morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-07-20
From: Island Pond, NY

To: Fort Montgomery, NY 
Miles today: 16.9

The hiking was a lot easier today than yesterday, and the trail was loaded with ripe blueberries which we gorged on. There were several lookouts where we could see the skyline of NYC. We also had some beautiful views of the Hudson River and we hit the lowest elevation on the trail at 124 feet.We made it into Bear Mountain, NY at about 5:30 and a very nice couple gave us a ride into Fort Montgomery. We finished the day with a steak dinner at a restaurant by the hotel.
Date: 2007-07-21
From: Fort Montgomery, NY 

To: Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 0.0

It felt great to get dried out at a hotel for a day!We ate some awesome food today, enjoyed Becky's care package, and walked to town to the "grocery store." It was basically a pizza joint, but we were able to get enough food for a couple of days. We hit a couple of deli's and food stores near the trail in the next few days anyway.It's a couple more days in NY and then on to CT!
Date: 2007-07-22
From: Fort Montgomery, NY

To: Canopus Hill, NY
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: clear sky

We managed to get a ride back to the trail from a very nice woman at the Mobil gas station by the hotel. We started where we left off at the picnic area by the Bear Mountain Bridge which was packed with people on a beautiful Sunday morning.The hike started out through the Trailside Museum & Wildlife Center which is basically a zoo. It was pretty cool, but it was a little depressing seeing the animals we¢ve seen in the wild cooped up in cages. Fortunately, most of them were injured and could never survive on their own again. The hike across the Hudson on the Bear Mountain Bridge was beautiful. The views were incredible, and the hike up the mountain on the other side was full of day hikers. We had fun hiking with a local couple named Ben and Erin, and their dog Rudy. Erin is an artist, and Ben is a lawyer that helped a local citizens group oppose the building of the Holiday Inn where we stayed!Bonnie had a couple of sharp pains in the foot where she had the more drastic bunion surgery. Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow. Her knee is great. She has one leg now that is completely good.
Date: 2007-07-23
From: Canopus Hill, NY

To: Canopus Hill Road
Miles today: 0.7
Weather: moderate rain

We got picked up by the police!As soon as we started hiking, Bonnie was having sharp pains in her foot and couldn¢t keep going. We decided to stop at the first road, get a rental car, and see her doctor tomorrow in NJ. We flagged down a car and a woman stopped, but she had to get to work. So she called her daughter who she said would be there in 5 minutes. About a half hour later, her daughter never showed, but a police officer from the Putnam County Police department showed up and said he was there to give us a lift! It was our first ride in the back of a police car! We never knew you can¢t open the doors from the inside! The officer was great and gave us a ride to Enterprise rent-a-car.We¢re staying at our friends Laura and Glen¢s and see the doctor tomorrow at 12:45. Bonnie has some swelling in her foot and probably will need an x-ray. This is the foot that has a titanium pin and screw in it. We have a screw driver in case the screw is backing out, but we have nothing to whack the pin with. So we¢ll see the doctor.
Date: 2007-07-24
From: Canopus Hill Road

To: Canopus Hill Road
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

We can get back on the trail tomorrow!Bonnie¢s foot surgeon took an x-ray and it looks like she¢s just feeling pressure against the pin and screw in her foot from last year¢s bunion surgery. He gave her two options: take a shot of cortisone and try to relieve the pressure from her boot by using a doughnut/relacing, etc, or have surgery to remove the pin and screw. Of course she chose the former, and we¢ll head back to NY tomorrow.We can¢t wait. We¢ve come so far, and to have to stop our journey now would be quite disappointing. Hopefully she won¢t have too much pain. At least she has the confidence now that she¢s not doing serious more permanent damage to her foot.
Date: 2007-07-25
From: Canopus Hill Road

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: clear sky

We returned our rental car in Peekskill and got back on the trail shortly after 9:30. Laura and Glen were wonderful hosts as always.   Enterprise had a driver take us back to where we got off the trail - they were very accommodating to our little dilemma. The driver was an interesting guy who works at Enterprise during the day and for the MTA in NYC at night. It made us appreciate our life style!While in NJ, we saw the new Harry Potter movie and Bonnie bought the new book. She read half while we were there and then ripped it in half to take the balance of it on the trail (I tried to stop her Becky ¢ it was gruesome!).The hiking was easy and Bonnie is doing pretty good with her foot. She gets occasional sharp pains, but it¢s rare and now she has the confidence that she¢s not doing any serious long term damage. The trail is full of toads and we saw 4 snakes today. Three were small garters and one was a fairly large black snake. They all pretty much scooted out of our way. We spent the night at a shelter with thru hikers Popeye and Light Weight and a couple of section hikers.
Date: 2007-07-26
From: RPH Shelter

To: Nuclear Lake, NY
Miles today: 14.1

The trail passed under the Taconic Parkway and headed up onto a ridge for most of the day. We hit a road crossing with a deli 0.4 miles away and had great turkey and roast beef sandwiches. The hiking was more strenuous than yesterday and it was really hot and humid. The views were surprisingly beautiful. We didn¢t expect to see so many mountains in this fairly populated corner of NY State.Mosquitos and gnats are becoming a lot more prevalent. We¢re in some pretty swampy areas and the bugs love it. Bug spray works pretty well, but you sweat it off pretty quickly. Gnats seem to love to ¢dive bomb¢ Bonnie in the eyes.
Date: 2007-07-27
From: Nuclear Lake, NY

To: Ten Mile River Lean-to, CT
Miles today: 16.0

We hiked into Connecticut today ¢ state number 10 of 14!It was another hot and humid day and we finished NY in some wet land/swamp areas. It really makes you appreciate what a wet land does when you hike through it. The water, which gets filtered through these areas, is crystal clear below you (they have boards set up to keep you it). In addition, they are just packed with plant and animal life. Streams which have runoff from roads and built up areas are never as clean.We hit a road again with a deli a half mile away, but opted for the hot dog cart by the side of the road after the second tractor trailer roared passed. It¢s the first time either of us ate from a hot dog trailer by the road and it tasted pretty good with hiker hunger!We'll remember NY as a mixed bag of hiking. Some areas were easy, and some were brutal. The area with all the boulder pile hiking we later found out is known as "Agony Grind." We were glad to hear everyone else whinning about it besides us. A thru hiker we met named Tenacious Tea could only say about it, "I was bitter!" We finished the day with a lovely swim in Ten Mile River.
Date: 2007-07-28
From: Ten Mile River Lean-to, CT

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 15.5

We woke up to rain, and we mean RAIN! At about 6:00 a.m. the sky opened up and it just poured. We thought we were in a pretty high and dry spot on the grass, but eventually the tent floor started to float up! Of course we have a slow leak somewhere in the bottom of the tent, so the water slowly started to come in. We pulled everything up on our therma-rests to stay dry. Fortunately, the rain let up around 8:00 and we headed off with our soaked stuff.We went into the town of Kent which is about a half mile off the trail and the outfitter let us set up our tent and lay out our stuff to dry out. We were glad ¢ wet stuff is a heavy.Kent is quite the upscale town ¢ our sandwiches and two sodas were about $20. However, we did enjoy a good guitar player on the lawn of the store. It¢s a little strange to walk around an upscale little town all smelly, dirty, and unshaven!The terrain was fairly challenging all day. We had a really rocky steep descent in the afternoon. Fortunately the day ended with some flat hiking up the Housatonic River. With the diversion to Kent and delayed start due to the rain, we didn¢t get to our destination until 8:30 p.m. and had to set up in semi-darkness. We were pretty fried.
Date: 2007-07-29
From: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to

To: Belters Campsite, CT
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: broken clouds

We started with some easy beautiful hiking up the Housatonic River. The trail then headed off up the mountain along the river where we saw a baby vulture tucked into the rocks. We had to pass within about 10 feet of him to go up the trail. He looked like he was waiting for a meal from mom.We had quite a few ups and downs and it was hot again. We took the opportunity at every stream to pour a couple of bottles of water over each others heads. We ended the day with descent by Lime Rock Race Track to a campsite back down by the river. There was no race going on, but we heard cheers and later found out Judy Collins was doing a concert at the track.
Date: 2007-07-30
From: Belters Campsite, CT

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: thunderstorm

After a mile of hiking, we crossed a road with a restaurant called the Mountainside Caf©, so we headed in for an awesome breakfast. Hiking is a lot easier on a big breakfast, especially when you end the meal with dessert. We rarely had dessert with breakfast before doing the trail!We hiked along the river again, and spent some time with a very nice local resident named Sarah and her dog Mugsy. We love meeting local people hiking that are almost always real friendly and can fill us in a little bit about an area.We passed the Great Falls on the Housitonic which is really beautiful. There were lookouts from both the bottom and top of the falls. We ended the day with a 0.5 mile hike down the road to the White Hart Inn. They were nice enough to do a load of laundry for us and we had a huge dinner.
Date: 2007-07-31
From: Salisbury, CT

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We¢re having a lovely day off in Salisbury, CT. It¢s another upscale town ¢ we never realized that the western side of Connecticut is so ritzy. We thought the ¢high end¢ area was more on the east side around Greenwich. We¢re loving the New England forests the last few days. The woods are very open so we¢re starting to get back the views we¢ve been missing since the leaves filled in down south. We hike into Massachusetts tomorrow, spend about a week there, and then hit our favorite state, Vermont. We already made our reservation at the Inn at Long Trail by Killington!We've added the Inn as our next mail drop. Please send packages UPS or FedEx -- they prefer not to have them sent U.S. Mail.
Date: 2007-08-01
From: Salisbury, CT

To: Glen brook Lean-to, MA
Miles today: 14.2

The 1st of December was covered with Snow,And so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston,The Berkshires looked dream-like on account of the frosting,Ten miles behind me and 10,000 more to go ¢¦.                        From Sweet Baby James by James Taylor                        (Thanks for a MA song Becky!)We¢re in Massachusetts!Today was just a pleasant day of hiking. Even after 4 months, we hit those days where we really just enjoy hiking and being up in the mountains. We spent most of the day with Pete, a thru-hiking physician from Rochester. Since he grew up in Elmwood Park, NJ, and Bonnie spent a lot of time in Rochester for work, we all had a lot in common.It was a little cooler in the mountains than in Salisbury and the hiking wasn¢t too strenuous. We ended the day by climbing up Mt. Everett, which is at 2,600 ft. The views of CT and MA were beautiful. We set up the tent on a platform at the shelter ¢ it¢s nice to be off the dirt once in a while!
Date: 2007-08-02
From: Glen brook Lean-to, MA

To: Benedict Pond, MA
Miles today: 18.3

We were looking forward to 5 mile section of trail today that is all at the same elevation. It looked like flat, easy hiking. It turned out to be a hot, mosquito infested swamp between two ridges! As soon as you sweated off the insect repellent, the buggers nailed you! We were fortunate to hit U.S. 7, where there was a nursery that sold cold drinks and ice cream. It was another place where the people were so nice. They gave us ice water for our bladders and we had two rounds of ice cream in the gazebo out front.From there, we climbed about a thousand feet to a ridge, and continued on to a campsite at Benedict Pond. A swim felt great after the hot buggy day. We shared a campsite with South Carolina Blue and Mary Rose, a father and daughter from Charlotte, SC. She just graduated from law school and is taking a job clerking for a state Supreme Court judge in ME, and he¢s a civil engineer in SC. They were really nice people and we enjoyed camping with them.
Date: 2007-08-03
From: Benedict Pond, MA

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin, MA
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

Our butts were dragging today ¢ we took two breaks in the first hour and fifteen minutes! We just couldn¢t pass the cold streams; we dunked our heads and mixed up some lemonade at the first couple.We hit five south-bounders today. They usually start in early June to avoid the black flies in ME, so this is about where they are now. A guy named Juice rested by us while we had lunch and told us the Whites in NH are tough, but incredibly beautiful. He was a little disappointed to be through them. We also saw one small black bear today ¢ our first since NJ.We dragged ourselves to Upper Goose Pond, which has a cabin with a caretaker. After a cool swim in the pond, which is actually a good sized lake, we had dinner with a 73 year-old thru hiker from New Zealand. This is his second thru hike of the A.T. We also spent time with really cool couple from France who are out for a section hike. They were the fittest 60 something year-olds we¢ve ever seen. There were some language difficulties, but we had fun talking to them.
Date: 2007-08-04
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin, MA

To: Kay Wood Lean-to, MA
Miles today: 17.6

The caretaker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin cooked up a big batch of blueberry pancakes for everyone this morning. What a way to start the day! She also made a few pots of coffee, and the caffeine had me shaking about an hour into the hike! I could barely walk, so I ate lunch at 10:00. Bonnie started shaking shortly thereafter and had to hork down some food as well!It was a little cooler today, and the terrain was fairly easy. We stopped by the ¢cookie lady¢ house, which is a pick-your-own blueberry farm where the wife makes cookies for hikers. She and her husband are a really nice couple. We downed some sodas, blueberries, and cookies and pet their dog for a while.We ended the day at Kay Wood Lean-to, which is named after a 71 year-old woman from nearby Dalton who thru hiked the trail in 1989 with a 40 lb. pack.We are loving New England and even after 4 months on the trail, we have great conversations out here. We are very tempted to skip the Colorado/moving around period in our lives and just buy a house in VT after the trail. Ahh, probably not.
Date: 2007-08-05
From: Kay Wood Lean-to, MA

To: Mark Noepal Lean-to
Miles today: 16.7

It was a cool morning. Three days ago we were dying in the heat, and last night we slept in long underwear! And in two weeks, we switch back to our winter gear for NH!We hiked the three miles into Dalton, MA, on trail that went over Day Mountain (1,750¢). We ate a full breakfast at a diner in Dalton, had pastries at a coffee shop, ordered two foot-long subs and chips to eat up the trail, and loaded up on snacks from the convenience store. Then we hit the next town of Cheshire and had ice cream. We need to put an end to this eating when we get off the trail! We also ran into ¢The Sirens¢ ¢ thru hikers Bird Legs and Splendora, who keep trying to get us to take a zero with them and Ice Man, Bobbie, and Snack Break. This time it was for Bird Legs¢ birthday and they wanted us to hitch back to Dalton for the night. They are a bad influence! We resisted temptation.We ended the day at a shelter with about 5 south-bounders, 2 section hikers from Long Island, and a crew of about 12 kids from NY on one of those Fresh-Air Programs. It was a little noisier than usual, but we had a good nights sleep in the cool air. The shelter was about 1,700 feet up Mt. Greylock. We¢ll finish the last 800 feet of the climb to the summit tomorrow.
Date: 2007-08-06
From: Mark Noepal Lean-to

To: Williamstown, MA
Miles today: 9.6

After petting the dog Violet at the shelter, we headed out to finish the climb up Mt. Greylock. The summit was completely fogged in! What a bummer ¢ the views are supposedly beautiful. It was a little eerie up there. You could only see about 50 yards, and the roads to the top are closed for repairs so we were the only ones there. The wind was kicking pretty hard as well.The descent into Williamstown was really steep. We went from 3,491 feet to 650 feet and a lot of it was straight down the mountain. Our knees were screaming a bit!We shopped for next week at a Stop & Shop, and met the father of a thru hiker who drove us to the hotel. What luck ¢ we were dragging a bit from a week of a lot of 18 mile days. We continue to have incredible luck getting rides.
Date: 2007-08-07
From: Williamstown, MA

To: Williamstown, MA
Miles today: 0.0

We¢re having a great zero. We stuffed ourselves on Chinese food last night, and downed a couple of zombies each! Williamstown is beautiful. It¢s the home of Williams College and it¢s a typical gorgeous New England college town. The downtown is great, full of shops and more importantly, places to eat!Tomorrow it¢s back to the trail and only 3 miles to the Vermont line!!!!!!
Date: 2007-08-08
From: Williamstown, MA

To: Congdon Shelter, VT
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: light rain

We hiked into VT today -- state number 12 of 14!It was true to its nickname of "Vermuck" with the rain we had last night. The black dirt up here doesn't absorb much water. Bonnie slid back twice on her butt and I slipped off a rock and sank up to my ankle.We hiked much of the day with The Band Aid Kid, who is a forest ranger in Durango. This part of the trail is also The Long Trail, which runs the length of VT. We'll split off from it by Killington, but for a while, we'll be hiking with Long Trail people. Two were at the shelter -- Ab Boy, and another guy that beat cancer and overcame burns on 50% of his body from rescuing people from a fire.The joke about the Long Trail people is that they're just trying to get to Canada for free medical.
Date: 2007-08-09
From: Congdon Shelter, VT

To: Goddard Shelter, VT
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: clear sky

For the first time on the trip, some critter got into our food bags. We had them hung about 15 feet high in a tree like we always do to keep them away from bears, and a squirrel or chipmunk must have climbed down the rope and got to the bags. Fortunately we only lost one bag of cookies. From now on, we'll add an upside down plastic container a few feet above the bags on the rope.The hiking was not as mucky today -- a bit more like the VT we love. We had a great view of Bennington from one spot. We thought about hitching in for lunch, and decided to give it 5 cars and then move on. After about 8 cars (we developed special rules about certain cars we wouldn't include in the total!) we continued on.We hiked much of the afteroon with Blue Bird and her wonderful mixed boarder collie Jasmine. Blue Bird was very interesting -- definitely not into mainstream, typical living. It's so cool to run into people like that.There were about 12 people at the shelter. It was a mix of north-bounders, south-bounders, Long Trailers, and a few locals out for a few nights out.
Date: 2007-08-10
From: Goddard Shelter, VT

To: Stratton Pond, VT
Miles today: 19.2

We woke up to cold light rain. We started out cold, warmed up, and then got cold again. Fortunately, the rain stopped around 11:00 and it warmed up.We ran into Plodder and Barking Dog hiking south. They are slack packing (carry a day pack only and stay in towns) the whole trail. We met them in VA and PA as well -- every time it has been in the rain! We also hiked for a while with a father and his son and daughter. The father grew up in Larwence, KA, near where Bonnie's sister lives and we've visited a lot. We had fun talking about familiar places like Free State Brew Pub!We climbed Stratton Mountain near the end of the day and had a good time talking to the caretaker and her husband at the top. It was really cold and windy. The caretaker told us there are only 2 seasons in VT -- July 4th and winter.We climbed back down the mountain and arrived at Stratton Pond just as the sun was setting. It was breath-taking. A group camping there made room for us and it had to rate as one of the most beautiful places we've ever been -- a beautiful isolated New England lake.
Date: 2007-08-11
From: Stratton Pond, VT

To: Bromley Mountain, VT
Miles today: 10.6

It was a cold night. We pulled out our down jackets to sleep; we're looking forward to getting our winter gear back in NH!We left beautiful Stratton Pond and met quite a few day hikers as we got close to VT 11/30. We had to resupply, so we decided to stay in a hotel. We couldn't get a room in Manchester because of some equestrian event in town, so on the recommendation of the caretaker on the top of Stratton, we stayed at Johnny Seasaws Inn at Bromley Ski Area. It turned out to be great.   A former co-woker of mine, Ed Chestnut, has a home nearby and was up for the weekend, so he and his wife came up and met us for dinner. We had a great time -- its always great to see people we know an the food was really good!
Date: 2007-08-12
From: Bromley Mountain, VT

To: Griffith Lake, VT
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We slept in a little and got back on the trail around 10:30. The day started with a climb up to the top of Bromley Mountain (3,260 ft.) and the views were great. We met four section hikers at the top ; two graduated from Penn State in Engineering, one the same year as me. We've been having some freaky coincidences lately!Since it was a Sunday, we met a lot of day hikers again and they're always fun to talk to, especially if they have dogs! It was hot hiking up the mountains, but otherwise quite comfortable. We camped on Griffin Lake, another beautiful VT lake. We love campsites like this one where they have tent platforms; it's nice to be off the dirt for a change.Our gear is really beginning to look beat! We have to replace our sleeping bag liners since they've fallen apart, our food bags are duct taped, lots of things have little rips, and everything is dirty. We hope it all holds together for 2 more months!
Date: 2007-08-13
From: Griffith Lake, VT

To: Greenwall Shelter, VT
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: light rain

Timing is everything!We hiked passed some beautiful views and then passed a stream with a perfect swimming hole. About a tenth of a mile later, we decided we couldn't pass it up, so off came the packs and we had a great refreshing swim. Then we hiked a short distance to a shelter for an early lunch and a thunderstorm hit with heavy rain. While we enjoyed a hot cup of tea, 7 other hikers came in at various times, and all were completely drenched. Then the sun came out, and off we went, dry as can be!Later, we passed another beautiful pond called Little Rock Pond, so in we went for swim number two of the day! This is living!We camped at Greenwall shelter where Buffolo Bobbie was staying. He' a great guy we met before, but it was always in a big group so we never got to talk. We had a great time, and he was having a bad day and said it just picked up his spirits. It's amazing out here how other people can just pick up you're spirits. Its certainly helped us a few times.