morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2021-06-08
From: Port Clinton Pavilion 

To: Stealth campsite past Eckville Shelter 
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

We got up and were on the trail by 6:45am! The night before I had slept like the dead but last night, not so much. I heard all the traffic on both the 2 and 4 lane highways. The trains went through at midnight and 2:00am. Then the garbage truck came through at 2:13am! So, needless to say, I didn¢t sleep well but I was ready to go. We both wanted to get in some good miles today. The climb out was hellacious! There were a couple switchbacks but the up never seemed to end. It finally did though, thank goodness.We stopped near a pretty bridge for a break and a truck pulled up and a gentleman jumped out and gave us bottles of green tea for trail magic. Whipperpoorwill and Defcon came along shortly after and received green tea too. The man¢s name was Stargeezer and he told us he maintained parts of the AT and also a property owned by the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society. He told us to stop by when we got to The Pulpit and look around at the telescope buildings. We hiked on and when we got near The Pulpit we walked over to see the telescopes. Stargeezer and his 2 young grandsons were there. David lay on the grass ¢to get his vitamin D¢. I asked Stargeezer if I could take his picture. He said ¢Well let¢s take one with a telescope!¢ So he opened up one of the observatory¢s and we climbed up to the telescope. His grandson opened the roof and I took a couple pictures of the 3 of them. After that we went to see the great view called The Pulpit. You could see for miles in the valley below. It was really beautiful. The next amazing view was The Pinnacle. You came up to a huge pile of rocks probably 25-30 feet high. You hiked past that to the overview of rocks. We decided to have lunch there. We saw a huge vulture sitting on a rock. While eating we could hear the thunder in the distance and saw the clouds getting darker.We ate quickly and moved on, hoping to get to the Eckville Shelter and grab a bunk there before the rain. Then the sun came out and the thunder moved out. A while later that repeated with thunder, dark clouds, then sun and blue skies. About 3pm, the thunder and dark clouds came back and the skies opened up! We were drenched! We stood under some trees to try and get out of the worst of it but it didn¢t help. We took this as PA giving us the finger one more time!When it slacked off we started hiking again. We crossed over a road and kept looking for the shelter. We came to a pretty bridge crossing a stream and saw a couple tented there. We asked them if they knew where the shelter was and they said that they had passed by without seeing it too, but it was .5 miles back. Rather than go back, we decided to just camp there. There was only a 30% chance of rain at 10pm that night and that was all. We set up camp and hung out our wet stuff to hopefully dry a little overnight and went to bed. Sucky day but we did hike 15.5 miles, a new record.
Date: 2021-06-09
From: Stealth campsite past Eckville Shelter 

To: Allentown Hiker Club Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained all night, of course, so everything was wet this morning. We had left some things out to dry because there was only a 30% chance of rain. Ha! Silver lining? It made digging a cat hole much easier. LOL!We woke at 5:30am as usual but didn¢t get on the trail until 8:15. It takes a while to pack up wet crap. After a bit we came to an outlook called Dan¢s Pulpit. It was sunny and had big rocks so we dragged out everything wet and after 45 minutes we were dry again. For today. Tonight it¢s supposed to rain starting at 4pm. Tomorrow and the next 3 days are supposed to be nice and sunny. I¢ll believe it when I see it. When we first got to Dan¢s Pulpit, there was a day hiker there and she pointed across the valley to show us The Pinnacle, that we had hiked to yesterday. It was waaay across the valley and we felt impressed that we had hiked from there to here. After packing up our dry tent and things we continued on. The rock climbs were horrible. Very few flat trails. Mostly large rock climbs. We got to one set and I got my foot lodged between 3 rocks and couldn¢t get it loose. I had to drop my poles and get down on my hands and knees to get my boot out. Then the tears came. I hobbled over to David and leaned against him and cried and vented and cried some more. He held me until I finished and then I dried my tears and we attacked the rocks again. Stupid rocks!The rocks slow you down sooo much. Between leaving late after packing up wet and then stopping to dry everything, our mileage sucked. Then we had to stop for water and the spring was down a steep climb. It was David¢s turn for the water run and it took him 20 minutes to get water. He said it was coming out in a trickle so it took a long time to fill 2 platys (short for ¢platypus¢, which is a water bag).Then, of course, we had more rock scrambles. We stopped at the Allentown Hiker Club Shelter and claimed 2 bunks until we decided if we wanted to stay or hike on. We were both just tired and kind of down today. We ate a lunch of tuna and flour tortillas. Someone had hung a couple clotheslines so David hung his stuff to dry and the sun came out just after he did.We ended up staying as the thunder continued to roll and the sky got darker. Ot poured rain again and the shelter filled up with hikers. It was fun to talk to them and swap stories. We will get up early tomorrow and try to do another 15 mile day and then hit Palmerton quick on Friday for a quick resupply. There is a trail angel in Palmerton named Squeak who will let you shower, do laundry, and camp in her backyard for free. Such awesome people these trail angels!Only did 6.8 today.
Date: 2021-06-12
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Stealth campsite 
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We didn¢t leave Squeak¢s and Dave¢s and get on the trail until 8am. There were hugs and goodbyes and lots of pictures. We will never forget them and their amazing kindness and generosity. We had been warned of the hike up. Oh boy! It was straight up and very steep for .8 of a mile ip Blue Mountain. At one point you were so high you could look down and see the entire town and the river. Then the fun began! We should have collapsed our poles and stuck them in our packs. We will next time, for sure. The rock scramble had huge boulders that required both hands. Maverick and Calypso were climbing with us. Good thing. At one point we couldn¢t figure out a way up, so David took off his pack and I was going to push it up to him. Except in the precarious position I was in, I couldn¢t lift it. That¢s when Maverick came along and pushed it up for me. The rest of the climb was strenuous, but fun! Calypso climbed like a goat. She said this was her jam.We got to the ridge about a half mile later and had some level ground to walk. We found wild blueberries growing along the trail and stopped to pick a couple handfuls. Yum!The rest of the hike was typical for PA. The main concern was water. From 1898-1980 there had been major zinc smelting in the area. They had completely stripped the mountains. Dave said that there hadn¢t been a tree left when they were done. Because of this, you cannot drink the water from the mountain. So hikers rely heavily on people leaving water caches. Without them we had a 13 mile hike to the next shelter for good water.Just before Smith Gap Road, we hit a water cache and filled up. We heard laughing around the bend and walked into a parking area and a large trail magic set up by 3 running/hiking groups in the area! Hot dog, salad, chips, drinks, and watermelon were just some of the great food they offered. Edison, Calypso, and Maverick already there. It was wonderful and invigorating! We were trying to get to Delaware Water Gap by tomorrow and a ways to go. They sent us on our way with thick turkey sandwiches, chips, and fruit. We wouldn¢t have to make dinner tonight! We finally found a nice stealth site. There was another hiker there but there was enough room for us too.We broke the 400 mile mark today AND broke our daily hiking record. 19.1 miles! Our feet hurt and we are exhausted but proud of ourselves!
Date: 2021-06-13
From: Stealth campsite 

To: Delaware Water Gap 
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: scattered clouds

It did not rain last night so the tent completely dried out from the night before.   Yay!Our campsite companion, Waterfall, we learned, had thru-hiked the AT in 1999 and was just hiking from MD to ME this year. (If I was doing a LASH, I sure wouldn¢t include PA in it!) He had also hiked the Santiago de Camino and we talked about that for a bit. He was very nice. He said he was in no rush and was only hiking 5-10 miles a day. (I thought ¢Wow! That¢s going to take a while to get to Maine.¢) He left before us and said he was going to eat breakfast at the overlook. We left about 15 minutes later and came upon Waterfall at the view. He said he could see down into town to the grocery store. We all laughed about what a view that was. (When we started hiking again, I suddenly remembered of who Waterfall reminded me. Toby from The Office! He even favored him in looks! Ha!)The trail wasn¢t overly bad. There were still alot of rocks (wouldn¢t be PA without them, right?), but there were areas of pine needles and even a long fire road that we had to walk. That made the hiking a little easier. We were determined to get into Delaware Water Gap today so we had alot of miles to do.Being a Sunday there were alot of day hikers on the trail. Not to sound like a snob, but they can be a pain! We¢re hiking uphill with 30 pounds on our back and we¢re tired and a lot of the day hikers just keep coming down the trail. They don¢t know trail etiquette calls for hikers going uphill to have right of way. That is frustrating!When we got closer to Delaware Water Gap, the descent became fun. We had to go through ¢tunnels¢ of rhododendron and  down stone steps and across several streams. David doesn¢t like downhills so I could hear him behind me ¢expressing¢ his thoughts on hiking down. We finally hit the town and began walking to the Roadway Inn. On the way in, we saw Spirit. (She and Whipperpoorwill and Defcon had gotten into town the day before.) She told us about the Village Bakery where you could get a hotdog and slice of apple pie for $2.95. We sat wolfing down the delicious food and talking with Spirit and then Whipperpoorwill and Defcon walked by. We spent a few minutes getting caught up. They were leaving tomorrow. We were taking a zero. Our feet hurt and we need to find leukotape to tape them.We walked to the Roadway Inn and got a room.Good, but tiring day of 16.7 miles. (By the way, LASH stands for ¢long ass section hike¢.)
Date: 2021-06-14
From: Delaware Water Gap 

To: Delaware Water Gap 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

The Roadway Inn is no Quality Inn, that¢s for sure. The beds were hard and we did not sleep well. The hotel must have over 200 rooms, but there were less than a dozen cars in the parking lot. So, of course, we end up with someone in the room directly over us. Someone with a small child and a dog. A small child that likes to knock down block towers on the floor at night and a dog that barks and races across the non-carpeted floor. The one time we forget to request a top floor¢¦We slept in until 7:15 and then just laid in bed and rested our feet. I bought a tennis ball at the Walmart in Hamburg and have been using it to roll out the heel of my right foot. I¢m wondering if I may have plantar fasciitis. I can hike about 2 hours before my heel begins to ache. I¢m trying not to eat ibuprofen or Aleve like candy. We have desperately been trying to find leukotape every place we stop but no luck. I called the outfitter here and they don¢t have it either but do carry a medical tape so we¢ll go and check it out. We¢ve also been told the Sunoco gas station across from the hotel has a decent resupply. After a while we walked down to the outfitters and decided to buy the roll of medical tape. It seemed heavy enough and might do the trick. We use it to cover any hot spots that happen on our feet before they become blisters. If we get a blister, we put antibiotic ointment and a bandaid on it and then cover it with the medical tape to make sure it doesn¢t come off. Your feet sweat a lot in boots and bandaids will just peel off if you don¢t secure them with tape. We went to pay for it and a couple other things and David realized that he left his money at the hotel. I said I would go back and get it (Since I hate standing around and would probably add more things to the pile to buy. Haha)Then we headed to the Sunoco for resupply, but not before stopping at the Village Bakery and buying 3 chocolate macadamia nut cookies. The prices at the Sunoco were really outrageous. A package of oreo cookies, like you¢d buy at Walmart, cost $5.49! We decided we¢d resupply later.We went back to the hotel and rested until 5:30 or so. Time for dinner. Coming into town we saw a BBQ place that we thought we would try for dinner. Ha! Closed on Mondays! It seems like every time we come into town, the restaurants are closed for the day. So I agreed to go down to the Village Bakery and get hotdogs and a fry to share and David would go and get resupply and we would meet at the hotel. Just when they handed me our dinner, the sky got really dark and the wind started blowing hard. I was afraid I would get caught in a downpour but I made it back before the rain. We ate dinner and packed a few things and prepared to leave by 8am the next day. Zero miles today.
Date: 2021-06-15
From: Delaware Water Gap - Roadway Inn

To: Stealth campsite 
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

Woke up this morning and saw this bright light coming through the window. I googled it and it said that it was something called ¢sunshine ¢. It had been so long since we had seen it that we didn¢t recognize it. We packed and headed back to the trail. That involved walking back through town and to the bridge that crosses the Delaware River. Halfway across the bridge, on the pedestrian walkway, is painted the border of PA and NJ. Yay!! We were in New Jersey now. Goodbye Pennsylvania. We will not miss you!!We had heard rumors that the PA rocks extended in NJ for a number of miles. We¢d heard 9, 11, and even 40 so we shall see. After crossing the bridge and then walking under a highway, we found the trail and headed into the woods. We immediately noticed the difference in the trail. Much of it was pine needles or roots and the rocks that we did come across were not pointed up to stab your feet. There was also space between to put your feet on dirt instead of a rock. We love New Jersey!!We stopped for lunch at an overlook (another thing that NJ has more of). David has this delightful little habit of putting his chewing gum on the rock or log where he is sitting so he can use it again after eating. (There are little wads of gum from GA to here that he has forgotten and walked off and left.) I sat down on the rock right where his stupid gum was! He didn¢t notice until I went to stand up after eating. He apologized profusely. I got out the new medical tape and he was able to get most of it off with that. Hmmm. Later we came to a beautiful little pond called Sunfish Pond. It was glacially formed and is considered ¢one of the seven natural wonders of NJ¢. It has such a high acidic content that only the pumpkinseed sunfish and yellow perch can survive in it. We sat on a log and enjoyed the calm and the lovely day. A few minutes later, Just Scott came by and said he had just seen a bear about 2 miles back. He said he was thinking about how he needed to be better about hanging his food bag because of the high concentration of bears in NJ and there was a bear sitting on the right side of the trail! He said by the time he got his phone out to take a picture, the bear was gone. For some reason, near the end of the day, I get a spurt of energy and hike really fast. David calls me Seabiscuit, after the race horse, when I do that. Today, though, I was really dragging and he was Seabiscuit!We ended up finding a stealth site that had a hiker already set up. We asked if we could join her and she was thrilled. She said she was worried that she would be by herself tonight so she was happy for the company. Her name was Farah and she was from Denver. This was her first time camping and backpacking. She started in Connecticut and was hiking to Mary¢s Rock in SNP. She was so enjoyable to talk to. We asked her if she hung her food bag and she said that she would hang it on a tree branch. We offered to hang it up with our food bags. We put  in 15.0 miles today.
Date: 2021-06-16
From: Stealth campsite 

To: High Point Shelter 
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: few clouds

Another beautiful day in New Jersey!  The temperature was in the 70¢s, low humidity, and blue skies!We shared a stealth camp last night with Farah. She wanted a selfie of the 3 of us before we left and also our contact number. She wanted us to get in touch if we ever came out to Denver. We got on the trail about 7:15am and hiked by some beautiful views. The hiking was nice and the rocks, such as they were, were nothing compared to the ¢state that shall not be named¢. We had stopped for a break about mid-morning and this hiker stopped at our spot and asked if I was OK. I told him I was fine and asked why. He said that he had heard yesterday that a woman had fallen on her chest and had suffered internal injuries. An elderly woman. I said ¢Wow. Thanks for that.¢ It went right over his head that he had called me an elderly woman. AN ELDERLY WOMAN!! WTH! I still can¢t get past that. This guy had a white hair and a white beard. He had to be in his late 50¢s, maybe early 60¢s (same as me!). The difference is that I hike the trail every day with a full pack on and camp at night. He gets picked up by his wife, who drives him back to their RV for the night and then returns him to the spot he got off (This is called support hiking.). And I¢m elderly!! I could have smacked him and I can sure out-hike the idiot! Rant complete. We will now return to our regularly scheduled blog. Water is not plentiful here and we even had to get some from a bog, but we filtered and boiled it before using it. We hit the town of Branchville, NJ and I had seen in Guthook that there was a hiker friendly tavern called Gyp¢s Tavern. We had told Schvitz about it and he said he would see us there. The tavern was right on Lake Kittatinny. There were Adirondack chairs by the lake. We ordered burgers and fries and the burgers were huge and delicious! We sat and looked out over the lake and ate our lunch and chatted with Schvitz. He is an ER nurse from Chicago who will be moving to Oregon after the hike. We hated to leave but wanted to get a few more miles in. We ended up setting up camp at the Culver Fire Tower on the ridge. The sunset was beautiful but I knew it was going to be cool in the morning. The elderly lady and her husband hiked 15.5 miles today! So there, old man!!
Date: 2021-06-17
From: Culver Fire Tower stealth site 

To: High Point Shelter 
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up really cold because we were on a ridge. (Didn¢t we say we wouldn¢t camp on ridges?! What happened to that vow?) We decided to just pack up snd eat breakfast at the shelter which was only a mile away. We got to the Gren Anderson Shelter and got water and ate breakfast. We also met a Trail Runner named Stretch. She was one of only three Trail Runners in NJ. She told us that she works 40 hours a week and the runners have a schedule of which shelters they have to check. She only had to go to the next shelter that day which was 6 miles away so she would probably hike some side trails and pick up trash. She loved the hiking and camping and talking with hikers. We enjoyed our conversation with her and then headed out. We continued the climb up Sunrise Mountain and came to a gorgeous stone pavilion. It was built by the CCC back in the 30¢s. It had several benches and could easily hold 100 people, it was that big. The view was beautiful and you could see for 180 degrees around you. The rest of the day was like being back in PA. The trail was rocky as crap! Started having PTSD and thinking I was back in PA. It constantly went up and down too. No ridge walking today. Ugh! What a day!Other than the pavilion on Sunrise Mountain, there was one other delight. We came to a wooden observation tower that allowed us to see the highest point in NJ. There is a 220 foot obelisk there. It was built in 1930 as a war memorial. As we hiked towards it there was supposed to be a side trail that would go up to the monument, but we never saw it. It definitely wasn¢t marked well. There was also supposed to be a trail down to a lake with a small swimming area and concession stand, but we didn¢t see that trail either. Oh, well. Decided to stop at High Point Shelter for the night. It¢s right next to a river and the sound is so relaxing and a great water source too Hiked 14.1 miles today.
Date: 2021-06-18
From: High Point Shelter 

To: Stealth camp past Pochuck Shelter 
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: clear sky

We spent the night tented at the High Point Shelter. The river runs right along side it and the sound (mixed with a few snores) was so soothing. (BTW, old people are not the only ones who snore. Those young kids can snore up a storm too!)We slept in until 6am but were on the trail by 7:15am. We were actually the first ones out of camp.We had just come down the hill and saw a sign posted on a tree ¢Trail Magic Ahead¢. We found a cooler with chips, nabs, Fig Newtons, and Gatorade. There was also a note asking hikers to text them and let them know their trail names and stories and if the cooler needed restocked. I texted them and thanked them for the magic. They responded and wished us safe travels. Trail magic rocks!!We had heard that the resupply in Unionville, NY was good. (Also you could camp on the village green.) There was a general store and a couple restaurants. We were low on food. We had hoped to get in there yesterday but didn¢t make it. If we had known the trail was as smooth as it turned out to be we would have kept going till we hit town. We got into town about 11am. The hike in was smooth and no rocks. The resupply was very disappointing and expensive so we bought just enough to get us to Warwick, NY where there is a big grocery store. (Warwick has a drive-in theatre that lets hikers camp by the screen and watch the movie for free!) We went to Annabels Pizza and each got a slice of pizza. The slices were ginormous and only $3.95 each! We ended up finally leaving town about 12:45pm. We had only put in 5 miles so far so we definitely needed to do more. Once we left town we encountered a lot of boardwalks and, boy, did that make the hiking easy. We figured we would get in a good bunch of miles. However, as the day wore on, we hit a lot of hills/mountains. We spent the late afternoon and till 6pm doing uphills. (You would think you would have to go down at some point, but it just seemed to be uphills and rock scrambles the whole time.)We did have a group pass us in the early afternoon. It was a mom and 3 boys. They were thru-hiking. Their group trail name is ¢Field Trip¢. A few minutes later we heard someone behind us ask to pass and it was another boy, running to catch up to the group. The boys probably range in age from 7 or 8 to maybe 12 or 13. They each carried a full backpack of gear. We came to a beautiful, flat pine forest but had wanted to get in at least 15 miles so we kept going. We should have known better. When we do that, that¢s when we cant find a stealth site. After climbing another uphill we saw a flat area right next to the trail. (You aren¢t supposed to tent right by the trail, but we were desperate and we weren¢t blocking the trail.) We couldn¢t go another step! The tent just barely fit and we had to dig out some rocks to smooth the ground. Good news. We hiked 15.6 miles.