morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-06-04
From: camp

To: Hertlein Campsite
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: light rain

This morning we passed through trail that sounds like a tall tale--cool breezy weather, trail that's so straight and flat you could roll a ball down it, and delicious sweet wild strawberries all along the sides. It was also one of the few times today that we were out of earshot of the road. Later in the day we got to some of what must be "those Pennsylvania rocks." Maybe it's true what people say, and I'll get sick of them and hate them. But today I loved them. I love how they look, all mossy and irregular, I love how they sound and I love hopping over them. It takes a lot of concentration to hop from rock to rock, it's a fun game and can get a little trance-like. And the sound they make is wonderful when you step on them--each one tells a different story--there are the small, fast ones, and at the other end are the rocks so big you were sure they weren't going to move. When I moved one of those, it made such a low, dampered sound, it made me think of a ancient monastery with an underground room--maybe a library, or a meditation room--with a bit stove with an iron ring attached to the top that has to be moved to reveal a big stone staircase leading down to it...the sound I made stepping on that rock was the same as the sound a monk down in the meditation room might hear if someone passed overhead and stepped on the door-stove.I'm looking forward to hearing some more stone-stories!
Date: 2006-06-05
From: Hertlein Campsite

To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

Port Clinton is a tiny town. It's one street long, and at the end of the street is a 'pavilion' that we read hikers could camp in for free. Turns out its pretty much a big messy shelter that the town doesn't use at all--at least 3 old hiker boxes, mouse trapezes (for those who have not been to shelters, mouse trapezes are string-bottle-stick contraptions designed to hang food bags from), collections of old boots, and big trash-mattresses and furniture well past their prime. When we got to town we embarked on a fruitless search for a telephone. We later learned from a woman named Mary Sue that there used to be payphones but the town took them out due to heavy vandalism. Tried to hitch to another town to get food, no dice. After talking to some Port Clintonians for a while, Mary Sue let us use her phone to call a pizza place that delivered right to the pavilion. It was good to talk to them, and Mary Sue was great--very quiet and seemed shy, or maybe nervous, but really friendly. We mentioned to her how we admiring an enormous maple on the other side of her property, and she told us a story about it--it had been weak and dying years ago, and there was an old lady who lived there and loved the tree so much that she said, 'I believe if that tree dies, so will I.' This lady had lived there all her life and always loved that tree. And apparently in the year after she spoke those words the tree got stronger and grew up and out and threw up more leaves than ever before.
Date: 2006-06-08
From: George W Outerbridge Shelter

To: camp
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: broken clouds

Today we had to go into Palmerton, PA since we lost our bleach. Dang. Saw MOAT and C-Ram again, and ran into Sarah and Roo, which was a nice surprise. We had some interesting hitches--we waited by a stoplight to go in, and Casey waved at a couple of elderly ladies who rolled down their window. He asked for a ride, and they looked at each other nervously, but said yes! As we rode into town, one of them kept talking as she looked out the window--"Oh, Look! I haven't been to Spillane's in years...oh, so much has changed...yes, years ago my Ralph and I said we'd hike the AT..." and so on.The hitch out was also interesting--the very first truck stopped. They understood us wrong and took us 20 miles to Lehighton rather than 1 mile to the Lehigh River Bridge. Turned out they're new to the area. Also turns out they're a couple of aging hippie deadheads, as so many of the helpful people on the AT seem to be (the guy who runs Terrapin Station, the guy who gave us a ride to the bus station, a lady who gave us a ride somewhere...they're everywhere!).They didn't mid turning around again they said, because they're retired and basically cruise around from music festival to music festival and pick up hitchikers. They were really funny and friendly. Sure, they couldn't retain any information for more than 2 seconds, but it all worked out.The climb out of Lehigh Gap was awesome. Lots of scrambling over rocks, and wild blueberries! A really interesting place--we walked over an area devastated by the now defunct zinc smelting industries. The area is an EAA Superfund site. I wonder what impact it has on the towns below--on the water (some of the springs have signs warning of heavy metal contamination), public health, the economy...and what the people that live down there think about it. Hmmm...Anyway, I hope there' more of that scrambly stuff, it's fun! only not in the rain, when it's just dangerous!
Date: 2006-06-11
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: Boy Scout Camp
Miles today: 17.8

Another state line crossed today! PA is over, NJ has begun. Last night we stayed at the free church hostel and patronized the diner. After about an hour Casey realized he had left some things back at the hostel, so he went back as I went on. We met up again 13 miles later and discussed things we'd seen. There were a billion families all over and they kept trapping each of us to ask the same 3 questions we're always asked. We both saw lots of toads, and I saw a new snake--bright green. I only saw it's tail as it went to hide. Casey saw a momma and cub! They didn't seem to mind that he was there at all. We are now at a really weird old boy scout camp. First of all it's listed as .3 m off the trail but it's more like .5 or .6. There are some buildings that are completely wrecked--caved roofs, boarded windows, collapsed walls...and some that look completely functional, even a couple lights left on. I guess that doesn't sound that weird, but it is, I'm just not describing it well...No matter. Good night--
Date: 2006-06-12
From: Boy Scout Camp

To: Mashipacong Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: overcast clouds

So far, NJ is very strange. We started it with the eerie boy scout camp. Somtime in the morning we walked a ridgeline that was crawling with gypsy moth caterpillars. It gave me the heebie-jeebies--they were on every leaf in sight all around, a lot of times in bare stems that they had picked clean. Some plants had big clumps of them that looked like huge black growths. They crawled up trunks and hung out on the plentiful oak galls. Occasionally some tent moths would make an appearance, also covered with gypsy caterpillars. The ground was covered with them too, so much so that in some places it was impossible to take a step without smashing some. And the worst part was that they would rappel down from the tree branches on their threads--some would stop midway down and you might not see it until too late, and some would zip down rapidly so that you wouldn't have enough time to react. There could be 3 or 4 dangling off of one small oak.The whole area was devastated by the caterpillar plague. Luckily we weren't in it all day.We also saw a guy who looked just like He-Man. But that's all that was strange, other than that the day was fairly uneventful. Except for that Casey snuck off at a road crossing and met me at the top of a climb with a couple ice cream sandwiches. We enjoyed them at the top looking out at Kittatinny Lake down below.
Date: 2006-06-22
From: Shaghticoke Mountain Campsite

To: Stewart Hollow Lean-to
Miles today: 10.2

The AT is getting exciting again. The end of PA, NJ, and NY have seemed like the midsection that never ends--full of swamps and 8 foot tall grasses looming tickfully over our heads. CT is great--the trail is much better maintained, and there are lots of big trees and walks along the Housatonic River. The forests are looking more and more northern--more coniferous trees and soft, springy, pine-needle covered trail. We saw a skunk mama and 7 roly, poly baby skunks. The adult was surprisingly beautiful--a long soft looking coat that, if they were your style, you might want as a coat of your own. We've started listening to books on tape. It's nice to be learning things, or even to just let the information wash over my brain, gently massaging it back to a normal level of functioning after months of bookless rotting. So close to Vermont! The next exciting border crossing.
Date: 2006-06-25
From: Sage's Ravine Campsite

To: The Corn Crib
Miles today: 14.8

Another rainy day. Casey, MOAT, and I were going to try to work for stay at an organic farm nearby--there's a flower shop called the Corn Crib at a road crossing where you can call the farm. But we forgot that it was Sunday, so--nobody there, pouring out, too far away from the next shelter and no camping in between. Luckily the Corn Crib advertising tenting allowed for hikers and had a 'Hikers Welcome' sign. We couldn't find any tenting spot that wasn't completely waterlogged, but we did find a storage room crammed with all sorts of things--furniture, old clothes, kid's toys, fake flowers, car parts...and a couch. So after poking around the greenhouses for a while, we declared the room home for the night. We saw the owner later, who was absolutely comfortable with us being there and suggested that we should make ourselves at home, to the extent that that's possible in a storage room. So no farm, but a nice dry night.
Date: 2006-06-27
From: Shaker Campsite

To: October Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: light rain

messachusetts. Mudsachusetts. Mucksachusetts. Mosquitos-chew-us.As Casey wrote, Massachusetts is unbelievably full of bugs and mud. While mosquitoes latch onto my wrists and knees, blackflies spin around my eyeballs, aiming for the pupil as though they think it might be a large and healthy fly with which they would care to mate. Only a lucky few make it in...only to find their doom and wash up on the shores of my eyelids, mushy and rotten, days later.I've been threatening Massachusetts--'If you don't start treating me better,' I tell it, 'I'm leaving you...for VERMONT! Yeah, that's right. In fact, I've been on my way out ever since I was in this mess!'But spirits are still high enough in AT-land. And I'm still very excited about VT! Then the only states left will be NH and ME! The Greens, the Whites, the Wilderness (100 miles, that is).
Date: 2006-06-30
From: The Bird Cage

To: The Bird Cage
Miles today: 0.0

Aaah, it's happened. Just as we were warned, we have been trapped at the Birdcage, the home of a fantastic gentleman in Dalton, MA. We meant to leave here yesterday but slackpacking was suggested...and then today, but many logical reasons to zero such as ice cream were suggested...so here we are! Vermont will still be there for tomorrow! This is a fabulous place that feels so comfortable you'd think that you had always lived there. Rob (it's his house) is in the habit of taking people in to his house and making them feel at home--he has 2 natural sons, 2 stepkids, and 6 foster kids, plus a number of young folks who have stayed for a time, whom Rob has helped stay out of trouble, for a little longer at least. It really is amazing the people you meet out here on the trail.Oh, and 2 thru-hikers from last year are here, Touk and CuppaJoe--funny, because I read Touk and her sister's journal before starting my hike. Right now I feel extremely groggy--we've been watching extended DVD versions of Lord of the Rings, and are currently in the Dalton Library. I guess my only option is to go find some ice cream to wake up my foggy brain.Right--something else I forgot to write, Casey just reminded me--it was still raining and muddy on the way into Dalton--the trail was so river-like we joked about walking right down some of the real streams, since they sure looked like trail these days. In all of Mass., we've seen only 1 drainage structure. So, to keep ourselves sane, we started making tons of noise.Running through especially long stretches of water elicited our loudest monkey-scream noises, or just screaming a la most-annoying-noise-in-the-world, or yelling about the sparse planks--GOOD THING THESE ARE HERE TO KEEP OUR FEET DRY!!!This all sounds a little violent, but it was hilarious, I was losing it. We were able to keep up the noise level for the first 2 hours, trying to lose our voices with all the yelling and Tom Waits on a bad day impressions and laughing...then we realized we still had 3 or 4 more hours! But we made it, and neither of us even lost our voices.It's a great night here, I'm glad we stayed. Buttercup showed up and we all, except for Cuppa Joe, went to get some food. Earlier in the day I got to draw some pictures, which I missed doing an awful lot. And now we all are sitting in the living room, Rob and Casey with guitars and Touk with her fiddle, just figuring out little rhythms and tunes. Wish I had my clarinet! Someday I'll get good at it again, I hope. HIking the trail leaves so little time for anything but walk-eat-sleep. It will be fun to go back to the things I didn't do enough of before but crave now--drawing and binding books, playing my clarinet and the piano, reading, dancing...all kinds of fun stuff. I think a lot about what I'm going to do after the trail--there's so much to do. I'm forming ideas...but not with specifics. Meh, the specifics can wait till the end. We'll be slowing down now though, so maybe some more drawing will be done. Yippee!
Date: 2006-07-01
From: Greylock/Birdcage

To: Seth-Warner Shelter
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: light rain

Today we left behind the fantastic Birdcage and the wonderful people in it. Cuppa put us on the PCT '08 list...yaargh, that's so tempting! That was a great zero--we watched Lord of the Rings and made some more AT--Lord of the Rings jokes, and all the music and drawing. I felt much inviforated today, and...we're in VERMONT! Woohoo! We bought and are enjoying Cabot cheeses in celebration.Oh and also--we now have to do only about 83 miles/week and about 11.7 miles/day to finish on time!
Date: 2006-07-02
From: Seth-Warner Shelter

To: US 9/Bennington
Miles today: 11.5

Wow--nothing to wake you up like buckets of water dumping on your head, and nothing to get you moving like the closest lightning bolt you've ever heard.All day long the sky was fairly clear, but we could hear thunder continuously. It seemed that the storm would hold out for a little longer as we climbed up Harmon Hill, but it exploded just as we were at the top. We were at the very top of the tallest tree, our feet submerged in water, when the first lightning bolt hit, maybe 50 feet away from us--it was far and away the loudest sound either of us had ever heard, and it sounded more like a giant bomb than any thunder we'd heard before. It was so out of the blue and so loud, I was so started that I involuntarily let out one of those 'lady being abducted by a monster in a cheesy film' screams, but we were fine. We started running down the mountain (we knew there was going to be a big drop down on the other side), sloshing through the ever-deepening puddles of water and through one of the heaviest rainfalls I've seen--the kind where it literally feels like buckets of water pouring down--it even hailed for a second. There were 2 or 3 more that were genuinely scary, and then as quickly as it had begun, it ended, and sun came down through the trees onto the ferns. Having been primed by all the Lord of the Rings watching of the past few days, we were mystified by the sudden and seemingly magical rays of light piercing the green mist.It took a few minutes for my heart to stop pumping adrenaline through my body, but as it did and as we caught our breath, we couldn't stop smiling and we joked about the name of the mountain--much to close to 'Harm On Hill' for comfort! Thankfully also close to "Harmony Hill.' Which is probably why we're safe!
Date: 2006-07-03
From: US 9/Bennington

To: Bennington
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Unintentional zero in Bennington.Partway throught the storm last night, Casey realized he had left his windshirt at the last shelter. So when we got to US9 we hitched a ride into Bennington--with a woman who's done a lot of hiking and climbing and Outward Bound instructing. Today we are at the house of some adventure-loving artists who kindlyallow hikers to crash in the barn. One of them drove us to a road crossing .3 from the shelter but no luck. Lots of other hikers are here, waiting for Granite to swing by and take them to Brattleboro for a large 4th of July party. Lots of hikers we haven't seen for a while will be there, and probably fireworks. But we're both feeling pretty restless, having just 0'd in Dalton. Plus if it happens that some nice person has the shirt and is carrying it north to find the owner, and we take another day off, chances of our finding this mysterious samaritan become preciously thin. So...not sure what we're doing yet. We know that hikers will be at the shindig who are currently from CT-NH, so we could have everyone on the lookout...grrr. How distressing. At least even if we don't hike tomorrow, our required projected average only goes back up to around 12.2 mpd.
Date: 2006-07-04
To: Bennington
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

First of all, Casey's windshirt turned up in the hands of Red-B yesterday, hooray!Then there was a rather large 4th part here, all hikers. It was a little overwhelming at first to see so many people, many of whom I hadn't met yet, all talking about things that weren't the A.T.--the only thing I know how to talk about now. But bunches of people picked up some of the numerous instruments lying around, and that was very fun. We were surprised (and of course pleased) to see Touk and Cuppa show up. Pool was played, many colorful drawings were made...and Casey's asking me to wrap it up since it's around midnight. Fair enough, then.
Date: 2006-07-06
From: Kid Gore Shelter

To: Spruce Peak Shelter
Miles today: 22.9
Weather: broken clouds

I love Vermont. It is about one million times better than MA. Here they have drainage structures aplenty.It's so good to be back up high--haven't heard a road in a while, and haven't seen any poison ivy at all in the whole state, woo hoo! Glastonburg and Stratton Mountains were both beautiful--pines like on Roan Mountain, and ferns covering the forest floor. Plus, the weather has been perfect! It's heavenly to be dry all day, and to always be able to look up and see blue sky and see the sun coming down through the leaves.We met our first SOBO thru-hikers, who were pretty strange (2 very talkative parents and their silent kid, all smoking weed together) and on LT (Long Trail) thru-hiker named Victoria. Casey and I were trying to convince her to keep going on the AT with us, she's real nice.We were also talkinga bout how much the AT is like intensive kindergarten--all those lessons you were taught but forgot about (I guess this sounds like one of those cheesy posters), like 'your toys are a privelege, not a right, so you should share them,' and how fun and great playing games is--you relearn all those things on the trail, with abundant real-life examples. We've seen so many people open their houses to hikers when we don't have a place to stay, or offer a ride because we don't have a way to get there, or let us play their instruments because we don't have ours. It's a shame that it seems only to be true with hikers in trail towns. I'm not sure how anyone could hike the trail and not come out the other end being more generous, after having been on the receiving end of so much hospitality along the way.I guess that does sound like one of those horrible 'all I ever needed to know, I learned in kindergarten' posters...but that's not how I mean it, it's not really all that cheesy.
Date: 2006-07-07
From: Spruce Peak Shelter

To: Peru Peak
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Yesterday evening Casey and I were ambling up Peru Peak, enjoying the new northern dense softwood forest, as the sun went down. We decided to cowboy camp on the peak, 1.3 miles short of the shelter. We slept peacefully there until about midnight, when Casey shook me awake."Look, moose!"Before I saw it or registered the word, I heard it breathing and snorting--I sat up and turned around to look up at a moose staring down at us from about 6 feet away. As Casey had described moose to me before, it really did look like a cow on stilts with a watermelon on its face.My sitting up must have startled it away from its business (Casey told me it had been licking his pack for salt) because it turned tail and trotted off.I was of course super excited to have seen my first ever real live moose, but at the same time nervous--what if it didn't see us and stepped on us, or if it had a calf, or we were in its territory and it wasn't pleased? I have no clue as to how moose behave, or what to do if one wanders into camp--I couldn't fall back to sleep, despite Casey's assurances that everything was fine. But then it came back, and again. The last time we could hear but not see it coming towards us through the bushes, and this time Casey got nervous too.So we scrambled up, crammed all our stuff in our packs, and prepared for some night-hiking.I couldn't have asked for a better night to he forced to hike--crystal clear sky, no bugs, perfect temperature.We only had one headlamp, and Casey wore it--so he'd take 6 steps, turn and shine the light for my 6 steps. It took an hour and a half of very agreeable hiking to get to the shelter at 2am. We threw our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and sleepy legs onto a tent platform and were rewarded with a rare leaf-free sky and a clear view of the summer triangle and the Milky Way. Vermont has been treating us well.
Date: 2006-07-09
From: Greenwall Shelter

To: Cooper Lodge
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: broken clouds

Today was really fun. In the morning we kept crossing Another and Trudge, talking about edible plants we were finding, and that we'd seen along the way--I told Another about turkey foot, we talked about eating garlic mustard(Alliana petiolata), and I thought you could only eat stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) cooked, but Another told me if you take the young leaves and crush them a little to break the thorns and avoid the central vein, you can eat them.   And indeed you can, they're tasty.All of us went off to the Whistle Stop for some lunch and saw Paul with Bunions and The Groundhog. After eating our fill, we headed back to 11 miles of climbing up Killington Peak. We saw the first jewelweed (Impatiens spp.) blooms as we went up into what turned into incredibly dense, softwood forest and extremely impressively maintained trail. We saw Another and Trudge twice at 2 trail magic sites--enough soda to sugar and caffienate ourselves higher up.When we were almost at the top, Casey and I could actually feel the air getting thinner. No more ho-hum lowland hills up here, we're back to where each mountain has a personality of its own. The climb felt wonderful--lots of fancy footwork, picking our way over roots and rocks. We even saw some of what Casey classified as class 3.9 scrambling (up the side trail to the peak). These mountains are really fun, and each day they get more exciting--and we're getting closer to the Whites!