morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-09
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Somewhere Near Sunfish Pond
Miles today: 6.5

Before we went to bed last night, Condor and Captain Hook had talked of doing 25 miles out to a shelter today. I knew there was no way I was going to do 25 miles (particularly with new shoes), so I was planning on doing 10 or so out to a retreat center that lets thru-hikers camp on their property. That would also give me the chance to sleep in (relatively speaking), hang around a bit, and in general take a nice, easy day out of town.When we woke up, Condor and Captain Hook's plans changed quickly. We went out to breakfast at the local diner, and in the end Captain Hook and I decided to go back into Stroudsburg. We wanted to hit the library again (I wanted to update my journal a bit this time), and on top of that the nearby mall had a cinema in it. We figured we could catch an early afternoon movie, and get back into town in time to hike a few miles to a nearby campground.So we went into town-- Condor stayed behind, since he didn't want to spend the movie for a shuttle ride and a movie.Well, when we got to the library and checked the movie times, it turned out that the movie didn't start until 4-- by the time it let out, it would have been too late to catch a shuttle ride back to Delaware Water Gap. So we ditched the plan for a movie, and instead spent some extra time at the library. They're having a book sale this week to raise money for the library, and paperback books are generally only 25 cents, so I bought a few with the intention of mailing them ahead to different towns so I would have something to read.In the end, we got back to the Water Gap a little after 4. Condor had left already, so Captain Hook and I packed up our stuff, dropped by the post office, and walked out of town.About a mile down the trail, we crossed the Delaware River and entered New Jersey. About a mile after that, barely after we had entered the woods, we saw a bear and her cub by a stream-- the mother had already seen us and was running away, and the cub followed. New Jersey is well-known for having a lot of bears, and it seems to be true-- a mile into the state, and we've already seen two!We keep chugging, and along the way see a couple of deer as well. Around 8 we reach the backpacker campsite where we had hoped to find Condor, but no luck. So we keep going an extra mile to Sunfish Pond, which is actually the southernmost glacial lake we will encounter on the A.T. Camping here is frowned upon, but Condor might be here, so we circle the pond on the A.T. It's getting dark, so finally we find a nice, grassy area , throw our bear bag lines, and camp. Lots of bugs and some extremely noisy frogs (they sound kind of like an electric guitar being strummed), but hey, it's a campsite. I'm actually not quite sure of the exact mileage for today, so I made an approximate guess-- this is the first time this whole trip I haven't been exactly sure of my camping location.
Date: 2004-06-10
From: Somewhere Near Sunfish Pond

To: Brink Road Shelter
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: light rain

One of the books I picked up at the library sale yesterday has been particularly gripping, and so when I woke up this morning I got my bear bag down, then spent a good chunk of time reading and eating breakfast.My departure was further delayed by some raindrops that hit my tent as I was packing up, but rain or no rain, I had 18 miles to do today, so finally I got moving.It was overcast all day, and it was fairly cool, which was nice, but after I stopped for lunch thunder began to rumble ominously in the distance. It got louder as I kept walking, and I couldn't help but notice I was on top of a ridgeline. But the thunder faded and the storm I was fearing never came.Captain Hook finally caught up as I was taking an afternoon break, and we hiked the last few miles to the shelter together.The mosquitoes have been out in full force today-- they aren't so bad up on the ridges, but in the valleys if you stop for more than five seconds they eat you alive. So it's really no surprise that everyoen is tenting today, even though the sky is still overcast and rain seems likely. Better to tent in the rain than sleep in a shelter full of mosquitoes.
Date: 2004-06-11
From: Brink Road Shelter

To: High Point Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: clear sky

I woke up fairly early, and after retrieving my food bag from the bear box, I spent a while just reading and eating breakfast. Finally at about 8:30 I was ready to leave, but hung around a few minutes longer trying, along with Condor, to get Captain Hook out of his hammock and moving. We failed, and I left soon after.I walked down the entrance path to the shelter back to the A.T. Unfortunately, upon reaching the A.T., I missed the turn and continued walking down another path for about ten minutes. Only when I reached a bunch of "Private Property" signs and a road did I know for certain I had gone the wrong way, which necesitated a ten-minute climb back up the mountain. So I was finally on the A.T. going the right direction a little after 9-- not good, considering I had 20 miles to cover today.Further slowing me down was Gyp's Tavern, a little restaurant at a road crossing about 4 miles away. I stopped there about 10:30 and had a cheeseburger-- Condor was already there, having passed me while I was busy getting lost.We hiked together the rest of the day. The rocks were awful, and there were a lot of pointless ups and downs, but there are a lot of nice views and overlooks in New Jersey.There were also a lot of ticks; we found ourselves stopping at least once every two minutes at some points to check our legs and socks for ticks. I brushed about five off me throughout the day, while Condor found a dozen or so(he was leading, so he got more.)We continued plodding along, and about 7 we passed an observation tower which, according to the guidebook, you could see New York City from, but we couldn't. Soon after we got to the shelter, set up tents, and ate. Gonna sleep well tonight-- twenty miles over rocks makes me tired.
Date: 2004-06-12
From: High Point Shelter

To: Vernon, NJ
Miles today: 18.9

Condor and I got an earlier start than usual today-- not that that's exactly hard, given my wake-up times recently.Our original plan today was to go into Unionville to re-supply, but while talking with a ridgerunner, we learned that there was a nice hostel in Vernon, about 19 miles down the trail. He also said that it was easy to get a hitch into town, so that clinched it for us-- we decided to do our re-supply in Vernon.So instead of 7 miles, a town stop, and another five miles, we had 19 miles to do. There were a few ups and downs, but thankfully the trail wasn't too bad and Condor and I were able to make good time.The last couple days we've seen the rocky, grassy ridgelines of New Jersey. Today, though, we saw the swamps of New Jersey. We spent long stretches walking along wooden planks (called "bog boards") that wound through grassy, muddy fields. Near the end of the day we actually walked for a couple miles along a boardwalk that wound its way through a natural area-- it was quite nice, actually, simply because it was a nice change of scenery.We got a ride into Vernon from some dayhikers who we had actually met at lunchtime. They were going South, but when we got to the trailhead they were there, having returned to pick up the car they left there this morning. When we got to the hostel, Squish, Skyline, and Sundance were already there, along with a hiker named Tim. We all went and got pizza for dinner, then I came back and did laundry for the first time since Port Clinton (about 10 days), so it was very nice to finally get that done.Oh, and there's Internet access, too-- this hostel is awesome!
Date: 2004-06-13
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

I never sleep particularly well in towns. Part of it is that I go to bed late-- for example, last night it was after 10 by the time we finally turned off the TV and went to bed. It didn't help that just before bed, I had a pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (flavor: Chunky Monkey) and washed it down with a soda. So that, coupled with the hard floor, ensured that I slept poorly.I woke up fairly early and packed up, then used the Internet for a while. Meanwhile, Squish went back to the trail, Condor went to the grocery store (something I had done the previous night), and Skyline and Sundance went out to eat at a nearby diner. So I finished packing up, went to Burger King for breakfast, then proceeded to hitchhike back to the trail. This is only the second time I've had to hitch on this trip, and the first time I've had to do it alone-- I was nervous, but it turned out that getting a hitch was easy, and within five minutes I was getting into a van to go back to the trailhead.9 miles into the day, we left New Jersey and crossed into New York. We had been crossing some very rocky ridgelines for a few miles, and the rocks only seemed to get worse as we crossed the state line.It wasn't all bad, though-- from the first good overlook in New York, we were able to make out the skyline of Manhattan, barely visible in the haze across several ridgelines. It was quite cool.The rocks continued, and gave way to some rocky ups and downs that made the end of the day seem to crawl. Luckily, about 2 miles before the shelter, there was a road crossing with an ice cream store nearby-- a banana strawberry milkshake was just what I needed to power me the final 2 miles to the shelter.I had planned on tenting, but when I got to the shelter the bugs weren't too bad, so Skyline, Sundance, Condor and I stayed in the shelter, while Squish and Tim tented. Later Captain Hook showed up as well, and even later some hikers named Mouth, Tarzan, Chris, and Anna came. Between all of us thru-hikers and the boy scout troop that showed up at about 9, it was a full house tonight.
Date: 2004-06-14
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: William Brien Memorial Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: light rain

Today was a long, hard day. The rocks were unending, and on top of that, the New York trail club saw fit to route the trail over every single little pile of rocks, hill, or knob in the whole state. It's been a long time since a day was this hard, and I cursed loudly on more than one occasion.Part of the problem, I think, is that I didn't get enough sleep again last night. We were up in the shelter talking until well after 10, and I was woken up shortly after 5 in the morning by mosquitoes buzzing in my ear. I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, occasionally whacking myself in the head in a futile effort to kill a mosquito, but finally gave up-- so I really didn't get enough sleep last night, which means I'm already in a bad mood.Luckily, I spend a good part of the day hiking with Condor, who is relentlessly cheerful. (As Squish said, Condor would be happy even in the middle of a thermonuclear explosion-- he'd say, "Mmmm... nice and warm...") So it was hard to stay in a bad mood, hiking with Condor.I stopped for a break at a shelter at about the 14-mile mark, only to find it chocked full of stuff, including (but not limited to) a barbeque grill, a cooler, various tools, and several sleeping bags. A southbound section hiker named Ambler was sitting there, and she explained that all of the stuff belonged to several men from NYC who had come out to the woods to participate in some sort of tribal ritual. At that moment, they were down in the woods somewhere building a "sweat lodge" and, judging from the sounds emanating from their direction, participating in primal scream therapy. ("Eeeeeeeyaaaaaeeeeerrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh!") I quickly decided not to hang around.It was getting late, so I hurried the final five miles to the shelter. That was good, because Squish had gotten a maildrop that day and there were plenty of goodies to be shared. (I was even fortunate enough to get a slice of banana bread before he wised up and decided to keep the rest of it for himself.) I also joked around with Mouth, who went to school at UNC (which is N.C. State's primary rival), and in general had an excellent evening.
Date: 2004-06-15
From: William Brien Memorial Shelter

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 15.2

Today was a short day, but not only did it go right through a zoo at Bear Mountain State Park, I also had to go off the trail a mile to pick up a maildrop at Fort Montgomery, so I still had a full day. The terrain continued to be difficult as well, so the nine miles to Bear Mountain absolutely dragged. We did get another view from which the skyline of New York City was visible (barely), but that was about the only high point of the morning.Bear Mountain State Park was a very busy place; lots of tourists and a lot of school groups. We stopped to have lunch at a decent restaurant in the lodge-- the food was good, but the service was terrible, and we quietly wondered how much better the service would have been if we hadn't looked (and smelled) like thru-hikers. At least we ate outside.So anyway, lunch took longer than we expected, and we still had to go get maildrops. But what luck! We left the lodge and immediately ran into JB, a local trail angel whom Skyline and Sundance actually met yesterday. He offered to meet us at the Bear Mountain bridge and drive us into Fort Montgomery. Excellent trail magic.Between the lodge and the bridge, however, lay the Bear Mountain zoo, which the trail passed through. We hurried through, since we were meeting JB, but we still took time to look at the various exhibits that the trail passed by, and we took pictures at the Black Bear exhibit, which, aside from containing the only black bears we've seen in New York so far, is also located at the lowest elevation on the entire A.T. (124 feet). So we have now spanned the entire range of elevation we will see on the A.T., from 124 feet here to 6,643 feet at Clingman's Dome in the Smokies.We met JB at the end of the zoo, and he took us to the post office and back. It probably saved us a good 45 minutes of walking, which was good because it was after 4 pm by this point and we still had 6 miles to go to get to the Graymoor Friary. There's a soccer field there and a small pavilion that they let hikers use for camping.We got there at about 7-- Moonpie, Squish, and several other hikers were already there. There was also a cold shower (as in, 40 degrees or less cold), which a few people availed themselves of but I did not-- partly it was too cold, partly the hour was too late, and I wanted to eat, set up camp, and relax instead (which I did).
Date: 2004-06-16
From: Graymoor Friary

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: clear sky

I'm trying to get back in the habit of getting up early, so that I can have a more relaxed hiking day. Recently, it seems like I've been getting up between 6:45 and 7:15, leaving late, and then worrying all day about how many miles I have to do. What I'd like to do is leave earlier so that I can have a more relaxed day,and made a little bit of progress-- got up about 6:30 today. (What I really need to do to remedy this is to catch up with Scorpion again, but he's actually pulling ahead-- I think he's 6 days ahead now. Sorry, Scorpion, but I probably won't see you before Katahdin.)Today wasn't as bad, terrain-wise, as the last couple of days, but there were still a lot of rocks, and while there were no large ups or downs, there were a lot of little ups and downs. In fact, the whole day consisted of hill after hill, each one not more than a couple hundred feet, but as the day wore on it got really tiring. It didn't help that I took a long lunch break with Moonpie, Skyline, and Sundance, so by the time we were moving again I was worrying about when we would make it to the shelter.The last few miles went by quickly, thank goodness-- we had a conversation in which we discussed the culinary delicacies of our respective hometowns, which helped the time fly although it also made me quite hungry.In any event, I needn't have worried about the time. We made it to the shelter about 6, which left plenty of time for dinner and hanging around.
Date: 2004-06-17
From: RPH Shelter

To: Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I did a little better in my continuing quest to shift to an earlier schedule-- I left at 7:30, which was 15 minutes earlier than yesterday. I hiked with Squish and Condor the first part of the day, which was 5.5 miles to a road crossing where there was a Deli nearby. (The trail in New York is famous for having lots of delis and restaurants near it.)Stanimal and Bigfoot caught up with us as well, so we all went down to the Deli en masse, and ordered Grand Slam sandwiches-- it's a breakfast sandwich on a croissant with egg, cheese, ham, bacon, and sausage. Very tasty. I also bought a few extra snacks and, after waiting a while for the Grand Slam to digest, I had a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.It took even longer for that to digest, but before too long I had to head back to the trail-- 11 and a half more miles to go.About another 8 miles down the trail, we went by a lake which someone at the deli had recommended to us as a good swimming hole. So when we got there, we took our packs off and went in, clothes and all (they needed washing, anyway). Stanimal, Bigfoot, Skyline, and Sundance and I all swam in the lake for a good hour or so-- not only did it feel great, there was a great novelty value as well; the name of the lake was Nuclear Lake. (There used to be a nuclear research facility there. It's not contaminated, at least not to my knowledge, although I am keeping a close watch to see if I develop any mutant superpowers).So anyway, what with the deli and Nuclear Lake, we didn't get to the shelter until after 7. I tented, since the shelter was mostly full-- which was fine, although through most of the night, it rained pretty hard. At least it means the springs and streams will be flowing well.
Date: 2004-06-18
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter

To: Mt. Algo Lean-to
Miles today: 21.4

My least favorite thing about camping in the rain is that I have to pack up a wet, muddy tent in the morning. To make matters worse, when the humidity is very high I get condensation on the inside of the tent, which means the walls of my tent are wet inside and out, and the bottom is wet as well as dirty. So when I unpack my tent tonight, all of it-- inside, outside, floor, and bottom, is going to be totally wet and dirty-- not to mention that all the extra water and dirt makes a noticeable difference in the weight.But oh well... whatcha gonna do? I ate breakfast in my tent, packed up, and was off on the trail only about 45 minutes later than I had originally hoped.We only had 10 miles left in New York, and there were a lot of interesting sights in those miles, including a dead deer absolutely swarming with maggots (Yum!), and the Gate of Heaven (seriously-- it's an old brick and metal archway in a grassy field. There was an overgrown cemetery nearby, something which always makes me sad to see.)The last few miles in New York also had the distinction of having some of the worst-maintained sections of the entire trail-- there was all sorts of high grass and overgrown brush that made progress very difficult, and made me wonder more than once if I was on the trail. This area has also been plastered with warning signs about ticks at every road crossing-- how the heck are we supposed to avoid ticks if we have to practically bushwhack our way down the trail? Regardless, I made it through that section, miraculously tick-free, and with more than a little bit of pleasure I finally crossed the line into Connecticut.The trail was better-maintained in Connecticut, but it was still a tough afternoon of walking, and by the time Moonpie and I reached the shelter we were beat.I set up my tent to dry, which was naturally the cue for the rain to pour down again all night. At least it's dry in the shelter.
Date: 2004-06-19
From: Mt. Algo Lean-to

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 7.3

Today was a good day, because instead of the usual plan of "Let's hike all day," today our plan was "Let's spend most of the day in town."To be more specific, the town was Kent, Connecticut. It was only about .3 miles past the shelter to the road crossing, and then we got a ride into town from Leprechaun, a Connecticut ridgerunner who spent the night at the shelter with us.Once in town, we had breakfast, went to the post office, and joy! There was a library! Any day I can get on the Internet is automatically a good day.So all in all, I ended up hanging around town until almost 4 pm. There's nowhere to stay in Kent (at least, nowhere under $100 a night) so all of us in town-- Skyline, Sundance, Moonpie, Bigfoot, Stanimal, and a hiker named Aimy who I just met-- we all ended up walking 7 more miles down the trail until the first shelter. There's not supposed to be rain tonight, so maybe I can finally set up my tent and have it dry by morning.
Date: 2004-06-20
From: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to

To: Limestone Springs Lean-to
Miles today: 22.3

Among the things I did in Kent yesterday was try to get in touch with Nikki, a friend of mine who lives in Massachusetts. I wasn't able to, but I had already talked to her about meeting up in a town called Dalton, about a hundred miles down the trail. Back in Port Clinton, I had guessed June 25th as my arrival date in Dalton-- and lo and behold, it looks like I was dead on! I can get to Dalton on June 25th, assuming I do some big-mileage days, starting with today.To be honest, I'm getting pretty sick of high-mileage days, or for that matter, any day where my main concern is getting the miles done before it gets late-- which has been most days, recently. A lot of it is my fault; I've been getting up later. But the terrain has also gotten rougher-- we're long past the nice, flat ridgelines of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and back into actual mountains, which has slowed me down. So suddenly, 20 miles is a lot harder than it used to be.But anyway-- I know that I should get up early for a 22-mile day, but the night is cold, and come the morning, everyone stays buried in their sleeping bags. I'm the first one up at 6:30, and soon everyone else follows.The weather today is beautiful hiking weather-- it's sunny but not humid (after about 150% humidity the past three days, this is a very nice change), and it's not too hot, either. So even though I'm rushing through the miles, the weater is nice, and the views are crystal clear.I think most people are stopping at a campsite about 15 miles down the trail and then going into the town of Salisbury tomorrow. Me, I want to be in Dalton by Friday, so I'm doing 22 miles and I'm going to skip Salisbury tomorrow. This will actually work out well, because when I take a day or so off this weekend I'll start back on the trail with them again.Moonpie and Aimy are, I think, the only ones doing 22 miles except for me. The shelter in question, Limestone Springs, is half a mile off the trail, too, so I''m not surprised when they don't show up-- they're probably stealth camping on the trail somewhere. Me, I needed water, so I came down to the shelter-- I'm the only thru-hiker there, but there are some nice section hikers, and one of them, Paco, gives me a bag of shelled peanuts! Score! Tomorrow I'll find a nice overlook and take a nice big break, maybe read a bit, and eat peanuts-- I'm only doing 18 tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have more time than I did today.