morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-08-20
From: nowhere fast

To: October Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: clear sky

I was driven back to the trail by my mother and father arriving back at Tyringham Main Road by about noon. It was hot but the air wasn¢t as humid as the sweatroom I had been hiking in last week. We left some sodas by the side of the trail in a bag with some ice for some trail magic. My parents hiked a few hundred yards in, took a few pictures and we hugged goodbye. My time off the trail was done. I was in it until the end now, I had a long ways to go and some rugged terrain lay ahead. I had apprehensions about what lay ahead but was in good spirits. I had some hiking to do! I headed out once again wondering how much farther I had fallen behind my friends ahead and who I would see again. As it turned out I saw no thru-hikers today at all. Was I actually the last one? I crossed over the Massachusetts Turnpike on a pedestrian bridge and continued on alone struggling to find stations on my new radio, which I had gotten to replace the other radio that broke after a week on the trail. Quality. I stayed alone at a shelter, but slept in my tent. This might have been the first time I was alone at a shelter for the night. I made a nice fire cooked dinner and listened to most of the Red Sox game before drifting off to sleep.
Date: 2003-08-21
From: October Mountain Lean-to

To: Dalton, Mass
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: clear sky

I awoke and hung around the shelter half expecting people to come swinging thru for lunch. You slept here last night?   No one came by. I continued on thru some pretty undistinguishable terrain up and down a few rollers and thru a couple meadows. The Massachusetts countryside was very nice with a quaint feel to it but was mostly unremarkable. I wanted to get up into some real mountains with some real views. I had been growing restless over the last several hundred miles. The previous states were all really cool, each with numerous memorable spots, but on the whole I feel like these states have been filler. A necessary evil to fill the gap between the rugged and beautiful mountain terrain of the southern and northern ranges. To tide us over and keep us strong they offered many diversions and places to fill our bellies, but now I was tired of it and wanted more. I would trade the food for mountains. I walked onward alone again without any sign of other hikers. I needed to get to town and see some familiar faces or at least get a feeling for where some people were. I wandered into the town of Dalton in late afternoon and immediately saw a scraggly looking group sitting on a picnic table in a yard with tents in it. Bingo. I stopped staring at the people before me, looking for a familiar face when I finally started recognizing people. I saw Footslogger across the yard and started toward him when someone said my name. I turned and barely recognized the lean figure in front of me. It was Jimbotrek whom I last saw at the Goose Creek Cabins in Georgia my fourth day on the trail. Amazing. I introduced myself to a few other hikers that I didn¢t know and was told this was Tom¢s house. Tom lets hikers camp in his yard for nothing. I had been told by a bunch of southbounders that I should stay at Rob¢s house. Rob happened to be right there and told me there was a mattress with my name on it and I was sold. I hopped on into his car and headed there. Rob was a cool guy of Native American decent who let hikers stay inside his house and refused any money in return. Cool Town, they fight over who can offer you more for nothing. I showered immediately and put my clothes in the wash. I hung out there for a while and walked back over to Tom¢s to see who was there. Tom was there this time and he came right out with a piece of pie and ice cream with whipped cream and a brownie for me. This guy was allright. He knew I was staying over at Rob¢s and still gave me the desert he gives his guests.   There was no hostel rivalry in this town like others, Tom and Rob were mutually supportive. Probably because there is no money involved, only goodwill. Who would of thought. Dalton is a helluva town
Date: 2003-08-22
From: Dalton, Mass

To: Dalton, Mass
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: haze

After taking five days off at home and hitting the trail for two days I took a zero day not really because I needed to or wanted to but to work on my online journal which was incredibly far behind. Every time I sit down to do it it seems like each day takes 20-30 minutes to type, especially since I had to start in northern Virginia a month and a half ago. I was staying at a guy named Rob's place who had been taking in hikers to his house for a few years now and offered shower, laundry and one of several beds, in addition to internet which I could sit and type on for a great while. I spent about eight hours in front of the computer only breaking to jump off a 15 foot pumphouse at the local swimming hole and of course for dinner. In the evening I gave my eyes and fingers a rest to watch the Red Sox beat the Mariners. I was a big Red Sox fan and was glad to be in a place where I was able to catch a game. I was excited to see a new bunch of hikers roll into the hostel Espy, Jersey, J.J., and especially Laffy Taffy who I hadn't seen since the middle of Virginia. We had a fun reunion before I retired to the computer for another hour of typing for you the people. I will be in VT in a couple days and am feeling strong and in good spirits. I hope to have my journal completely updated by New Hampshire and from that point forward. Thanks for your patience I hope it was worth the wait.
Date: 2003-08-23
From: Dalton, Mass

To: forward then back
Miles today: 9.3

What a town Dalton is! The people are ultra hiker friendly, and go out of their way to do you a favor. I was happy to see some familiar faces roll into town yesterday. I got word that Snot Rocket had gotten to town before me and gone to Cape Cod for a couple days. He was due back today to see Rob perform with his band. I really didn¢t want to leave. I was offered the options of slackpacking and a ride north to walk back, so I could both stay and get some miles behind me. I decided that I would carry my full pack North about 10 miles to the town of Cheshire. The trail passes directly through the heart of Cheshire and right by its cheese monument. The monument was a large statue of a cheese press. It commemorated the giant cheese wheel that the townspeople made for newly elected president Thomas Jefferson because it was the only township in the state of Massachusetts that he carried in the election. It was ridiculously large, consisting of cheese curds from every farmer in town, and was delivered to the White House by a team of horses. The hike today was an easy up, ridgewalk and down. I cruised through the section listening to the afternoon Red Sox game on my radio.   I took a short break at a beautiful overlook called the Cheshire Cobbles that looked out over the town and onward to Mt Greylock, the highest mountain in Mass, and beyond to the Green Mountains of Vermont which I was sorely looking forward to. I finished my walk for the day and started hitching back. I was picked up fairly quickly by a man who swore he knew and loved the Adirondack Trail. I wasn¢t going to argue. I reached the turnoff back to Dalton and reached the end of this particular hitch, he was going the other way. I waited by a busy intersection with my thumb out being passed by tons of cars when one finally pulled over, it was Rob¢s son who had taken me swimming the day before, how convenient. I got back took a shower and It was time to go see Rob¢s band. Snot Rocket hadn¢t returned so Chief and I went. We went south almost to the Connecticut border. It was weird being so close to home and not going there.   The band played a mix of oldies and country and I had a real fun time watching Rob play. It was the least I could do for what he does for us.
Date: 2003-08-24
From: forward then back

To: Williamstown
Miles today: 14.0

I absolutely must leave Dalton behind today. I¢ve enjoyed my time here but Vermont was close and I had along hike ahead of me. There was still no sign of Snot Rocket. Same old story since northern Virginia, he would have to catch up. Rob took a few of us back to the cheese monument where we took a few pictures and thanked him for everything. Then, as always we turned and walked on up the street and into the woods. North, to the future. I wanted to spend the night in Vermont, but the late start and long uphill to the summit of Mt. Greylock stood in my way. It was a tough climb since we hadn¢t been to this elevation (3491¢) since somewhere in Virginia. I made it to the top just in time to get some fries from the snack shop on the summit. In fact there was a large structure on top called Bascom Lodge where you could spend the night. Mt. Greylock was one of those mountains where you could drive to the top and boasted a large lighthouse shaped war monument on top that you can climb. They actually light it up every night. In reading the journal in the lodge I had found that my friend Mark Milewski, who hiked the trail in 97, had been there the day before looking for me. It was too bad but I appreciated the effort. I had to answer the usual battery of questions from the fat people who had driven to the top. I made my escape with Espy who on the way down talked me into staying the night in Williamstown which was a couple miles down the road. You could camp behind the Mountain Goat Outfitters, which conveniently was across from the bar/restaurant. There was a Red Sox game on TV tonight as well as the final game of the Little League World Series so we could watch the Asians crush the Americans before walking back across the road for the night.
Date: 2003-08-25
From: Williamstown

To: Congdon Shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I awoke fairly early and walked out looking for breakfast. Williamstown was the home of Williams College and I wandered through the campus until I found a Subway so I could get a breakfast sandwich. It was a nice little town, quiet since school was still out for the summer, but in a couple weeks summer would be coming to an end and the town will fill right up. I would still be in the woods. I got a ride out of town by a lady in a van who already had Rumbler and Hiker Biker Babe in her car. She also had two small kids who were interested in us, and why we smelled the way we do. I thanked her and headed out to do a four mile gradual climb up to the Vermont border. I got within a mile when I came upon two thirty something out of shape looking guys breathing hard. They were brothers from Baltimore and Florida who had just gotten on the trail today to do the final three states. Their names were Drinker and Batman. Drinker had hiked the trail in about 1989 under a different trail name. I welcomed them back and headed on to the Vermont border. I had been looking forward to this state for a while. Now I was truly in the North and about to be into some real mountains. I was excited. I had Batman take a picture when they caught up. Drinker¢s boot was already bothering him and they were going to stop for the day up ahead. I bid them adieu and headed on, spending the rest of the day by myself. Espy must have never made it out of town. I went to sleep dreaming of the mountainous terrain that lay ahead. Eleven down three to go.
Date: 2003-08-26
From: Congdon Shelter

To: Kid Gore and Caughnawaga Shelters
Miles today: 18.7

I awoke for the first time in Vermont.   I was walking with a renewed vigor. From here to the end of the trail was going to be very exciting for me. This is the home stretch over the toughest terrain on the whole trail. I have looked forward to getting into this region for quite some time. I headed out fairly early. I had some nice, easy hiking in the morning before having to deal with a steep drop down, and climb back up from VT 9 where many hikers head into the town of Bennington, VT. Not me, I¢d done enough town recently. I cruised up the climb quickly and headed on, following the ridgeline up and down toward Glastenbury Mountain.   On top of Glastenbury was the first fire tower that I would be able to climb since the Tennessee/North Carolina section of trail that seemed like ages ago. There was a nice shelter right near the top with a view back over Mt. Greylock, and more importantly an ice cold spring coming right out of the ground. I didn¢t bother to filter this water, it was pristine. I had been dreaming of this kind of water for several hundred miles of sulfurous brown sludge, and that was just the stuff I got out of spigots! Somewhere someone was paying 2.00 for a bottle of stuff half this good. As I enjoyed a drink it came to my attention that dark clouds had been gathering. It was going to rain. I guess Vermont wasn¢t so different from the rest of the trail after all. I went to the top of the fire tower and saw that the rain was getting very close. I enjoyed the view and headed out very quickly. I was practically running to get to the next shelter where I was going to spend the night. It was four miles. I made it about two before the sprinkles started. I continued on at an extremely rapid pace.   I made it to the shelter and saw that it was filled by a Yale orientation group. I searched for a tent site. Finding none I headed a couple tenths of a mile down the trial to the old shelter for this area. It was a joke shelter made up of matchsticks for amusement. I could hardly sit up inside of it. It was my home for tonight. I was mostly dry and was happy the harder rain waited until after I got there.
Date: 2003-08-27
From: Kid Gore and Caughnawaga Shelters

To: Stratton mountain
Miles today: 12.0

I slept in a bit today and was slow getting myself together. I went back over to the nice shelter with the college kids to check the register. There were many references to a moose that lives in the area. I didn¢t think I would see moose until farther north, but sure enough a cow moose came out of the woods right in front of the shelter. It stood there oblivious to the scurrying for cameras followed by repeated flashes before strolling along on its merry way. I stayed there for a little while telling stories to the kids who were pretty awed by what I was doing. They even took pictures of me. Amazing. I bid them adieu and went back down to the ghetto shelter to pack my stuff. I was sitting at the shelter tying on my boots when I could hear someone coming down the trail. I heard a loud yell and realized who it was. Snot Rocket, who had fallen behind some 763 miles ago had finally caught up. It only took him about 20 of my zeros. This was cool. I was happy to meet back up with my old friend in New England where we were both from. We caught up there for a while before heading out. We have had a few near misses where he was within a day, but never quite made it. We caught up on all the stories of missed times, wild storms and cool towns.   We caught up on all the trail gossip that seemed to flow north and south like wildfire. I guess we had little to talk about out here, so any happenings are big news. We decided to do a pretty easy day and pick up the pace again tomorrow. It was an awesome day, sunny and warm. We decided to stay up on top of Stratton mountain where there was technically no camping, but a fire tower and several nice tent sites. Surely those silly kinds of rules didn¢t apply to us, this was our home. We caught a killer sunset from the fire tower over the tops of the trees. There were now big mountains in every directions you looked. Snot was excited as I was about the change of scenery. There was something different about being in more mountainous terrain that made the hiking more satisfying. The air and water were different. It made me very optimistic.   We hiked over to the top of the ski lifts (this was the first ski resort we hiked over) where there was running water and Viking, Emily, Slack, Double A and Free Radical were all camping. We had a fun night climbing around the giant gears and pulleys in the lift before Snot pitched his tent near the rest while I retreated alone to the summit to sleep up in the fire tower and fall asleep high off the ground to the sound of the wind whipping all around me and howling through the floorboards.
Date: 2003-08-29
From: Bromely mountain

To: Big Branch Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: few clouds

We awoke and slowly got our gear together. We had all stayed up pretty late last night hooting and hollering. I was really tired. We hung around until 11:00 then went out to play some frisbee, which was really good on the wide grassy summit, sheltered from the wind. I had been carrying a frisbee since North Carolina and Moose was carrying one too. This group had some pretty good frisbee players, it was a good time. While we were there some portly older gentlemen came up to us. Once they figured out we were thru hikers and had spent the night there they began to make fun of us. They even came right out saying that we would never make it to Maine. We laughed them off down the mountain. We finally headed out realizing we had to go five miles to get some water, which we definitely needed. We flew by the old guys on our way down Bromley to the water source, which was an ice-cold pump that tasted great.   While we rested there hydrating the old men caught back up to us. They started talking crap again about the tortoise catching the hare and them beating us to Katahdin. Who did these bastards think they were? This time we ignored them before heading on our way. We climbed a long tough stretch to the top of Peru Peak before stopping for lunch on a big rock. Soon there were nine thru hikers on the rock; myself, Snot Rocket, Chief, Moose, Iceberg Slim, Emily, Slack, Double A, and Free Radical. Crowded.   Iceberg left a rude message for our rotund friends before we headed off. We cruised the rest of the day, briefly stopping to check out the 6$ shelters and campsites on the way. We were in an unfortunate stretch of trail where the AMC taxes the use of many of its shelters and campsites. That was crazy, I would never give them a dime. I live here damn it. Me, Snot, Chief, Moose and Iceberg ended up at a small free shelter where I pitched my tent despite impending rain. I took advantage of a small cold river to bathe. We had a nice large fire that lasted a steady rain for over an hour before burning out.
Date: 2003-08-30
From: Big Branch Shelter

To: Clarendon Shelter
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: clear sky

It rained over night pretty hard and was gloomy in the morning. We headed out together, but soon as always me and Snot just couldn¢t quite keep up with Chief, Moose and Iceberg. There were stretches and times when we could just about pace them, but eventually fell behind. These guys could absolutely fly. The three of them have been doing a fast pace the whole trail. They had all started a week or so into May and have been hearing since Georgia that they were way too far behind to possibly finish. They had shrugged it off, headed steadily north and were well on pace to finish with time to spare. They were all pretty tall and carried very light packs in the 30-40 Lbs. range. We settled into an empty shelter for lunch before the bloodletting began. The overnight rains spawned a thirsty horde of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes had been waning since Mass but here the air was black with them. We ate as fast as we could constantly slapping mosquitoes that had pierced us. We were out of there in less than ten minutes. We moved along swiftly the rest of the day with a restaurant stop as our motivation. There was a old train station turned restaurant called the Whistlestop. We took a break for a while in the beautiful Clarendon Gorge where the water carved the boulders into smooth curves in amazing patterns. The sun had come out, but it was a little cool for swimming. We headed to the Whistlestop and nearby convenience store for food and refreshment. Cheeseburger as usual. We headed out to climb a steep mile up to the shelter just as it was getting too dark to see. The shelter was full, but I would have slept in my tent anyway. We found a little pine grove nearby whose needles provided the most comfortable bed I had slept on in a while. The shelter was stocked with firewood, something I hadn¢t seen before and had to take full advantage of with a nice fire before bed.
Date: 2003-02-16
To: The Decision
Miles today: 0.0

Those moments when time stands still, when you have no comprehension that a minute or an hour has just passed. I had no idea how long we sat there, quietly, watching the sun change the colors of the rocks inside the north rim of the Grand Canyon.As it got darker we started talking about how we wanted to spend our summer. Pen had always left Phoenix during the heat and usually traveled to Italy to soak up the culture and purchase new items for her antique shop. She said she was looking for something new, a different adventure. I had taken off for a couple of months last year and hiked slightly more than half the trail. I had a feeling during the winter that I had left something unfinished. I wanted to see what the White Mountains were all about and discover a few of those hidden ponds in Maine.As we talked it just seem natural that Penn¢s new adventure and my unfinished trek would be what we would accomplish this summer. By now it was totally dark, we had talked for hours about our dreams and what we wanted to accomplish. Hiking the reminder of the trail was the decision that we had both agreed upon. Maybe that is the hardest part, harder than those first mountains in Georgia, to decide to get out there and take the steps needed to complete a goal that you set for yourself. This is the beginning. We will attempt to chronicle our adventure with both our actions and our thoughts.
Date: 2003-03-22
To: Training & Tent
Miles today: 0.0

Slowly but surely we are buying our gear and attempting to get both our bodies in hiking shape.We decided on an REI Half Dome tent after doing a little research both on-line and at the REI store. I really liked the ClipLight tents but at 6'3" my head touched one end and my feet poked the other side. The half dome gave Penny and I plenty of space on both the height and width. I also liked the room that the rain fly allowed and the double doors. It is a little over 5 1/2 lbs which is not super light but I think it is light enough for us to manage.A few times a week we have been hitting Squaw Peak. It is only 1.25 to the top but the entire trail is steep and rocky. We both are sucking some serious wind by the time we make it to the top of the peak. In a couple of weeks we are going to look like a pair of geeks as we trudge up the mountain with our packs on. Oh well, I probably look like a geek even when I'm not wearing a pack.This weekend we are going to do some hiking in the White Tank mountain just outside of Phoenix. The wild flowers are starting to bloom so the mountains should really be something to look at as we hike. I'm off to find just what we should eat during our weekend trip. Last year hiking the trail I lived off of mac & cheese with tuna mixed in. I'm going to try and expand our menu this year since Penny is not nearly the mac lover that I am.