morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-08-07
From: Shelter, Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Hostel, Manchester Center VT
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: broken clouds

Town day = chore day. We woke up after a buggy chilly night. We woke up early because it was a town day. The next thing we knew we were in town. Of course there was a little over 4 hours of walking first.   Vermont has been very kind to us. There are rocks and roots and mud. But nothing we haven't already seen. Thus far Vermont has been able to keep the pointless ups and downs under control. We climb up and down significant mountains. But not oodles of repetitive stupid stuff. Believe me it is a refreshing change.   Laundry has been done. Showers have been taken. Groceries have been bought. Postcards have been written. Internet business has been conducted. Heck, even legs and underarms have been shaved. At this moment in time we are not absolutely disgusting. Believe me that also is a refreshing change.   We have been looking at a way to get more calories for less weight. You can't imagine how hard that is to do this in a low fat world. We are trying out pre-cooked bacon this section. It is lightweight and high fat. We are hoping that high fat equals high calorie and high energy.    We are currently eating 4 meals a day. We start the day off with cocoa for Oblivious and mocha coffee for Troll and I. We then eat oatmeal with added fruit. About 2 hours later we are starving. Absolutely ravenous shaky and light headed hungry. We stop and eat our 1st lunch. Tortillas with cheese, meat (pepperoni, summer sausage or bacon) and Pringles. Oblivious and I each eat one and troll may eat 2. I usually make up some sugary drink (Tang, Gatorade, etc..) to wash down our Little Debbie snack. That Little Debbie is an awesome woman. We repeat this exciting meal several hours later at 2nd lunch. When we roll into camp for the night, I make soup. We have black bean, pinto bean or potato soup. When we packaged this stuff up we thought we would be eating mashed potatoes or refried beans. A little extra water makes it soup. The soup helps take the edge off of the hunger. Then we start on our exciting Lipton¢s side. Apparently Lipton's can create numerous combinations of dried sauce and noodles or rice. Mix in a tuna packet and consume while huddled around the single pot and spoon. Sounds almost too good to be true.   It's bedtime. Take care and we will se you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-08
From: Hostel, Manchester Center VT

To: Tent, Griffith Lake tenting area
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: scattered clouds

My poor little Troll is sick. He has a cold and doesn't feel good. Last night he didn¢t sleep very well. He was too hot and then he was too cold. Basically he was miserable.   Poor baby. Today he is hazy and out of it due to the cold and the medication I am making him take.   Today as we were leaving town we met Cuppa Joe. We hadn't seen him since Port Clinton. His Mother was in a terrible life threatening car wreck. She is now home, what a miracle. It was good to see Cuppa and find out where people on the trail were. It seems like we are surging towards the front of the pack that we started with. Our slow and steady miles just keep racking up.    We climbed Bromley Mountain today. There is a ski lift, a warming hut, and an observation tower at the front. It was another of the great Vermont views. We could see the fire tower on Stratton from just the day before. Oblivious says that the upcoming miles look gnarly.    Today was a little lazy but my baby needs some down time.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-09
From: Tent, Griffith Lake tenting area

To: Tent, VT140 Roaring Brook
Miles today: 15.5

Today started off really nicely. Oblivious woke up before everyone else and he went to work. He packed up his hammock and sleeping bag. He got the stove and hot cocoa and coffee water ready. When I got up all I had to do was to bring the cocoa packet and coffee bag. He then started packing everything else up. He said he just wanted to take care of things for his Dad because he was sick. What a sweet kid. I'm a pretty lucky Mom.   We went on a wild goose chase to Danby, VT today. The post office had just closed for lunch when we got there. We waited an hour and sent out pocket mail while waiting. When we got to the post office, we didn't get the mail drop that we were expecting. We were able to mail some stuff home. That seemed to take around 2 hours.   When we got back on the trail we stopped at Little Rock Pond. We played around in the water a little bit. It was very nice and refreshing to rinse most of the day's dirt off of my body. Apple Pie, Jax, Goat, 2 south bounders (Yeti & Dub) were also there.    We are stealthing beside a brook tonight. It's nice to hear the babbling brook beside our tent.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-10
From: Tent, VT140 Roaring Brook

To: Tent, Governor Clement Shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

I think Oblivious is starting to feel famous. He got recognized on the trail again today. Kemosabee and his hiking partner Caterpillar are doing the long trail. Kemosabee stopped Oblivious as we passed them and asked if he was Oblivious. Seems that Kemossabee's wife, mother hen, has been reading our trail journal.    We are passing a lot of south bound at hikers and long trail hikers now. It's funny how many of them stop oblivious to tell him that they have heard about him.   Today had one overwhelming theme - up. We climbed up yet another Bear Mountain. We climbed up Claredon lookout. We climbed up Beacon Hill. We climbed up to Governor Clement shelter. Oh yeah, we get to start tomorrow off with a climb up and over Killington mountain.    We got some badly needed trail magic. Soda. Such sweet sugary goodness. Some wonderful people (outhouse repairman and hiking gnome) leave soda cooling a little stream. It was empty when we got there. It was such a nice little spot that we took a break and got really lucky. Outhouse repairman came down the trail with 2 big boxes of soda. He said this is the 5th year that they have done this soda trail magic thing. They start in June and finish on Labor Day. Last year they left over 1000 sodas out for hikers. You can believe that it really hit the spot for us.    Tonight we are tenting by the Forbidden Shelter. We have passed by (without stopping) the Haunted Shelter (Punchbowl) and the Secret Shelter. It is recommended that you don't stay at this shelter because the rowdy young locals drive up here to party. Well after a day of up we can't make it to the next shelter before dark. So we are here flaunting the recommendations.   We have less than 500 miles remaining. 498.6. How cool is that?   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-11
From: Tent, Governor Clement Shelter

To: Tent, Gifford Woods State Park 
Miles today: 13.8

Surprise, surprise, today started off with a climb. I have to admit that the climb up to Killington wasn't that bad. The shelter at the top looked to be really cold on a cold night.    Today we saw lots of south bounders. They are all excited because they will be hitting their 500-mile mark soon. We will be hitting the 1700-mile soon. Somehow we are not quite as excited as they are. I think we are getting trail weary.    Tonight we are at a Vermont State Park. I took a pay shower, sort of. For $1.25 I got a dribble of water. It varied in temp. If the water was hot the dribble was very small and slow and if the dribble was almost shower like, it was freezing cold. Troll did not get a shower because the men's pay shower was even worse. The joys of personal hygiene on the trail.   Cleanliness on the trail is an adventure. First off, you have to understand that we don't have clothes, we have cloth. We all have only one short-sleeved shirt and only one pair of shorts or a skirt. These are the same clothes that you wore yesterday, the same that you are wearing today, and the same that you will wear tomorrow and so on. If you are lucky your clothes will have been washed recently. But what is more likely is your clothes were "washed" by the rain or rinsed in a stream. Showers are a luxury. Bathing is usually a rinse off in a stream. Pots are washed out with water and fingers. If something is burned on, you break out the spork to scrape the burned stuff off. Silverware - a very fancy word for the titanium spork or the lexan spoon that you eat with. Silverware is cleaned off after each meal by licking. If you are a clean freak, you might carry wet towelettes. I think everyone carries hand sanitizer, usually in their toilet paper zip lock.    With summer's high humidity, nothing dries out. Clothes and backpack are always damp. Funky smelling bacteria really love that dampness. We are all just disgusting. When I go into town and go into a store, I hold my head high and pretend that I don't stink. But I know I reek.   Today we passed another field of stinging nettles. We have passed several lately. Oblivious got tagged by one of them. I took and crushed some jewelweed plant that always seems to grow nearby, to stop the stinging. Nettles have a clean sweet green smell. They remind me of something between herbal shampoo and green tea bath gel.   We are still seeing some late blooming wildflowers. What is really fascinating me these days are seeds. Wild lily of the valley produces a small cluster of brilliant blue berries. They look like beads. Some trilliums produce a small red pepper looking seedpod. Those are the most brilliant seeds/fruit. There are plenty of others that are as interesting but less brilliant.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-12
From: Tent, Gifford Woods State Park

To: Shelter, Wintturi Shelter
Miles today: 16.7

Do you remember Mary Frances on Saturday night live. She would say "SUPERSTAR". Well today was the day of SUPER PUDS. The trail did its best to punish us all day long.   We turned off of the long trail yesterday. When we were on the long trail, we would climb a significant mountain and be rewarded with a view. Now we are no longer traveling south to north (like the mountains), but we are traveling west to east. This means we are crossing over mountain ranges all day long. Oh and they have no views. Oh and today it was hot, humid and raining. The good news is that this puds trend will continue until the 1st above tree line mountain in New Hampshire. Yea....   Oblivious got to play UNO with some section hikers tonight. He really enjoyed that. They had some wild house rules. Jump-ins - you can jump in any time by laying down the exact same card and then play continues from you. Sevens - when you play a seven, you must exchange hands with someone else. Zeros - when you play a zero, everyone passes their cards to the person to the right of them. Wads - draw cards are cumulative. If you are given a draw card, instead of drawing you may play the exact same draw card and the next person has to draw the cards required by both cards. I think Oblivious had a good time.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-13
From: Shelter, Wintturi Shelter

To: Tent, Joe Ranger Road
Miles today: 13.1

Today must have been Anchor is an idiot day. I wasn't aware that would be the case when I woke up. But shortly after that, it started. I tried to take down my food bags from the mouse hanger. While getting mine down, I managed to drop Apple Pie's food bag - on her. It really was not an assassination attempt.   I had low energy because I was tired from yesterday so I hiked slowly all day, this drove Troll insane. I did walk fast to get to the shelter at the end of the day. Apparently so fast that I missed the sign and continued for about 3 miles before I realized my error. I turned back and met a frantic Troll and Oblivious about 1.5 miles past the shelter. They were not amused.   On the bright side, we ate well today. At the first road crossing there was a farm stand. They had pie. We ate an entire bumble berry (blackberry, raspberry, apple, rhubarb) pie with a pint of vanilla ice cream. You could almost say we inhaled it. It was most excellent. We bought some great olive bread and tomatoes. We used those with bacon and cheese at our next lunch break. Talk about some yummy BLTs.   Today was more of the same with the puds. A few of them did have some views at the top. I got to the top of one and the boys had their shirts off so they could dry out form sweat. Oblivious had his kilt hanging and was just in his underwear. Troll was just in his kilt and swung it around taking it on and off to do the ¢I'm a naked man¢ dance for me. It was cute.    This trail is also called the abstinence trail. I asked Troll what he would do when we are back home and I am not always covered in sweat. He said that he would probably be more attracted to me. He said when he thinks of us kissing, he gets the metal image of two sponges touching each other. Two ammonia and salt water sponges that have been used to wipe up rancid maple syrup touching each other. Oddly enough neither of us found that to be a very appealing image. Unfortunately it is a very apt image.   Today we saw a plastic tubing network that is used to collect sap for maple syrup. I had never seen anything like that before. It was really cool to see it in Vermont the home of maple syrup.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-14
From: Tent, Joe Ranger Road

To: Hotel Hanover NH
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: light rain

Well I've been laughed at by numerous people for my inability to see an orange shelter sign. Apple Pie and Buttah started the morning with laughter. Tumbleweed saw us and continued the trend. By the time we saw Gordon and Sue, they had heard about it. As had Skywalker, whom we haven't seen for days. Troll and Oblivious are now saying that I am orange blind. The jokes have included Troll putting on an orange jacket, standing against a wall and asking me if I can see him. Troll now says that I am never going out hunting with him due to my hunter orange problem. Ha ha ha... I'm going to hear about this one for years.   Today Oblivious had fall number 68. Poor baby. Buttah was just ahead of us and saw the fall. Lots of people have heard about Oblivious' numerous falls. After Troll checked that Oblivious was OK, he yelled out "number 68; fall number 68". Buttah said that he had heard about the falls and was glad to say that he had actually seen one. Oblivious was not amused.   We actually stopped just shy of the New Hampshire border today. We have chores of course. It is a town day after all. We will get these chores done today and tomorrow and then start hiking. We have less than a week and then we hit the whites. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for us.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-15
From: Hotel Hanover NH

To: Shelter, Moose Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: mist

Today was the end of our 5th month on the trail. 5 months of walking with only 19 zero days. We still have 431 miles to go. Sounds like a Navy ship's deployment schedule to me. We are definitely trail weary and ready to be done. Oblivious is at 70 falls, I'm at 17 and Troll got fall number 4 today.   Our town visit was a food fest. We ate 3 12" subway sandwiches, 3 orders of Chinese food specials, Ben & Jerry shakes, and more sandwiches. It is really hard to pack those calories in.   We didn¢t get out of town until around 1330. It was pretty easy hiking. Just some slick rocks. There were these big boulders with lots of moss called velvet rocks. Strangely enough, when rain makes those rocks wet, they get slicker than snail snot. Yea!!... Slick slippery rocks are one of my favorites AT treats.   I forgot to comment on the state of toads in Vermont. Vermont has had the most toads along the trail to date. Some were very small. So small that they could actually sit on a small leaf. They were different colors and shapes. Oblivious chased and caught as many of them as he could. I think that the biggest toad he caught was the coolest. It was shedding its skin. I had never seen a toad shed. Oblivious noticed it and peeled a good chunk right off. It was cool.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-16
From: Shelter, Moose Mountain Shelter

To: Shelter, Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: light rain

The shelter tonight is pretty cool. It is shaped like a 6-sided log cabin with 3 open sides. Everyone sleeps around the support log in the middle. Someone who had lived and taught on a Navajo reservation for 15 years said it looked like a Hogan. I have to agree with that. The privy was called the penta privy and was 5 sided.   Lots and lots of pud climbing today, without very many good water sources. Can't think of much else to say.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-17
From: Shelter, Hexacuba Shelter

To: Hostel, Glencliff NH
Miles today: 14.7

Today's miles seemed like long miles. The day was broken into 3 almost 5 mile sections. But it took much longer to cover the distance than it seemed like it should.   Midway thru the day we passed a sign that said free water. The sign pointed us to a blue house. What a treat. We stopped and filled our water bottles. Bill came out and talked to us for a while. He brought us fudge cycles. Yum. Oblivious asked him questions about his croquet course. The next thing we knew Oblivious and Bill were out there playing a round of croquet. Very neat.   We took Gordon and Sue out to dinner for our last (or next to last) night together. It was nice. They have really helped us out a lot. We haven't hitchhiked since northern Pennsylvania because of them. They spoiled the boys again with cheesecake. They bought 2 of them for our dessert and had worked it out with the waitress to get them served with the AT symbol on them. They had tried to ensure that they get the check but we made sure that didn't happen. Troll went up and talked to the waitress while we were still eating cheesecake and tricked her into giving him the check.   We will miss them.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-18
From: Hostel, Glencliff NH

To: Tent, Kinsman Notch
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: broken clouds

Wow!! The views and scenery today were the best on the trail to date. It was awesome. The north summit of Mt Moosilauke is above the tree line at 4800+ feet. It was a beautiful clear day with views of the Whites. We could see the Cog Railroad's puffs of smoke as it made its way up Mt Washington. We could see the craggy edges of Fraconia Ridge. It was incredible.   The steepest part of our descent was over 1500 ft in less than a mile. It was steep. There were endless stone steps interspersed with railroad tie steps and rock scrambles. There was the occasional rebar handhold. Did I mention that it was really steep? But it was absolutely wonderful because we were following a gorgeous waterfall down the mountain. We would descend 100 feet or so and have a completely different view of the waterfall. It was amazing.    The shelter on the way down from the summit seemed pretty great. It looked like you would be able to see the sun rise over the Whites from inside the shelter.    One completely unbelievable thing happened today. When we were on the top of the mountain and there were several groups of tourists up there as well. One group had a dog (yellow lab like) with them. They didn't have a leash with them. Our family is a dog family and we like dogs a lot, especially Oblivious. But we don't care for dogs that are not kept under control. Someone asked the owner to keep the dog away from her because she was scared of large dogs. That didn't happen. We saw the dog go up behind a man who was sitting down with his hiking partner. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the dog wolf down the man's sandwich. The owner pulled the dog away and said "sorry". The man said, "He might as well have the rest". The owner said "Oh no it's not good for him to eat roast beef". And that was that. The hiker (obviously a day hiker) didn't seem to get angry and the owner didn't seem to be concerned about replacing the man's food. We were speechless and had to leave before we took up our leki poles in response to this declaration of war. You just don't f*** with a hiker's food. It was unbelievable. We warned all of the south bounders that we saw about this menace to society.   Tonight we got one more ride from Gordon and Sue into town to get food. They leave for Michigan tomorrow. Sue does the Labor Day bridge walk every year.   Tomorrow we enter the part of the Whites where everything, including camping, costs money. Tonight we are stealth camping. We are cowboying out and testing the new fleece liners that my mother made for our sleeping bags.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-19
From: Tent, Kinsman Notch

To: Tent, Kinsman Pond
Miles today: 14.2

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Worst - We had to say goodbye to Sue and Gordon. Best - We met Silent Bob for the weekend.   We spent the night cowboy stealth camping. The fleece liners my mom made really worked out well and we were roasty toasty warm. When we woke in the morning we discovered that we were only about 20 feet behind the parking lot privy.   We said goodbye to Sue and Gordon and took pictures. It was sad to see them go. Sue walks across the big bridge in Michigan every year. With her prosthesis it takes a while. But it is really important to them. We took Gatorades to go. When we took our 1st break we drank them and thought of Gordon and Sue.   The mileage between Kinsman Notch and the Eliza Brook Shelter is way wrong. It took us 5 hiking hours to go the 7.5(?) miles to the shelter. It only took us 7 hiking hours the previous day to go up and over Mt Moosilauke. The book, the mileage sign at the notch, the mileage sign at the trail and the mileage sign at the shelter all contradicted each other. It was very frustrating.   The climb up South Kinsman was challenging. Wingnut was not exaggerating when he said it would involve rock scrambles. It was pretty cool climbing up. It was not so cool being worried that the mileage would be as completely out of whack as it was earlier in the day. Fortunately the mileage from the Eliza brook shelter to Franconia notch was more correct.   We met Silent Bob on the trail. It was wonderful. It was the 1st time that we had seen him since he said goodbye and disappeared into a subway tunnel in DC. He brought treats. Beer, candy and cookies. We found an awesome stealth site near Lonesome Lake. It was wonderful to have most of our hiking family back together. I felt like we had just been granted visitation rights. We just needed Padre.   We saw our 1st AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) hut. These are mountain hotels at $77.00 per person per night that have some work for stay options for hikers. We just filled our water and looked around a bit. We didn't want to waste any of our Bob weekend with work for stay.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.