morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-06-09
From: Boiling Springs, PA

To: Darlington Campsite
Miles today: 14.3

Day 88Start: Boiling Springs, PAFinish: Darlington CampsiteMiles: 14.3Weather: am hot, pm showersI was a bit late getting out of town as I went back to the ATC regional headquarters and hung out with folks for a while, tryed to call Jeff of Duncannon and then went to look at the famous boiling springs (which are not hot like boiling water but rather bubbling like boiling water). So by the time I left town, the temperture was rather hot (like boiling water). The heat was made even worse this day since most of the hiking was in and through the farmlands of the Cumberland Valley. I had to ration my water during the morning since the first source was quite a few miles away. Aside from the heat, the hiking was nice and easy, and I leapfrogged Steady Step, Northman, and Alabama Bob throughout the morning. While following the trail around the perimeter of farms, I saw quite a few gophers sneeking off with a mouthfull of crops. But perhaps the best part of the day was when I arrived at the trail crew barn (surrounded by cornfields) and was greeted by water and shade. Sitting in the shade, I noticed that the sky was hinting that I might be greeted with more water. So I didn't stay too long.Realizing I was unable to outrun the rain I didn't even try and just allowed myself to get wet. The rain wasn't too bad and it stopped long enough for me to put up my hammock. The rest of the guys chose to stay in the half completed shelter (which looked pretty leaky to me). But I was keen on trying out my hammock in what would hopefully be a torrential downpour, so in it I stayed. It was still pretty early in the afternoon and I got a good bit of reading done as I listened to the rain fall on my hammock tarp and felt the rumbling of thunder shortly after several big strikes of frightening lightning.
Date: 2005-06-10
From: Darlington Campsite

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 89Start: Darlington CampsiteFinish: Duncannon, PAMiles: 11.0Weather: warmThis morning I slept in pretty heavily. While the night's rain wasn't all I'd hoped for, it was certainly sufficient to sing me to sleep and to keep me there. I faded in and out of conciousness as the other guys started out, but I wasn't able to move from my hammock until everyone was gone. I knew that I was only going into Duncannon for the day, so I figured I would take my time. While reading my book in he half-completed shelter, I noticed someone approaching from the back of the shelter. As the person got closer, I found out that it was Jeff, the guy from Duncannon that I was trying to get in touch with earlier. Jeff had run into Bob while stopping at a road crossing to leave me a note and Bob told him that I was still at the shelter. We set up plans to meet in Duncannon later that day and then Jeff was off to work.I started hiking around 11:15 and took things pretty slow. I met Stephen (brother), Hannah (sister) and Dozer (dog) who were out for their first day toward Maine. They had attempted a thru-hike last year but had to quit because of medical reasons; but they were back at it again. I walked with Stephen for most of the afternoon until we stopped at the shelter four miles out of town. There I realized that I had 1.5 hours to get to the post office and get my package, so I started booking it. After about thirty minutes of fast hiking, I remembered that my package was at the Doyle Hotel and not at the post office, so I slowed down. I still covered the four miles into town in less than an hour and got my package no problem. In town I saw Bedhead, Blue Eye, Mr. Beer and Gallopping Gourmet (Happy was asleep). I hung out with GG for a bit and then went to the post office to meet Jeff. When Jeff arrived, he took me back to his cabin in the woods where I got cleaned up and where he cooked me a wonderful chicken dinner. We talked about our respective hikes (he's done the triple crown including an additional hike of the PCT) and told various stories and I slept like a rock.
Date: 2005-06-11
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 90Start: Duncannon, PAFinish: Duncannon, PAMiles: 0.0Weather: warmI woke up in the morning with no rush to do anything since I had decided to take a zero day at Jeff's house. Jeff showed me a video of wildlife (bears, deer, etc.) in his front yard - pretty cool. After some breakfast, we went into Harrisburg to check out the PA state museum. The museum was very interesting and it wasn't nearly as crowded as those in Washington DC. In the section concerning local birds, there was a bird call playing that DuBois has been asking people about since Georgia. We've been unable to identify this bird, so I made it my mission to find that bird in the museum. I failed; it seems that they simply had this ambiguous bird call playing with no description attached.After the museum, Jeff bought me some ice cream at an ice cream stand which was quite a treat. There we watched a few prarie dogs eat flowers nervously as people sat around with ice cream in hand. Jeff and I went to the grocery store where he bought dinner for the night along with more ice cream. For dinner we had salmon cake burgers and ice cream. What a great zero day.
Date: 2005-06-12
From: Duncannon, PA

To: PA 325
Miles today: 17.1

Day 91Start: Duncannon, PAFinish: PA 325Miles: 17.1Weather: humidJeff dropped me off in town with the intention of picking me (along with any other hikers I could round up) back up that afternoon at PA 325. Walking through town, I realized that I was just in time for sunday school at Duncannon Presbyterian (I read the sign), so I stopped in. The adult sunday school was really nice and the worship service was nice as well. However, going to both did put me in the uncomfortable possition of busting tail to PA 325 in time to meet Jeff. So that's what I did.I hiked pretty fast throughout the day, resulting in about five pounds of sweat. The humidity was outrageous and the gnats were pretty bad as well. There were a couple of rocky sections during the hike, but the terrain was primarily flat and smooth. I caught up to Steady Step and Shadow at the shelter and propositioned them on coming back to Jeff's house. Shadow was breaking in a new pair of boots and, thus, didn't want to push it but Steady Step was all for the idea. We continued to hike quickly toward our destination and arrived just as Jeff was coming into the woods to find us. We rode back to Jeff's house where he ordered pizza for all of us and we finished off the ice cream from the other night. Steady Step was glad for the shower after the humid day.
Date: 2005-06-13
From: PA 325

To: PA 443
Miles today: 16.4

Day 92Start: PA 325Finish: PA 443Miles: 16.4Weather: sunJeff had the day off and thus decided to hike with me. He arranged for a friend of his to pick us up at the end of the day and I arranged some final plans with friends of mine from my church at home to come hiking the next day. The air wasn't as humid today, but it was still a bit hot. The hiking was quite nice with a lot of flat sections and nothing more than a rolling hill. We made pretty good time through the section and even found the time to swim in a limestone-treated stream. While we were swimming there, a naturalist who was testing the water told us that the Ph tests he had just taken revealed that the water below the limestone treatment center was one hundred times less acidic than that above the center. Wow. We also noticed that rain clouds were moving in, so we started hiking.Jeff's friend Jim picked us up at the trailhead just before the rain dropped and we went out to eat at Perkins. That night I made some final plans to meet up with Craig, Carter and Mark the next day. Their plan is to drive through the night starting at around 10pm to hike with me tomorrow and the next day. Sounds like a crazy plan.
Date: 2005-06-14
From: PA 443

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: broken clouds

Day 93Start: PA 443Finish: William Penn ShelterMiles: 8.7Weather: hotI planned on meeting Carter, Craig and Mark (friends of mine from church at home) at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. They showed up at 10 am after having driven throughout the night. We went back to Jeff's house where I let the guys sleep for about an hour and a half. Mark said he had been awake for about thirty hours, so an hour and a half probably wasn't a lot of help.On top of the sleep deprivation, we went to the trail during the hottest part of the day on this particularly hot PA day. Naturally, we were hiking pretty slow due to the previously mentioned circumstances along with the fact that these guys haven't been hiking every day for the past three months. After a few miles we crossed some serious road construction that detoured the trail and somehow caused Craig and Mark to loose the trail. Carter and I waited for the other two for quite a while before I went looking for them. After some frantic impromptu trail running, I found the guys and we all got back on track. This was just a warm-up for things to come.Recently, PA has been really flat. However, shortly after we all got re-oriented on the trail, we climbed what was perhaps the biggest hill in PA to this point. It was certainly the steepest to this point and it exhausted the newbies pretty heavily. The rest of the day provided pretty flat walking with a few rocky sections thrown in for good measure. Despite the flat terrain, there were not many campsites along the way (the guys were pretty tired and I didn't want to push them too hard) and there were no campsites with water since we were on the top of the ridge. So we pushed on to the shelter, arriving shortly before dark. Shadow and a couple of section hikers were in the shelter already moving toward sleep. Everyone was in better spirits at this point and we had a fun evening. There was apparently a very large rattle snake living in the privy, so we stayed away from that place (I heard it rattle as I went by the first time but didn't find anything when I later opened the door). Everyone except Mark camped out and I think the guys slept better than I did (a difficult task to accomplish).
Date: 2005-06-15
From: William Penn Shelter

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 4.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 94Start: William Penn ShelterFinish: 501 Sheltermiles: 4.1Weather: niceWe woke up late this morning (I let the guys sleep in, but enjoyed the extra sleep myself). Mark in particular looked like a new man after a good night's sleep - he was almost skipping from the shelter to the tenting area. Craig, on the other hand, was suffering from pretty severe blisters on both of his heels and, thus, was in some pretty serious pain.So after four nice miles of walking with several sizable breaks, we called it quits for the day. I was certainly ok with this since Craig was hurting and I was not interested in turning this into the death march that it became the day before. So we hung out at the 501 shelter and greeted people as they arrived. I met Overhill, Grits and Uncle Ed for the first time and saw Fatty, Meg and Barbwire again. We ordered a pizza from a nearby town (believe it or not, there are a couple of shelters from which you can make such a purchase) and ate it all. Carter commented that my appetite wasn't what he thought it would be. I suppose it has subsided a bit. But then again, I have been eating at Jeff's house for the past several days. After the pizza, Carter and I hitched a ride to the parking lot where Carter left his car and and we drove it back to the 501 parking lot. The four of us stayed up pretty late that evening talking about all sorts of spiritual topics and I went to sleep in a tent for the first time on the trip (its either been in a hammock or tarp to this point). So that was pretty neat - a lot more solid of a structure than a tarp or a hammock. It was funny to me that I'd forgotten what it was like to be in a tent.
Date: 2005-06-16
From: 501 Shelter

To: Eagles Nest Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 95Start: 501 ShelterFinish: Eagles Nest ShelterMiles: 14.6Weather: CloudyWe woke up and piddled around at the shelter for a while before the guys left for South Carolina. Shortly before they left, Yardsale showed up. I was really glad to see him as his mom had written to me just days before that he was trying to catch up. Apparently, he was essentially by himself on the trail since getting back from his sister's wedding and wasn't having much fun. I said goodbye to my friends from home and Yardsale and I began hiking.The hiking was pretty nice and flat, but the infamous PA rocks started to show their nasty faces more frequently than before (I'd heard that they get bad past the 501 Shelter and worse past Port Clinton). They wern't too bad though and Yardsale and I had fun catching up on all the trail had been offering us. At one point along the trail we saw a big bird ahead of us perched low in a tree.   As we moved closer, the bird flew ahead a bit and we would catch up to it again. This happened several times until we reached a rocky overlook where the bird flew off for good. As best as we could tell, the bird was a golden eagle (I looked closely at all the different birds of prey a few days earlier in the PA state museum) and it was almost as if it was trying to lead us to the cliff for some reason. Fortunately, the AT led to the cliff as well - I wouldn't have wanted to choose.We arrived at the shelter with increasing winds and thunder clouds, but nothing ever materialized. We planned to hike into Port Clinton the next day and stick around for a well-advertized hiker party put on by some guys called the "PA Dutchmen". Yee-haw! Overhill was in the shelter when we arrived and it was just the three of us for the night. We all read our respective books and went to sleep pretty early.
Date: 2005-06-17
From: Eagles Nest Shelter

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 96Start: Eagles Nest ShelterFinish: Port Clinton, PAMileage: 8.6Weather: normalWe got a pretty late start out of the shelter this morning as our goal was only to get into town, which would be there if we started late or early. The hiking was somewhat forgettable, but I do remember some rocks. I hiked by myself for a while before catching up with Yardsale (he gets moving slightly faster than me in the morning) at a power line clearing. From there we walked into town. In town, we saw a railroad yard that was somehow also a nature conservancy (strange) and a outfitter that was only open for a total of about five hours per week. The outlook became even grimmer when we found out that there was neither a public phone in town nor a grocery store. This place was crazy!The one aspect this town had going for it was free camping in the pavilion. There we met Bag-o-tricks (trail angel), Robin Hood (SOBO) and Helen (section hiker), who kindly gave Yardsale and I a ride into Hamburg to resupply. The other two were gone when we returned, but Mike (aka Ripper, one of the PA Dutchmen) showed up in a big truck with some stuff for us to unload. After doing so, we went with Mike to pick up the pig that we were apparently going to be roasting throughout the night. On the way, we drove past some beautiful PA farms and, being a farmer himself, Mike swerved the truck to hit a gopher on the side of the road. We all had to pick up this huge pig off of the meat hook and toss her on the grill to drive back to the pavilion. On the way back, Mike showed us a cow with two very distinct noses. This goes to remind you never to leave your camera behind, even if you think you're just going to pick up a pig. Back at the pavilion there were all sorts of other people I hadn't met. I met 3 Feathers, AJ, Mr. Clean Sr. and Hardcore. Matt, Bams, Shawn and Carolyn showed up as well before the day was out. Just after arriving back at the pavilion, a bus came by that I took along with 3 Feathers and AJ to go to the 150,000 square foot Cabellas superstore nearby. I also bought some insoles for my shoes.People stayed up late that night playing games and telling jokes and I guess I went to bed relatively early, though it still felt late. Today was an eventful day.
Date: 2005-06-18
From: Port Clinton, PA

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 97Start: Port Clinton, PAFinish: Windsor Furnace ShelterMileage: 6.1Weather: niceI woke up to the smell of roasting pig and to the sound of nearby traffic (a common downside to free camping in town). Food was already prepared and there was only more to come. The PA Dutchmen have been putting on this event for several years (every year since their thru-hike) and it is a gathering not only of hikers but of friends and family as well. The Dutchmen are Mennonite and some of the guys working on the pig are Amish, so the event was a great cultural experience. They seem to be really into lawn games as we played crochet, badminton and horseshoes most of the day. There was more food than we could possibly eat there and a great time was had by all. Porter showed up today along with Spartacus and Rainbow, two people I haven't seen since the Blueberry Patch in Hiawassee, GA. Amazingly, these guys have just been a little bit behind me for the past three months. It is factors   such as these that keep the group dynamics particularly interesting on the trail.Late in the afternoon, after we had gotten our fill of bar-b-que pig sandwiches, baked beans, salad, ice cream and much more, we actually started walking out of town. I stayed at the first shelter out with Spartacus, Rainbow, Shadow, Chuck, Shawn, Carolyn, Mr. Clean Sr. and Yardsale. There was no need to eat dinner.
Date: 2005-06-19
From: Windsor Furnace Shelter

To: Allentown Shelter
Miles today: 16.5

Day 98Start: Windsor Furnace Shelter, PAFinish: Allentown Shelter, PAMileage: 16.5Weather: niceThere were a couple of really nice views this morning. First from the Pulpit, where we ran into 3 Feathers who had left very early from town. Behind the Pulpit, there was a short path to an open field that contained about five large telescopes. A guy there allowed Yardsale and I to go into one of the buildings and look at the device.We passed hoards of day hikers while walking down from the Pennicle, several of whom asked us "how much further" with an obvious tone of desperation. Lots of dirt road walking led us through the woods and out to a main road where Eckville Shelter is located in the back yard of a home. It has a huge shelter register that was signed by hikers from back to several years ago. Signing it makes you feel like a part of AT history. The climb out of Eckville was definitely big for PA but it felt good to climb again. We bypassed the hawk info. center since it was a couple miles off the trail, but we did stop at Dan's Pulpit for a pretty long reading break. The remainder of the miles to the shelter weren't too bad and we got in at a reasonable hour. We made a fire for the first time in a long time and hardcore and I talked by the fire for a while before going to sleep.
Date: 2005-06-20
From: Allentown, PA

To: Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 17.7

Day 99Start: Allentown ShelterFinish: Palmerton, PAMileage: 17.7Weather: hotToday was very hot and the terrain was pretty rocky. Bake Oven Shelter must have received its name its name due to its full exposure to the sun. On top of that, the first few springs at this shelter were dry and I ended up walking about half a mile downhill to find a water source. The good news about the hiking is that we miscalculated our mileage and ended up being a lot closer to town than we thought we were. Yardsale and I checked in at the jailhouse hostel and had the whole place to ourselves until Shawn and Carolyn showed up. Yardsale and I ate at a pizza place. It was a great way to spend the evening.
Date: 2005-06-21
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Pipeline, PA
Miles today: 17.6

Day 100Start: Palmerton, PAFinish: PipelineMileage: 17.6Weather: cloudyWe tried to get out of town pretty early so as not to be scorched by the sun while climbing out of the rocky jumble of Lehigh Gap. Fortunately, the sky was overcast and Shawn, Carolyn, Yardsale and I quickly got a ride out of town in a purple pickup.The hiking north of Palmerton is a barren landscape of fallen dead trees. The forest has been ruined by air pollution from now defunct nearby zinc plants and is taking a long time to recover. The barren landscape is actually kind of neat to walk through, especially on an overcast day like today. The AT data book shows no water for 16 miles, but we found a good spring (mentioned in Wingfoot's book) after a few miles. The rest of the hiking was pretty standard with some rough rocky sections. We saw Matt and Bams for the first time in a few days. Yardsale and I pushed on past the last shelter in order to get into the post office in Delaware Water Gap the next day before it closed. We camped with 3 Feathers next to a pipeline clearing with few non-rocky spots. I was glad to have my hammock.
Date: 2005-06-22
From: Pipeline, PA

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: few clouds

Day 101Start: PipelineFinish: Delaware Water Gap (DWG)Mileage: 18.3Weather: normalWe woke up pretty early this morning as we had many miles to crank out before we reached DWG. The rocks were in full force today and were probably worse than any other day in PA. But then again, we did do a lot of miles today, so that might have added to it.To my surprise, however, the last five miles or so before DWG were very smooth, almost completely devoid of rocks. We raced into town trying to outrun what appeared to be an ominous thunderstorm. However, the storm never developed and we were able to slacken our pace and enjoy the very pretty last few miles before town. Yardsale and I got to the post office in plenty of time and then went to the Presbyterian Church hostel where we found 3 Feathers and AJ. 3Feathers had arranged a ride to the next town to resupply and do laundry, so Yardsale and I tagged along. We came back to find Bams, Matt, Shawn and Carolyn. Porter, Fatty and Hardcore strolled in later in the evening after Yardsale and I returned from dinner at the diner. I forgot to claim a bunk in the hostel and ended up sleeping in the shelter out back, which was probably the better option anyways.
Date: 2005-06-23
To: Transcriber's update about Vapor
Miles today: 0.0

This is Vapor's transcriber. I have an update on Vapor. Vapor is doing fine. His PocketMail device (i.e. PDA), on the other hand, is not doing well. It is broken. So, unfortunately, at this time he is unable to upload journal entries. He and his support team are working hard to fix the problem. As of 6/23/05, Vapor was at Delaware Water Gap, PA! He will be passing through NJ, NY, CT, and MA in the next few weeks