Crossings at Walasi-yi (and I don't know how to pronounce the last word in this outfitter's name!) to eat and buy some more food for the next leg of our journey. We are once again preparing for some arctic air which will means I will be wearing my face mask when we head out for a walk. It is such a good look!15 days and counting. . .
Date: 2014-03-02
To: Party!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

It must be time to go because our friends, Bob and Sally, gave us a going away party last night and we got one more chance to socialize with friends and family. There was a definite hiking theme to the party. As we walked up to their door, Bob had his tent set up in the snow and Sally had hung some clothes on a drying line. There was a small table set up with a cook pot and a water bottle. There was a little half moon hung on their corner storage shed like a privy! In their house hung a map of the AT and the centerpiece on the food table was an old boot with a vase of flowers in it! Perfect! What's a party without a cake and Bob and Sally outdid themselves! They dug through their old photos and found one of Jim and I from 1979, in our hiking clothes, when we were traveling around Alaska with Bob and Sally! They had this photo put on a beautiful cake and it too, was perfect! Our friends contributed a ton of food, wine and beer and I believe a good time was had by all, especially us! Jim and I took our fully loaded packs to the party and a bunch of people wanted to try on the packs~this opportunity convinced no one to sign up for 6 months on the trail! We will miss all of our friends and family and maybe we have convinced one or two to try to meet up with us, in a town, where there is a motel and a restaurant! Thanks for all the love and support!Today we had a walk-through with our house sitter to explain how everything works in our house. This process was a bit easier this year because we already had the manual we created for our house sitter last year. Our house sitter seems very comfortable about moving into our house, which in turn makes us feel very comfortable about leaving our house. We will continue to train in the cold weather before a small warm-up arrives later this week. And by warm-up I mean a return to more seasonal temperatures for Rochester. Hopefully we'll find a bit more warmth when we get to Georgia. And we will probably have to be reminded about this desire for more warmth during the dog-days of summer, when we are too hot! There's no pleasing some people!11 days and counting. . .
Date: 2014-03-04
To: Pre-Hike Trail Magic!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we got to practice the Trail Magic experience as our friend, Sherri, made hot chocolate for us on a very cold morning. When we left the house on our training walk the thermometer read 6 degrees. We walked 3.6 miles with our packs when we got to Sherri's house where the hot chocolate was waiting for us! It was very tasty and fueled us for the rest of our hike. We will miss our friends, like Sherri, while we are hiking but we know that we have all their support. Thanks Sherri!Jim and I have now both been to the dentist and got good reports so hopefully our teeth are ready for 6 months on the trail. Brushing and flossing will have to be part of our camp routine!I hope to have some time to put some of our equipment on the gear list on this journal, but the closer we get to our departure date, the longer our "Things To Do" list gets! 9 days and 13 hours and counting. . .
Date: 2014-03-08
To: On the Trail to the Trail
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We've begun the trip south and the excitement is building!Our youngest son, Corey, lives in Washington, DC so that was our destination yesterday. We had an uneventful, sunny, 8-hour drive down here, but we noticed that the snow on the ground followed us all the way here! Today it is supposed to reach 60 degrees in DC, so that may take care of the remnants of snow that are lurking in the shadows around here. We arrived at Corey's house while he was still at work so we moved our stuff into his bedroom, where we discovered he left us some trail magic-a package of our favorite Aussie cookies and some Mentos (power pills!). What a nice surprise! Yesterday we said good bye to our parents and hope that they have a good 6 months while we are hiking. Jim and I both have siblings but they live out-of-state so are not in the immediate area if our folks need some assistance, but I know we will all work together if a need should arise. Saying good bye to family and friends has been hard and I've shed a few tears.Last night we ate dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant with Corey and a few of his colleagues and had lots of laughs! The food was excellent too! We followed dinner with a round of indoor mini-golf at a local bar and more laughs. Finally as last night rolled over into today, we readily agreed to call it a night! Today my younger brother, his wife and their son are driving here from SE PA to spend the day with us. We'll do brunch and then go for a hike along the Potomac River in the area of Great Falls. It looks like a good day for a hike!It is a good feeling to know that this time next week we will have some AT miles under our boots!
Date: 2014-03-11
To: A Step Closer
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

After a great weekend in Washington, DC with our youngest son, Corey, we continued south and west to West Virginia where we spent a luxurious 22 hours at the Greenbrier Resort! We first became aware of this place when we canoed the Greenbrier River many years ago and it has been on my bucket list ever since. I would definitely go back for another visit. Before leaving the resort this morning we hiked on one of their trails which took us up into the mountains. It was a good workout before sitting in the car for the next 5 hours, on our way to Knoxville, TN.We are now in our Trail Jeannie's house in Knoxville. Tomorrow we will get some bread for our trail lunches and repack our packs one more time. We have decided to start hiking a day earlier than originally planned because the weather looks good for both Thursday and Friday so we might as well get started! So, this is our last preparation journal entry-the next entry will be from the trail! Thanks for reading!
Date: 2014-03-13
From: Springer Mountain

To: Hawk Mountain shelter
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: clear sky

Day One-We could not have asked for a better first day of hiking on the AT! It is cold, but sunny, with the promise of warmer weather tomorrow. The trail was well-maintained with gentle ups and downs which was a nice welcome to Georgia and the AT. Our Trail Jeannie escorted us to the trail head, walked the .9 miles to the top of Springer Mountain, signed the trail register with us and then drove our car away as we headed north! We are pleased with our pack weights, 24 lbs. for me and 27 for Squirrel (Jim). That's with water and food so they will get lighter as we eat!It is a cold afternoon so I will keep this short. We are so thrilled to finally be hiking and we are off to a good start. Happy Hiking!
Date: 2014-03-14
From: Hawk Mountain shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: clear sky

Day 2- It was a cold night, but another hiker started a fire and then Jim (Squirrel) really got it going which warmed us up before we climbed into the tent at 8:45. We stayed warm in our layers of clothes and down sleeping bags. The nearly full moon was like a beacon most of the night and we were serenaded by a Barred Owl several times during the night. Today dawned cold and clear with the promise of warmer weather and that's what we got. Today's 7.7 miles was shorter than yesterday but hillier. We hoisted our packs and were on the trail at 9:00 AM. The sun warmed us and we peeled off layers as we hiked up hill and down. The woods are mostly varying shades of grey and brown with sections where the rhododendron bushes added shades of green. I hope we get to hike through some rhododendrons when they are blooming! The trail is well maintained and we are already grateful for the work of the volunteer trail crews. We saw our first trail magic today in the form of 5 one-gallon jugs of water for hikers who were running low. We weren't but appreciated the effort. We were the first one at our destination today, Gooch Mountain Shelter and picked a campsite, found the water source and ate our lunch. Other hikers will make their way here over the course of the afternoon. We have not slept in a shelter yet because our tent is warmer and the mice rule the roost in most of the shelters. So far the cell service is more limited than we were led to believe so don't panic if we don't update this journal everyday. Right now I have some service at our tent site so I posted yesterday and today's entry. We have met lots of fine folks already and I am enjoying the social aspect of the AT when we are all cooking our dinners around the shelter in the evening. All is well.
Date: 2014-03-16
From: Lance Creek Campsite

To: Neel Gap
Miles today: 7.4

Day 4- As promised the rain started up at 4:00 AM. We stayed in the tent until 6:30 AM and then packed up our stuff is best we could for a wet day. The title of today's journal entry, Blood, Sweat and Tears first to the fact that we climbed Blood Mountain, sweat all the way in spite of it being cold and rainy, and the tears were not mine but were tears from the clouds! Lots of tears! It rained buckets! We made a brief stop at the Blood Mountain shelter but moved on quickly because we started to get cold. The descent was exciting as the trail was pretty much a raging creek! But we made it. Our original destination was about a mile beyond Neel Gap where we are right now. Neel Gap is home to the famous Mountain Crossing outdoor store and several options for indoor housing. After inhaling a hot pizza at the store we decided to get a cabin for the night. It was a 4-person cabin so we offered to share it with some of our new trail friends, Nancy and Frank (no trail names yet) and they quickly accepted the offer. So we are warm and dry for the night and will head back out in the rain tomorrow. We also have two frozen pizzas to cook in our cabin for dinner tonight. Nancy and Frank bought three!Tomorrow we will bump our mileage up into double digits and will camp at Low Gap shelter. There is supposed to be less rain tomorrow. It's been a good day. Although because of our early start we missed some trail magic. Apparently 2 older women were on the trail handing out homemade biscuits with sausage patties! Sorry to have missed that!All is well.