morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-03
From: PA 183

To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Damn, the Caps couldn¢t pull it out last night. Seems like the same story every year. Oh well, we won¢t give away our jerseys yet. As far as the trail goes, today was one of those ¢put in the miles¢ days. There were very few noteworthy things along the trail. And it was chilly and raining at the outset. The most memorable event for me was the last mile, coming into Port Clinton. The rain had stopped and there were even some lighter spots in the sky. The trail was mostly dry. After 14 miles of rocks, mud and wet laurel, I could smell the barn. The trail started sloping down, more and more. Eventually, I was creeping along one step down at a time. The trail turned into a series of steep stone steps with a lot of gravel in between. It was not fun and I was really relieved when I finally got to the bottom.The trail head at Port Clinton is interesting. The bottom of the descent ends up in a rail yard. There are 3 or 4 sets of tracks to cross, and they appear to be active. I think it¢s primarily a switching yard, and I could hear rail cars moving around. Anyway, I got across as quickly as I could. Princess got the voice output working on my iRunner app today. I hiked by myself today and it helps a lot to know how far I¢ve gone. And Princess didn¢t lock the keys in the car and she picked me up on time, so life is good. We¢re staying in Hamburg and there¢s a pub connected to our Microtel. And Tampa Bay is our second favorite hockey team - we got to suck a little beer from the Calder Cup when Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn helped Norfolk win it several years ago. More rain and rocks on tap tomorrow.
Date: 2016-05-04
From: Port Clinton

To: Hawk Mountain Road
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Another 15 miler for us. We¢re not doing as many miles/day as last year, but we¢re trying to get some in every day. About half of today¢s hike was a road walk. I should show a pic of a ¢road walk¢, I¢m using the term to describe what appear to be forest service roads (although they may be there for other purposes - like water districts). They are cleared paths (no trees), wide enough to drive through, but only if you have a rugged 4WD. The grades may vary, but generally you don¢t have to worry about roots or protruding rocks. We had 5 miles of a road walk through a graded path that was very clear. It¢s nice at first and I like the opportunity to look at the surroundings, but after an hour and a half it becomes tiring. But that was only half of the hike. The middle part was 3 miles of pretty rugged rocks including the ¢Pulpit¢. In past years, I¢ve seen a lot of local hikers around the Pulpit, but this year I was alone. However, any potential views were totally obscured by mist. Also, another day of starting in rain. We¢re stuck in the middle of a stalled system and every day seems like Groundhog Day. The rain slowed for me after an hour or so, but was still intermittent so I wore my poncho the whole way. Besides Princess, I only saw one other hiker, so things were pretty quiet. Except that I heard road noise from a parallel highway for at least 5 miles along the trail. It sort of defeats the image of hiking through the deep woods.After Princess picked me up at Hawk Mtn. Rd., we headed down to Cabella¢s in Hamburg, near our motel. I decided to pick up some permethrin-treated pants and shirt. I have a spray bottle of permethrin, but I think the pre-treated clothes are better. The ticks are certainly out. Princess found one on her a couple of days ago after she sat briefly on a log. Also, we¢ll be running into fly season soon and we need all the help we can get.Tomorrow we¢re going to mess with the schedule. Instead of moving on to the last few sections in PA (the worst), we¢re jumping ahead to Delaware Water Gap. We have really enjoyed the jazz sessions at the Deer Head Inn and we¢re going to stay there a couple of days. Their jazz club is only open Thurs-Sat, and we were able to get reservations on Thursday and Friday. So we¢re skipping ahead to there and we¢ll do a short hike into the Water Gap tomorrow, stay at the Deer Head tomorrow and Friday, and then come back to finish PA.
Date: 2016-05-05
From: Fox Gap

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: light rain

Today we vacated the Microtel at Hamburg, PA and headed east in the car. As I explained yesterday, we¢re jumping ahead so that we can stay at the Deers Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap (DWG) when the house jazz club is open. So we slept in several hours late, packed up and drove to the AT trailhead where Princess hopped out and headed NoBo toward DWG. Then I drove on to the Deers Head, parked the car and headed SoBo on the trail (the AT goes right alongside the Deers Head as it passes through DWG). Given the trail access roads, we decided to do a short hike today - only 7 miles, rather than a much longer hike. The hike was great, there were some showers overnight, but the morning was rain free. The 2 1/2-mile section of the AT that drops down from Mt. Minsi to DWG is one of our favorite hikes. It has a lot of variety, great overlooks and some interesting formations. Today was the first time that I¢ve done it SoBo, so I climbed from DWG up to Mt. Minsi. I think I like it downhill better than uphill. I saw a few section and day hikers and several thru-hikers doing flip-flops. The flip-floppers I saw today are moving pretty fast, they likely left Harpers Ferry a day or so before us (the Flip-Flop Festival in Harpers Ferry) and now they¢re about 4 days ahead of us (since we jumped ahead 4 days).Mt. Minsi is sort of underwhelming. There¢s a sign about 2 feet high alongside the trail that announces the summit, and about 30 feet away there¢s a met station. The summit is relatively flat and covered with trees, and I didn¢t see any indication of views from the trail. From Mt. Minsi, the AT heads southwest along a wide, grassy old roadbed. I assume the road once served a facility on Mt. Minsi. The AT roadwork continues for about 2 miles before it drops off the ridge into the trees, and the last couple of miles to PA 611 are rolling hills through the woods with intermittent rocks. Both Princess & I were able to move through it pretty quickly.After Princess picked me up at the end of our hike, we headed back to DWG. We checked into the Deers Head Inn (we called a week ago and were only able to get a room for Thurs & Fri) and climbed up to our 4th floor room. The Inn is pretty old and parts of it reflect it¢s heritage. But the rooms are clean and updated, and have everything that we need. And the halls are filled with photos & posters & memorabilia of jazz artists who have performed here over the years. Tonight we¢re headed to the jazz club. It¢s touted as the oldest, continuously running jazz club in the US. We stayed here the first 2 times we did the AT, but the first year we didn¢t realize the club was only open on weekends. So last year we arranged to be here when the club was open and we really enjoyed it. So we¢re headed there in a couple of hours for dinner and really looking forward to it.
Date: 2016-05-06
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Millbrook Blairstown Rd
Miles today: 14.0

Today was a day for the ducks. Wettest day we've had in a long time. I shouldn't dwell on it, nobody's fault, but it was hard to think about anything else. Our ponchos worked fine -- my boots were the issue. They are advertised as waterproof, but after 5 hours of rain, they fill with water and the waterproofing does a better job of keeping the water in than it does at keeping the water out. OK, that's enough about rain. We passed by the Mohican Outdoor Center, Sunfish Pond and a beautiful stream that was flowing full with all the rain and cascading along the trail. There are cairn fields along the trail and I took a photo of one. There were several recent blowdowns along Sunfish Pond that made the trail evenl more challenging. The highlights today were off the trail. Our first stop was the Village Farmer and Bakery in DWG. We love their pot pies for lunch and top it off with strawberry-rhubarb pie and ice cream. The Sycamore Grille is a favorite haunt, but our go-to stop is the Deer Head Inn. We rearranged our hiking schedule to stay at the Inn on a weekend when their jazz club is open. Last night was jam night and we heard a lot of new performers. Tonight we heard a featured group, the Davey Lance trio and we really enjoyed it. The Inn is a fascinating place with lots of history. It's one of the longest, continuously running jazz clubs in the US. Great dinners, my salmon was top notch and the chowder done with ginger was awesome. And the rooms are comfortable, clean and up-to-date. Best of all, the staff remembered our trail names from last year.
Date: 2016-05-07
From: Hawk Mountain Road

To: Blue Mountain Summit, PA 309
Miles today: 11.5

Some of you may know that we jumped ahead by about 4 days to Delaware Water Gap, and we hiked from there for the past two days. The reason is that we like the jazz at the Deer Head Inn and the jazz club is only open Thurs, Fri and Sat. So we drove to DWG and stayed at the Deer Head to enjoy the music on Thurs & Fri. We had a great time at the Inn and hiked the AT sections just south of DWG and just north of DWG. We would have stayed another night, but the Inn was fully booked on Sat. We may come back for one more evening next week to catch the Thurs nite jazz jam.   So today (Sat) we checked out of the Deer Head and drove south to begin hiking the sections of trail that we jumped over. Today we did a key swap between Hawk Mountain Road (where we stopped on Wed) and Blue Mountain Summit. After we finished we checked into a room at the Blue Mountain Summit B&B. This makes the third year that we¢ve stayed here. The B&B has three rooms and offers camping and some outdoor facilities for hikers. The restaurant is very good, quite a few hikers stop by for lunch and their dinner menu is excellent. Plus we enjoy Ken, the owner and bartender. Today was a special day for Ken, his son Benjamin graduated from Penn State and he had a celebration at the inn for friends and family. Fortunately for us, the kitchen and bar stayed open. And this time, we got the room with the jacuzzi. Life on the AT is good.Today¢s hike was almost 12 miles, and at least a third of it was an easy walk through a woods road. However, that was mixed in with several stretches of really tough rocks - more like boulders. They weren¢t desperately difficult, but it was slow going. Princess hiked NoBo today and had the hardest climb, several miles of steady uphill.Tonight we¢re having dinner here at the Blue Mountain and plan to watch the Caps play. They¢ve reached the desperation point, down 1-3 to the Penguins.
Date: 2016-05-10
From: Smith Gap Road

To: Wind Gap
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: clear sky

Part of our philosophy this year is to slow down a bit and not push too hard. Last year we were moving more like 15 to 20+ miles a day. We took zeros, but we were having more physical issues. Now, we¢re doing shorter distances which in turn gives us more rest time each day. And since we plan to hike the Virginia AT after we do the JMT in CA, we¢ve actually extended our AT hike into October/November, so we have more time end-to-end. Last year we would have combined today and tomorrow into one 16.6 mile day, instead of breaking it into 2 days (like we¢re doing this year). But we also have an ulterior motive, we plan to check back into the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap and stay over on Thursday to hear the Jazz Jam night. And we¢re hoping that Kathy and Sherry from the Filbert B&B will join us there.So, about today¢s hike. It was fine, but nondescript. There were really no unusual features, only a power line and several views of the adjacent valleys. There were a few short sections without rocks, but mostly it was rocks all the way. Not the boulders, just the numerous, onerous, small, pointy ones that you can¢t avoid - like walking on a bed of really big nails. We did a single key swap and I started SoBo with the climb up from Wind Gap. It was really easy compared to yesterday¢s climb up from Lehigh Gap. It was overcast today and much cooler than yesterday, although still quite comfortable for hiking (actually almost perfect). Without the sun, we didn¢t get many flies, and the trail was dry. It did start to sprinkle just a little for the last 2 miles of my hike and just began to turn into a rain when I reached Smith Gap where Princess was waiting. I never needed my poncho.I met only 2 hikers on the trail today, Crash and Holcomb. Holcomb is also on this blog site (TrailJournals), so I read a little about him. He started the AT last year, but had some tough luck and bad weather. He¢s back at it again this year and seems to be doing much better, putting in some major miles too!! It appears that he will be in Delaware Water Gap when we are back there, so I may see him again.The highlight of the day was lunch at Joey B¢s in Palmerton. It got really good ratings on Yelp, so we decided to try it out. Possibly one of the best beer menus that I¢ve seen, a huge selection of IPAs. And our meals were terrific. I had the ¢flight of soups¢ (taco soup, lobster bisque, kale & watercress, shrimp chowder, I think), and Princess had the Rachel. We highly recommend it. And tonight we had a really good Italian dinner at A Ca Mia's in Walnutport.
Date: 2016-05-11
From: Wind Gap

To: Fox Gap
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: light rain

OK, I¢m a little toasted tonight. I should have written this earlier, but now we¢re have a fun time at the Sycamore Grille in Delaware Water Gap and I need to get to bed soon. Today¢s hike was pretty easy, just 8.5 miles and only two notable sections. The first was a climb up from Wind Gap that took a while, but I remembered doing this 2 years ago with Princess & Pintsize. Boss dropped Pint off at the Wind Gap parking lot just as we were starting and we headed up the hill with Pint. The thing that I remember is that I needed a bio-break about halfway up the climb and there just wasn¢t any reasonable place along the narrow trail.Enough of that, the other memorable place was Wolf Rocks. Wolf Rocks is a narrow crest of rocks along a ridge that suddenly pops up in the forest. after a few boulders, the trail heads up over some large rocks with a long drop on one side and not too much maneuvering space on the other side. The best path is to rock hop along the crest. Since I¢ve done it twice before and today was dry, it wasn¢t a big deal to me. But it still slows you down. We did a key swap today after we checked out of the Filbert B&B in Danielsville and we had to say goodbye to Kathy & Sherry. It¢s always tough to leave since we have such a good time. We may see them at the Delaware Water Gap, they may join us for the jazz jam on Thursday - we hope so. So next, I drove Princess to Fox Gap and she hiked SoBo today. Then I drove back to Wind Gap and hiked NoBo. In a couple hours, I met Princess and then saw several SoBo hikers. I also surprised a bear along the way. Kind of a medium-sized critter, I think I surprised it about 20 or 30 yards ahead of me. I fumbled for my camera, but it took off running down the trail and I never had a chance for a photo. It continued to run until I couldn¢t see it anymore. Beautiful glossy black fur. The only bad news was that it headed in the same direction that I was going. So I turned on my iTunes music loud and hiked on. Fortunately, I didn¢t see it anymore.Not long after that, Marshall caught up with me while I was talking with a couple of SoBo hikers. And we hiked the rest of the section together. We had a good conversation and a pleasant hike. We did Wolf Rocks together and it was the easiest time I¢ve ever had going through those rocks. Several miles later we popped out onto the parking area at Fox Gap where Princess was waiting and I climbed into the car, while Marshall continued on to Delaware Water Gap.Princess and I had lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery (aka the Farmer¢s Bakery) and moved back into the Deer Head Inn. We took a nap and then later headed down the street to the Sycamore Grille for dinner. We saw Marshall, Snipe and Holcomb there and had a great time, eventually closing the bar (they close early here in DWG). So now we¢re back in the room, we¢ve had a great night out with friends, and it¢s time to get ready for tomorrow¢s hike. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are.
Date: 2016-05-12
From: Millbrook-Blairsville Rd. 

To: Culvers Gap
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: scattered clouds

We got a shuttle today so we were able to hike together. We followed Kenny to Millbrook-Blairstown Rd. and then he drove us to Cluver Gap and we hiked SoBo from there. Its interesting how we have done these sections before and we don¢t remember most of the terrain. I remember bits ad pieces, but not most of the trail. For example, much of the hike today was a ¢road walk¢ (not really a road, but what¢s left of a previous forest road). There was one unique feature when we encountered a ¢cliff¢ that we had to descend, but it wasn¢t a big issue. Much of it was ridge-walking across smooth slanted rocks and we were appreciative that it was dry today. We also went past a beaver pond, where we could see the beaver hut and the results of beaver activity, but the pond looked pretty stagnant and I¢m not sure the beavers are still active here. We did see a snake swimming across the pond and I thing it was a water snake, nothing sinister.Today was a relatively short hike (14.5 mi) and didn¢t take long, we were finished shortly after lunch. We headed straight back into Delaware Water Gap and ate at the Farmers Bakery. We split a bacon-lettuce-avocado-tomato sandwich and I finished it off with some chocolate-mint ice cream. This is a great town.We prepped for tomorrow and then took a nap. For the evening, we headed downstairs to the Thursday night Jazz Jam Session and we were not disappointed. My dinner was an almond-crusted salmon and the soup special and I loved it. As a special treat, Kathy ad Sherry from the Filbert B&B in Danielsville joined us and we had a terrific time. We exchanged all sorts of trail stories and learned a lot about local lore and all of a sudden the evening was late. One of the best attributes of the trail is meeting people that you really like and enjoy, and spending time with them. It draws you into coming back.We did meet lots of hikers on the trail today since we were headed SoBo, most I can¢t remember. But we saw Orange Crush again and talked with her. And we met Chafe. Plus at least a dozen others that I expect we¢ll see further along the trail.Now it¢s late and I can still hear the jazz drifting up from the club downstairs. I wish I were there, but I know that I have to get up early in the AM and head out for a ¢double key swap¢ day tomorrow. So good night to all, life is good on the trail.
Date: 2016-05-17
From: Lakes Road

To: Arden Valley Road
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: clear sky

This entry will be short. I have a lot to say, but it¢s late and my computer is still giving me problems. I can read and manipulate files, but several of my keyboard keys don¢t work. Too bad, since today was a really interesting day: a lot of difficult ups and downs. None of them are noteworthy in terms of elevation, they hardly show up on the profile. But they are steep and involve a lot of boulder jumbles. We did a key swap today, and the hardest climb for me was near the start of the hike. I took some pics, but there is no way to capture how steep these inclines really are. Much of the time my hiking poles were useless and got in the way. In addition to the difficulty, these climbs are tiring and the cumulative effect makes it harder and harder to keep moving forward and up. I passed Holcomb and Crash just as they were turning into a shelter and I¢m curious what Holcomb has to say about the day¢s work.Several of today¢s features have names, notably The Lemon Squeezer, Arden Mountain and Fingerboard Mountain. I¢ve talked about the Squeezer the last 2 years and not much has changed, it¢s still a narrow passage. Arden Mountain is a long hike up a stiff incline that doesn¢t seem to end, but there¢s not much to see when it finally does. I assume that Fingerboard Mountain gets it¢s name from the distinctive rocks at the top. They¢re long and sometimes narrow, and usually relatively flat. One section that doesn¢t get much press is the precipitous descent from Buchanan Mountain down to East Mombasha Road. The first time I encountered this I wasn¢t sure I would make it down safely. Now, I know that it¢s doable, but it¢s still gives me pause. After the hike, we had a busy afternoon. We¢re planning a key swap tomorrow, so we drove ahead to make sure we know where the parking areas are located. Then we did some laundry, got some groceries, stopped by CVS, had dinner at Murphy¢s, and then started prepping for the next hike. I think I forgot to mention that Princess saw a bear yesterday. She was forewarned by 2 passing hikers that they had just seen a bear, and sure enough she also saw it not long after. She said it was off to the side of the trail and disappeared quickly. Today was less exciting, just the usual dozens of chipmunks. I¢m headed for sleep now, just as soon as I get this posted.
Date: 2016-05-24
From: NY 301, Canopus Lake

To: NY 52, Stormville
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We expected a rainy day today and we mentally prepared. No surprise when we woke up to see rain puddles in the parking lot, so we slept in for another hour. It was still raining, but we felt better. We juggled the section order so that we had a shorter section today, figuring that less time in the rain was better. As often the case, the rain was very light and spotty. After an hour or so, we didn¢t need a poncho. It was still damp and there was tree rain, but not enough to really wet us down. There was actually some sun during our last section.Today¢s hike was a key swap for us and we broke the whole distance into 2 pieces. We initially planned to divide the sections at Hortontown Rd., where the RPH Shelter is located and where AWOL¢s AT Guide shows a parking area. But we learned that the parking area has been closed (the local authorities have used big boulders to block any chance of parking anywhere close to the trailhead). The story we heard is that local youth were doing things they shouldn¢t in the area (likely involving drugs), so they erased any parking opportunities along the road near the trail. Instead, we used the Long Hill Road AT trailhead. The AT Guide doesn¢t identify a parking area there or provide GPS coordinates. But there is limited space for a couple of cars and it¢s not hard to find at the top of the hill. The road turns to gravel near the top, but it¢s in pretty good shape and we had no trouble getting there with our Prius.I enjoyed the hike, the trail is in good shape and provides a lot of variety. The section around Canopus Lake does a lot of short ups and downs, and many are over rocks. The trail is well above the lake near the ridgeline, so the only good view of the lake is from a view point near the northern end. From there, the trail heads up Shenandoah Mountain and there is a notable 911 Memorial Flag painted on the rock at the top of this mountain. After that the trail begins losing elevation and there is a rapid descent into the RPH shelter. North of the shelter, the trail climbs and follows a ridgeline for about 3 miles. There is a short descent to a road and then eventually to NY 52 about 2 miles later. I hiked with Geezer Hiker for a while this morning, I think he¢s doing sections and he said he has done over 1300 miles of the AT. I didn¢t see many other hikers but I did see 3 trail runners, they were moving pretty fast over rocky terrain - looked dangerous to me. I¢ve included a pic of the 911 memorial painting, a view of Canopus Lake and a shot of the RPH Shelter privy. The privy is located on the opposite side of the trail from the shelter, so the trail to the privy crosses the AT. The whole area is relatively low and wet, so the AT is a plank walk and the plank walk to the privy crosses the AT as shown.