morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-10-05
From: Seth Warner Shelter

To: Wilber Clearing Shelter
Miles today: 9.9

I was warned about many dangers an AT hiker might encounter during his/her hike. Some of those dangers included bears,ticks, unclean drinking water, etc. However, no one mentioned the humble acorn. You might ask yourself, what harm could a simple acorn do? You'd be surprised. First of all, the acorns here are HUGE, having the girth of a quarter. Secondly, think of how high some of those mighty oak trees are. Falling from the top of a very tall oak tree, those acorns can do some serious damage if they hit you. One day, I stopped for a drink of water and an acorn hit the backpack I was wearing. It hit so hard I removed my back pack to look for a hole. Thankfully, there was no hole. During a windy day, you get acorn showers. I was hiking with a friend with a twisted sense of humor during an acorn shower. He crouched down and shouted "Incoming!" One day I was having lunch in a shelter that had a metal roof. The acorns hitting the metal roof sounded like bullets! I was afraid that all of the hiker hostels had closed for the year. I relly enjoy hiker hostels because they give me a chance to get out of the cold, and a chance to visit with other hikers. So I was delighted to find that St. Marys Church in the tiny town of Chessire, Mass still had - their hiker hostel open.
Date: 2016-10-06
From: Wilber Clearing Shelter

To: St. Marys Church, Cheshire Mass
Miles today: 11.7

-OOPS! I stayed at St. Marys Church Hostel tonite, not last nite. One day I was hiking with a college student who is a geology major. He told me that the Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest mountains on Earth. This geology student told me that at their zenith, the Appalachian Mountains were higher and mightier than the Himilayas! If that is true, I am glad that I had the patience and the wisdom to wait until now to do my hike,because it would have been a much tougher hike way back then! Today I summitted Mount Greylock, at 3500 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts. Had it been a clear day, the views would have been awesome. However, it was a cold, wet, miserable day with a peasoup fog. There was a restaurant at the top of the mountin and I was very grateful for the bowl of hot soup I was able to buy. After lunch, I met a man from South Africa who told me he would not want to hike the AT because of his fear of bears and rattlesnakes. I told him I was astonished to hear him say that, because in South Africa, lions, leopards, hyenas, and black mamba snakes are FAR deadlier than either bears or rattlesnakes.
Date: 2016-10-07
From: St. Marys Church, Cheshire Mass

To: Kay Wood Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: clear sky

Ok, readers, I have a tricky riddle for you. Can you tell me who the Kay Wood Shelter is named for? If your answer was Elizabeth Czieronski, that was a very good guess, but not quite right. However, some of you bright readers guessed that the shelter is named for Kay Wood, which makes you a very smart person. Did you ever meet someone that was so cool that you were proud to know that person and to count that person as a friend? I have a couple of friends that I feel that way about. Kay Woods Shelter is named after a person that had you or I actually met her, we probably would have been very proud to have such a generous and giving friend. Kay lived in the town of Dalton Mass., three miles from this shelter.For many years, she allowed AT hikers to sleep in beds in her home and fed them supper. Hikers regaled Kay and her family with stories of their adventures. At age 70,Kay attempted an AT hike and hurt her knee in Virginia and had to go home for a month to heal. She then continued her hike until it got too cold to continue.The next year she completed the rest of the AT. She also hiked the 275 mile Long Trail in Vermont, and summitted 100 of the tallest mountains in New England.
Date: 2016-10-08
From: Kay Wood Shelter

To: Lakeside Motel,Lee, Mass,
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: light rain

I sometimes refer to the AT as "Mr. Trail, because it almost seems like the AT has a personality. Sometimes (for very short distances, Mr. Trail almost seems like a friend, and the trail provides easy hiking. All too often, Mr. Trail seems like a surly, cantakerous old man who wants to inflict pain and suffering on everyone he meets. Today, Mr. Trail was in Avery had mood, andallI did was stumble over roots and rocks,literally from dawn to dusk. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and in as bad and surly a mood as Mr.Trail.
Date: 2016-10-09
From: Lakeside Motel,Lee, Mass,

To: Shaker Campsite
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: clear sky

Yesterday, Mr, Trail was so mean to me that my cynical thought for the day was that my favorite part of Massachusetts was - road crossings, because I got to take 4-5 consecutive steps without stepping on a rock or tree root. Today, however Mr, Trail was in a jovial, co-operative mood and my thought for the day was that Mass. woods are very quiet, peaceful, and beautiful, with leaves beginning to change colors, and beautiful lakes. Hikers have a saying that says, "How many miles is Mr. Trail going to allow me to hike today?" I spent the nite in Shakers Campsite, where a Shaker community existed in The nineteenth century. The Shakers were a religious sect that required their members to be celibate. Why they were called Shakers, I do not know. Perhaps celibacy caused them to shake and tremble. I know it would have had that effect on me. Not surprisingly, Shakers no longer exist. I think there are two reasons for this. First, if a church requires celibacy from its members, many prospective members are going to wonder if the church down the street isnt more appropriate for them. Secondly, children of Shakers are not going to join the sect, because there arent going to BE any children.
Date: 2016-10-10
From: Shaker Campsite

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: few clouds

Yesterday was a momentous day for me. I have now hiked 2000 miles. I have just under 200 miles yet to hike. ( Go Forrest! Go!) I gotta tell ya, Forrest Gump is ready for this hike to be over! For many days, I have been hoping I would see one of the porcupines that are in this area of the woods. Well, I had an unfortunate porcupine encounter, and I didn't even get to see the porcupine. Every nite I take all food out of my backpack, then wrap my backpack inside a HUGE plastic garbage bag and store the wrapped backpack just outside my tent. In the middle of the nite, I heard a large animal rustling my plastic garbage bag, so I shouted, and the animal went crashing off into the woods. The next morning, I discovered that one of the less important straps on the top of my backpack had been chewed thru. I am surmising it was a porcupine.They crave salt, and I sweat quite a bit, so there is no shortage of salt on my back pack. From now on, I will store my backpack inside my tent at nite. This will make my tent very crowded, but what choice do I have. For the rest of the hike, I am hoping that my extra strap will keep my backpack properly closed. I was in my tent and did not actually see a porcupine. The people who slept in the shelter said they saw a porcupine the size of a dog gnawing in the wood of the picnic table to get the salt in it. The porcupine left behind a few of its quills.
Date: 2016-10-11
From: Tom Leonard Shelter

To: Karen Bergers House
Miles today: 10.9

Have you ever accomplished something truly noteworthy, and you got a little too full of yourself, and then you meet someone whose accomplishments dwarf yours? Well, it happened to me today, and I'm glad it did, because it put things into perspective for me. There is a hikers organization called ALDHA (Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, and every fall they have a three day convention. This years convention was in Williamstown, Mass. and my good friends, Sandra and John (AKA Double Axe Murderer,) who are extraordinarily gifted authors of travel books, came to the convention to sell their latest book, which chronicles the 50 year history of the Florida Trail. (There's two pictures of me in their book!) They came to visit me at the end of the convention.The three of us stayed with Karen Berger and her boyfriend Dave in Karen's home. So, the day before I had finished hiking 2000 miles, and I was feeling a little too full of myself, and my friend John introduces me to Karen. The first thing John said about Karen was that she is a "triple crowner" which means that Karen had hiked all three of the US hikes that are over 2000 miles long. And if that was not enough, Karen's book, Americas Great Hiking Trails won the Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writers 2015 award for the best travel book written that year. In addition, John tells me Karen is an accomplished concert pianist. With all of these noteworthy accomplishments, Karen is a very down to earth person. Next to her, I felt like an underachiever. The lesson I learned from this encounter is that while I can justifiably be proud of hiking 2000 miles, there is always someone who has done much more. John, Sandra, Karen, and Dave are all veey, very cool people, and I had a very pleasant and enjoyable evening with them.
Date: 2016-10-12
From: Karen Bergers House

To: Sages Ravine Campsite
Miles today: 10.1

Two very pleasant things happened to me today. The first is that I crossed into a new state today ( Conneticut), and crossing into a new state always puts me into a VERY good mood. The second good thing was that I had an unexpected reunion with one of my FAVORITE people on the AT, a young woman whose parents came from the African country of Eritrea ( it used to be a part of Eithiopia.) This young lady is a very bubbly, optimistic person, and I am always in a good mood after chatting with her.Like me, she did a flip flop, to finish hiking in Maine and New Hampshire before the weather got too bad. She has less than 100 miles left to hike, and she will finish her hike on top of Mt.Greylock, at 3500 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts. I hope she has a bowl of hot soup to celebrate her fine accomplishment of thru hiking the AT! My wild life sightings today included a wild turkey and some deer. Wild turkeys can fly, but they prefer to run very quickly across the forest floor, craning their necks forward, like they are in a race and want to be the one to break the tape across the finish line!
Date: 2016-10-13
From: Sages Ravine Campsite

To: Salisbury,Ct.
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: clear sky

Two of the main reasons people hike the AT is for the adventure and to see the sights.Both of these are good reasons to do the hike. I have discovered a third reason to hike the AT. This hike has given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people. I met two such people today.The first person was Maria, an 87 year old woman who came to the US from Italy in 1947. She has been taking in AT hikers as boarders for 17 years now.She is sharp as a tack and has a razor sharp sense of humor. She endeared herself to me by referring to me as "young man." In my opinion, any woman who thinks I am a young man is a hot babe. The other amazing person I met was a man who had been staying with this woman as a boarder for six days.I have never heard of a person staying as a boarder in a hiker hostel for 6 days, but this man, who I will call Mike, is a man who does not hurry. Mike is a 72 year old man who has just finished hiking the 275 mile Long Trail. Most people take from 14-17 days to hike the Long Trail. Mike says he hiked 4-5 miles per day. At that rate, it would have taken Mike 68 days to hike this trail. Mike says he does not eat much food when he hikes. Either this is the case, or Mike frequently leaves the trail to resupply, or he carries many days of food with him.Mike says that meeting and talking to other hikers is much more important to him than hiking many miles per day.Hmmm. My other observation of the day is that the addition or omission of a few letters can make a vast difference in the meaning of a word. For example, if I were to tell you that I summitted Mt.Everest today, you would probably be very impressed. At 29000 feet, Mt.Everest is the world's tallest peak. If I told you I summitted Mt. Everett today, would you still be impressed? Mt.Everett is 2000 feet in elevation. Yep, a few letters can greatly change the meaning of a word!
Date: 2016-10-14
From: Salisbury,Ct.

To: Shannon Mountain Campsite
Miles today: 12.4

Here is a funny story that Maria the 87 year old woman who has been hosting AT hikers as boarders for 17 years told me. (Maria has religious icons throughout her house, and is a fairly conservative person.) When Marias sons, who are now in their 50s were of college age, they would bring their girlfriends home to Marias house. Maria had no problem with this, but she insisted that the girlfriends not share the same bedroom as her sons. Then Maria began to take in AT hiker boarders. If a young man and a young lady who were AT hikers asked to share the same bedroom, Maria had no problem with this. One day, one of Matias sons asked her, "mom,how do you know whether or not they are married?" Matias response was that she did not ask to see a marraige license. The son then retorted that it seemed to him that a double standard was being applied here. It seemed to be ok for unmarried boarders to sleep together, but not for Mariad sons to sleep with their unmarried girlfriends. Maria replied that boarders were not family. The son ( Who Maria called the family wise guy) then asked,"mom, would it have been ok if were paying boarders?" @ Yep, there's one in every family.
Date: 2016-10-15
From: Shannon Mountain Campsite

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: clear sky

Hiking the AT changes you in subtle ways that you cannot anticipate. One of the ways I have heard many hikers say they have been changed is in the way they look at food. The other day, I was eating a handful of gorp (good old raisins and peanuts) when an almond fell into the dirt. Before I began my AT hike, if a morsel of food fell into the dirt, I never gave it another moments thought. I stared at that almond for the longest time, and it took a lot of will power to resist the urge to pick it up and eat it. A female hiker told me that for the 25 years of her married life, she had a terrible phobia about germs, and she NEVER ate any of her husband's food. One nite very recently she and her husband were having dinner together in a restaurant. (This woman has less than 100 miles left to hike on the AT). The husband was not going to finish his dessert, so the woman not only finished his dessert, but she used his dessert spoon to finish eating it.My other observation is that today I relearned a lesson I have been taught on more than one occasion during my AT hike. The standard wisdom is that NONE of the AT is easy, but parts of it are less difficult than other parts. Everybody told me that Conneticut was an easy state, and sure enough, I had three easy days in a row. Today was a day from hell, so I guess I relearned an old lesson today.
Date: 2016-10-16
From: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter

To: Schaghicoke Mountain Campsite
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: overcast clouds

There is a very famous boarding school in England where the sons of the richest and most powerful families go to school. That school is called Eton.I think I may have stumbled upon the Eton of Conneticut today. I stopped in Kent to buy some food when I passed the Kent School, established 1906. It is a boarding school for high school kids.Looking at that uber plush campus, I am guessing it costs as much per year (or maybe more) as Harvard. The kids there wear uniforms including a tie. I asked one of the students that I encountered a few questions about the school. The kid never stopped walking and it was pretty obvious he didn't want to talk to me and I can't say I blame him.The kid smelled like someone had dumped an entire bottle of cologne on him. I on the other hand looked and smelled like a homeless guy. I wonder if the kids name was Biff or Collingsworth? The other noteworthy event of today was a 700 foot elevation gain involving a hand over hand rock scramble that was was scary as the worst rock climbs that I did in New Hampshire and Maine. After I did that ascent, I found out there was a much easier alternative route. Gee, I wish I had known that beforehand!
Date: 2016-10-17
From: Schaghicoke Mountain Campsite

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: few clouds

It was seven months ago today that I started my AT hike.Today I will cross into New York state, the last state I have to do to finish this hike. I have a little over 100 miles left to hike. And as always, crossing into a new state puts me into a good mood. At the Wiley Shelter, I encountered two middle aged Jewish ladies who had brought their HUGE "I just met you two seconds ago, but you are my best friend, so please pet me and play games with me" dog. I LOVE dogs like that, but the ladies were afraid I might be put off by their dogs over friendliness, so they scolded the dog and told it not to be a noodge. I remember the first time I was called a noodge. I was working on my masters degree and one day one of my instructors ( Ill call her Dr. Jones) gave me some very scholarly advice.She said , " Bill,stop being such a noodge." I had no idea what a noodge was,but I knew Dr.Jones was Jewish, so I told a Jewish friend what Dr. Jones had said to me and I asked what a noodge is.My friend just laughed and said it was very hard to put into words what a noodge is, but she assured me I was the very personification of what a noodge is. Hmmm. Im starting to understand why I got beat up so often on the school playground when I was a little kid.
Date: 2016-10-18
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Dutchess Motor Lodge, Wingdale, NY
Miles today: 5.7

The other day, I encountered a very earnest young man who was just doing a one day hike on the AT.He was astonished that I have been hiking for seven months. He said that even during his one day hike he had plenty of time to be alone with his thoughts, and he wondered what seven months of hiking had taught me about life. I have had no profound, earth shattering discoveries. One thing I have come to understand is that every person is important and deserves to be treated with courtesy and respect. Here is a funny thing that happened to me today. I decided to take a short day of hiking and go into town to accomplish only two goals. One goal was to resupply with food. My other goal was to spend time catching up on my blog. While eating lunch,i was approached by an elderly man who asked if I was a hiker. I said yes, I am, and this elderly man then launched into a lengthy discussion about a tv program he had seen about the AT. I DESPERATELY wanted time to work on my blog, but I was very polite to the old man and answered all of his questions enthusiastically and in great detail. I then walked to the grocery store and discovered that the store was a few miles from my hotel, and most of the afternoon would be eaten up just walking to and from the store. While paying for my groceries at the store, I discovered that the elderly man I had chatted with at the restaurant was standing right behind me waiting to pay for his groceries. He then offered me a ride back to my hotel, saving me a great deal of time, which I then used to catch up on my blog! If I had blown the man off, this would never have happened. It is indeed true that you reap what you sow!
Date: 2016-10-19
From: Dutchess Motor Lodge, Wingdale, NY

To: Morgan Stewart Shelter
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: clear sky

When I was in the army, a service person who had less than 100 days until his or her discharge date was referred to as a "two digit midget." As of today, I have less than 100 miles left to hike, so I guess I am a two digit midget AT hiker. I have had a problem in Massachusetts, Conneticut,and New York in finding enough water to drink and cook with. All of my water comes from streams, and many of them dry up in the middle of summer. For several days I had the frustrating problem of having a plentiful water source that was unusable. I followed a river for several days, but there was an advisory not to eat any fish caught from the river due to high levels of PCB. I figured if the fish were unfit to eat, the water was probably also unsafe.So I got water however I could. If the AT crossed a road and there were houses or businesses,I asked if I could fill my water bottles and I was never turned down. If a business had a restroom, I got my water from the sink ( did you think I was going to say toilet?) in the restroom. One convenience store did not have a restroom, so I bought a gallon of water.I carry three quarts of water with me and that is enough for one day.
Date: 2016-10-20
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

Last nite I stayed at the RPH Shelter, which has the distinction of being the second shelter I have stayed at during my AT hike where I was able to order a pizza and have it delivered to the shelter.I could do this because the shelter is very close to a road. Yesterday, the AT crossed a commuter train stop ( The train stop was called Appalachian Trail.) If I had the inclination, I could have taken that train to Grand Central Station in New York City. Three of my hiking buddies did that for a mini break from the AT.The other interesting thing that happened today was that today I walked past the Dover Oak Tree. It is over 300 years old. (So it was around before George Washington was born!) The trunk is over 20 feet in diameter. It was a very impressive sight!
Date: 2016-10-21
From: RPH Shelter

To: SouthHighland Road
Miles today: 12.8

Almost everyone hiking the AT has a nickname (a trail name). A few days ago I had lunch with an interesting man who told me his trail name is Sputnik. Sputnik is the Russian word that means "traveler." Sputnik was also the name of the worlds first space ship that was put into orbit by the Soviet Union in the late 1950's.It marked the beginning of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Sputnik told me he is a dual citizen of both Russia and the United States. He came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 12 years old, back in the days when Russia was a communist country.Sputnik told me the three places in Russia he would most like to visit are Crimea, Lake Baikal, and the Kamchatka Peninsula. These are the three parts of Russia that I also would very much like to visit. One other interesting thing happened today. I have seen many signs at places where the AT crosses a road saying that mountain bikes are NOT allowed on the AT. I thought these signs were unnecessary because in over 2000 miles of hiking the AT, I have never seen a single mountain bike. The AT is so filled with huge boulders and tree roots that no mountain bike could handle it. Well, never say never Today I saw A mountain bike on the AT. The fellow was not RIDING the bike, he was walking it. I have seen folks take their dogs for walks on the A T. Perhaps this fellow thought his mountain bike would enjoy a walk on the A T. I hope he also brought a scoop and a plastic bag with him, becuse I would hate to start seeing mountain bike scat on the AT!