morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-07-09
To: Manchester 
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: moderate rain

we were going to try to push into the town of Manchester today. this would be another 20+ mile day but apparently the weather was working with us because the weather was yucky. as i was packing up my tent, it began to rain and got heavier throughout the day. and cold too--so there was no reason to stop for breaks because i got too cold and wanted to keep hiking.so we all made some pretty impressive time today. the only disadvantage of this was that i didn't get a view of anything from the firetower on top of Stratton Mt. i think this is the highest peak of VT on the AT at 3936 ft.we all met at a shelter close to the road around 2pm and got to the road to Manchester before 3:30 after hiking 21.1 miles. is the casbar rocking? it sure is! we got to the post office before it closed, did boring town chores, and are sleeping at the sutton place for the night. rob, tang, and alright-burrito (just met him) are here too.[Editor: I am not at liberty to discuss the current state of the Casbah, but I can say the new orbital earthquake gun is performing reasonably well.]and i'm clean! (cleaner anyway)funny thing that happened on the way from the laundromat: some guy starts asking us questions for whatever reason. one of the questions was: "so are you all from the circus?" wow, i didn't think we stood out that much! i think that tops the time when another guy said we looked "healthy for hiking so long". people can be so mean! :-)
Date: 2003-07-10
From: Manchester 

To: View Entry
Miles today: 16.2

i slept in today (until 8am anyway)! and, after 4 days of 20+ miles, it felt good. after rolling out of bed and getting our stuff together, we got some breakfast--note to self: it pays to sit at the counter cause the cook might give you free food. we were so stuffed when we left! but the free food made up for the $4 orange juice: welcome to new england.orb and tang went for a walk to a nearby ice cream parlour so LT and i headed for the post office to send on our bounce box and other things. she and i hitched back to the trailhead and hiked the day together. it was perfect weather for hiking and we had some great views today. wicked wizard and cosmo (who we met in manchester yesterday) were leapfrogging us throughout the day. we got to our shelter around 7pm after hiking 16.2 miles (we got a late start from town). tang and orb showed up a little later. today was a good day to be hiking in vermont.
Date: 2003-07-11
To: View Entry
Miles today: 13.2

rain. i remember what rain is... from junuary. well, it came back for a long visit today. it started raining around midnight and kept up until maybe 5pm today. and it was cold. so LT has named this month (or at least this day) Julember. cold, wet, and wind makes for an unhappy goldberry. but i got by. sleeping in a little in my tent helped. after i finally got up the nerve to get out, everyone was still sleeping in the shelter. so i got out my sleeping bag again and took a little nap. that helped too. and the rain kept on coming down. LT, orb and i finally got on the trail a little before 11am. the hardest part of the day was packing up a drenched tent--there should be a law against that.the rocks were wet and with a late start to begin with, the miles came slow. the most exciting thing that happened today was a big branch fell onto the trail just after i had walked by... spooky. [Editor: What's the most important thing in any assasination attempt-TIMING!] the most pleasant thing that happened today was i started reading "fellowship of the ring" aloud. we won't have time to read all of it before Katadin, but we can get it started anyway.we hiked 13.2 miles to the shelter where all of our stuff is drying out in the wind. the sun peeked through for a couple of minutes right when we got to the shelter but only made a brief apperance before the clouds came back.tang showed up soon after and later that day who should walk up but Stringbean! i haven't seen him since delaware water gap! good times. Nathan is also here--i met him only once in the shenandoahs.the weather tomorrow is suppose to be better. it will probably be a cold night.daily miles: 13.2total to date: 1664.5
Date: 2003-07-12
To: View Entry
Miles today: 18.2

i don't understand how i can be hiding in my sleeping bag with only my nose poking out and a mosquito STILL finds it's way near my ear! it doesn't make any sense... stupid bugs...well, they're obviously not stupid but i don't like them.i got on the trail around 7:30am and hiked alone until 12n when orb found me at a random shelter taking a break. we all got some soda trail magic also so it made me happy. orb and i hiked up Killington Mt together. there was a side trail to the summit which we went up: straight up. but it was so worth it cause this mountain is used for skiing in the winter and touristy stuff in the summer, which includes a little cafe where we got cheeseburgers. AND they let thru-hikers ride the gondola down to the base of the mountain for free. woo hoo for us! it was like a really slow roller coaster. good times.after that and after nearly getting blown off the mountain, we hike ~5 more miles to a shelter where LT was hanging out. we also walked through a forest of birch trees which is a pretty rare thing but beautiful.after reading some of the Fellowship, eating, and hanging out, tang and stringbean show up for the night too. paha (just met him today) is also here tonight.we hiked 18.2 today. we also crossed the "less than 500 mile marker" today too. THAT'S an odd feeling.
Date: 2003-07-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 19.4

it was one of those weird mornings. i wake up, look at my watch and it's 6amish. i lay back down for a few minutes, look at my watch again and it's 7:30. doh! how'd that happen?we got on the trail by 8am--an unexpected late start--and walked a mile or two to a road crossing. a mile up this road is an inn where LT has a maildrop waiting. of course, this inn also has a restaurant so we HAVE to get breakfast. yay for pancakes!around 11am we get back on the trail. by then it was acting like Julember again. it was Cold and Wet for most of the day, which made for an unhappy Clair. but maybe around 4pm the wind blew those clouds away and sun came out. we met tang and stringbean at a shelter and leapfrogged with them for the next 7 miles. the five of us are sleeping at the "lookout cabin" on top of a mountain. it has a ladder up to the roof, which was great for views and for the sunset. short bursts of rainshowers have been passing over us, but i'm happy and dry in the cabin, which is really just a 4 walled shelter. it's so windy tonight. i hope it blows in a warm front--i want summer sometime this year!firefly--haven't seen him for weeks--showed up tonight also so we were all able to catch up on what's happening behind up on the trail. good times.so i'm almost done with Vermont and the one thing that orb, LT, tang, stringbean, and i are hiking for is the Vermonster (well not really but it makes it sound more dramatic). this is what the Vermonster is (i'm copying this directly from the container):20 scoops of ice cream (wait it gets better)4 bananas4 ladles of hot fudge3 chocolate chip cookies1 chocolate fudge brownie10 scoops of walnuts2 scoops of your 4 favorite toppingstopped with lots of freshly made whipped creamso now you know why i will only be able to eat this thing while i'm thru-hiking. i hope the 5 of us can handle it. we'll get it on tuesday...oh yes...we will. it WILL be ours![Editor: I could eat that thing by myself. What's the issue?]and after that, we'll hike out 2 miles to the nearby shelter. and i'll quote tang here: "if you hike slow enough, you won't throw-up".anyway, miles hiked today: 19.4
Date: 2003-07-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 18.8

what a horrible night's sleep. the cabin we slept at was on private property but they have a sign welcoming hikers to stay there. BUT some local teenagers decided to walk up to the cabin at midnight last night, get drunk, climb the lookout on the roof of our shelter, make a Lot of noise, and do other unpleasant and disruptive things for a while. they left after a while but not soon enough. sigh...i was on the trail around 7:30ish. the morning hike was very pleasant and the weather was perfect. but the miles weren't happening like i thought they would. it seemed to take forever to get to where i wanted to go. i don't remember ever feeling this frustrated about my pace and the mileage before. it was a great day to walk but it felt like i wasn't getting anywhere. i ran into load runner and apricot who i haven't seen in a couple weeks. sounds like we might have enough people for 2 Vermonsters tomorrow. i hope it doesn't turn into a race!i hiked with LT from the early afternoon until we reached the town of West Hartford. but before we got there we walked into (insert scary music) the trail of killer bees! (read "killer=hurts a lot when they sting"). both LT and i got stung twice. load runner and apricot also got it too. i don't remember the last time (or the first) i got stung but i don't think i'll forget how much it hurt anytime soon. and it didn't stop hurting until i got into town 3 hours later and got some ice for it. shesh. what's up with this area? it felt like a horror movie for a while.LT and i got into town around 4pmish and immediately got some ice and a milk shake to help with the bee stings. (it's a little known fact that milk shakes help with bee sting pain... and now you know!) orb, tang, stringbean, loadrunning, and apricot came in soon after. a southbounder, rig, also was there and hung out for a while.we're camping out in the backyard of a hiker-friendly house. these people are incredible: not only do they have a loveley flat yard for tents, not only are they within walking distance of the river where we got cleaned up, not only did they let 10 of us stay here at once, not only are they letting us do a load of laundry, but they also fed us hamburgers!   i love this town!miles walked today: 18.8, and i felt every step of themtotal to date: 1720.9 booya! tomorrow: my 4 month anniversary, a perfect time for the Vermonster!   speaking of, this family also has a book describing the history of Ben and Jerry's ice cream so i did a little reading. it's much more interesting to learn about that than silly civil war history.
Date: 2003-07-15
To: Hanover
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: clear sky

the 3 of us were on the trail by 7:30. my goal of the day was to get new hampshirefide. Vermont has been good to us overall but it's time to move on to my second last state. it was a pleasant 10.5 mile walk into Hanover where we were planning on spending the day and getting our Vermonster.tang, stringbean, apricot, load runner, LT, orb, and i got 2 vermonsters between us and were seen devouring them around 12n that day. i got some great pictures of it too. later, i found out that one thru-hiker, cliffdweller, finished one alone--it took him 3 hours to do it. Wow... in a disgusting kinda way.we decided to stay the night in a dartmouth college frat house that takes in hikers for free. after AYCE pizza, it didn't look like we were going to hike even a mile out of town. cosmo, firefly, chameleon, nathan, and some others are also here.
Date: 2003-07-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 16.0

it rained a bit throughout the night but a good night's sleep was welcome. i walked alone for the first couple of miles and the sun was high. the morning hike did me a world of good--i felt so refreshed from my unpleasant attitude of yeterday.the 3 of us hiked the last ~6 miles of the day together and had two lovely readings of the Fellowship along the way. we were to meet LT's parents at a road crossing at 5pm. this makes for a ~16 mile day (I'm too lazy to find out exactly how far i hiked--does anyone else see the irony in that?)anne and tom (the Trail Parents) drove us to a cabin for the night. Orb's parents (he's from NH) drove up to see his son for the first time since Georgia. i called my parents to get some love. i told them i would bring my sleeping bag to dinner with everyone and pretend that it was my folks so they wouldn't feel left out but they said it wasn't necessary.[Editor: I'm at least glad she didn't try to pretend the sleeping bag was her brother... I think I'd be offended. :) ]so we went out to dinner and had a lovely time and ate a lot and had cheesecake and all was right in the world.tomorrow: slackpacking
Date: 2003-07-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 26.0

we got up early and hit the trail around 8am (it was a bit of a drive to the trail where we left it yesterday). i was feeling So Sleepy that it was hard for me to think about hiking one mile much less 26. the weather started out well but an hour into our hike clouds engulfed us and it rained for the rest of the day but that made for a faster pace in order to keep warm.at the beginning of our hike, when i was finally starting to wake up, we had to climb Smart Mountain. after a while of hiking when we got up onto something that felt like a summit, i said something like "isn't there suppose to be a fire tower on top of this mountain?" so right after that we climb this ridge and have a great vista... of a mountain looming above us... about 3 miles away... with a fire town on top of it. talk about a false summit!yep. i hadn't looked at the guidbook last night so wasn't sure how far the summit was from our start point. it was funny though because of the timing.the rest of the day was wet. we climbed Mt. Cube in a thunderstorm--always fun. the 26 mile day went faster than i thought it would when i woke up this morning, due mainly to good conversation and rainy weather. funny, but the rain stopped, the mist cleared and blue skie showed up as soon as we climbed Mt. Mist. go figure. we got to the road pick up early but tom and anne were there waiting for us anyway--they rock! back to the cabin, back to a pizza, and back to a quick dip in the hottub of the cabins. and THAT is how to earn a good night's sleep. which i did. go me. tomorrow, we hike into the White Mountains (dom dom duuuum!) we did about 26 miles today. again, i'm too lazy to check exactly how far it was...actually it's not that i'm too lazy but i'm too distracted right now because i'm writing this journal on the 19th while doing something so cool that journally is not a priority...but you'll read about what that "something" is in the next entry.[Editor: Ooooo... Suspense-y]
Date: 2003-07-19
To: View Entry
Miles today: 9.5

i woke up to a beatuiful morning--a perfect morning to climb a White Mountain, well over 4000 feet high: Mt. Mousalake (i know i mispelt that).we got back on the trail around 8am. and up we went. i haven't had a mountain like this to climb since Roan Mountain of TN. but what a view it was from the top! and on the top were sringbean, tang, cosmo, chameleon, firefly. so we all headed down the mountian together, which proved to be more difficult than the ascent.it was a total of 9.5 miles, up and down the mountain. we got to the trailhead and ended our hiking day around 12:30 and met a LOT of people there: anne and tom and orb's sister and brother. orb's family has been gracious and incredible enough to take in All of the thru-hikers for a day and night. that's 7 hikers. 7 dirty, smelly hikers. 7 hungry hikers. i would have run away in terror if 7 of us walked into my house, but orb's mom welcomed us like she had just adopted kids. and boy can she cook too!   i was happy to get a shower. i was pleased to do my laundry. i was feeling pleasantly plump after an incredible dinner. but the topper for me was seeing something i didn't think i'd see until i went home in september... The Two Towers. to my attentive and informed audience, they know that this does not come out on DVD until August. orb, being an evil-internet-master has found it out in cyberspace and had it on his computer. so that's what i've been doing for the past 3 hours while typing out these past 3 journal entries--getting my LOTR movie fix. a gazillion arbitrary points for orb![Editor: OK, how fair is this. My sister goes off on this whole journey into the freaking WILDERNESS and still gets to see The Two Towers outside of the theater before I do. That's it... if I see her before the DVD comes out, I may have to use the Guilt Ray upon her. (Of course, I do get a shower every day... but still)]so i'm sleeping in a bed again tonight. since LT and I are hiking and planning on finishing with Orb, we're planning on slackpacking a decent part of the White Mountains. if i'm not careful i might get use to this kind of hike! :-)
Date: 2003-07-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

what a great night's sleep! orb and i got on the trail around 10am. the rest of the crew were going to sleep in and get shuttled back to the trail later in the day so we said our goodbyes to them (even though they were unconscious) and hit the trail. LT was being dropped off the trail by her parents earlier in the morning and we will meet up with her at the end of the day.i didn't appreciate this enough until days later, but orb kept telling me how the weather today was exception...spectacular...and unusual. it was a crystal clear day, accompanied by white puffy clouds and a brisk breeze. it was a perfect day for hiking in the White Mountains. we climbed up to the Kinsman Ridge and mountains today. Spectacular! it was well worth the strenuous climbs to the tops. When we walked pased Lonseome Lake Hut, we ran into Nathan sunning himself on the beach of the little pond. he is staying at the hut for the night, doing work-for-stay (when the crew of the hut lets thru-hikers stay for the night if they do a couple odd chores). the vista from the lake looks out Over Franconia Notch to the ridge beyond which we would be climbing tomorrow. Being able to see where we'd be hiking was quite a treat... it sure looked high up too.We found LT waiting for us by the road near where Orb's car was parked. She saw a Moose today so is winning the "moose game". We're back at Orb's parents house for the night. I'm writing this journal on the 23rd and with hindsight now, I can totally appreciate the luck we had for this day. It's amazing how much the weather can affect how I see the trail. Tomorrow we have a 3 day slackpacked planned...but since i'm writing this on the 23rd...i know now that things won't work out as planned (insert ominous music here)[Editor: I think we've just reached a whole new plateau of verb tense issues. Writing in the present about events that happened in the past as though they were present tense? OK, Time to get out the "Grammar Hammer" and smack some sense into Goldberrry]
Date: 2003-07-22
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Wet clothes and a hard floor don't make for the best of sleeping conditions. So i didn't get much last night, OLG didn't get much sleep. we learned our lesson though, and after a Staff Meeting we decided that we were not going put ourselves at risk again by trying to walk to Another Hut that was probably booked up for tonight. So we decided to modify our plans and hike only ~14 miles to Crawford Notch and get a hitch back to Orb's car and call it a day. There were three reasons behind this. The first and most important: we needed our equipment if we didn't have reservations at the huts. Second, the weather report for the next couple of day was very similar: Rain, Rain, Rain. not only did this mean that we didn't get to see any of the spectacular views, but in the mountains, it could get...unplesant and even dangerous. Third, we were going to take at least one zero-day at Orb's house anyway so we decided that it would be good to take one on a bad-weather day (tomorrow) ! instead of walking through bad weather. After doing our chores at the Hut, we were back on the trail by 9am. it was POURING rain when we left the hut so anything that might have dried in the night was promptly drenched again. the first 7 miles was difficult with steep ups and downs that were made more difficult because the rocks were wet. Around 12n, small patches of blue skie appeared and after a couple more hours even the Sun peaked out her head. OLG were so tired by the last 7 miles (which thankfully were over relatively sedate terrain) that it probably looked like some kind of zombie parade.we got to the road around 5pmish and a ranger (she's an angel!) gave us a ride back to Orb's car. along the way we stopped at Duncan Dougnuts for hot chocolate, office, and orange juice (respectively OLG). We were only in there for 5 minutes but it was enough time to hiker-funk up the place and one of the employees said to another "something stinks in here!" LT and i started laughing (remember, lack of sleep makes people slaphappy!), orb tried to look innocent and we got out of there as quick as we could. Ah, the life of a thru-hiker.well, we made it back to his house around 8:30ish. And then I got unconscious.[Editor: Can you bring me back an unconcious? And is it a north american unconcious or the red crested tunesian unconcious? They're so hard to find around here, but I hear you can train them.]
Date: 2003-07-23
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

you know, it's a bizzare thing that when i have access to the internet and am able to find out where other hikers are by reading their journal, i also have to read Mine. Apparently, the editor has some spare time on his hands. he's probably typed in some crazy stuff that i never wrote just to inflate his ego. just know that if i say anything complimentory about him, he wrote it, not me.[Editor: Heeeeey now. I just take the time to read my dear sister's journal and comment on it occasionally. AND I've tagged everything I wrote with EditorBy the way, my brother is Master of the Universe and Supreme Evil-overlord in my book. he puts Lex Luthor to shame.[Editor: I still lack the intimidating bald head.]so, i wast...i meant spent some time rereading my own journal for editor's notes this morning. Grace, orb's mother, runs a daycare from their house so it was fun being surrounded and spending some time with a dozen kids. i told them to call me either Clair or Goldberry but later in the day one kid called me "crumbleberry" and another said "bumbleberry"... ouch! maybe i'll just stick to Clair...it was a wonderfully cloudy zero day which made me happy i wasn't 3000+ feet higher climbing the mountains in the fog and rain... that can wait for tomorrow. we did some driving around, did eating of Grace's incredible food (if this angel opened a bakery, I'D keep her in business), and made some plans for the next couple of days.and then we went to a drive-in movie, something i've always meant to but have never done. i sat on the roof of the ca for half of it--always a fun time. it was "pirates of the carribean" and once again johnny depp rocks the casbar. besides, he looked a lot like a thru-hiker in the movie so maybe i was biased a little.[Editor: How does my luddite sister get to see these movies before me?!?]LT was able to upload a LOT of pictures to her webpage. check them out! her address is www.trailjournals.com/lauratgood times had by all.