morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-07-02
From: home

To: home/Elkwallow wayside
Miles today: 21.4

Good hiking today! Mom went with me for the first eight miles, then stopped at the Pinnacles picnic area to read while I continued on. She was worried about slowing me down, which she was, but it¢s not like it was a big deal. My car was waiting at Elkwallow wayside, and when I got there I drove by and picked her up and took her back to her car.        A couple miles after starting we ran into ¢Rabbit¢ at Skyland Lodge. It was nice to see her because familiar faces are growing few and far between out here. Most of the crowd is ahead of me. What¢s left of the crowd, that is. A ton of people has quit recently, and it¢s getting lonely out here.                We ran into ¢Rabbit¢ again at Pinnacles picnic grounds. We offered to slackpack her all the way to the end of the ¢Doah¢s¢, letting her come back to our house to sleep tonight. After much cajoling she accepted the scheme and she took Mom¢s pack and we took off.        The traveling was pretty easy, but since we got later than normal start, we only finished just before dark. Once we¢d driven back to pick mom up, then driven back home, it was very late, leaving no time to do anything else before bed.
Date: 2006-07-03
From: home/Elkwall Wayside

To: home/Front Royal
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: broken clouds

The end of the Shenandoah! Not that I¢m particularly glad to be through them. They¢ve been the most enjoyable sections of the trail thus far, hiking-wise that is.        This morning we dropped by car off just outside of Front Royal. A friend of the family and fellow hiker ¢Backwards Bob¢ picked us up and drove us to Elkwallow.        Unfortunately, we got a rather late start today, as we had to wait for ¢Rabbit¢s¢ laundry to dry. It¢s not big deal, except that she also hurt her foot during the day¢s hike, so we ended late as well. It was too late to make coming back to my place worth it to her, so I ended dup dropping her at a hotel instead.        The hiking today was the same easy going that I¢ve come to expect from this section of trail. The only really notable aspect of today¢s hike was that I finally saw bears on this hike. There were two very large bears rummaging through the underbrush near the top of Compton Peak. I called out ¢Hey, bears!¢ to make sure they knew I was there. They both looked up at me, so I waved and shouted ¢Hi!¢ Both bears immediately bolted and disappeared.
Date: 2006-07-07
From: home

To: Harper's Ferry Comfort Inn #214
Miles today: 19.3

One thousand miles! Not only a thousand miles, but also Harper¢s Ferry, the ¢spiritual halfway point¢ and also the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conference, the body that manages the AT. Not bad for my first day back with my full pack in several weeks.        Got something of a late start, which is hardly unusual. I picked up my sister, Alana, and her daughter, Kayleigh, then took off for the trail. I got on the trail at around 11 a.m. Right after I hit the trail, ¢Rabbit¢ came hiking up as well. Talk about good timing. We played leap-hiker for the first half of the day, then hiked together from about halfway all the way into Harper¢s Ferry.        The trail today was pretty good. The first four miles were the trail end of the infamous ¢rollercoaster¢, so it was a bit strenuous. After that it was basically just a well-graded ridgewalk.        Not quite sure how far I¢ll go tomorrow. I¢m leaning towards a 17-mile hike into Maryland, but may go shorter depending on the terrain and how I¢m feeling.
Date: 2006-07-08
From: Harper's Ferry Comfort Inn #214

To: Rocky Run shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: broken clouds

Not a bad day at all considering I didn¢t get started until noon or so. I stopped by the ATC HQ before I left and got my picture taken. Apparently I am northbound thru-hiker #582 to pass through Harper¢s Ferry this year. I imagine most of those are way ahead of me or something, as I¢ve seen only a handful of fellow thru-hikers lately.        I ran into ¢Trail Boss¢ again today. It¢s good to see her. When she left a month or so ago we didn¢t expect her to come back.        Anyway, this journal is going to be short by necessity. My left forearm is covered in poison ivy, and I¢ve taken an antihistamine to help deal with it. I¢m starting to doze off already!
Date: 2006-07-09
From: Rocky Run shelter

To: Ensign Cowell shelter
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: clear sky

Good day today! I had trouble getting up this morning because of the antihistamine I took, and I just took another so I predict similar problems tomorrow. This morning; however, it was for the best because I looked in my books and noticed that there was a breakfast buffet right next to the AT that opened at 10:30. This was too miles away and I got everything ready to go at around 9:30. Perfect timing.        I stopped at Dahlgren campground on the way and availed myself of the free showers provided there. I got to the Old South Mountain Inn right as it opened. I half expected to not be allowed in, the place was so fancy, but given that the AT literally goes through their parking lot, I assume they¢ve gotten used to hikers.        The breakfast they served was absolutely amazing. The best food I¢ve had in a very long time, and I don¢t mean just since I¢ve been on the trail. I can¢t even begin to describe it. Crepes and strawberry sauce. That¢s all that needs be said. Oh, and ¢dessert table¢. I ate a lot. It was a bit pricey, but when we¢re talking a single buffet meal it was only a bit more than you¢d spend at, say, Shoneys.        After breakfast I made my way up the trail to the Washington Monument in Maryland. There I left my parents a misleading message on their answering machine about being on top of the Washington Monument. I also requested an extra pair of socks be sent my way to replace the pair I¢ve cut up into bandages for the nasty poison ivy on my arm.        Those were the highlights of the day, really. Oh! And also the rain held off until I got to the shelter, so I¢m not wet. Always a plus. The hiking today was also pretty nice, all things considered. Not as easy as previous sections, but good hiking nonetheless.        Now the antihistamine is kicking in again, so I¢ll have to go now to label pictures before I pass out.
Date: 2006-07-10
From: Ensign Cowell shelter

To: Waynesboro Best Western #103
Miles today: 12.4

Pretty tough hiking today, even though it was fairly short miles. The climbs were short by our standards these days, but they were steep and very rocky. They wore me out pretty badly, t though I could have easily done more miles.        The main reason I wanted to stop in a hotel tonight was to clean up the big mass of poison ivy on my arm. It¢s doing all right with just Gold Bond and a sock bandage, but its open and icky and I wanted to clean it up to prevent infection.        There are suddenly a ton of other thru-hikers around. I think I¢ve hit one of the few remaining pockets of hikers this far south. I suppose I feel good to know I¢m not the only one running a bit late.        The only other bit of excitement today came when I actually stepped on a copperhead. I didn¢t get my full weight on the snake, so it wasn¢t hurt. The snake didn¢t even try to strike at me though. It just looked up at me as though to say, ¢Watch it!¢ Then went back to sleep. I¢ve never seen a copperhead so docile. It was actually kinda cute.
Date: 2006-07-11
From: Waynesboro Best Western #103

To: Caledonia State Park
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: overcast clouds

More hard hiking today. I haven¢t hit the infamous rocks of Pennsylvania yet, but the trail has been plenty rocky enough anyway. An annoying rock-scramble at the end of today¢s hike was not appreciated at all, particularly since the trail kept dropping down off of it, then climbing back up to it over and over again. Combined with a steep climb early in the day, and that left me pretty worn out.        Lots of familiar faces today. Ran into ¢Garden Gnome¢, ¢Tigger¢, and ¢Forrest¢. I¢m not sure why I¢m suddenly running into people I know once more, but I¢m not about to complain.        Had two very good pieces f trail magic today. Last night when I checked into the Best Western (having gotten a ride from two guys from the Congo and their three friends from France), they gave me the number of a local Trail Angel. I called him this morning for a ride back to the trail and he did me one better. He drove me around Waynesboro so I could resupply there instead of further down as I¢d been planning. This saves me an extra stop and was a great little boost to my morning.        The second bit of magic came at the very end of today¢s hike. At the Route 30 crossing, I came across a cooler full of cold drinks. Inside was an invitation to join another Trail Angel at his tent sites in Caledonia Park for free camping, dinner, breakfast and slackpacking the twenty miles up to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, the official mid-point of the AT. Talk about awesome! So, after a dinner of grilled chicken, peas, corned beef and cabbage, some amazing rice thing, and more, I am laying here about to fall asleep and thanking God that things are looking up again after so much down in Virginia.a
Date: 2006-07-12
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Ironmasters Mansion Hostel
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: overcast clouds

HALFWAY!!!        I have officially reached the point of my journey where there are more miles behind me than there are in front of me. That¢s definitely a great feeling, even if trying to eat a half-gallon of ice cream did not. I couldn¢t finish the half-gallon challenge. It was just way too much dairy for s single sitting. That¢s okay, as just being here is awesome enough.        There¢s no AC in this hostel, unfortunately, and it¢s pretty darn hot in here. Hopefully I¢ll be able to sleep anyway after nearly 20 miles of hiking. Right now, though, I have a huge stack of National Geographics that I want to read, so I¢m cutting this short.
Date: 2006-07-13
From: Ironmasters Mansion Hostel

To: Garmanhaus B & B
Miles today: 19.4

I just got back from the bar, so this might not be the most coherent thing I¢ve written. I will try to make sense, though.        I just keep piling the miles on! In the past week I¢ve hiked 118.1 miles, eighteen more than is needed for my average weekly pace to have me finishing in the first week of October. The hiking today was fairly easy, although it was what I would described as the ¢worse possible weather¢ by which I mean it was raining, but not hard enough to make the mosquitoes go away.        All the huge storms we¢ve been getting have caused a ton of flooding which means that the mosquito population has exploded. At all times there is a cloud of the things hovering around you. If you stop for an instant, half a dozen land on you and immediately start biting. There¢s nothing more disheartening that hiking through rain with a cloud of mosquitoes around you, and seeing a rock scramble up ahead that will force you to slow down, giving the bugs a chance to attack. DEET works to keep them at bay, but washes off too fast in rain and sweat.        Amway, since the day was fairly crappy, I decided to treat myself like a king tonight! I checked into a B & B at the end of my long hike, and then went out to dinner at a nice local restaurant. ¢Tripod¢ and I ate at the bar there, starting with wheat beers, moving through Port wine, and eventually hitting apple brandy. For dinner I had a nice tuna steak, covered by $20 that Dad gave me when I set out again last week. In short, I had a very good time.        Tomorrow, I am looking at 15 miles of flat cornfields early in the day followed by some low mountains. Duncannon, and my mail drop is only 27 miles form here. I am considering doing that in a single day. I¢ll let you know tomorrow if I did.
Date: 2006-07-14
From: Garmanhaus B & B

To: Doyle hotel #28
Miles today: 25.6

Booyah!        There we have it, my new longest day. I borrowed one of ¢Tripod¢s¢ maps to check out the terrain for today¢s hike, and as soon as I saw that 13-mile perfectly flat stretch called the Cumberland Valley, I knew today was going to be a big one.        There were only two real climbs today, one of which was very steep, but even on a big mile day, that¢s not enough to faze me. The bigger problem today was s the heat down in the valley. Fortunately most of the trail was shaded, but those sections that weren¢t were brutal. Right at the end of the valley, though, were a former thru-hiker and her husband handing out cold sodas and banana splits. Ice cream right before a climb struck me as a bad idea, but I gladly accepted a cold Mt. Dew and a banana. It¢s little gestures like that that keep me going sometimes.        Anyway, I was slowed down on my approach by the Pennsylvania rocks, so I didn¢t get into Duncannon until around 10:30 p.m. Fortunately, my new headlamp is excellent for night hiking. I had the distinctly weird experience of meeting another hiker on a night hike tonight. I was sitting at a road junction having just gotten off the last mountain when I noticed another headlamp coming down the hill. It was ¢Lefty¢. She had been planning to stay at the last shelter, but apparently my enthusiasm for g going all the way (It¢s only four more miles! All downhill!) swayed her into giving it a go herself.So now I¢m at the Doyle hotel, which is a total dive, but also a classic hiker hangout¢more on that tomorrow.
Date: 2006-07-15
From: Doyle hotel #28

To: THE DOYLE
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Ah! The Doyle!        Built over 100 years ago by Anheuser Busch, and hasn¢t changed a whole lot in the intervening century. There¢s no AC, shared bathrooms, barely electricity, but it has been THE hiker hangout almost since the very first days of the AT.        The ground floor is a bar that serves beer at the lowest prices you¢re likely to find, and is also the only part of the building that is air-conditioned. Needless to say that on the hot summer days like this, the guests tend to hang out in the bar.        Since it¢s such a dive, it might be hard to understand why it¢s so hugely popular with the AT crowd. I think there are several reasons:1. The rooms are cheap. $20 a night is what a lot of hostels cost, and here at least you get your own room.2. Cheap beer.3. You walk into this bar in the middle of this town you¢ve never been to before, and you recognize every person in the place.The last, I think is the biggest factor. It¢s an incredible feeling to walk into a place and be surrounded by familiar faces. The bar had live music tonight and a full crowd of hikers. There was much beer and singing. I had a blast.
Date: 2006-07-16
From: THE DOYLE

To: THE DOYLE, DUNCANNON, PA.
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

More slackpacking today! One of the locals here offered to take us 17 miles up the trail to let us hike back to the Doyle for the night. I¢m a sucker for slacking, so obviously I accepted right away.        The hiking today was ridiculously easy, just a single large climb of moderate grade, and then mostly flat ridge walking for most of the rest of the day. Even the infamous Pennsylvania rocks weren¢t a big deal, though I imagine they eventually get worse.        In fact, the hardest part about today¢s hike was the bridge/road-walk back into Duncannon. Concrete is really hard on sore hiker feet at the end of the day, and on a long bridge, there¢s no shade from the sun. Not a nice combo, these.        Tomorrow I head out once more with full pack. Not really sure where I¢m headed tomorrow night, though.
Date: 2006-07-17
From: THE DOYLE, DUNCANNON, PA.

To: Days Inn #303, Lickdale, Pa.
Miles today: 17.8

Finally out of the Doyle¢s gravitational radius! I swear that if that place were actually comfortable to stay in, almost nobody would finish their hike. As it is, even with sweltering, crumbling rooms and no amenities, it¢s nearly impossible to leave.        You¢ll note that I am once again staying in a hotel. This is in line with my ¢Pennsylvania Challenge¢. I just made it up the other day actually. It sounds easy at first: all you have to do is shower every day while you are in PA. Piece of cake, right? No necessarily. Take my 25+ into Duncannon the other day. It was either that, or stop only 8 miles out of Boiling Springs at a hotel. The real challenge is making all the miles and stops add up properly.        Hard hiking today, too. It¢s blazing hot in PA right now as a huge heatwave pushes through. Why can¢t I ever get just ¢normal¢ weather? Plus I didn¢t sleep well at the Doyle, so I was dead tired to boot. I actually ended up finding a near-perfect spot in the ruins of Yellow Springs village: shady, grassy, breezy, and laid down and took a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half and felt completely reinvigorated afterwards.        Now I¢m at the I-81 interchanged at Lickdale. It¢s only two miles off the trail, but all my AT guides don¢t mention it at all, despite there being numerous lodging and eating possibilities. My maps, however, told the true story, so I gambled on there actually being something here and was right! Go me!
Date: 2006-07-18
From: Days Inn #303, Lickdale, Pa.

To: PA-Moneypit Hostel
Miles today: 11.3

Short day today. It was damned hot today, the trail was filled with rocks, and it threatened to storm all day. Originally I wasn¢t going to pull up short for this hostel, despite my ¢Pennsylvania Challenge¢. However, I wasn¢t able to get a ride back to the trail from Lickdale, and after trekking 2.5 miles up the road in the hot sun, I decided a short-mile day was in store.        The PA-Moneypit is a small hostel; it¢s only a single bedroom. It¢s kinda in the middle of nowhere, townwise, it just being on a random road across the mountain. It¢s a nice place, though, and the owners are very friendly.        Looking up at my mileage you will see that I have fewer than 1,000 miles left to hike! That¢s a great milestone to hit. It means that I¢ve only got about nine weeks to go since I average 100 miles per week.   Tomorrow I have planned a 22-miler down into Port Clinton. That¢ll make up for today¢s short day. Hopefully the trail won¢t be too rocky, as the terrain appears mostly flat, great for high-mile days, except when there¢s a bunch of rocks in the trail.
Date: 2006-07-19
From: PA-Moneypit Hostel

To: Port Clinton Hotel #4
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: clear sky

I hate Pennsylvania rocks! How I managed to pull off a 24-miler over that freaking terrain is completely beyond me. Almost the entire distance today was over trail completely littered with rocks of all sizes. See my pictures for details; I can¢t even begin to explain it.        I think the worst part of the whole thing is that the elevation profile here is almost entirely flat. Ever since Duncannon the trail has been nothing but a ridgewalk with the occasional drop/climb when moving from one ridge to the other. Unfortunately the rocks strewn all over the trail negate the ease of the flat elevation.        Fortunately I got a rare very early start, so I managed to complete my miles in a timely manner. To be honest, I don¢t think I¢m hiking any slower than in other sections, it just feels like it because I have to think about every single step. Ordinarily I can just veg-out while hiking, but doing that out here would likely result in a broken ankle.        In other news, my shoes are falling apart. Kinda annoying, but I guess they¢ve seen nearly 500 miles at this point. The soles are starting to delaminate. Hopefully, I can fix them with a tube of shoe-goo in the morning. If not, well, I think I can get a few more days of hiking out of them. I¢m pretty confident about being able to fix them, though. The rest of the shoe is in decent shape, still.        Still: Hugh miles! Katahdin is that much closer!
Date: 2006-07-20
From: Port Clinton Hotel #4

To: Port Clinton Hotel #4
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, crap. I spent half the day running around looking for shoe-goo or a reasonable equivalent. No dice. I even got a shuttle out to the single largest outfitter I¢ve ever seen. ¢Cabela¢s, The World¢s Foremost Outfitter¢, as they call themselves, doesn¢t have an item I¢ve seen in every single hole-in-the-wall Podunk outfitter on the trail. They didn¢t have any sort of gear repair stuff at all. So now I have to keep hiking with my shoes falling apart and hope they hold together long enough to get to the next outfitter, or mail drop, if I can get someone to send me some. Barring that I¢ll have to switch back to my boots well before I had planned to, which would risk having them fall apart before Katahdin.        In addition to this, I now have poison ivy on my HANDS. Good God, this sucks. My hands hurt because they¢re all swollen with little blisters. Apparently the oils got on my hiking staff or something.        So all in all it has not been the best of days. I got back to the hotel at around noon and decided that I just needed a day off. Tomorrow I¢ll head out early and see how far I can get. I¢m looking at not only the crappy rocks, but also several very steep climbs. Ugh. I can¢t wait to get out of Pennsylvania.
Date: 2006-07-23
From: Hamburg, PA

To: Allentown Shelter
Miles today: 22.6

So, uh, I spent the 21st and 22nd mostly asleep. On the 21st I hiked a little over a mile from Port Clinton to the next town, Hamburg. There I checked into the Microtel and basically slept for two days. This would be the fault of the antihistamines I was taking for the poison ivy on my hands. I had been planning to head out on the 22nd, but the weather reports were calling for severe thunderstorms all day, so I decided to give my hands a chance to heal more while I avoided hiking in ¢damaging winds and hail.¢        On the plus side, my Aunt Joan sent a bottle of shoo goo to my mail drop at Delaware Water Gap. Hopefully my shoes will hold out for a few more days until I can get to it.        So I started out early this morning hitting the trail at around 7. My goal was to do a 26 and get to a B & B, but unfortunately I ran into half a dozen boulder scrambles in the last seven miles of the hike, and thus arrived at this shelter too late, in my opinion, to make it to the B & B by a reasonable hour. Sadly this means there will be a one-day lapse in my quest to shower every day while in PA. Ah, well.        Bizarrely enough, I¢m not behind my friends at all. I saw them ready to leave town on the 21st, and assumed they were now two days ahead of me. But not fifteen minutes after I got here, ¢Garden Gnome¢ and ¢Danger¢ walked in. They say ¢Pixie¢ is still back in Port Clinton too. Apparently they just got a case of the lazies.        Pennsylvania continues to be my least favorite state so far. The rocks are utterly brutal and turn what should be easy hiking into a foot-grinding slog.
Date: 2006-07-24
From: Allentown Shelter

To: Fine Lodging #214
Miles today: 17.4

Holy crap! And I thought the trails in Tennessee were bad! Today was absolutely the worst trails I have ever seen. You can actually see them turning the trail to veer it towards the next boulder scramble. There¢s at least one extended boulder scramble per mile, and between them the trail is nothing but football-sized rocks that roll underfoot.        My pace over this terrain is reduced to a total crawl. My ankles are killing me, my feet are sore and bruised, and my shoes are rapidly falling apart. I cannot wait to be out of freaking Pennsylvania.        Tomorrow I get to climb straight up a bare rock mountain through the Palmerton EPA Superfund site. Joy.
Date: 2006-07-25
From: Fine Lodging #214

To: Gateway Hotel #4
Miles today: 20.4

The humidity came back today! Yay! The past two days have actually been really nice. Very low humidity and temps in the 70¢s and 80¢s. Today was still in the mid-80¢s, but the humidity was back, so it was pretty sticky, particularly in the Superfund area where there was no tree cover.        Really not a lot to talk about tonight, really. There¢s only so many times I can bitch about how much Pennsylvania sucks, and my longer entries usually stem from being depressed any way. I¢m in good spirits and the trail is monotonous frustration, so there¢s not a whole lot to write about.        Thank God I¢m almost out of PA>