morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-26
From: Pawling, NY

To: Ten Mile River Campsite
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: moderate rain

someone should be assigned to chase thru hikers with a hot poker to get them out of town early. swiss miss and i got a rather late start out of pawling at 2:30pm.we walked the mile into the center of town because our best efforts at getting a hitch were met with distance from the NY drivers. we saw a sign that said "ice cream" at one of the convenience stores along the way and got pulled in by its massive tractor beam. Mmmm. ice cream. fixated on our sugary treat, we did not notice who was in front of us in line until the cashier clued us in. we paid for our ice cream, grabbed our packs, and ran outside to meet james earl jones. he was glad to pose with us for a picture and also chatted briefly about hiking the trail. when we told him we were trying to get a hitch out of town, he said with a smile, "no one in this town will give you a ride".he was right for the most part. our hitch back out was from the same guy who brought me in. i moved fast to cover the 12 miles to camp. i wanted some daylight to set up my tent by. swiss miss starts slower and gets faster as she hikes, so i hiked alone for all 12 miles.the campsite was not full of hikers but the tents of fishermen! CT must allow fishing in the river now. i don't remember seeing fishermen before. i set up my camp and made dinner as night fell. i kept my eye out for swiss miss because the camp is hard to see with the tall grass in front, and now lack of light. at 9pm a lone headlamp moved down the trail. i put my headlamp on to give the person something to follow. it was swiss miss - seems she ate dinner at the last shelter and talked there for a while.swiss set up her hammock and got ready for bed. she was curious about my tent (everybody is) so i gave her the grand tour. what started as a quick show of my 4x8 arapaho, turned into a bug-free hangout. we sat in my tent looking at the pictures in my camera until 11pm... oops. need to get some sleep before seeing mom and dad.
Date: 2004-06-27
From: Sages Ravine (MA) 

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 8.6

6:30 came too soon. swiss miss and i did not stir from our respective domiciles though we had to be in kent at noon. we were both still tired. ok, snooze 'til 7:00 and then we'll get ready fast. (usually it takes about 1.5 hours for me to get up, eat, privy, and pack)swiss miss started right at 8:00 and i got on-trail about 10 minutes later.the hike had a mix of "sweet trail", rocks, climbs, and steep descents. we reached the road by 12:30 after taking a short break at mt. algo shelter. my parents were there waiting with gatorade and other drinks. they took swiss and i to lunch, the outfitter, and the IGA supermarket. the remainder of the afternoon was spent trying to find low-cost lodging on a sunday... in kent. no dice. i got the last room at the fife and drum inn - that was the cheapest option. my parents said goodbye and left swiss miss and i at the fife parking lot. swiss decided to go back to the trail for the night. we said our goodbyes and i went up to my room to finish my chores for the day.after a shower, laundry, and a nap, i ordered pizza from the place down the street. i flipped through the cable and found Backdraft playing on one of the channels. i didn't make it to the end of the movie as i was still feeling tired and it was way past my usual sundown bedtime.
Date: 2004-06-28
From: kent

To: Stewart Hollow Brook
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

four months on the trail today. seems like i've been doing this all my life.i got out of kent... late. 12:30ish. i felt guilty because i had to get my bounce box, fish through it, mail it and a few other things, plus stop at the pharmacy in the morning. that ate up a lot of time. oh well, time is something i got plenty of... just like my expectations for the day. need to work on that...i started up-trail and after about an hour it rained lightly, making the rocks a little slicker. somewhere near caleb's peak is where i took my 'about' page photo. i think i found the spot and quickly took a picture there, dodging the rain. the rain ceased when i reached st. john's ledges. the trail that follows contains some steep steps. my long legs adapted to them easily, while i later heard those with shorter legs sometimes had to sit on a step to drop down to the next.i arrived at the camp/shelter with plenty of time to go to the next one. squarepants was there and we talked for a bit. i did not know if swiss miss would show this evening or not. she hadn't signed the register yet so i assumed she did not come through yet.i was feeling tired so i took a nap. at 6:30, fireball stopped in at the shelter and told me swiss miss was at mt. algo this evening. mt. algo... she went south? the girl is spontaneous.i decided to stay and set up my camp in the last hour of sunlight. squarepants kept me company as i prepared dinner and got my camp set up. i felt a little funny just doing seven miles today. but, hey, it's about the journey and not the destination. sooner or later i won't have to remind myself of this.
Date: 2004-06-29
From: stewart hollow brook

To: pine swamp branch
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

squarepants and i both woke at about the same time. it rained last night and i could still hear the water droplets falling from the trees as they moved in the wind. it was an odd morning for me because i did not know what i was going to do. swiss didn't show last night so i had a choice to wait at the shelter, go on x miles north, or go back a few miles on the level trail and dry my tent out on the road.i chose to go south a few miles and dry some of my things and journal while waiting for swiss. she arrived near noon. she took a zero at mt. algo and received some great magic while there (food, chocolate, guiness, and soda).we stopped at stewart hollow shelter and hung out for a while. cameron and sky (dog) showed up just before we left. cameron met swiss miss back at harriman state park. it is really great to meet other hikers since we have been in this hiker void for a few weeks now.we got under way at a very late 2:30 for ten miles of CT terrain. gone are the days of 3mph - CT is the starting point of real mountains again.camp was reached at 8:00pm. light was limited and we spent thirty minutes talking with (flipflop) seeker and squarepants. camp was set up in the last moments of light. neither of us felt like cooking - swiss had an apple for dinner. i had raw ramen and peanut butter before turning in.
Date: 2004-06-30
From: pine swamp

To: salisbury, CT
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: clear sky

oy! i got up late again! so late in fact, lucky dog made a stop at the shelter for his first lunch and i was still there. he saw my tent and swiss's hammock and came over to talk while we were packing up.we left camp at 1:30 with a huge day in front of us. we were going to walk to salisbury today, probably some of it in the dark. swiss and i hit town late. i opted for the white hart inn and swiss refilled her water and decided to stealth camp right outside town.
Date: 2004-07-01
From: salisbury

To: Sages Ravine (MA) 
Miles today: 7.5

i resupplied in town, went to the library to use the internet, made some phone calls, and stopped at the ice cream shop. sugar cone in hand, i left town around 3pm. the climb up lion's head was easy as was the trail that went by the shelters. bear mtn, a longer climb than the others, took some effort - not in the ascent, but down the steep north face.at sages ravine were squarepants and steve the ridgerunner. i set up camp, cooked dinner, and made my way down to the ridgerunner's tent. that was where we were all congregating. we all ate dinner and talked for a while. steve offered us homemade jerky and some really big slices of watermelon. yum.i got settled in my tent and battened down the hatches for the storm we're supposed to get tonight. as i was journaling, i heard footsteps near my tent, circling my tent. after a few seconds of silence i heard the familiar burst of laughter from swiss miss. she asked if i knew it was her. i told her she was my #2 choice. swiss got here at 9:30pm. way after dark... kinda typical for her.she set up her hammock and i finished journaling for the evening. i hope the rain misses us tonight.
Date: 2004-07-02
To: swiss miss--the chocolate bandito
Miles today: 0.0

call me swiss miss. i have secretly "borrowed" dharma's pocketmail in order to enlighten you as to his "true" nature. i warn you, stop reading now if you wish to retain your mental image of him as a charming, witty, debonair cookie-dough-ice-cream-eating fiend. indeed, this "dharma" creature is infinitely more and desperately less. join me as we uncover the man, the myth, the monster...the "dharma."i, swiss miss- the banditoest bandito of them all- first met this dharma back in NC. oh crappy day that was! i blessedly escaped his presence from hot springs until pawling, NY. but now, i sorrowfully bear with his presence on my epic journey. why do i bear this burden, you ask? because someone must; because if i did not, his presence would be inflicted upon countless innocents. yikes, dharma looks suspicious! does he know i am revealing the awful truth? i must be succinct. if dharma sees me writing i may suddenly "disappear." if such should happen, carry on my message. only you can make a difference.today, the 2nd of july, the year of our lord 2004, dharma left sage's ravine campsite at an ungodly early hour- 9am. he trekked thru the treacherous ravine, receiving a flesh wound from the troll that lives under the rough-hewn bridge that connects the mystical lands of MA and CT. traipsing on, he summited the misty, oxygen-forsaken peaks of race and everett mountains. along the way, he tackled 2 middle-aged women and threatened to kiss them if they did not hand over all of their snickers bars. they refused. dharma dove on them. the handbags flew. dharma shrieked. they bent him over their knees and walloped his bum till he begged for mercy. bad, bad dharma. thankfully, i, the miss of swiss, entered upon this scene. i apologized for dharma's miscreant behavior. i should not have freed him from his muzzle. my bad...so yes, we continued on to great barrington. thankfully, hutch- one of dharma's "friends"-runs an extended stay mental-care facility here. the company is smashing; the food is to die for; and most importantly, dharma is now contained in a fully cushioned room with a doggie chew toy. the world is once again a safe place...for now... but should he ever be freed, hide your children, spay your dogs, drown yourself in yuengling. signing out for now, swiss miss the chocolate bandito, yo
Date: 2004-07-02
From: sages ravine

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: scattered clouds

i stopped by swiss miss's hammock and talked about what i was doing today. i am meeting my friend bob at rt. 7 where he'll take me to a summer home in blandford for the night. swiss has a box in great barrington so she said she may want to sync-up with me today at the US7 road crossing.when i got water this morning, i noticed a bunch of food on the ground near the campsites and a torn stuff sack. i didn't want to know the answer, but i asked swiss miss if she had a black, north face food bag. she did. there it was. torn... ramen noodles everywhere. oh well, no use crying over spilt ramen... before i left i gave her a muffin, danish, and a snickers bar. she said it was enough, but for me that's breakfast and a morning snack only.on mt. everett i ran into dayhikers, todd and nick(?) - todd is from vernon, CT and nick from southington, CT. i asked them to make a call for me when they get into cell range, letting bob know i'll be an hour late.the summer home in blanford was a 1920's era home that used to be a rest home for people with tuberculosis. it's a beautiful home with lots of wood beams and a cool staircase. it even has mice! (we get to hang our food tonight!)bob and his cousin sharon bought us dinner - an assortment of pasta, stromboli, chicken, salad, garlic bread, beer, blueberry pie, and ice cream. bob, sharon, swiss miss, and i talked and joked way past midnight. i was amazed we could keep our eyes open. tonight, i also let swiss create a guest entry for my journal. i may live to regret it.
Date: 2004-07-03
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

since we all got to bed late last night, we were late getting up. oh, say 11am? OMG! what is happening to me... i'm a thru hiker for god's sake. i guess right now i'm experiencing the flip side of the coin (a dime, obviously). i've been getting up stinkin' early for the last 4 months; now i'm doing the opposite.there's no way we'd get to the p.o. in the next town by noon, so i called them and asked if they would be around after closing. they said swiss could knock on the inside doors and they'd give her her package. nice! good thing she used to be a postal employee back in the late eighties. after getting everyone moving and eating leftover ham and swiss stromboli, garlic bread, and bacon for breakfast; we got to the great barrington p.o. at 1pm. swiss got her package and we drove back to blandford, stopping at a store called sheepgate- home of ewesful gifts. it is a smashing store where we got to blab with the owners and feed dark chocolate to their sheep.back at the ranch... err, bob's summer home. sharon cooked over a pound of this fleshy, mouth-tantalizing bacon from denmark, which we all devoured before you can say "ooka-pooka-pooka." probably the most scrumptious bacon my tongue has ever had the pleasure of meeting. Mmm... thru hiking... license to eat.bob and i went to cvs and then the liquor store where bob bought, maybe the sixth bottle of "steel rail" since we've been here . let's see, that's one bottle for each of us, including three year old dawn and hershey the dog. steel rail comes in 67.3 oz. bottles. it's good beer.for dinner we had a ravishing selection of leftovers, warm blueberry pie, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies. feeling quite full we retired for the night after watching a video sharon took of some baby ospreys.- - -things here in blandford move at a different pace. i don't know if it's the full moon affecting us or the vibes of this summer home. time has been thrown out the window and things seem to happen slower here. it feels much like the south we left months ago.
Date: 2004-07-04
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

i'm spending independence day at hutch manor (the "extended stay mental-care facility", for those of you who've read swiss miss's humorous guest entry). we planned on leaving today... who knows if we can hit escape velocity and get out of blandford before dark.- - -i slept great, but swiss said she didn't sleep most of the night, so i let go of the idea of hitting the trail early today. the odd hours we've been keeping here in hutch-land were having an effect on us (i was stinkin' tired yesterday, myself)."hutch" and i were getting ready to go to the blandford general store in the late morning to buy a pound of ocean-fresh pufferfish [methinks there is a bit of swiss miss hacking going on here]. i was typing on my pocketmail, recording a few thoughts for later journaling when swiss miss said, "you're always typing in that thing... too busy writing to live?"that stopped me cold in my tracks. kris-the-transcriber said this to me in an email yesterday when i was letting her know i was a few entries behind:How about "letting them go", instead of pressuring yourself to "catch up"? No need for that pressure, or for getting bogged down with "I have to do this," or "I have to record all of my miles and overnight stops". Have fun!! Your last entries sound very light--like you are having more fun in the moment. (A great reflection for me, too!)if you've been reading my entries for a while you'll know that i see these two events as reflections of self. "reflection" is seeing the whole world as a mirror of self. the things that show up in reflection are what i am in denial about - things that i am consciously or unconsciously choosing to not see about myself. in this case, lightning struck twice with the same message. seems my "performance" issue is affecting my journal writing, and i'm only seeing that in reflection. but, now i see it consciously, so i can make some changes before the reflections start pounding me over the head. i'm going to chill out on the journal entries and write only when i feel like writing and not make myself put the whole day, sun-up to sundown, in them.
Date: 2004-07-04
To: swiss miss
Miles today: 0.0

hello and welcome to "a very dharma independence day," with your host- well, no names, but needless to say, i'll give you the scoop (stainless steel) on your lil' ol' dharma's fave ways to celebrate this monumentous occasion.but first, a quote to describe dharma's feelings about sparklers:"we live on the brink of disaster..."-thomas merton.secretly, dharma feels that society as a whole is declining due to "sparkler fanaticism." what is this, you ask? how can this affect my life, my career, my septic tank? funny, but these same questions seem to occupy the deeper recesses of the disturbed mind of many a hiker.take the case of edmund "extra cheese" stumperfudd. in october 1992, edmund was found lying buck naked on the macafee knob outcropping. in each of his shriveled hands he clutched the stub of a partially incinerated puerto rican sparkler. his tongue hung limply from the corner of his twisted mouth, metallic flecks blatantly contrasting with his pale, ashen pallor. not two feet away from edmund, an ancient tome- "pyrotechnics for dummies"- lay open. the pages worn thin, the ink nearly obliterated by a thousand and one caresses, none but the most astute observer would have noticed the faded chapter heading: "for the love of sparklers." but edmund's coroner- this most osprey-eyed of men- he noticed...he always noticed.edmund, like many of us, had longed to "feel the fire within," to "embrace that which brought him utter fufillment," to "consume, or be consumed by, the light." and consumed he became. sparklers were to edmund as weed is to the wild boar. edmund was entranced, mezmerized. he could think of nothing but the shimmering, illuminating sticks for sale at bob's firework blowout barn. he left his life's work as a sewage inspector. he left his beautiful, "always tired," aged wife gloria (she was 36.) he left his two young children. in effect, edmund gave up the known for the unknown. he left all that he had once held dear and built his life upon. he teetered on the brink... "burn, my precious, burn for me, burn, burn, burn..." -over and over edmund's mouth formed the powerful, ungodly syllables. over and over he stroked the sparkler shaft. over and over his pupils contracted to suck in the fullness of the light. he was utterly consumed- a man no longer, but a genderless being.no one remembers how edmund came to lie at the knob. and no one really seems to care... - except the coroner, that is. and no one- and i do mean "no one," would ever dare suspect that edmund and the coroner were one and the same. but if you ever should suspect, know this:dharma was a coroner in 1992. dharma still feels strongly about sparklers. dharma once had a beautiful,"tired," aged wife and two kids. dharma is not dharma's true name.any questions?
Date: 2004-07-05
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

i woke up at 8am today to showers outside. rain means no hiking; at least not this morning. i rolled to my side and drifted back to sleep.going downstairs at 11am, i put two french toast pop-tarts in the microwave for breakfast. french toast is a new delectable flavor and, as a bonus, tips the scales with 220 calories each.bob and sharon went to his brother's last night for a july 4th party. they brought back a cheese/cherry/apple danish for each of us. swiss and i gladly received the breakfast treat along with some of that denmark bacon. Mmmm. thanks sharon.soon after eating, i felt very tired. i felt this way yesterday during the day. my joints began to hurt and i felt a chill. i've been suspecting lyme disease or some other infection for a few weeks now. for the past two weeks my fingers have been tight in the morning. they loosen up as soon as i hike, but this was a change to what i've been experiencing for the past three months on the trail. since this change, i've been watching myself closely for any other signs and symptoms of lyme disease. today i felt achy and cold with a slight fever. i asked bob if swiss miss and i could stay another day and also get a trip to the hospital's urgent care center, 20 minutes away. he said he had to work tuesday, but we could stay and his cousin sharon could take us back to the trail tuesday morning.bob drove me to noble hospital with a pit stop for some caffeine. my body craved it for some reason and i figure it knows what it wants. it took two hours to see a physician's assistant. i worked with her primarily. she would gather up information, disappear for 5 minutes, then return with more questions.she reappeared again and said they wanted to do blood work. great. i wanted to do blood work too. four vials of blood later i was moved to the waiting area while my lab work was being done. the lyme test will take a few days, but the other vials were being processed now. now, being 45 minutes later, i found out i was "within normal limits" and the lyme test will be the one to tell me something. (i could have told them i'm "normal", though some friends from home would beg to differ.)at the end i finally got what i wanted, a prescription for doxycycline, which i got filled on the way home. while waiting at the hospital, i felt much better and my fatigue and joint pains subsided. maybe it was the two snickers bars and bag of cheetos i consumed in the waiting room? i still got my appetite, which is a prescription for thru hiker health.we aim to leave this branford never-never land tomorrow morning. i'm itching to get back on the trail, i miss it a lot.
Date: 2004-07-06
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Mt. Wilcox South
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: overcast clouds

sharon dropped us off at the trail near 11am. both swiss and i nodded off on the one hour trip back to US7, though i was feeling achy too. i loved the time i spent at bob's summer home ("hutch manor" i called it), but i was also wanting to put my pack on and hike some miles.the pack, yes, it felt great. the morning started with some easy, flat trail. something magical happened in the first fifteen minutes of hiking. my fatigue and body pains disappeared.swiss miss stopped to put on bug spray and told me she'd see me somewhere later. this is my cue to beat it - she wants to hike alone today. it's no problem, i like to hike alone too... and i move faster than she does anyway.my body felt great until lunch when i had one of my antibiotic pills with my bagels and PB. i felt thirsty and nauseous. next time i'll take one when my stomach is empty.i passed a nice pond today. too bad it wasn't warmer or i'd have taken a dip. after the pond, i stopped and talked and shared my DEET with a couple sitting on a rock and also played 20 questions with a group of young people who were hoping to meet a thru hiker while out on their overnight trip. i was the only thru hiker to pass them today. *sigh*, after three zero days i'm still in the hiker void.at the shelter i set up my tent and got dinner ready. the bugs were out, so i lit one of my mosquito coils which did a pretty good job of keeping the little buggers away. with the remaining daylight, i did a short meditation and some planning for the next few days.