morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-04-23
To: Rain and snow ...bring it on
Miles today: 0.0

Well its Touk,, yes... Touk it is..We are in the lovely city of Erwin sprawling all over the hotels contenetnal breakfast, Oh loverly city life.. society is so wonderful sometimes...There are thick grey clouds outside and its raining... what can I say?.. It is so BEAUTIFUL to look at from behind a window pane. what BETTER timing! we have had nine wonderful hiking days and then the day we hit the town.. it storms.weEEEllll.. we are well.. I didn't read at all anything Gypsy wrote and so I have no clue what everyone has been informed about...but that doesn't matter at all!.. let the good things be written twice.We have joined up with a loverly little circle of hiking friends called the "Go lights, go easy's".. consisting of Cuppa joe, Linex, Pacman, and Breakaleg. We take our sweet time going anywhere, where as before the go light go easy style, we would huff and puff up the hill and our break when we finely approached the top..(3 miles...or so) we would stop for a micro second to let the heart rate pound a bit slower and stride on almost ashamed of our hill hiking weakness... In compareson, the moment the word "breather" is mentioned..GLGE's will unstrap their packs.. get out the stoves and after an hour or so..two or three snacks..a nap. they will hike on, fantastic!. brilliant!Well.. we have actually become slight rivals of the Go lights, Gone easier group of hikers that couldn't keep up with our killer pace..(hah!..the scum)And have been trailing each other in turn playing pranks, stealth night hiking, calling insults and initiating Leki trakking pole duels..Life is good.Since we are in town there is a truce.. - but someone (no names)is going to hike out of here with a brick or something in the base of their pack..(argh..we needed some good stimulating warfare..we were getting homesick)..I have been well healthwise apart from the hazy red blurry eyes I get when ingaged in battle. My knee's have been sort of tired towards the end of a big PUD day(pointless ups and downs).There is a neverending supply of amazing beauty sprouting up and blooming all around now... Summer will be here soon. And of course.. I am developing my trail legs and an even more established appetite (scary...yes). my craving has been for interesting things so far.. soy milk, ranch dressing.. um..actually anything and everything.. I happily ate 18 peices of pizza yesterday for lunch.. plus 12 breadsticks, cheerwine, and salad. a new personal record to beat later. Lulu will be going to trailfest this afternoon back in Hot Springs and I will stay and resupply. We perhaps will be able to update again before leaving tomorrow. Till then we remain fully happy and couldn't ask for a better time to be had.. Take care and be well... Peace, and hazy, lazy, and crazy hiking.... -Touk (me for granted:0) .. (thats my "not to be messed with" signature I use on written war threats:-)
Date: 2005-04-26
From: Iron Mountain Gap

To: Roan Mountain~ highest shelter on the good ol' AT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Okay, I haven't even hiked these alleged miles yet. It's creeping into the late morning here at Miss Janet's House. The smells of the bacon that Stilts is frying up is mingling with Miss Janet's crackly laugh and Tacoma Ted's guitar pickin'. I woke up this morning in the bunk and my first thought was; 'Mmnn, I'm going to kiss that man playing the guitar.' Now Mom, don't be worrying that I'm spreading my love around too liberally but guitar in the early morning light is pretty nice.    I feel more weary than I have yet on the trail. Yesterday we walked twenty miles, slacking back to Erwin. It was ever so lovely. Touk and I have been untouched by any sickness so far, but this weekend I contracted some nastiness that my body has been fighting off. My bones are achey, I have no appetite and I keep pushing feverish temps. Rotten germs! Even so, I walked the twenty miles yesterday, not getting into town until after dark. I walked out of the woods to find Pheonix waiting for me with a grand hug and a relieved wobbly smile. I hadn't realized how much concern I had generated. Pheonix had waited two hours for me, praying and worrying for this wayward hiker. When we finally pulled into Miss Janet's I just collapsed onto my sleeping bag and slept soundly until that sweet guitar woke me up.    Mmnn, yeah! Stilts is frying up some eggs now and breakfast is nearly on the table. Miss Janet is bustling about the kitchen, being a Momma to all the hikers. What wonderful people there are in this world.
Date: 2005-05-07
From: Baja Cafe, Damascus

To: Dave's Place, Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

458.9mHere's a quote to chew on before you start reading what I've written.Henri Nouwen writes: 'Most students think that writing means writing down ideas, insights, visions. They feel that they must first have something to say before they can put it down on paper. For them writingis little more than recording a pre-existent thought. But with this approach true writing is impossible. Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals what is alive... The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know.' from Henri Nouwen's 'Reflections on Theological Education.'Okay, okay... You ask me 'Where have the journal entries been?' [sigh] I'm the contrite picture of a penitant; blushing cheeks, downcast, ashamed eyes. I'm guilty! Not only have I not been writing to you folks, I've even been tucking my journal under my sleeping bag at night, telling myself "LuLu, just wake up early and write while Touk is still sleeping." Does it happen? No. Instead, the sun peeks over the horizon and fills our tent with honey-orange light. I roll over and chew on the dreams I've had that night, bizarre dreams I can't make sense of, and then my thoughts turn to my traditional peaches and cream oatmeal. The journal is once more left in its snazzy ziplock bag for another day. Journaling does feed my soul though. Every day I hike along, a little bit further down the trail, alittle bit closer to Maine. New flowers and blossoms that I've never seen before spring up along the trail. Four hundred and forty nine miles now behind us and all chock full of real life. Some people claim that this is a form of escapism. I would hold that it is real life in it's fullness. When I write, I'm reminded that there is much more to these moments than just the flowers or the stinging snow. The quote I included stirred my mind to the value of journaling. All this said... There is more to come. I'm sitting here in the Baja Cafe and have pushed my time limit a little far. Free Redical is going to jump on and then I'll hopefully get to come back for round two on the ole computer.
Date: 2005-05-08
From: Dave's Place, Damascus

To: Baja Cafe
Miles today: 0.0

Burritos are still rolling off the grill here at the Baja Cafe. the yummy smells of cilantro and chorizo fill the air... ah... everything good! Today has been splendid, ringing with sunshine and salsa, friends, garage sales, etc... Something has infected the phone lines here in town. The computers at the library are down causing a groundswell of displaced hikers here at the Baja, eating salsa and waiting for the line to shorten.   I just walked over to The Place, a large old farmhouse owned by the church here in town and generously kept open for hikers and bikers to use. Upstairs is a scale and I emptied my pockets and jumped on. The average female thru-hiker has lost between 7 and 11 lbs. by Damascus. I've certainly changed shape a little bit but am hanging out at the lower end of that average. Touk is claiming that she has gained weight on the trail. ??? Whatever!!! We're both hearty and healthy, which is a good thing in the long scope of things.    Around the dining table sit a rangey mob of hikers, cards thrown out on the table over the stakes of quickly cooling pizza. Another hiker rifles through the hiker box, never knowing what treasure to find. Food, discarded gear, books, etc... The possibility of finding exactly what you need - the probability of finding something it will take you fifty miles to realize why it was in the hiker box in the first place. Some things I've seen before in past towns, slowly travelling north toward Maine, like me.    Out on the porch, hikers sit and talk about our little world, our long trail and the big sky over it all. Lion King is a hoot, lending a lot of humor and flavor to the old subjects of weather and mileage. Fireball drifts in and out of the circle, talking to Buckaroo on a borrowed cell phone. Towns are like family reunions; everyone in the warp and weave of north and south come together and catch up on life in general.   So, what can I tell you all about life in general for the GypsySisters? In the three remaining minutes of my time on this vied-for computer, I must say that life is well. Through the nastiest weather this past week, we've made it along the trail, still singing and living fully. In two days, or maybe tomorrow we will hike the tallest mountain in Virginia. After that, it's all downhill toward spring. I was able to talk to my family on the pay phone tonight. Roaring automobiles and thumping radios in my other ear, it was still so sweet to hear Rebekah's voice and to wish my GypsyMomma a Happy Mother's Day. Until next time, folks...~GypsyLuLu
Date: 2005-05-13
From: Trail DayZZZZ

To: State of Blissness
Miles today: 0.0

Oh lovely world!    I've been savoring the little snippets of REAL things that stitch together to make a whole funky quilt-like life. Here in the Damascus Public Library, I'm pecking with two fingers to the streaming folk music of WUMB, Boston. In the background, the wrinkled and powdered ladies of the local 'Friends of the Library Secret Society' are chitter-chattering about the "proper" way to arrange books for the annual book sale tomorrow. Little signs are popping out of the woodwork. .25 ~ $1 Ahh yes, a promising hope for new reading material. Now that the weather has been warming up, I'm hoping to read more.    Touk and I have had such a great sminch of hiking lately. The other day we hiked into the heat of the day and then just melted all over the top of Brushy Mountain. Instead of just truckin' on, we peeled off those sweaty socks and kicked back, raided the leftovers of our foodbags and lay there in the sun. A good arguement about Life and Art and then Touk snoozed into oblivion and I finished my book about the whaling ship Essex and took a nap myself, dreaming about the Galapagos Islands. It's these sort of days that I'd like to repeat all through Virginia. First I need another reading book.   TrailDays. Crazy time in town this weekend! There are countless hikers in town and it's a constantly revolving carousel of laughing reunions and flying conversations. Read Touks entry from yesterday. She's so good at giving the spirit of what's going on, especially in writing style. The little things still need done. I've been walking around town since eight o'clock with four peices of dirty laundrey all tied up in a scarf. It's too little to wash alone so I keep checking the laundromat for a opportunity to wash with someone else. These are goofy things to write about, I guess. Maybe you would get more of a laugh out of the bustling craziness of colorful and dusty hikers scrambling and rambling around the town. I'm off to join the masses. ~LuLu
Date: 2005-06-06
From: A Letter Home from GypsyLuLu

To: Buena Vista, Virginia
Miles today: 0.0

790.8m     I walked across that manicured mowed lawn this morning. My      feet tromping through the dew, cut grass all over my ankles and between my toes. We pitched our tents by the river last night and mmnn, it was nice. Beuna Vista was a promise of groceries for Touk and I. Bassline added his name to the list when we mentioned laundry and soon Stilts and Apple Pie were also onboard for a nine mile hitchhike and a milkshake. We call ourselves '      ' while out in the freezing cold or melting humidity but are in fact easily bought off.      Bassline and I caught a hitch to the grocery in a big ol'Jeep. By the time I was done walking in circles looking for instant oatmeal, B-line had been talking to this great guy with a pickup truck. We piled into the back and trundled off to his house. "I'm a bachelor." He apologized. Tangled heady roses bobbing overhead, he wanted to give us some of the best venison jerky in Virginia. Bassline and I walked in and marveled at his trophy shoulder mounts while he packed a Ziploc full of jerky. As we drove across town to the laundromat, children laughed and yelled in the yards, men and women leaned back onto thier front porches, nodding and waving to us as we trundled by. A good Sunday evening in town, barbeques smokin', cousins and neighbor-kids running through the sprinklers.    Oh well, skip ahead. Good people in this world! That man was so kind. When we made it back to the laundromat, I got to talk to my family; notably some of the best people. Isaac is twelve years old and they were all gathered around a big traditional birthday meal. The whole lot of us sang a boisterous rendition of Happy Birthday. They were full of stories of Saturday's festivities. National Trails Day! Here I am, hiking day after day and I was clueless. Silly   !   Well, we ended up camping instead of hitching out of town. Now we are hours and hours into the next day. The gang is down swimming and I'm enjoying clean, dry laundry and a lovely library. The librarian reminds me so much of my friend Anne Kelly. I'm not homesick but I wish I could somehow meld these two worlds I've known together. Yes, I know that writing will not do any harm to the whole situation but I'm still experimenting in that medium. Mostly I'm lazy.    The uber-hikers I'm with are proposing a night-hike tonight. I'll write from Waynesboro if I suvive and make it that far.
Date: 2005-06-07
From: Buena Vista, Virginia

To: Buena Vista, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Hmmm.. wonderful!!! I now know that any personal mail that gets in the hands of my mother will end up being transcribed unto trailjournals.... peachy... Just LOVE your moms...   (mom..miss you..but not personal mail)TOUK here writing a quick entry in the quaint town of "Beee-wen-oh-veees-tah"..A town we had only planned to jump in and out of shortly but have ended up not being able to leave... It must have been a beautiful town back in the day.. walking down the street we counted pretty much every building as empty or falling in... There IS howvever a wonderful 360 degree vista of sharp green and purple mountians jutting up in the distance surrounding the town,.. ohhh yess.. I recognized several and groaned at the two I see right now that I am going to climb over tonight... 2700 ft. vert elevation climb..whoopie just ducky...   whoa what was that??? my legs just started aching.. and my eyesite is too blurry to see to hike.. and my back is out and ... etc.etc.etc. I guess I'll have to set my tent back up and crawl inside...Whats life on the trail without zero's?Yesterday we hiked a two mile stretch along bear creek that had the ruins of a settlement built by freed slaves in the late 1800's early 1900's... it was pretty cool to see the stone fences and chimneys and springs.. I tripped over everything because I was staring around and not paying attention to where I was about to step,... frankly.. hikers really don't look around very much, They find themselves permenently staring straight ahead of them on the trail about ten feet and there is a reason too... the bruise on the back of my leg speaks for me... well.. almost..   I was also rolling my eyes at Apple pie who in her sweethearted way was making fun of me oooOhing and AaaAing over history ONLY a hundred years old.. to her...(she's from Europe) historic sites aren't historic if they are under five hundred years old... but "hey..(I said) Americans are easy to please packsniffer!"...She had to agree,.,,,..A wonderfully HOT week of hiking.. I have truly discovered my 45th parellel self now that I'm melting everytime I set foot up a slight incline... which has been 90% of the trail so far... oh for airconditioned carrides up hills...ah! Gypsy and the Touk are hoping on W by thursday....   Our ride to shuttle us tothe trailhead just came in so I will sign off and move out...   TaTA and cheerio hope everyone a fine 6th of june....   :0)The gypsy sister... Touk..
Date: 2005-06-08
From: Waynesboro VA

To: Waynesboro,VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

846.4mA monumentus thing has happened in the favor of trailjournals.com.. At least in the gypsylulu and Touk section of it...huge and wonderful and I think as a hiker and a trailjournalist that POCKETMAIL needs to collaborate with trailjournals and offer some sort of DISCOUNT for trailjournal users...   Yes... Our pocketmail has finely arived and updates won't bee sow herreeeed and russsshhh'd... with noooo deeetaaaayllls..   We are hiking out of Waynesborro in about five minutes since the shuttle is pulling up NOW.. HOWEVER!!!   this is not the end of the wayneboro update my dear friends.. you will read more and there will be more in about .. oh.. whenever we can get to another phone and hook that little sucker up and send in our entry's... gypsymama... time to hone your cut and paste skills.. AND WE NOW HAVE A EMAIL ADDRESS ONTRAIL... GYPSYSISTERS@POCKETMAIL.NET..... I THINK... BUT I'LL BE ABLE TO VERIFY FROM THE TRAIL!!!!!!!   COOL ISN'T IT?????!!!   2 be continued...hahhahhahhh...         I'm so excited..   adios folks... Peace, Love and step by step to Katahdin!!!!!               the gypsy sister,,, Touk P.S. BIG SHOUT OUT TO MINI GYPSY SISTER AT HOME... MISS YOU BUGABOO..
Date: 2005-06-21
From: Blackrock Shelter

To: Bluemont, VA Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

988.1m      By the way, happy summer to all! The first day of summer is traditional among hikers as hike-naked-day. Hip, hip, hurray!!! Actually, this particular cadre of hikers (Sunshine, Touk & I) wore just as much clothing as ever. Maybe we are shy, maybe we are modest, maybe we appreciate the value of clothing as bug-deflection, non-chemical sunscreen, etc... Oh well, we ended up being party-poopers and letting the sun shine on the other hikers.   Hmmnnn.... Dearie me, what a crazy lttle strip of land we are trekking along, peopled with crazies of all shapes and sizes (well, don't use your imagination.)    The GypsySisters expressed their craziness in other ways, LuLu weeping over random rocks and Touk and Sunshine boogie it up on the switchbacks to the melodious drones of Sunshines radio.   As we rambled along that ever-familiar and yet ever-changing footpath we came upon a sign; Welcome To The Roller-Coaster! Mmnnn, delightful! Ten miles of ups and downs, long ups and long downs. Ouch! Now this might be a good time to put in a word referencing the patron saint of the AT; the Wingfoot (lovingly refered to by thruhikers as 'Wingnut' 'Wingding' and several others that you can ask Clearwater about.) Well, if you were to pull out your trusty volume of Wingfoot's Book of Lies and Deceit and try to figure out from the elevations he gives what the terrain might be like, you would expect a mellow day, rolling along the trail nice and easy. Ha!!! What a laugh the venerable Wingfoot must get when thinking of innocent baby thruhikers like the Gypsysisters, caught by such a wicked broadside like the Roller-Coaster. Thankfully, we have Sunshine on our team and not only did she tell us what was shaking, but she is packing along a widdle-bitty radio that we all can boogie!along to on the perilous uphills. In fact, the three of us hike all mashed together to hear the scratchy music. Good life!   Destination of destinations, we are at Bears Den tonight! Yee-haw!!! Our QueenDiva is quite at home in this castle, bossing people around and spreading sincere love thickly like jam on bread to all the hikers that come and go. She is the manager of this haven and I hope she will stay and flourish until I'm old enough to fill her shoes. I couldn't be more impressed. Lasagne, a trip to the market and a great conversation with Susan, a volunteer here..... it's been another great day. A wonderful way to kick Summer into action. GypsyLuLu
Date: 2005-06-22
From: Bluemont, VA 

To: Bears Den
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Bear's Den, VirginiaZero miles today The sun was a bit shy this morning in waking us up. It sleepily winked through the window and (mistakenly thinking that I had some schedule to live by) I got up, packed my backpack and commenced walking in circles, waiting for Team Pooh Bear's Naptime to start shaking for a new day. If this was a scripted play, the margin would read; girls continue deep sleep...   Bear's Den is absolutely splendid! Set in a little nest of hiking trails and high atop a bluff the old stone greathouse looks out on the greens that have colored all my days lately. If the leaves were gone, you might even see the sweeping view of the valley.   Last night I walked out to see the sun set and felt sorta snobby as I walked away from the honeyed tones of the valley, the smog and the interstate winding around like a snakey river. Pollution is getting noticable. I wonder if the people living in this part of the country realize that this shroud of smog should not be normal. I wonder what I think of as 'normal' in a calloused way.Ah well, I hope to actually chew over some personal/political/ethical/enviromental stuff when I get home. Manana Syndrome? Nah, I need to be able to put action to thought in a tangible way. Being on the trail I've eaten more meat then ever, and yet more than ever I have been thinking about ethical vegitarianism. Stuff like that comes in it's own time though. Also, I have much more important things to be proactive about, burning questions of faith and life... The way I eat is not as big of a deal.   The way I cook though is smackchapstickly wonderful. We had nearly twenty people around the table tonight here at Bear's Den. The Queen Diva let me get up to my elbows in making meatloaf, rosemary potatoes and all manner of edible goodness. I don't know haw Jack Sprat and his wife would have done, but we thruhikers did not do a shabby job in licking those platters clean. Queen Diva then made a splendid pie out of mulberries, stems and all.   The Garland Five caught up today and merry talk went all around wth sweaty backed hugs and the whole bit. Bassline also hiked up today and we had a good, sad talk while watching the sun slip into the smudgy horizon. Good people all around; Whistling Jackaroo, Sandy, Sleeveless, Magpie, Clearwater, Pappa Razzi, Cricket, Litmus, Etc... good people. Tomorrow I need to hike though. I mean both that I need to physically walk and think and also that I need to make it over that 1000 mile mark and into Harpers Ferry. We've begun to plot and plan regarding a trip into Washington D.C. Hurrah for us!!!