morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-07-06
From: waterless Campsite

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 26.3
Weather: light rain

We woke up to the threat of rain and quickly packed up to leave without breakfast since we didn¢t have enough water to cook anyway. Rain didn¢t come after all and we made breakfast at the spring a few miles down the trail. Now we were ready to hike a marathon, which Relentless wanted to do. 26.1 miles that is, everyone knows. We were at a pretty good pace, steadily looking down as not to slip on all the rocks when I was abruptly stopped in my tracks as I was about to step on a Rattlesnake, stretched out on the trail! It should have warned me a little earlier about it¢s presents! Scared me have to death that thing!! We quickly retreated to give it some space and hopes it would do the same. But clearly, looking at it¢s swollen stomach it was in the process of digesting a recent meal (ground squirrel?) and in no hurry to move anywhere but seriously annoyed about us. We waited for a while and through some small rocks in it¢s direction to make it move, but no such luck. We started debating how to walk around it but every time we moved it started rattling. Then it decided to turn and slither in the direction we just had decided would be our escape. Since it was so full and didn¢t want to move it seemed, it just slowly made it to lay at the side of the trail. Ow we took our route way around into the bushes on the other side and it still rattled like crazy. Finally we were on our way again, but I sure had visions of the snake all afternoon. We would have liked to hike into Pine Grove today, but that was too much. As we arrived at William Penn Shelter we were too tired even to cook dinner and just ate peanut butter and trail mix and went to sleep in our tent. It was a marathon, we both agreed was too much and we won't do it again.
Date: 2015-07-07
From: William Penn Shelter

To: Pine Grove
Miles today: 2.1

It had rained off and on all night and since we only had a few miles to go we weren't in a hurry to leave, except I couldn't sleep anymore without blowing up my mattress again, which I didn't want to do after already blowing it up twice during the night. So we packed up and left without breakfast again. To get into town we had to walk 5 miles along a highway. We were looking forward to the bakery to get some birthday cake, unfortunately they were closed on Tuesdays. We checked into the econo lodge and zeroed for the rest of the day.
Date: 2015-07-08
From: Pine Grove

To: Sand springs Trail
Miles today: 16.4

We enjoyed a late complementary breakfast before buying a few more snacks. We walked one mile back down the highway to a bakery and had some cream donuts as a birthday treat. A shuttle guy drove us back to the trail where we encountered some trail magic! We started our hike around noon and soon after, the skies became very grey. We decided we should wait at the 501 Shelter for the anticipated rain to pass. The shelter is two miles north of Pine Grove. We had been told great things about this shelter by 32 oz. Apparently, it has a shower. Unfortunately, we completely missed the shelter. We didn¢t see it, nor a sign for it. Very strange. This has happened to us on one previous occasion near Laurel Falls, several hundred miles ago. Anyway, it goes without saying that we were indeed caught in the rain on account of an invisible shelter. The thick trees did keep us relatively dry. We camped alone at the spring by Sand Springs Trail. It was nearly 8 o¢clock so we decided to have some expired Ritz crackers and other snacks for dinner and not cook. I think we would have had time to cook but Wistful and I are both a little tired of our dehydrated meals.
Date: 2015-07-09
From: Sand springs Trail

To: Hamburg
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Wistful needs new shoes. She has had her oboz for over 700 miles and they are starting to hurt her feet. The trail was rather easy today but the rocks make having good shoes imperative. So after doing an extremely steep descent that was about 700 feet in a quarter mile, we walked the three additional miles into Hamburg, where there was a Cabella¢s (Pine Grove didn¢t have an outfitter and neither does Port Clinton which is a town the AT goes through). We had a truly awesome lunch at the McDonald¢s and won a free 32 oz. iced coffee too. We stayed there for at least an hour just enjoying the AC, free internet, and free refills. We walked down to the Microtel to see if we could get a room but they were all full. One of the locals said they are always full because of the nearby construction workers who stay there. It¢s the only place to sleep in Hamburg. Well, we walked back down to the blue blaze trail that had lead us to town and camped somewhere out of sight behind some gravel hills. We saw several deer and a woodchuck watched us when we were in our tent. Not soon after we had set everything up, it started to poor. Here, the rain comes in waves. So it rains really hard and the wind picks up for like five minutes, and then it all gradually dies down again. This happened over and over all night.
Date: 2015-07-10
From: Hamburg

To: blue Rocks Campground
Miles today: 0.0

Guess where we had a long leisurely breakfast? Yup, McDonald¢s. The coffee was good, the food not so much. After breakfast we walked to Cabella¢s, and Wistful bought some Keens hiking shoes. We had a quick stop at Walmart where I bought a new shirt since both of mine have holes in the back and some more food. Rainbow Alpaca Shuttle service picked us up and brought us to Blue Rocks Campground (which is on the trail) where we showered, did laundry, and drank Frappuccinos. Our tent site was waaay up the road. Other people were using gulf carts to get around the campground. We decided to stay at the campsite till tomorrow when Piper would pick us up and take us to a vacation house in Vermont.
Date: 2015-07-11
From: blue Rocks Campground

To: Bennington Vermont
Miles today: 0.0

Happy Birthday Wistful!! Wistful¢s birthday wish was not to hike on her birthday so all the walking we did was down to the camp store to wait for Piper. We won¢t be doing any hiking for the next couple days but simply enjoying Vermont. I don¢t know how long we are staying, but we might do some slackpacking in Vermont.
Date: 2015-07-16
To: Williamstown, MA
Miles today: 18.4

We are still in the house in Vermont but we did do some slackpacking from Bennington to Williamstown. It was a good day for hiking, not too hot and no clouds. The trail was extremely muddy though and very easy. We found lots of raspberries and blueberries along the path. It was quite uneventful though. No snakes, bears, or deer. There was one very steep climb out of Bennington. It had several stone steps to assist in the climb. We did get to cross the MA/VT border which was satisfying even though we hadn¢t walked all of Massachusetts.
Date: 2017-06-01
From: Port Clinton PA

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: light rain

We started off our day with breakfast at the Dutch Kitchen in Frackville PA where we stayed at the Motel 6.Sodelicious. We couldn't even eat all our food though which was a pity. Afterthat we dropped our rental car at the enterprise and the drive to the peanutshop in port Clinton. The weather was perfectfor hiking and we started of at 9:15. Rocks and more rocks to navigate throughwithout twisting an ankle, that's Pennsylvania for you. We had two beautiful spots today with viewsonto Albany. One was Pulpit Rock and Pinnacle. We didn't see anybody until theafternoon when around those lookouts a lot of day hikers appeared. We also sawtwo black snakes and two rabbits. Our allergies were really bad. Apparently wehad just missed 3 days of rain luckily which meant the trail was muddy but thewater sources were excellent. We are camping at Eckville shelter whichadvertised a flush toilet and a shower. They were in this little shed outsidebut if you closed the door it was pretty dark. It felt great getting a showeron the first day even though we were shivering after 30 seconds of contact withthe cold to shower water.It was a gravity fed shower, so just barrels filledwith a hose on top off the roof. But it was definitely worth even as the watergot progressively colder and we only had our tiny towels which are about thesize of a bandana to dry off! For some reason, this time around our backpacks weighed way lessthan last time. They both weigh around 22 lbs. 10 lbs less than usual. Iremember trying so hard to get my packweight down last time. The only thing Ican think of that we did not pack are bandanas and our winter mittens.
Date: 2017-06-02
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Campsite on the AT
Miles today: 21.9

Oatmeal breakfast was surprisingly good. The morning was chillyand we had to wear our puffys to stay warm. We were on the trail by 8 am. While navigating again through rocks and boulders we spotted noless than three rattlesnakes close together between the boulders. That was ascary site. This nightmarish obstacle course of rocks eventually gave way to awide soft grassy path. Until another field of boulders challenged us to climbacross a ridge where our feet had just enough space on a rock shelf to balanceto the other side. At the dismal look of Bake oven shelter we decided to justeat our dinner there and then move on for a few more miles. We found a nicespot with pine needles to setup our tent, hang bearbags and go to bed at 9pm.
Date: 2017-06-03
From: Campsite on the AT

To: Leroy Shelter
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: light rain

We couldn't sleep last night because we were scared a bear wouldcome in the night even though we hung our bags in a tree. Relentless keptasking me, 'did you hear that?' Me:'no'and then a while later, 'did you hear THAT', me: 'no' until I started listening into the woods and, I heard it; twigs breaking like something was movingthrough the forest. So we used our headlamps to light up the woods surroundingus. Relentless at the back and I am at the front of the tent. Didn't seeanything moving. So we laid back down and tried to sleep but after a fewminutes the whole thing started over again. Then we discussed the differentscenarios of other things that could happen like a tree falling on our tent ora critter accidentally tipping over a guy line and pulling out a tent stake orif an ax murderer would come through the trees. Finally we fell asleep. I wokeat 4am to the sound of rain on our tent. We slept a little longer to wait for abreak in the rain to pack up. We got water at the shelter a few miles ahead andwent on our way. We met Taters and Disco again at the Shelter and saw them throughoutthe day. We had to climb this insane mountain with nothing but rocks andboulders and which was made even more difficult with a backpack. But we made itup and down ok. It took the whole day though.Leroy Shelter had nice campsites and we slept very well thatnight.
Date: 2017-06-04
From: Leroy Shelter

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 20.2

Our 'no breakfast ' situation turned really bad when we decided that today we would eat broccoli soup in the morning. It was kind of horrible and we couldn't eat it all so we had to carry the soup in the pot with us for the next 20 miles into town to get rid of it. We got lucky that morning since we managed to pack up our stuff before it started raining. It wasn't cold enough to wear rain jackets and we were headed into town anyway so we didn't worry about getting wet. The water did make the rocks a lot more slippery though. Some of the views would have been amazing without the fog. By the time we got into town, we were soaked through and our hips were hurting but we managed to get a room at the Deer head Inn. Built in 1869, this house was amazing and we really enjoyed our stay. It was a better version of the Doyle Hotel. We were able to take a shower, wash our clothes, and eat pizza and lasagna!!!
Date: 2017-06-05
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: AMC Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Since everything in DWG restaurants don¢t open til 8am, we slept in a little bit before heading into the Village Farmer Bakery for their signature sandwiches. They consisted of French toast raisin bread with two eggs and sausage inside. It was delicious. Wistful really wanted to take a zero today but after looking at the trail guide we realized that wouldn¢t work due to the spacing of the shelters. (We didn¢t want to stay at a campsite because of the tremendous number of bears in NJ). But since we didn¢t zero, we crossed the PA/NJ line!!! It was a lot less rocky today but at times the path was extremely narrow and we were a little paranoid about bears since they are apparently not afraid of people in NJ. We only came across three snakes though. The weather was quite nice and no rain!! Now we are at Mohican Outdoor Center waiting for our food to come. Today we also picked up our first mail drop.
Date: 2017-06-06
From: AMC Mohican Outdoor Center

To: Glen Anderson Shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: scattered clouds

We wanted to eat the pancake, bacon and egg breakfast but had torealize that we wouldn't be able to start our day before 9:30am if we did that.So we settled for M14sli and left at 8:30amIt was a cold morning and soon the rain started. We got soaked,the rain let up, we dried off, got wet again, dried out again. There were beautiful purple irises growing next to the trailwhich I had to take a picture off. On my way back to the trail I slipped on somerock and fell for the 3rd time on that same bruise on my leg andelbow I had slipped on rocks before. I think the keens don¢t have the bestsoles. We also encountered yet another rock wall to climb and could hardly believethat this was actually the right trail. It was pretty cold due to the wind, butfor lunch we ate up on top of the mountain at s rock outcropping with s beautifulview of Lake Kittatiny. We didn¢t stay long. The next two miles to the firstshelter seemed to take forever and then we still had six miles to go. Threemiles away from our final destination that night, the AT went along a road andwe thought that the white reflectors on the power line posts were the blazes.We followed it for a little bit and saw Squire and his kids up ahead. They toldus they had just eaten at Gyps¢ Tavern and were now moving on to the shelter. Iwas really hungry so we decided to eat hamburgers and sit outside before hikingthe last three miles. It was such a great end to a long day and we had a beautifulview of a pond as well.
Date: 2017-06-07
From: Glen Anderson Shelter

To: High Point
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: few clouds

June 7We got up late since we only wanted to hike 13miles today. We met RockSteady and Breese on the way and they told us about a new hostel they were planning to stay at. By the mention of a shower and pizza we headed called Mosey and reserved two bunks. Later on the path there was some Trail magic, apples and oranges and Gatorade. That sure helped with the last few miles to Park HQ were thru hikers get free sodas. Mosey had to make to trips in her little car to get all the hikers and packs to her hostel. Later Splint arrived, who had been slack packing that day and was staying at rhea hostel for the second night. So there was some interesting company that night, Mile and his dog Charlie, who we had met earlier on the trail today too. Splint is hiking to raise money for the make a wish foundation, Mike owns a flying school and Rock and Breese are retired.We ordered huge burgers for dinner and had a really good time at Mosey¢s. She hikes the trail in 2015.
Date: 2017-06-08
From: High Point

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 25.6
Weather: scattered clouds

It's funny how after a couple days on the trail, you can smell the soap on the day hikers. This isn't perfume or anything just normal soap. You just get a hit of it when you walk passed them. And then you wonder how bad the whiff is that their getting from you...Today we had an amazing pancake, bacon, and egg breakfast at the hostel before getting driven to the trail to do some slack packing with Mike, Charlie, and Splint. We were hiking by 7:30 since we had 25 miles to go. The first 20 were slack packing and for the last 5 we would have our backpacks. The trail was pretty easy and mostly flat and we finished the first 14 miles by 1pm. An annoying thing today was that the trail pretty much looped back around at one point. We were hiking around the Wallkill wildlife rescue which is a series of square ponds. The road made up one of the sides and the other three were hiking trails. Instead of leading us on the road and then back into the woods though, the AT led us around the entire rescue and almost all the way back to the road. Basically we did 4 unnecessary miles today!! The rest of the day was better though. We had one rocky steep climb but then also got to walk over a 2 mile boardwalk over a swamp. We met some new people at the shelter tonight as well although I can't remember their names..
Date: 2017-06-09
From: Wawayanda Shelter

To: Southfield NY
Miles today: 22.0

We were the first to walkout of camp this morning. 7am, since we had planned to go 26 miles. We madegood progress, we had hoped to eat hot dogs at the hot dog stand on one of theroad crossings, but they were closed so it was to Bellvale Creamery instead.They have an outside faucet and phone charging station for hikers. I had a hugebanana split with three ice cream flavors and three toppings plus whippedcream. It was a lot but I did eat it all even after our alfredo noodles we hadfor lunch. Relentless had a small sundae. We had tried so hard to make the 26miles but it was seriously more bouldering then hiking today. Several mountainsto cross and all were boulder scrambles to climb up and over. It took more timeand energy then we had expected. At 6pm we still had 6 miles to go over anothercouple of boulder mountains and we knew it would get too late, plus we wereexhausted. So at the road crossing to Southfield we decided to walk to theMotel there, 2 miles from the trailhead. Some guys in a van gave us a ride forthe last mile. At the motel we ordered pizza which took an hour and when itfinally arrived all the toppings had shifted to one side and off the pizza. Sothey said they would redo it, but that took another 45 minutes to be delivered.But it was a good pizza.
Date: 2017-06-10
From: Southfield NY

To: Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 19.9

We got up at 5:15am and reluctantly put on our still damp from sweat clothes, packed our stuff and walked down to the Valero to get something for breakfast, coffee that is. Relentless ate yesterday's pizza which made me almost gag, just watching. We did take the pizza with us for lunch but decided later better not to eat it after it was in the sun all day. The Valero guy was 10 minutes late to open and then we had to wait for the coffee to run through . Finally we were on our way and now just had to figure out where the AT was to go north again. It was a little confusing. The mountains we had to cross were as hard and rocky as yesterday. We had fun going through the Lemon squeezer which was two rock walls with little space between to squeeze through. There were amazing views of the Hudson River from top of the mountains. We saw a turkey with chicks in the fern. The last climb was up to Perkins Memorial Tower which I am sure gave a great 360 view, but there was no way I would go up that tower with who knows how many stairs. We headed straight for the vending machines getting chips and coke. So good!! It was such a hot day. Now downhill quickly so we could get our ride to the motel. Hot shower! Unfortunately again no place to do laundry. So we washed some things in the sink with shampoo. It sorta worked.I finally put up pictures which was a real pain because the app they recomend didn't work.
Date: 2017-06-11
From: Fort Montgomery, NY

To: Greymoor Spiritual Life Center
Miles today: 7.3

Our first Nero!!!! We only did 7.3 miles. We woke up at 7 and Wistful went and collected some coffee which was delicious. Then we stayed in bed catching up on trail journal posts for awhile before going to the bagel caf© just across the street. We resupplied at the filling station with bars and snacks then headed back to the Bear Bridge Motel to retrieve our packs and find a way back to the trail. Fortune was with us and the lady who cleaned the rooms at the motel offered us a ride back to the Bear Mt. Inn where we left off yesterday. That was a lifesaver because it wood have been really terrible to walk along the highway at 90F. We enjoyed the zoo and the trailside museum. Then the highlight of the day was crossing the Hudson River bridge. And we saw two peregrine falcon flying around their nesting site. After the bridge we had to go up this rocky mountain. It was soooo hot though and very little water which made the hill even worse. Thank god it was a short day so we could take our time. At the bottom of the mountains we came across a little shop with cold drinks and sandwiches. We stayed for at least an hour eating and drinking cold drinks. Then we continued the mile to the monastery where they have cold showers and free tenting. This weekend they had a huge festival going on here at the Greymor Spiritual Life Center , 7000 people, but now it¢s finally is quiet, and we are just hanging out with our fellow hikers until the mosquitoes get to bad and we have to flee into our tents.
Date: 2017-06-12
From: Greymoor Spiritual Life Center

To: Fahnestock State Park 
Miles today: 13.7

June 12Greymoor to Fahnestock State Park 13.8We did measly 14 miles today. It was hot and an incredible number of biting bugs pestered us. The trail itself was relatively easy. Around lunchtime we walked up to Hats and some section hikers waiting for their ride and they gave away their extra food. So we had a really good lunch with tortillas and tuna and sun butter and Justin's almond butter and also two mountain house meals. I am curious how they compare to my homemade dehydrated meals.About 4pm we reached the Fahnestock State Park and decided to take the side trail there in hopes of finding something cold to drink. There was a sandy beach at Canopus Lake, but it was too hot and the water was lukewarm, so no cooling down swim. But the Park Ranger was very nice and opened the concession for us to get cold drinks. They have AT campsites here which are free for one night. We are at a site with Hats, and we will be sharing a pizza with him. They deliver to the State Park. Also, I am looking forward to the hot shower, unfortunately no place to do laundry either. Maybe I will just step into the shower with my clothes on, not sure if that will get them clean.
Date: 2017-06-13
From: Fahnestock State Park 

To: Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: few clouds

We had 1 shared bottle of Frappuccino and M14sli for breakfast. Westarted our hike at 6:50amIt was really hot again but the trail wasn't very challenging. By11:30am we had already done 10 miles. Around noon we reached a road on whichhalf a mile east we could walk to a deli. The thought of cold orange soda and asandwich made us go the extra mile. But walking along the hot highway with our packs for an extra miledidn't seem anything we wanted to do. So I had the brilliant idea to stash ourpacks behind the big boulders until we came back. And that's what we did. Hatshad been hiking with us, so all three of us went to the deli. It was definitelyworth it. Later in the afternoon a storm rolled in and we waited it out at ashelter with a bunch of other people. But we didn't want to wait for the secondstorm to go through, so we took off and 45 minutes later we were soaked wetsplashing through the woods and hoping lightning wouldn't hit us. Finally itlet up. We made it to the next shelter and went directly to bed. Dinner waspeanut butter and Fritos. Actually pretty good.By the way, sorry about all the pictures being upside down orsideways, I turned them all, every single one, the right way but some of them stillturn up wrong. It¢s the website.