morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2002-07-05
To: Elaborating more on my attitude
Miles today: 0.0

Some one sent me a reply to the attitude post and I wanted to expand some more.I think that it is wierd how we provoke thought in our own minds over things.My biggest problem right now is that I dont like what I have become. I dont like the fact that my time free time is so important that I had to swerve around the old lady that got me in the predicament in the parking lot at the supermarket in the first place. I would rather have parked real far away and walked across the parking lot, and maby even stopped to help the old lady load her items into her car. It seams alarming though how many old ladys there are who have a able bodied son or grandson who takes them to the store in a brand new GAS GUZZLING SUV who park in the handycapped spots right in front of the door and dont even bother to help grandma. I am dissappointed at what the quality of my life has turned out to be. I have made many a good and right decisions. I found a way to pay for my education with scholarships. I found a good paying job. I have kept my self free of drugs, debt, and illigitmate children and the rest of the life wreckers. Yet when I lay my head down at night I do not have a content feeling of happiness. I can not pin point the cause. I have tried many different things. I have been successful before, and I have been blessed with the ability to make things happen for my self. Up untill the time that I was 22 years old I tolerated all the things in my life that I did not like becaues I knew that at some point I would be 100% in control of my own life. I would be done working towards the freedom from my parents, and there problems, and the rest of the conditional relationships that I had in my life. Now that I am at this point where I pay the bills, and I decide to get out of bed today, and I decide to goto work, and I decide what I eat, and on and on that I really dont care about any of that stuff. So it is just another chore to me. It is a chore to get up early enough to fix something healthy to eat. It is a chore to sit down and pay the bills, and it is a chore to goto work at a Job where I hate the people who I have to work with.I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that I really care about in my life is that when I am old and I die, I want to be able to reflect on my life and feel happy about what it is that I have done here. Right now if I were to die I would not feel that way. All of the other little things that I would like to experience such as places, or activites, or falling in love with some one and having a family really do not matter. They are just things, they are not a mental state of happiness.
Date: 2002-07-29
To: A change of my tone of what I write here.
Miles today: 0.0

OKI spent about a half hour this morning reading over what I have written here the past few months and I realize that only write here when I have bad things on my mind. I dont want to make this a negative thing only so today I wanted to write some good things.First of all I should have my EMT-BASIC Certification in just a few short weeks as I am supposed to complete my course on August 13th with the Virginia Registry Exam in Manassas Virginia. I have considered working a shift or two a month for a volunteer rescue squad that is near SNP. I would be able to run calls on and near Skyline Drive.I am excited about the completion of the course because it has been a long drawn out process. I have had to miss a few of the classes because of work and it took some independant study to get caught up covering the material.Anyhow I had a Colorado Vacation planned for the first of AUGUST and I think that as of today I have all but scrapped the idea now. To many factors including the fire/water situation, lack of having a prepaired Jeep to drive, and the time involved to get there and back congurent with the completion of my course. I think that I am just going to stay here and hit a loop hike or two and hit the upper Yough two or three times in a two week period. My brother is going to come here to visit during that time.I am going to purchase a new winter sleeping bag real soon. I am looking at models from MARMOT and TNF and LOWALPINE. I have not come to a conclusion yet on what I want.I will post more later this week.
Date: 2002-09-01
To: Mail Drops
Miles today: 0.0

Mail Drops have got me perplexed!!Where?What??Howmuch??When??How Too??I guess that I have all of these questions in my mind right now.I really want to do the dehydrated food thing for what it is worth. But I have come to some conclusions that I am not going to be able to really make a whole lot of progress with the dehydrated food stuff. I have been trying for the past two months to dehydrate good meals like creamed chicken and lasagna and beef stew. I have come to a conclusion that it is probably easier to dehydrate the beef as jerkey, the potatoes and carrots by them selves, and then just get some kind of powder stew seasoning and package accordingly for one meal. Trying to actually make good tasting beef stew and the dehydrating the whole mess is not working out to well.Furthermore things like bacon and sausage and even some fruits have been a challenge. I am having a hard time getting the pineapple and bannana chips to get hard like in commercially avaliable trail mixes. I have also not had good like with mandarin oranges and dates and walnuts etc... (Dates with actual females have been challenging as of late too but that is another story)So I am trying to figure out exactly what I need to include in my Mail Drops.What I have tried to do is break down my thinking process for the parts of a mail drop into four parts.Food is part number one and really right now I have no clue about this. I need help.A Basic resupply package is part twoThis will include the following#1 Personal Hygene Supplies.SoapBasic Prescription Meds that I useVitaminsNew tube of travel tooth pasteNew stick of travel deoderantRazors (I would like to shave)Q tips#2 Tools etc Package of Water Proof MatchesFlash Light BatteriesCamera FilmJournal SuppliesTrail Book PagesSmall container of laundry soap1/2 a brillo pad or scouring pad for dishesAssorted Zip Lock bagsOne Straight Razor Blade#3 Luxury ItemsAt least 3 pair of clean socks and 3 pair of clean undies.Packs of Chewing GumClean Sleeping bag liner.#4 Sepcific needs itemsSpecific needs items that may include change of shoes, summer sleeping bag, or any other things that I might need like an occasional tooth brush or re-supply of my first aid kit, a new pair of insoles for my boots, shoe laces, seam sealer or any other things that I might determine that need to be added to my drop before it is sent out by my family.Anyone see anything that I am missing, send me an e-mail and suggest anything. I have a paper checklist that I have started that my family will use to double check each mail drop before shipment.
Date: 2002-09-03
To: More on Mail Drops
Miles today: 0.0

I have been chicken scratching on paper for mail drops and I decided that I would go in tonight and add some of what I have come up with to the neat litle Mail Drop feature here on Trail Journals. I did not realize that the thing actually calculates the miles for you... I have been chicken scratching and looking at maps and other stuff to try and figure out what is best as far as trail miles, miles to and from towns, and trail difficulty between mail drops that might become a factor.I am also trying to hit up some of the places along the way like Nanatahala Outdoor Center, Stratton, Killington, my buddy Kenny's house in Linden VA, and I have thought about a few days off the trail a few different places like the Nanatahala River, UVA in Charlottsville, A possible road trip from Harpers Ferry to western Maryland to paddle the Upper Yough, a trip into NYC, and various other things along the way.The mail drop thing and the supply planning is probably the worst thing that I am trying to deal with other than the fact that I am not having much luck with the food dehydrator. I have always been a guy who has extra mag lite batteries charging in the charger in my Jeeps, the one with the Hi-Lift Jack, Recovery Strap, First Aid Kit, Life Jacket, Helmet, Rope, Fresh Water, Power Bars, and a clean change of clothes in the car, with my tooth brush and tooth paste in the glove box. It am good at rationing things such as toothpaste, and soap, and I am pretty good about keeping stuff clean like the floor of my tent and my shoes and socks. I guess that I just want to try and minimize that amount of times that I am sitting out in some shelter some place with just a few ounces of rice left, no tooth paste or clean socks, and a good day or two hike to the nearest maildrop or re-supply store. I know that the experience of roughing it and getting by with less, or without any at all, is a big part of this challenge that I welcome. The thought of that nasty taste in my mouth when you dont brush your teeth is enough to make me sick though...Thats all for now.
Date: 2002-09-04
To: Realizing my real intentions
Miles today: 0.0

I spent yesterday morning packing up the Hygene Pouches for each of my mail drops. I cant believe that I spend $10 on an amout of tooth paste that I could have had in a whole tube for $1.99. I figure that the other $8 dollars worth of saving weight and bulk is worth it. I have a hygene ditty bag that is from pack a towell that will hold my towells (wet and or dry) and hold the other things like soap, tooth brush, deoderant, hand sanitizer, TEEPEE, 1/4 of a scotch brite scrubbing pad, Q tips, dental floss (or a small spool of thread), my first aid and blister kit, chapp stick (spf 15 kind to double a sun screen) and foot powder.I made a check list file to print out to make sure that I have everything that I need in each kit. I have been working on getting gear check lists in order.I have another issue that I am finding difficulty with. I need to organize my banking and money business while I am gone. I am going to sign up for online banking with my bank and allow enough money to be transfered into a checking account so that my Father can log in and pay my student loan payment, my domain hosting and server space payment, and transfer funds to a master money Master Card that I am going to carry with me on the trail as a source of cash flow at MAC machines in trail towns. I will also carry a credit card that I will use only in case of emergency or splurge incident that will have a credit limit of $1000 dollars. This will cover me in case I need a pair of boots, or another major item of sorts, or if I want to get a night at a good b/b and sit in a huge hot bath tub, and sleep on some high stich count sheets with a huge breakfast awating me in the morning.I would like to know what everyone else has done to manage there money while they were gone?? I hope to be able to collect some un-employment at least the first three months. I am going to quit my real job in just a month or two and go work at a ski area where I can work 40 hours a week, have fun, and get in shape working out in snow shoes and carrying my pack up the slopes and back down every day. When I get laid off at the beginning of March with the melt of the mid-atlantic snows I will get to collect for six months baised on the whopping salary of my current job... Kinda sounds dirty in a way, but it is the system and I have the right to participate for my own good...
Date: 2002-09-11
To: Is a post today Appropriate??
Miles today: 0.0

Well I guess that it was some time just about a year ago today that I was sitting at Ohiopyle State park enjoying the end of my vacation and contemplating in my mind the idea of starting to plan this hike. Then the stuff that happened delayed my progress and my thinking as the termoil that followed the disaster unfolded.So here I am today a year later and in my mind I think about how we are changed because of what happened. I am not so sure that it is the best change, but never the less we move on in a direction of uncertainty. Anyhow what I need to do is take a moment to remember those who lost there lives, and then get back to planning my hike.I want to make an attempt to thru hike the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Ohiopyle to Johnstown PA in the first week of October. I really want to do this hike from the low elevation to the high elevation as it is much more challenging that way. I have considered asking a few of you if you are interested in attempting this with me, but then again I am not real sure if that is the right thing to do or not...Anyhow... It is quitting time here at my job.
Date: 2002-09-12
To: Care for my dog while hiking
Miles today: 0.0

OK,A few of you here have stumbled upon my journal at trailjournals.com and have signed my guest book and sent me e-mail regarding issues that I have been facing during my preperation for my attempt to thru hike in 2003.I had intentions of my grandmother and grandfather taking care of my purebred Yellow Labrador for abut 120 to 150 days at there house in Pennsylvania. Well I have decided that is not the best thing for me or my dog. I have come to a conclusion that I am going to need to find some one else, and possibly pay for all expenses and then some, for the care of my animal while I am gone. I had origionally thought that it would be me and the dog on the trail but after reading and learning about others experiences I have decided that it is not fair to the animal that I love so dearly to force her to walk 2000+ miles through snow, rain, wind, bugs, rocks, mud, and cross deep rivers, all for the sake of my own loyal companionship while on the trail.So how do I solicit some one to care for my dog??She needs daily excersize and interaction with at least one person, she needs to swim once or twice a week, even in the very cold days and nights of early spring. She also eats a very unique diet of raw meat, and raw vegtables for strong healthy skin, muscles, and bones.I just wanted to see what you folks here think??
Date: 2002-09-14
To: Doggie Care
Miles today: 0.0

The breader who lives down near Norfolk VA in a real nice house with a big yard and an inlet off the mouth of the James river flowing right next to the back porch is going to take her. He said that he would do it for $50 per month (for the extra food that he will have to prepair for her) and for any associated VET BILLS that might happen to come up. Other than that there is not much else that I can see causing a problem... I cant believe that he was willing to do this so cheap... makes me feel good... this guy really took alot of time with her in the first few weeks of here life and she has been a great dog... I suppose that the interesting thing will be what his assesment is of how I am doing raising a dog on my own for the first time... Once again I find that it is amazing that I came across this individual to obtain an animal from...This proves that there are some people out there who are willing to go above and beyond the making of a dollar...
Date: 2002-09-24
To: I no longer work for Virginia Power
Miles today: 0.0

I sat here today thinking that if I did not get a chance to write in my Journal soon that I might go crazy.So much has happened in the past week or two. First off I no longer work for Dominion Virginia Power. My employment there ended on Friday September 20th, 2002. On Monday September 16th a supervisor jumped down my throat for having my feet up on a desk while talking to a customer on the phone and I have simply had enough. I reacted back with a ¢quit pulling rank¢ attitude and I was then asked/told to ¢go home¢. I turned around and asked the supervisor who I was working for that day what to do and got no response. I then told the person who started all this that I was to busy and could not leave. I am sure that I said. ¢No, I am not going to go home¢. So I guess that I was insubordinate and disobeyed a direct order. On Friday at noon they informed me that they no longer needed individuals with my qualities in there organization.So I am un-employed at the moment, and I probably will be for the next few months until it snows. I am relieved that I no longer have to goto work at such a circus of an office and I am sure that some day down the road that I will be a better person and that Dominion will be a better company because we parted ways now.A wealth of emotion has spilled out of my mind in the past few days. I have to pack up and move out of my townhouse now because I don¢t want to stay here in VA any longer than I have to. I have spent the last few days cleaning out closets and throwing away stuff that is not needed. I need to be able to elaborate on each of these emotional moments as they occur and since I figure that the trail has sort of been my saving grace the past few months what better place to do that than here in this journal. Several individual entries about separate emotional events will now follow. Check the titles to the entries before you read them. If you are not interested in what the title is then by all means don¢t read.As far as I am concearned I think that the organizational efforts of the management at Virginia Power is so redicules that if they announced tomorrow that Dominion is the next Enron I would not be surprised. I went into that environment to make a difference, and the only thing that changed was me. I have realized that Corporate American only gives a damn about one thing... the stock price and making sure that the CEO makes his bonus... Tom Capps if you ever get a chance to read this Journal, and learn about the things that happened to me at the bottom of your organization then I have one thing to say to you. This time you lost some one who could have been very productive. You ought to consider who you keep as management in the future...
Date: 2002-09-25
To: Some thoughts about my late Grandfather
Miles today: 0.0

MY GRANDFATHERMy grandfather was a lawn and garden man. He died back in 2000 right before I came here to Dominion to work. One of the things that he said to me the last time that he was in the hospital before he died was ¢make as much money as you can while you are young, so that when you are old like me you don¢t have to work, and don¢t have to settle for cheap things¢ Occasionally when I think about my grandfather a tear comes to my eye about what he said. The reasons for the tear are kinda unclear. See he used to wear cheap K-Mart shoes, and he never drove a real expensive car. His pride and joy was mowing the grass but he did it on a $500 Sears mower. I realize now that he is gone and my grandma has to do things like replace doors and windows in the house and buy living room furniture that they had all the money in the world. They could have had anything that they wanted. My grandfather could have had a $5000 hydromatic, 4x4, 50¢ mulching deck, snow plow, calcium filled tires, Luxury Lawn Tractor that was bright orange or kelly green. I guess that what I have realized is that it is ok to go through life with K-Mart shoes, and other cheap things, as long as they get the job done and as long as when you lay your head down at night that you are happy. So I guess that over the next few years of my life I am not going to eat as much fast food and I am not going to have as many new pairs of skis and I am not going to get to have every last little $$$ item that I really wanted to have for this hike. I am going to have to make it with the things that I have.The thoughts about my grandfather have been present every time that I look at the flowers that used to sit on my front porch. I gave the flowers and the pots away to the elderly lady who lives a few doors away because they would look at home on her front porch. I suppose that it is not that big of a gesture to give them away to her. It is rather that some one needs to take care of them now that I am not going to be here and since I don¢t have a place to put them and she is outside taking care of her flowers everyday I figured what the hell¢¦ She really seams to be thankful and appreciative that I have been her friend since I have been here. It was not really evident until I gave her the flowers but it is something that I hope that my grandfather is proud of in his grave. I planted the flowers around Memorial day, sort of in memory of him, because he is in a vault in this memorial wall thing where you cant plant flowers or hang anything on the wall except for the little flag that he gets for being a Veteran.
Date: 2002-09-26
To: The relationship with the girl confuses me
Miles today: 0.0

ABOUT THE GIRL AND THE NIGHT OUT IN DCThe girl that I have recently met is interesting. First off does not really fit the description of most of the girls that I have dated in many many ways. I am not sure if that is good or bad or not really a factor at all. Yesterday we went to SNP and did a hike to the east that was just north of Matthews Arm. I probably made the mistake of hiking down first because she was a bit tired on the way back up. We let the dog play in the puddles at the creek crossings and near a water fall which I know is not real great hiker etiquette but never the less the dog was happy. I realized on the hike back out that I defiantly have to be with some one who in physical shape enough to participate in these kind of activities. This is the stuff that rules my life. The adventure, earth, wind, and water, are the things that drive me. The challenge of what they present to me is what makes me who I am, and there very presence in everyday life is the one thing that I know gets me out of bed in the morning.So I am not sure where this relationship goes from here. It is something that I just don¢t think is right, and although I like it, it is eventually not going to make me happy at all.
Date: 2002-09-27
To: Packing up my townhouse /photos of my Grandparents
Miles today: 0.0

Reflecting on my other grandparents relationship (packing up pictures)I was just taking down my pictures that are on my walls and packing them into a rubber made container and I went to get some snap shots that I had on the shelf in the pantry to stick in the folder. Way back in April my grandparents had there 50th anniversary and for the celebration my Mother took them back to Skyline drive where they had there honeymoon. I was looking at the pictures of the two of them sitting on one of the stone walls that line the drive most of the way and the scenery in the back drop. I am excited that I got to be there with them for the event because I will be walking through that scenery some time next year in late April or early May. There is another photo of my grandparents and there two children (my mom and uncle) and I was thinking about how things are supposed to be when people get married, have kids, then there kids are supposed to get married and have kids, and the family is supposed to grow. Instead now what we have is divorce and people who fight and so much other bullshit. The photo of my grandparents on the rock wall with there children is kind neat because that is there family unit, and it is all intact still. I wonder if I will every even get married let alone bring children into the crazy world. Nevertheless packing up the photos has been interesting.