morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-05-04
From: Eckville 

To: George W Outerbrige 
Miles today: 24.2

We woke up to find Quinn, a section hiker sitting at the picnic table in front of the shelter. she had begun a thru-hike in 05 but didn't make it all the way. she was spending a few weeks each summer trying to finish the trail. She made us look bad. she had already hiked 7 miles before we even got up. she also commented about the size of our packs (her's was considerably smaller). Not to mention she was the first attractive girl we've seen on the trail thus far. THis inspired us to get moving and as a result we ended up making it just outside palmerton. We opted not to go into palmerton to stay in the "jail" because it was so late that we got in. We spent the night with three older gentlemen. Ed and larry were doing a section hike. and the third man we believe was just going to spend the weekend there at that shelter drinking the alcohol he'd brought up. We were able to see fireworks down in a near by town that went on for about an hour. it was a cool sight.
Date: 2007-05-05
From: George W Outerbrige 

To: Leroy Smith
Miles today: 0.0

We got up late because we were kept up by all the snoring. We had a steep descent followed by a steep ascent. the climb up felt more like somehting you'd see out west. it was large bolders of red rock and no trees. we sat on the rock at the top for a while and had a great view of the area. on top of the ridge was very dry and all the trees were dead and sparce. It was quite a different environment than we've been seeing. We stayed the night again with Ed and LArry and had to again put up with their snorring. they were at least nice guys.
Date: 2007-05-06
From: Leroy Smith

To: Gus and Kathleen Mielke
Miles today: 0.0

We got up early and hit the trail. We planned on meeting Kathleen (Charlie McWilliam's sister) in Delaware Water Gap at 3pm. We had about 20 miles to hike to get there so we were already going by 7. We say more of the same rocky trail that continues to tear apart our shoes and gear. It has also put a hurting on the bottoms of our feet. We made it into DElaware water Gap right at 3 and hung out at the outfitter while we waited. We also ate at a local bakery that had a $1.50 special for a hot dog and a slice of apple pie. It was another day of great weather and we all got a little sun. We Rode back with Kathleen to Newton NJ where they live. We enjoyed showers and clean laundry, a luxury we haven't had in a week. We have spent the rest of this break trying to update this journal for you all so I hope you enjoy it. It will probably be a while again before we get to update again. Our mission for the next few days: catch groovasauras. WE'll see how that goes. thanks again to all those who have been supportive. and thanks you so much to the Mielkes for their generosity and putting up with our foul stench.
Date: 2007-05-07
From: Gus and Kathleen Mielke

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We spent the better part of our day updating the journal entires. Whateva sat around and watched Walker Texas Ranger on tv while Ant and I did all the hard work. We have recently become big fans of the show and we go out of our way anytime we get a chance to watch it- which is maybe once a week. Mostly its for the hilarity of the show. If you're unfamilar with it, it is very cheesy and is starred by Chuck Norris. Anyways back to the info about the trail which is what this journal is supposed to be all about. Mr. Mielke dropped us off in Delaware Water Gap. We picked up our mail drop from the post office and a pack that James (my brother) had sent to me. I am borrowing his pack because it is much smaller and lighter than the one I started with. I don't have the need for so much carrying capacity. With the new pack I got my base weight (without food or water) down to 18 pounds. And I am continuing to find I am carrying things that I haven't been using and getting rid of them. Bebo and Geah (my grandparents) sent us a care package with lots of great snack foods some of which we ate then and there. One interesting and thoughtful item was the bacon bits. At first it seemed like an odd thing but we were greatful to have it spice up our instant mashed-potatoes that night. After sending home my old pack we walked down to the outfitter and snooped around. We finally left town around 3:30 pm. We had a short hike up to the MOC. It is a great little retreat place with cabins. We had a cabin to ourself with a kitchen and showers. We made use of the kitchen cooking some noodles along and for a second course the mashed potatoes. It was a pretty relaxing night.
Date: 2007-05-08
From: Mohican Outdoor Center

To: High Point Mtn
Miles today: 34.0

Long long long long day. Our longest intentional day. Probably too long. We got up and had a few pots of coffee. Ant attempted to make bisquits but they turned out to be more like flower cakes. It seems that you need yeast to make them rise. Whateva and I ate them anyway. They were bearable soaked in honey. After all the coffee we were pretty jacked and over excited about hiking. We calculated our pace at around 7 miles every 2.5 hours. We made it into Culver's Gap at lunch time so we stopped and had lunch there at a bar. We met a guy at one of the shelters that told us to take the Iris trail because the AT was rocky and went down then back up and was also pretty wet in spots. THey guy was familar with the area because he was a local so we took his advice. We were going to stop at Rutherford Shelter which was a half mile off the AT but was actually on the Iris trail. We thought that this would work our to our benefit. But instead the AT puritans that condemn "blue blazing" made us pay. (blue blazing is taking a side trail instead of the offical AT, these trails are always marked with blue blazes opposed to the white blazes on the AT. many people claim that blue blazing shouldn't count as thru-hiking). Needless to say we never found Rutherford shelter. We bush-whacked to the spot where it was shown on the map and found only some rubble of old stone building. THis looked to us like the shelter and we could see what looked liek an old fire pit. It was dark at this time and the shelter could have still been standing somewhere close by, but we saw no sign of it. After having searched for a while we decided to push on to the next shelter 5 miles away. We had already hiked 29 miles and were exhausted and hungry. When we reached the High Point state park Ranger Station we cooked dinner by their spigot. We then climbed up high point and had a great view of the surrounding cities and possibly what we figured to be New York City way off in the distance. We didnt get to sleep untill around 2 am. But once we were in our bags we were out.
Date: 2007-05-09
From: High Point Mtn

To: St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Miles today: 19.0

A wild turkey woke us up walking through camp and gobbling. We noticed in the day light that the shelter was in a pretty neat spot with lots of creeks flowing on either side. Two small dogs (probably a jack russel/corgy mix) came out of no where and ran around the area for a while then left. Maybe they were out hunting turkeys. We were all pretty stiff and pretty exhausted. So we did what most illogical people would do in our situation - hike an almost 20 mile day. We were pretty sluggish all day (or at least I was) and took a long break at the Secret Shelter. This is a shelter that a former thru-hiker set up on some property near the trail. It was a really nice set-up and a beautiful area. He had some donkeys that were pretty noisy and lively. The shelter had running water, a shower and even electricity. We filled up our bottles and enjoyed the shade of the porches. While breaking we saw a ground hog pop up in the field, saw hawks soaring above us, and watched very colorful perches chasing each other. We finally were able to drag ourselves away from this unique spot and kept on moving. We also enjoyed walking over about a mile's worth of boardwalks that went over a very large marsh. I never expected to see so much marsh land in New Jersy. We finally made it to Vernon after hitching a ride with a young couple. They dropped us off at the grocery store but we walked over to the Church to see if they were letting people stay there this early in the summer. We dropped our stuff off there and walked back to the grocery store buying all kinds of food that we could cook in the kitchen at the church. Whateva bought his half gallon of ice cream to attempt the (nearly) impossible task of eating it all in one sitting. Soon after we got back the couple that gave us the ride into town came to the church and gave us a pizza. Apparently the place where they ate dinner had made it on accident and offered it to them. They declined it because of the odd assortment of toppings that it was layered with. But then they thought of the crazy hikers they had picked up and knew that we would probably eat anything. Of course we accepted the pizza and thouroughly enjoyed it. We ended up cooking hamburgers, a frozen pizza, and lasgna too. As you probably can imagine Whateva wasn't able to eat an entire half gallon of ice cream after all of that.
Date: 2007-05-10
From: St. Thomas Episcopal Church

To: Wawayanda Mtn 
Miles today: 6.0

We got up relatively early considering how tired we were. It was a joint effort making scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and coffee. Fruit Fly came in while we were there veging and watching Walker Texas Ranger. Fruit FLy is a thru-hiker who started about 10 days after we did. He's been behind us this entire time reading all our obnoxious entries in the shelter logs. We left the church at 3:30 pm. We had a steep climb up the "steps" to the top of Wawayanda Mtn. Starting the climb in the heat of the day after being in the comfort of Air conditioning all morning meant that we were drenched with sweat by the time we got into the shelter. Once we reached the top we got our first glimps of these New Jersy bears that we'd been warned numerous times about. The three of us were hiking together, Whateva in the front said "Bear!" then "Woah another bear!" We all looked over to watch two bear cubs scurrying up a tree. They reached the top within seconds. We then saw the momma bear pacing around the bottom of the tree and watching us. Very cooly we walked by and watched in awe as we passed by. Ant was unable to get a great shot because the memory card on the digital was all full. by the time he had erased a few pcitures we were far enoough away that he couldn't get a good shot through all the folliage. Despite the lack of a good picture I doubt any of us will ever forget the moment. We were all surprised at how well we handled the situation and didn't get nervous. Pretty happy that the momma didn't try to charge us also. Actually I think Ant wanted a chance at fighting a bear and might have been a bit disappointed that the chance didn't present itself. There were lots of mosquitoes at the shelter because of nearby ponds and marshes.
Date: 2007-05-11
From: Wawayanda Mtn 

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 26.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Marathon day. up and out early. Mosquitoes and heat kept us from getting any good sleep. I (slick) got bitten over the course of the day and have many bits along my arms and legs. We crossed over for good into New York. It is our 8th state. We also have less than 800 miles to go. It was also the day of our 3 month anniversary. Hard to believe we've been out here this long. But at the same time it seems like ages ago that we were with our parents ontop of SPringer. To celebrate all these milestones we stopped and had some ice cream at The Hillvale Creamery. It was only a quarter mile off the trail down a road. It was a long slow day that seemed to take forever. The miles went by slow but time went racing past. We ended the hike in Harriman State Park a really neat area unlike any other place on the trail. We had lots of steep and seemingly pointless ups and downs but the ups in Harriman were grassy mtns with lots of large oaks and scattered rocks. We decided it reminded us of a zoo and to see a lion off to the side wouldn't have been out of place. Later we figured that maybe it was because the area looks a lot like Ashboro only the mtns are much larger. We made it through the Lemon Squeeze a small corridor created by enormous boulders that the trail forces you through. We called the Tuxedo Motel to try and get a room but because it was a Friday Night they were full. I guess it was a busy night down there in town. Up in the shelter its nice and quite and too windy and chilly for any mosquitoes. Going to sleep well.
Date: 2007-05-12
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 20.5

The reason we've made it this far along the trail is partly because after every crappy day (like yesterday) we have good days (like today). Yesterday (although the last journal didn't make it sound too bad) was misery. Today was exciting and unique. We woke up in the beautiful Harriman park. We had only a few up-downs then one long steep climb up West mtn. We saw lots of different groups climbing up on our way down. We probably looked as odd to them as they all did to us. We met a trail maintenance crew working on the trail as we went down also. we stopped and chatted with them for a while and thanked them for all the work they do. One lady gave us a white chocolate easter bunny. we were very thankful. Then we climbed up Bear Mtn. It was neat being on top. the observation deck was closed for repairs. It was almost a slap in the face to see all the people who had driven up there get out of their cars waddle over and have their picture taken with the view of the mtns in the background. It was hard for us to comprehend. Needless to say we remained the southern gentlemen that we are and were friendly to all the people so ignorant about the trail. As we ate lunch up there many people came up to us and asked about what we were doing. I can see that transitioning back to society may be hard when we're done. Forgive the rant, I am only being honest about the way we perceived the situation. It is not anything we really got upset about by any means but rather took conscious notice of. The Hike down from bear mtn took us into the park area where tons of people were outside picnicing, flying kites, etc. We also walked through the small zoo there (because the trail takes you through it). It was almost depressing seeing so many animals we had previously seen in the wild caged up. But many of these animals were rescued or injured. It was also great seeing some of the animals so close up. We also crossed the Hudson River over a very large bridge. Whateva and I met a woman out on a day hike who told us about a deli 1.5 miles down the dirt road. we took the detour without ant who was somewhere ahead of us. Not far down the road a man outside with his son asked if we were hiking the AT and informed us that we'd missed the turn. we told him we had done so purposely and were walking down to the deli. Whateva asked for a ride and offered to by him a sandwich as payment. he said he didn't need a sandwich but would gladly give us a ride. We hopped in the back of his truck and rode down to the deli. the man was so generous that he ended up paying for all three sandwiches (we got one for ant too). then he took us back to his house where we'd left our packs. From there we hiked to the Friary and stayed on the ballfield under a covered picnic area. Ant had been waiting for a while but was happy to have the sandwich. Two section hikers were there. one of them snored unusually loud for someone so young (he was probably in high school).
Date: 2007-05-13
From: Graymoor Friary

To: RPH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

HAPPY Mother's Day, Moms! We woke up when a car pulled up and parked right in front of the pavilion we were sleeping in. A hispanic man and woman got out and looked surprised to see us sleeping there. As we got up more and more people arrived. By the time we had packed up there was a Mexican soccer game going and a catering service was setting in our pavilion. We stayed and watched most of two games. Naturally we called our mothers and wished them a happy day. ANd i talked to most of my family and was torn that i couldn't be at James' graduation and celebration. I hope they partied it up for me. Met a man day hiking named Jack that hiked for a few miles with us. He had some interesting stories about the trail. Got to RPH just as the sun was going down. Neat shelther right near a road and we ordered a pizza that we had delivered. Going to bed Early to make it into Pawling by lunch time.
Date: 2007-05-14
From: RPH Shelter

To: Pine Grove Motel
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today started out as a regular day on the trail except for the fact that we had cold pizza from the night before for breakfast. We spent the night with a SoBo section hiker named Sauce and a north bound section hiker Just Jack. The shelter provided a well pump which put out water that was mis-colored and tasted a bit like rust. So Slick Shoes and Whateva started out the day and hiked 10 miles to the first shelter for a lunch break. Whateva got turned around (again) at a road crossing and hiked about 20 minutes on the road in the wrong direction following what looked like blazes but had three reflectors in the middle, easy to get confused. So the three of us ate lunch at the shelter and hiked 9 more miles to the next road crossing. On the way we met an interesting German couple that went by the name of Hansel and Greddel. They had an different way of hiking the trail that involved parking their cars at different road crossings and hiking to each car and staying in one of three cabins. They are a couple of about 65 and they refered to this as the German 2 car system. So we should see them everyday for a long time while they complete their section hike. When Slick and I (whateva) made it to the road we waited for Ant, which ended up being a 30 min. wait, and when he finally showed up we had already gotten a hitch and were heading into Pauling. Ant's reason for taking so long was he had an upset stomach. So we went and ate lunch and got our resuply and Ant ended up throwing up in the tavern that we ate at, so we decided to get a hotel room for the night. The only hotel was 6 miles away so we had to get a cab ride (which was pretty expensive, $25) and got a room. Ant slept for a while and rested. In the meantime Slick and I went and got dinner at a local china resturaunt and came back and the three of us watched the movie Dogdeball (for the 2nd time on the trail) and called it a night.
Date: 2007-05-15
From: Pine Grove Motel

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

Today starting out was yet another eventful day. We spent the morning relaxing and getting our money's worth of the pine grove motel. We checed out a little late, as usual, but no big deal. Then it took about an hour to figure out how we were going to get back to Pawling and back to the trail. So we had to get the same cab that took us to the hotel with the same driver and the same price. Whateva had to get a new pair of boots because both shoe soles were falling off the frame. We got dropped off at the deli there in town and had a really good lunch. Then we made our way over to the outfitter in town and spent about an hour there for a shakedown that was desperately needed (shedding some weight from our packs). So we mailed the stuff home and started out the day. We got an early hitch and made it out on the trail @ about 3:00 and since Ant was not feeling 100% we only hiked 9 miles to the next shelter.
Date: 2007-05-16
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 20.0

Started the day out early to make it into Kent for lunch. Spent the night with another thru-hiker, Fruitfly, and a sobo section hiker whoes name is forgotten (with good reason, he was hiking on the trail because he had lost his license and his job because of a DWI and would get it all back at the end of June, he was pretty creepy though). We got into Kent, 13 miles from the shelter, at about noon and did some laundry and got some more food at the local IGA. We found Fruitfly there in the super market and he decided to have lunch with us at a local diner called Catalina's. Whateva had broken his pole a couple of days before and got it fixed at the local outfitter. While at the outfitter a fellow thru-hiker named Fed-ex caught up to us and we had a good conversation with him before starting out our 7 miles to the next shelter. It had started to rain while in Kent so it was nice because it cooled things off and helped get rid of some of the skeeters that had been out recently. We had a good dinner of Liptons Chedder Broccoli rice and called it a night.
Date: 2007-05-17
From: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to

To: Limestone Springs Lean-to
Miles today: 22.3

Good day on the trail, started out rough with some ups and downs that were tons of fun and drained a lot of our energy. It is going to be one of our last days in Connecticut, which is sad because it was one of my favorite states (my = whateva), and was very nice hiking allong the Housatonic River. There was an incredible waterfall at the end of the day that was the biggest we have seen since Amaicalola falls in Georgia. The last hill of the day was really nice comfortable walking with easy switch-backs and a slow up of 800 ft. over 2 miles. We spent the night with a SoBo section hiker named Tim who already knew who we were and about our fun times on the trail through word of mouth from Woodstock. We also found out from him that Grooveasaurous took a 0 day in Salisbury and we should catch him within the next couple of days. WAHOOOOOO!!!!!
Date: 2007-05-18
From: Limestone Springs Lean-to

To: Hemlocks Lean-to
Miles today: 17.5

We got up rather early, but Tim had been up for about an hour already making coffee. We left before Tim had finished making his breakfast. The shelter was a half a mile off the trail and it was an almost vertical climb back up to the trail. We usually don't stop at shelters more than 0.2 mile off the trail but sometimes we don't have a choice. It did make for a good warm up. We did 3.5 miles to Salisbury in the cold rain and got in at around 8:30 am. Had breakfast at a bistro then when the Library (the first one publicly founded in the US) opened we went and worked on updating these lovely journals. BY the time we had finished with our business on the computers we were hungry again so we went to the grocery store and bought some lunch. As we sat and ate outside Quinn walked up and looked at Slick and said "are you eating that whole chicken?" because he had an entire rotissary chicken that he was picking at in front of him. In fact ant and slick were splitting the chicken but they probably could have eaten a whole one on their own. After our lunch we finally made the move out of town. We had spent about 5 hours in town and we were going to be pushing it to try and make it in before dark. We passed Hansel and Gretel who warned us not to try and go up Mt Everest that night that it was "horrible" and too rocky, slick, steep, and hard to follow. But since we are so thick headed we attempted it anyway. It was one of the steepest climbs we'd had in a while and enjoyed the first real burn in our legs since NC. We reached the top of Everest just as the sun was setting and made it to the shelter by dark without the aid of headlamps. We found a group of 11 Yale students staying at the shelter. they were happy to make room for us in the shelter. all 11 of them crammed into the loft and spooned. We were left to spoon only with eachother. We enjoyed getting to converse with youngsters our age over a nice fire that we didn't have to build. They were quite anal about storing food in the bear boxes, but as the weathered thru-hikers we are we did not participate in this percaution and left our food hanging in the shelter unbeknownst to them.(side note: the mtn is actually called MT Everett but we like being able to say we've climbed mt everest (without oxyigen))"Are you eating that WHOLE chicken" - Quinn