morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-07-10
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: Ten Mile River
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: clear sky

Today was actually almost a 22 mile day with the road walk that we did in the middle of the day. We were up early and walking, it was really hot and muggy once again. I must have drank a ton of water.Once again, there was rough terrain, alot of rocks, ups and downs, really wearing me down. Around noon time we made a stop at NY 22 and walked 1/2 mile down to Tony's Deli. We sat there for about and hour and a half, eating some really good sandwiches, ice cream, coffee and Cokes. They had picnic tables outiside. We refilled on water, too. We very reluctantly got up and started walking again. Of course, it's always an uphill out of a road, and this was an uphill today. It wore us out right away.We ended up stopping at Ten Mile River. We decided not to go to the shelter because, we figured there would be alot of people at the shelter waiting to get into Kent, Ct. for a Monday morning mail drop. We found out later, that wasn't the case at all. We made it to the bridge at Ten Mile River by 4 o'clock and there was a huge group of teenagers there. It was some organized camping group where kids pay to camp, there were about 20 of them out swimming in the river. It was a beautiful river.Where the bridge is, is where the river actually dumps out into the Housatonic River, it's good rolling river down rocks. It got Vern all excited, since he's a kayaker. He stripped down to his shorts and got in there along with the kids that were out there. We set our tents up in the woods, away from the kids, which was a good thing to do. They are really loud. We cooked on the bridge and went to bed.That's it.
Date: 2005-07-13
From: Cornwall Bridge, Ct.

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

We¢re taking a zero day in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut. Not much going on today except eating a lot; drinking beer; roaming through the few stores they have here to pick up whatever else I can think of. Alot more work on the gear. I¢ve done some more sewing on the packs; done readjustments; gear placement; experimented to make sure that the new pack and the new stuff that I¢m carrying is going to work well, and that I¢m going to be able to live with it.Basically, I got all packed up tonight and ready to go. Then I still have to unpack it because Vern is sleeping on the bed and I am sleeping on the floor on my thermarest, my preference.Tomorrow morning we going to start up at Baird¢s General Store; pick up some breakfast sandwiches and try to make 18 miles.That¢s it. I¢m caught up. Hopefully I won¢t let the journals lapse four days again
Date: 2005-07-14
From: Cornwall Bridge, Ct.

To: Giant's Thumb
Miles today: 18.7

We were up early and cleared out of the motel room by 6:00. We walked over to Baird's General Store, they were already opened for breakfast, so we walked in. We got some breakfast and some sodas. We sat down and ate and we were back on the Trail by 7:00.It was a pretty rough day from there on. There was alot of ups and downs and no flats until we started getting close to Falls Village where it got pretty nice. There were a couple of very welcomed flat areas and walks through some corn fields going into the village.We walked into the Toymakers Cafe where we had some really good, upscale burgers and quite a few drinks. We hung around there for a while. The people who own the place are really nice. We filled up our water and we hiked out of town. I made a quick stop at the package store and got my evening 'oil can' of Fosters. I then hauled ass to catch up to Vern, who was now about 20 minutes ahead of me. The intention tonight was to stop at the Limestone Spring Lean-to, but just as I got up there, Vern was coming back up out of it. He said there was no way he was staying there because it was a steep downhill and it looked like they were out of water. So, we went ahead and kept hiking on. In the meantime, Cycle-Hiker had caught up to us. We all ended up pitching tents near this rock formation called Giant's Thumb, which looked more like a huge dildo to me. As a matter of fact, I pitched my tent right up next to it. We were there with plenty of light. Vern turned on his phone to find out that he had messages. The messages were from Easy Goer, who was an hour behind us. As we were walking out of Falls Village, he was walking in. He left a message that he was going to Limestone as well. So, Vern hauled ass to try to find him and I followed shortly after to try to catch him before he went down there so he could join us. Easy Goer said he had a hell of a time trying to catch up with us. He looks like he did. He looks alot skinnier than the last time I saw him.That's it for today.
Date: 2005-07-15
From: Giant's Thumb

To: The Hemlocks Lean-to
Miles today: 16.9

We were up early and it was a very, very short run into Salisbury, Connecticut. We were there by seven.   We walked into the White Heart Inn; a really up-scale bed and breakfast kind of place. We got breakfast there. It was expensive, but it was okay because Easy Goer paid for it.We had our breakfast and were still over at the post office by eight a.m. I picked up my maildrop that never showed up at Kent. Also, Mike and Estee had sent the wind shirt that Estee had been wearing. So then I got all those and we walked down to La Bonne Epicure Market. We got some hoagies, drinks, cigars and cigarettes. I tried to make an appointment for a haircut at the place in town. She said that the earliest she could see me was at eleven o¢clock. I don¢t know if that was the case or if she just didn¢t want to deal with a really smelly hiker. I suspect that it might have been a little bit of both. At any rate, I gave up that idea.We all walked out of town by ten o¢clock. Boy, it was a rough afternoon. It was all uphill for the most part and up and over into three mountains in a row: Bear Mountain, Race Mountain, and Mt. Everett. It was a hot day. My thermometer was reading 96 degrees. The sun was out full blast. They were all exposed rock faces and exposed rock ridges of solid rock. When I say exposed ridges, it¢s not like there¢s boulders there, just solid, smooth stone that you¢re walking across that absorb a tremendous amount of heat. Very few trees, if any, on most of these. Some bushes, blueberry bushes, a foot to two feet high. In fact, I managed to get so hot that I found one place with a little bit of shade by a patch of blueberries. I sat there for about a half hour eating. I ate half of my hoagie that I had packed out, and a bunch of blueberries, which helped cut the thirst down.I made it to the shelter about ten after four. I was to find out later that OC1 ran out of water up there, which is why he and Easy Goer didn¢t make it in until six o¢clock. I went down and got water. I took a kind of shower/bath out of my bag. I tried to dodge the mosquitos with my shirt off. I went ahead and set up the tent in the shelter, or the body of the tent. I tried to stay away from the mosquitos, and tried to stay in from the impending rain. It was obviously going to rain.I was beginning to get worried about OC1 and Easy Goer. I thought they were a half hour behind me. They came in almost two hours after me. Cycle-Hiker also showed up there shortly after they did. He was about to pitch his tent in the shelter as well. Vern had pitched his up in the loft. At eight fifteen, when I was almost asleep and in my little tent, this very loud couple walked in. They sure needed a couple lessons in shelter etiquette because they were talking loudly, banging stuff around, making no effort to try to be quiet and they did this til about quarter til ten. Sometime around two o¢clock I woke to hear them talking loudly again. Turns out, Vern told me the next morning, it was because I had been snoring, which I kind of felt better about. Good for me.
Date: 2005-07-16
From: The Hemlocks Lean-to

To: Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to
Miles today: 19.7

This morning I got up and started packing at 5 am. I made a point of making alot of noise. The only other people in the shelter besides us were the 'loud couple'. I made a point of banging sh*t around and making noise, making sure that everyone in the shelter woke up. Basically, they had no choice, everyone got up and started packing. It was an easy walk down to US 7, about 8 miles down. I made it there about 8:45. US 7 is the road down to Great Barrington, Mass, there's a fruit stand there. They open at 9 o'clock, so I was a little early. I decided to take a walk to see if something else was available. There was a sign down the road that looked appealing. It turned out to be a GMC truck place, so I walked back just as the fruit stand was opening up. I went in and got some Espresso Chocolate Chip Coffee Ice Cream, which was excellent, and a couple of drinks. Easy Goer and OC1 walked in at 9:15 or so. They got some things for themselves.Easy Goer decided to go into town from here. His brother is coming in to do some hiking with him tomorrow. He wanted to spend the rest of the day showering, grocery shopping, and relaxing. He asked one of the people that came in for a ride. He got his ride and OC1 and I took off. The rest of the day was pretty much uphill again. It was alot easier though, I think the condition is starting to come back. We got the 19.7 miles done by 3:30. The mosquitoes are really starting to get bad, I'm sitting in a cloud of them right now. Quite a few people have shown up at this shelter. There are 3 weekend warriors sitting here. Blue Light and Bootz showed up, the had gone into Great Barrington and gotten a hotel room. Cycle-Hiker is here too. Everyone is gathered around the picnic table cooking. One of the weekend warriors, a section hiker, thinks, as most of them do, that he is an expert on the Appalachian Trail. He has a comment on everything we do or say about the AT. He brought hamburgers, tomatoes, onions, and buscuits. He has been cooking up a storm all night, for himself of course. He did offer me a buscuit, which I turned down. The other section hiker that is here, I needed to lend some duct tape to because, apparently, a couple of days ago, he had an encounter with a bear. He set up his tent and left his food in it and walked away. When he came back, he saw a bear walking out of camp. When he went back to his tent, he found that the bear had torn through his tent, gotten his food bag out and ate only his M&Ms. That's it for tonight.
Date: 2005-07-17
From: Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to

To: Upper Goose Pond Shelter
Miles today: 15.8

Vern got started walking about twenty minutes before I did. It took me about ten miles to catch him. Very easy walk for the first seven miles this morning. Pretty flat walk, then it got a little bumpy with some pretty good stiff five hundred foot uphills or so.At the road, three miles before the Goose Pond Cabin, there were three young people there; two guys and a gal, who had just done the weekend, tented up by the pond for the weekend. They were packing up. Mellow was crouched there on the ground eating a hamburger they had made for him. They offered Vern and me a couple of Budweiser¢s and some chips and salsa. We sat there and ate for a while.The forecast for today was rain and it had started drizzling. Now it is raining harder. So we took off to get the last three miles in before we got soaked. It of course happened anyway because it started raining harder and harder. By the time we got to the cabin we were drenched and we were walking in puddles. Walked in there around twelve forty and the cabin was locked. I just said ¢screw it¢ and I put on my rain clothes. I took all my other clothes off around the back, threw them in a bucket of water with some dishwashing soap, and washed them all out. I wrung them and hung them all out. While they were all soaked, I figured I might as well wash them.After about an hour, the caretaker came up. The way Upper Goose Pond Cabin works is, it¢s a really nice place. It¢s, I guess, an old house that had been converted with a second floor on it; nice big set of stairs right on the pond. Beautiful place. Anyways, the way it works is that people volunteer for one week to be the caretaker for the cabin. They cook pancakes for the hikers in the morning as well. Carrie was in her first week; she was just walking in. She walked in with her two kids and her neighbor, and then her husband came in later. A lot of other thru hikers started coming in totally soaked. Mellow came in and he hung out for a while. Then I guess he decided to move on because he left. Rabbit, Boots and Bluelight, and a British couple I hadn¢t met before, Slip and GG, walked in and stayed for the night. It was a great stop.Just hung around for the rest of the day, eating and talking with everybody. Just relaxing. Although OC1 was getting nervous because it was so early in the day, he was seriously considering getting up and walking another ten miles. Even though he had done sixteen, he was still feeling guilty about not walking, which happens.Anyways, I ended up setting my mesh part of my Hubba on the porch, and that¢s where I slept. Vern, the big canoer, took a canoe out with Rabbit, canoeing around the pond for a while. So, he got his little canoeing in.
Date: 2005-07-18
From: Upper Goose Pond Shelter

To: Dalton, Mass
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: haze

Vern and I decided early on that we were going to just run to Dalton, Mass. and try to get there in time to pick up our mail drops. We ran like hell, and we paid for it. We were exhausted, we got there at 2:40 and we were both beat. We got there, I got my mail drop, and then we went over to Duff & Dell's to get some excellent bacon cheeseburgers and onion rings. Then we walked down to the Shamrock Village Inn and got a room. Caroline, the girl who worked the front desk there, was a nice lady. She told us that if we wanted to go to Walmart, she got off at 5 o'clock and she'd drop us off there. We would have to find our way back, but, we took her up on that. We took quick showers, I got my mail drop and went to get our ride to Walmart. We re-supplied and picked up some repair stuff for our gear. We were told that we could flag the bus back anyplace. We decided to start walking the 2 miles back and flag the bus down when we saw it. We ended up beating the bus back to Shamrock. We had a little problem with the laundry. Vern took off to the laundrymat, only to find that they had closed at 7 and he got there after. But, the night shift front desk gal, ended up doing the laundry for us, and drying it before she left. The office closes after dark, but she got it done for us before she left. The rest of the night was spent re-packing gear, spraying my clothes with promethrin, and just trying to fix various things. Then we watched TV until late, even though I was very exhausted. I'm beginning to have problems with my knees again. It looks like the SYNVISC shots have worn off. Both knees were pretty swollen and tight, the left one moreso.   We'll see how it goes.
Date: 2005-07-19
From: Dalton, Mass

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up in pretty bad shape. My knees are trashed. I pretty early on decided that I was going to take the day off. Vern decided that he was also going to take the day off, which turned out to be a really good decision. The original plan was to walk out around eleven o¢clock. At about one o¢clock, where we would have been about four miles out of town, this really severe thunder storm rolled in. Thunder and lightening crashing everywhere. Really hard, hard driving rain. The TV said there were thunder storm warnings in effect for the next couple hours. Plus it was incredibly hot. It felt like a hundred degrees. So, it was a good day to stay in town.We got up really early anyway and we were at Duff and Dell's before seven o¢clock, waiting for them to open. We ate breakfast there and then came back to the hotel room and took care of the mail drops. I had to send some stuff home. I had to send my bump box ahead. Then we went out front to wait for the bus to take us back to WalMart. We decided that since they had this big shopping complex there with restaurants and different stores we decided to just blow a few hours there. While we were waiting at the bus stop, Tom Lavardi drove up with Maniac and offered us a ride, which we accepted. That¢s what we did. We spent a few hours at WalMart. At about one o¢clock we went over to Wendy¢s to eat. We picked the bus back up to the Shamrock. I called my orthopedic doctor to find out what he thought about the knee problem and he told me to double up on the ibuprofen and start taking 800 mg. three times a day. That did seem to help in terms of the swelling going down. The rest of the day we just spent just screwing around. We went over for a really excellent steak at the Shamrock Restaurant. Later on I went back there; sat around drinking with some of the other hikers. Got to bed at a half decent hour.
Date: 2005-07-20
From: Dalton, Mass

To: Wilbur Clearing Lean-to
Miles today: 20.3

Today was a magnificent day to be on the Trail. It was a great decision to not walk yesterday and walk today, because the weather has totally changed. Today was dry, the temperature stayed below 80 degrees all day, and there was a great breeze.All the food that we had beefed up on with the zero day really paid off in terms of energy. It was a very easy walk today, despite the fact that we did almost 4,000 feet in climbs altogether. It seemed to just go by pretty well. We ate breakfast again at Duff and Dells, and were out walking by 7. We walked in to the town of Cheshire by 10:30. We hung out there for a while and walked into the General Store. We each got a pint of Ben and Jerry's Butter Pecan Ice Cream. We then went back to the post office to send some more stuff home. We ended up staying there about 1 1/2 hours. Some other hikers walked in. Royal, who I hadn't seen since Virginia, walked in. Rabbit was there, too. We were off and walking again by 12:00. Vern took off before me because I had to use the bathroom. I never did catch him until we got to the top of Mt. Greylock. WHat a beautiful walk it is up there. Massachusetts is a really pretty state to walk through the woods. It's very scenic, the forest is just lush.We got up to Greylock at about 3:30. One again, in keeping with fashion, we ate. I had chicken wings and onion rings. We had considered staying at the emergency shelter there. You're really not supposed to stay there. But, it was so early that we just decided to go ahead and walk the extra 3 miles and change to the Wilbur Clearing Lean-to.We got here at about 6 and set up our tents on platforms. We also talked to Au Pa and Au Ma. We had originally decided that we were not going to stay there overnight, we were just going to meet them for breakfast. Vern and I discussed it, and we will be running 22 miles tomorrow to get into Vermont on Route 9 where they will be picking us up. They will get us a hotel room at the place they work. This way we can have a little bit of a reunion. We will be in Vermont tomorrow, pretty early, I think before noon time. Another state down as of tomorrow.The knee is going to become an issue. I'm sitting here and I know I have to take some more pills because I can feel it just cramping up every time I stand up. I don't think it's going to go away. It's something I'm going to have to deal with from now on.
Date: 2005-07-22
From:  Vermont 9

To: Stratton-Arlington Road
Miles today: 22.6

I don't think I mentioned this yesterday, but, at the Massachusetts-Vermont border, the Appalachian Trail becomes the beginning of the Long Trail in Vermont. It spans about 500 miles or so into Canada. It was the original long distance Trail. It's reputed to be pretty rugged. The first thing that you notice, almost immediately, is that you get a sense that you're backing away from civilization again for the first time since Virginia. You really can't hear noises and the towns are far away. It does become very rugged, relative to what we are used to. Today has basically kicked my ass. We have had some climbs, none severe, but we have probably still done 4,000 feet in elevation climbs, beginning with one from 1,300 feet at the road, up to the top of the mountain at 3,800 feet.What is annoying is these stupid rock climbs, up through boulders that are only a couple of hundred feet high that just wear you out. We had several people tell us that this is an easy piece today. I don't know what Trail they were hiking, but, I found it difficult. Lots of obstacles: rocks, roots and mud. The Long Trail is reputed for mud, and I think we are lucky that it hasn't been raining, because it's already bad enough as it is. We got up and ready this morning and met Au Pa at the door of his apartment at 6:00. He led us to the dining room and kitchen, where Au Ma fixed us the largest omelette I think I have ever had, I couldn't even finish it. She also made some really good home fries with onions in them. We said our goodbyes to her, we probably won't see her again.Au Pa drove us back to the Trail. We were off, walking by 6:45. We have been walking ever since. We took a couple of breaks, but none really long. I'll be pitching my tent and going to sleep in a minute.
Date: 2005-07-25
From: Greenwall Shelter

To: Vt 103
Miles today: 7.8

We started out hiking this morning. Pretty easy territory. Rocks and stuff. I was still hurting a lot. I took about four ibuprofen this morning. Finally decided that I was going to do something. I told Vern as we were walking that when we met Mrs. Gorp, I¢m going to start calling her Cindy from now on. When we met Cindy down at the Whistle Stop for breakfast, that if the offer was still up to stay overnight and I would just take the rest of the day off and settle for seven miles today. We got there after nine. She was not there. Just as we were starting to walk to the Whistle Stop, she pulled up. We had hugs around. I gave her a hug. We talked for a few minutes. We went down to the Whistle Stop. Vern and I pigged out on the big breakfast that they had there. Cindy had brought us a couple of 20 ounce Cokes. We drank those and a few cups of coffee and various other things. While we were talking, she once again offered to let us stay overnight. Vern refused. He¢s on his mission to stay on his target date. He hiked on.I told her that I would take her up on it. So we dropped Vern off. We went down to the store first to get an ice cream for Vern. Then we dropped him back off at the trailhead and he took off.I went with Cindy. We stopped at the store first. Then we headed down to her house, where she and her husband, Larry, have a magnificent place. They¢ve been there 25 years. It has a view, probably the best view there is of Bear Mountain. The house is the model, Good Housekeeping house, that you would see in one of the Good Housekeeping magazines. Just a fabulous place. Lush. Very comfortable. Very homelike.She showed me around. I took a shower. I had the entire top loft that was up in the attic. It had two beds, a computer up there, and everything I could possibly want.On the way home, they also went and stopped at the grocery store. She wanted to know what I wanted to eat. I told her that I would do the buying. I purchased four of the nicest rib eye steaks that they had there, since there was going to be three of us. Her husband, she, and myself. I bought a couple other things. Some bread, oranges, some orange juice.The rest of the day was spent recovering. I took my shower. I did my laundry. I did a lot of talking. I had a lot of conversations with Cindy and with her husband, Larry, with whom I actually spent a lot of time talking politics.Anyway it was a good healing day. A good day for eating. They had high speed internet access. I was able to totally and completely upload my journal. Which is a good thing. I made some phone calls. I called Estee. I called Eddie. Various people. Kind of just hung around. Had some beers. General recovery. A very good healing day for me. That¢s it.