morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2017-06-30
From: Morgans Mill Rd., VA 605

To: Keys Gap, WV 9
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

Last night I slept in my tent with both vestibules open.  It allowed some air movement, but it also gave me a view to lots of fireflies.  One got into the space between the mesh layer and outer layer of the tent, which was lovely.  We've crossed the 1,000 mile mark and are poised to leave Virginia for good.  We set out at 6:00 AM to hike the Roller Coaster.  The hills looked neither steep nor long on the profile in AWOL, but they were harder than they looked.  There was a lot of rock hopping.  When we arrived at the 1,000 mile mark, we realized we were only going one mile an hour.  There were ten miles of this. At noon we still had more than ten miles to go.  This was also the first really hot day of the summer.  It was about 85 degrees and humid.I would like to have stopped at Bears Den Hostel for coffee or ice cream.  Lizzie called to find out the hours of the store.  It was only open till 9 AM, so we skipped it.  Later Skittles and another hiker passed.  They had stopped at the hostel and gotten ice cream.   Once we were past the Roller Coaster the terrain changed.  There were fewer rocks and smaller hills.  In mid-afternoon Lizzie caught up with me.  She had been ahead but had stopped at a spring on a side trail to get water and wash herself.  I hiked with her the rest of the way.  What fun!  I've missed hiking with her.  She wonders about so many things.  Do all pit vipers reproduce by live birth?  Did the striations around many of the rocks we saw come into existence at the time of the rest of the rock or at a later period?  She says Terry Gross's podcasts of "Fresh Air" are going to get her to Katahdin.  We crossed the state line into West Virginia, but we haven't left Virginia for good yet.  The trail meanders back and forth between the two states for a while.  When we got to West Virginia there was a refreshing breeze.  We used this to push ourselves into a faster gear.  We finished a few minutes before 7:00.  It took us 13 hours to hike 20.4 miles.  Very slow.  When we got back to the trailhead parking lot Nancy Lake was again waiting for us.  She had rented High Acres for us to spend the evening and overnight.  This is a Victorian House that has a beautiful view overlooking the Potomac River.  Two of Arlene's friends, Marie and Lucy, met us there.  We had a nice dinner and talked and laughed until way too late.  It's now 11:30, and I'm just about to get to bed.  I'm utterly exhausted.  Tomorrow we get up at 4:30 so we can be back at the trailhead by 5:30.  It's another long hike, 23.7 miles.  But at the end of the day my sister Diane will arrive to pick me up for a six-day break from the trail.  These days are the sections that the group hiked in practice hikes, and none of us is rehiking this section.  We're all taking a break to eat, sleep, and rest.
Date: 2017-07-09
From: Swatara State Park, PA 443

To: PA 183
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Tonight we're camped in a grassy field where I can look out my vestibule and see the full moon above and a field full of fireflies below.  I am so lucky to be here.  Sometimes life on the trail seems magical.It was another full day.  We left late, around 7:00, so we knew it would be a long day. Arlene, Bill, Terri and I started out together.  Although Bill sometimes went ahead we hiked together most of the day.  Later Lizzie caught up with us, and the five of us hiked together.  I love these people; they feel like family.  It's hard to believe that they won't be in my life forever.For most of the day we walked along a ridge.  We walked across a beautiful old bridge (see photo).  In several places the earth was covered with ferns as far as the eye could see.  We saw fairy wand (see photo). There were rocky places where even the really large rocks tilted under our feet.  There were rock outcroppings from which we got panoramic views of farmland below and the next range of mountains beyond.  There was a cooler of ice cold drinks at a road crossing. There were trail angels at the next crossing giving out all kinds of food: yogurt, hummus, protein bars, lemonade, Gatorade, candy bars, pudding, dried fruit, packets of tilapia.    (Applejacks, one of the trail angels, thru hiked the trail last year.) We passed the 1,200 mile marker together and stopped to relish the moment.  We now have less than 1,000 miles to go.The day was marred by injury though.  About six miles from the end Lizzie fell and cut her knee badly. Her knee has a deep dirty gash that curves to open as a flap.  We're urging her to go to a doctor tomorrow to get it really cleaned and maybe stitched.  Still later Terri fell while crossing a stream on rocks but didn't appear to be hurt.  We didn't get in till about 8:30.  The next few days we have shorter hikes, mostly 14 or 15 miles. We're all looking forward to them.
Date: 2017-07-10
From: PA 183

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 14.4

Lizzie was up quite late last night trying to clean the dirt out of her knee.  The cut is deep, and the dirt is ground into her tissues because she fell hard.  She got almost no sleep.  Warren arrived in the morning just as we were putting our tents into the van.  She apparently told him she had cut her knee and wanted to go to a doctor.  I heard him ask her how she was going to make up the miles she'd miss today.  Later through texts we learned that the doctors at Urgent Care told her they couldn't clean the wound and didn't have the antibiotics she needed.  They sent her to the ER at a hospital in Reading.  She's now been admitted and will be there overnight.  We finally got to talk to her just now.   The wound is infected.  She's going to get a "deep cleaning" in the morning and see an orthopedist.  They'll decide then whether they have to cut it open to get it clean.  Warren told us earlier that Lizzie was not coming back.  That didn't sound like the Lizzie we know.  Lizzie confirmed for us that she hasn't made any rash decisions and is still crazy like we are.  I told her that I'll support her by car for any days she has to miss so she can finish her hike after we reach Katahdin.  We are now optimistic that she'll come back, barring any terrible medical events.Arlene has trouble on the home front.  She got a text from her ex-husband that there is trouble with their 20-year-old daughter.  If it's really bad she may give up the hike and go home.  This would break her heart.  She's been planning this hike for so many years and is so far into it now. It's probably the only big thing she's ever done just for herself.  It makes me sad to even think about it.Just yesterday when we passed the 1,200 mile mark we seemed so strong and confident. Tonight it all seems so fragile.
Date: 2017-07-12
From: Blue Mtn. Summit, PA 309

To: Blue Mtn. Summit, PA 309
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a very good day.  Lizzie was finally discharged from the hospital.  Warren picked her up in mid-afternoon.  The doctors have told her she's not to hike until the wound is completely closed up, likely five to seven days.  She's going home for this time.  Her dad will drive her back to the trail when the wound closes up.  My friend Big Dog, who lives in Allentown, took her to his house for the night and will take her to the airport in the morning.I finally succeeded in getting a doctor's appointment scheduled for next Thursday near Monroe, NY, which is where we'll be then.  The orthopedic practice has late office hours that day, so my 6:30 appointment gives me plenty of time to do the hike (13.1 miles) and get to the appointment. As I had feared, this took all morning to set up.  I've been working on this since last Friday with no success.  Yesterday I received an email from medical records telling me they had received all my records and I could now call the main number to schedule an appointment.  I called the main number, and the scheduling person insisted that I couldn't possibly have received such an email because the practice doesn't send emails.  And they didn't have my medical records.  Argh!  I was so frustrated I felt like crying.  Today the doctor who is CEO of the practice called, and he couldn't have been more accommodating.  He gave me an appointment for the day and time I needed to fit into the hiking schedule.  The hike today was relatively short (11.5 miles), but it was rocky.  This is the section I hiked last week so I didn't hike today.  I recalled that there were some rocks, but I told the others it was similar to yesterday's terrain.  On their return they informed me that it was much harder than yesterday.  I guess the week's time lapse caused me to forget just how rocky it really is.  In the afternoon we took the van into Allentown to see Wonder Woman.  There were some very funny parts near the beginning, and we all laughed hard.  Arlene has a hearty and infectious laugh, and she sees the nuances of humor in every situation.  Being with her has caused the rest of us to laugh more often and to laugh harder.  What a great thing!  After we started laughing the whole audience started laughing, too.  It made the whole movie better.  When we got back to the campsite Lizzie was there, and we got to say goodbye before she left to recuperate.  Big Dog was also there and had brought us bananas, apples, and gooey chocolate cupcakes.  It was another very full and very good day even though I was not on the trail.For a preview of tomorrow's hike check out the photo in my August 21, 2016 journal entry.
Date: 2017-07-14
From: Little Gap Rd., PA

To: Wind Gap, PA 33
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: broken clouds

Today's hike was more notable for the good company and conversation than for the hike itself. The weather forecast was for rain all day.  We started the day putting on our wet clothes, shoes, and socks from yesterday.  Not my favorite thing.  It was foggy when we started, and it remained foggy all day.  We hiked through mud puddles and then up a big field of rocks.  It was steep but there were steps going up part of it.  (In some really steep places on the trail flat rocks are moved into place to form staircases.  The stairs are irregular in size, but they're easy to stand on because they're flat.  They help quite a lot in really steep places.)  We were anticipating more rocks through the day, but most of the walk along the ridge was not challenging.  Even though it wasn't raining at the start I wore my poncho.  I hoped to dry it out by wearing it. By mid morning my clothes were nearly dry.  My underwear and shirts are all wool, so they provide warmth even when wet.  My body heat eventually dried them and my nylon shorts.  Arlene, Bill, and I hiked together and talked about all sorts of things.  Bill posed two questions for discussion.  (1) What would your perfect day be?  (2) Who would you invite to be house guests if you could have three people - one for a weekend, one for a week, and one for a month.  We all pondered this for a while.  It was interesting to see the different approaches. Arlene immediately thought of a person to cook for her and to teach her how to cook and an entertainer who would make her laugh.  I was thinking about world leaders.  Bill just pondered but didn't offer anything.We stopped at a shelter for lunch and chatted with several hikers.  By the time we left, around 1:30, it was raining moderately hard and starting to get windy.  I stopped to put on a heavy fleece underneath my poncho.  After several hours the rain stopped, and I again started to dry out.  We finished hiking shortly after three.  Since it is a town day, we had made a reservation at a hotel.  Arlene, Bill, Terri, and I are sharing a room.  We've now had showers, done our laundry, eaten large amounts of food at a diner, and shopped for groceries.  I'm very sleepy.  (The time I spend writing this journal comes out of my sleeping time.).  Tomorrow is our last day in Pennsylvania.  Sunday we'll cross the border into New Jersey.  If you're getting tired to seeing day after day of photos of rocks, it's to let you know that there are many days on the tail that are very alike.  Different day, different set of rocks.
Date: 2017-07-16
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Blue Mountain Lakes Rd.
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

Early this morning we crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey, and New Jersey welcomed us with beautiful views, sunny weather, and an all-round lovely day.  We crossed the state line by walking over a long bridge (see photo).  At the Kittatinny Visitor's Center we got a glimpse of a bald eagle. The rocks of Pennsylvania continued into New Jersey, and we picked our way carefully across them.  It was a bright sunny day with blue skies.  There were lots of people out hiking, including one Japanese group of perhaps 30 people.  We hiked alongside Sunfish Pond and admired the stone sculptures at the north end.  These "sculptures" were actually rock cairns made in many shapes and forms.  Farther up the ridge we stopped at a powerline crossing, where a turkey vulture was perched airing out its wings.  The rocky crest of Kittatinny Mountain afforded beautiful views on two sides: on one side the Delaware River, on the other a reservoir (see photo).  Some miles into the hike we reached a road and turned left for the Mohican Outdoor Center, a facility run by the Appalachian Mountain Club.  We had lunch there - delicious sandwiches made from mozzarella, hummus, roasted red peppers, etc., chips, orange juice, and ice cream bars. There were lawn chairs in front of the building, and Bill talked to a woman who was there on a retreat with her quilter's group.  He sent her over to me, and I stepped momentarily back into my normal world of quilt making.  I also talked to a woman who was just finishing her first year of retirement.  She had spent it driving around the United States visiting her friends and relatives from all parts of her life.  What a great idea!Much of the hike was over grassy, lightly wooded areas with lots of blueberries.  We stopped often to eat them.  One powerline right of way had fields full of bergamot, black-eyed Susan, and thistles.  We didn't get to the endpoint until 6:30 because we stopped at several viewpoints along the way.  It was an extremely pleasant day.  At the endpoint we cut open the watermelon Lizzie had bought before she got hurt and left.  I got a text from Lizzie that she may be back as early as Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.  Hooray!
Date: 2017-07-22
From: Arden Valley Road

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Today the trail provided us an urban experience totally different from the rest of the hike.  We left early, at 5:30, because it was a 20.8-mile day.  The Appalachian Trail in this part of New York goes through through Bear Mountain State Park, one of the earliest New York parks built for city dwellers to use.  The white blazes took us past an exhibit about how trails are designed and made, a concession stand, a large picnic pavilion, picnic grounds, an inn, a lake, a museum, and a zoo.  A statue of Walt Whitman celebrated his "Song of the Open Road."  There was also a sad little zoo with two foxes, two bears, and a bobcat which I didn't see.All these areas were overflowing with families and children picnicking and swimming.  The crowd was predominantly Latino, and all kinds of Spanish language music was playing (Arlene in particular enjoyed the music).  This is not the demographic of the trail, which is overwhelmingly white with a smattering of Asians.The trail went right past the swimming pool, which had so many people in it that there was no room to swim.  Everyone was just standing in the water, spaced so as to be separated from the adjacent people.  Part of the reason we got up so early was that the zoo is only open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  Since this is the official route of the AT, arriving outside of business hours means hiking an alternate blue-blazed side trail that goes around the museum and zoo. Consequently, you don't get part of the trail completed.  We had 14 miles to hike before getting there, so we left early.  The hike itself was long and difficult.  It featured lots of uphill climbs, some steep descents, and lots of confusing blaze markings.  One of the things that made yesterday so hard was that the trail was poorly marked.  In many places there was a blaze, with no apparent trail leading to it.  So some people went one way, and others went another.  This created two trails, with no indication of which was the actual trail.  Apparently the trail is so heavily used here that mistaken routes can quickly become equally as prominent as the real trail.  This was also true of the trail today. In addition, there were significant rocky ups and downs, so we arrived at the end point utterly exhausted.Tonight we're camped on the baseball field at Graymoor Friary. The Franciscan brothers here allow hikers to use this area to camp and have provided Portapotties and a cold water shower. There's no electricity or roof at the shower, and it's quite buggy.   I'm trying to decide whether it's worth the trouble to rig up my headlamp so I can see to take a shower.  Not only am I stinky, but I've got dirt all over my legs from kneeling to take pictures and taking the occasional fall.  I no longer wipe the dirt off my knees because that transfers the dirt to my hands.  Life out here can be glorious, but it's also really, smelly and dirty.
Date: 2017-07-23
From: Graymoor Friary

To: Hortontown Rd.
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: light rain

Tonight our tents are set up near RPH shelter.  This shelter is very near a road, and there is a persistent sound of traffic from the Taconic Parkway.  According to AWOL, the trail will pass underneath it .3 mile from here.  One of the strange things about hiking near New York City is the number of times the trail crosses major highways.  The sound of these highways is very loud and travels upward so as to be heard from quite a distance.  Yesterday from the top of Black Mountain we could hear steady traffic noise.  As we descended the mountain we came to a place where the slight decline became steep.  As we crossed the lip of the plateau the noise instantly became much louder.  By the time we reached the bottom it was roaring.  Hikers here cross a very busy four-lane divided highway with no traffic signal.  There is a wooded median strip, so we only had to cross two lanes at a time.  We waited till there was a clear space between cars, then raced across the lanes to the wooded median.  Then we repeated the process crossing from the median to the north side of the highway.  At another point we had to run across four lanes of traffic.  And at the exit of Bear Mountain Museum and Zoo we crossed another busy highway to get to the pedestrian lane of the Bear Mountain Bridge.  We walked in places that are clearly meant to be traversed by cars, not walkers.  It's one of the strange features of the trail - the footpath in the wilderness that crosses superhighways.  For about a week now we've been traveling at the same rate as a group of hikers: Scrambler, StayPuff, JK (for Just Kidding), and Blue Smurf.  They are younger and hike faster than we do, but we get started earlier. So we usually end up at the same place at the end of the day.  Recently we all met up at the creamery in midday; last night we ran into them at a deli close to our endpoint; today we all stopped for lunch at a road crossing where there was a water source.  It's been fun getting to know people outside the expedition group. This afternoon I hiked with JK, a 41-year-old woman, for several hours.  Her company got bought out, and she got a buyout package.  This left her free to hike the trail and think about her future life.  Like most of us, she's here at a juncture in her life - taking a step back from everyday life to clear her mind and decide what to do next.  We talked about all kinds of things, and I felt like we were friends by the end of the afternoon. When we got to the shelter, close to a road, we ordered pizza together.  Tomorrow she heads home for a few days for a break, and we continue hiking north.  I expect to see her somewhere up the trail.  Although the hike is still about the trail, it's also about the people on the trail that have become part of our lives.
Date: 2017-07-25
From: Hurds Corner Rd., Pawling, NY

To: Ct 341, Kent, CT
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: clear sky

In law school we learned the principles of primacy and recency: jurors remember best what they heard first (primacy) and what they heard most recently.  I've realized writing this journal that my mind works that way when I look back on the day.  I usually remember the beginning and the end vividly, but I sometimes forget things that come between.  For example, the day I saw my first rattlesnake on the trail I saw a bear near the end of the day.  I was so excited about seeing a bear that I completely forgot to mention the rattlesnake in my journal.  Today was like that: I remember the beginning and end of the day well, but much of the hike in between is a blur.  We got on the trail shortly after 6:00 AM in Pawling, New York.  The temperature was in the 50s, and it was foggy.  We crossed a road and got on the trail by climbing a stile over an electric fence.  On a hill to our left we saw a strange wooden water tower on a farmer's land.  For the first mile or so we walked through quiet pastures in the early morning mist.  The sides of the fields were bordered with bergamot flowers blooming in profusion.Shortly after we entered the woods it began to rain.  I opened my pack to get my poncho and discovered that I had left it in the van to dry overnight.  I rummaged around for the disposable plastic poncho I keep for an emergency and remembered that I'd taken it out when I decided to always carry the other poncho.  This struck a pang of fear in me because it was still in the 50s.  Fortunately, the rain stopped after just a few minutes.  (The temperature didn't get into the 60s till afternoon.)Today's hike was through woods very similar to those of the last few days: some rocks, some mud, some uphills, some rocks at the tops of the mountains, some down hills.  The highlight of the morning was crossing the state line, leaving New York and entering Connecticut.  Very gratifying.  We're hiking about 100 miles a week.  In the bigger states (Virginia, Pennsylvania) one week of hiking is just a small fraction of the state, but in this part of the trail 100 miles can mean completing several states.  We've started seeing southbound thruhikers, one yesterday and two today.  We finished the hike around 6:00 and are now in Kent, Connecticut for the night.  Arlene, Bill, Terri and I have an expensive but nice room in town.  We rushed to get groceries before the store closed at 7:00, then got showers in the room.  We couldn't go out to eat because most restaurants close at 7:00 PM.  It's now 10:20 PM, and we're sitting in the laundromat waiting for our clothes to finish drying.  Tomorrow we get to sleep in till 6:00 because the restaurant doesn't open till 7:00.  Wow!As always on mail pickup day I'm grateful to my wonderful friends for remembering me with goodies. Thanks to Bill and Donna for the trail mix and the pocket-sized Henry David Thoreau book.  It's so small I can take it in my day pack.  Thanks again to Tony for still more home-baked goodies.  We've already eaten some of them.