morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-06-21
From: Myron Glaser blue blaze 

To: Bears Den 
Miles today: 11.0

With the heavy rain last night I was almost certain that my tent would have been flooded, but for the most part everything inside was dry. And with the sun rising to clear skies, things were promising that most of the gear would dry out a bit.Today's miles were mostly walking through "the roller coaster". It's a 13 mile stretch of up and down hills each mile. It's really not the terrain you want to be hiking when it's as hot and humid as today was. But there the benefit of only having to do a short day that ended with a stay at a nice hostel.In addition to today being Father's Day, it was also the Summer Solstice, which is also the national "hike naked day". If you had asked me any point in the beginning of my hike, I'd have told you that there was no question that I'd be hiking naked today. But as this day got closer and I realized that it was on a Sunday, and also father's day, and that I thought I'd still be in the Shenandoah's, I figured there was no chance I'd be hiking naked. But as I started the first hills of the roller coaster I figured there was very little chance that someone would go to the road crossing on the third hill and walk southbound, and anyone who camped at the next shelter wouldn't likely be passing through for a while, so I decided to go for it for the next two miles. After the second hill I put my clothes back on without ruining anyone's father's day (fyi, the stretch of trail after that road crossing was heavily populated with families on a day hike).I sweated my butt off today (got trail magic of Gatorade from Wayne at just the right time), but we had an early day into Bears Den, dried our gear in the sun, showered and had a tasty, free, trail magic dinner.Fitbit -------------Miles: 14.8 Calories: 4000 Stairs: 345
Date: 2015-06-22
From: Bears Den 

To: Harpers Ferry 
Miles today: 20.5

One of the benefits of staying at the Bears Den is the all you can eat pancakes in the morning. I was informed last night that the assistant caretaker usually makes pancakes for everyone, but otherwise all the requirements are left out the night before, so when I woke up at 6:30 and pancakes weren't yet being made, I started at it. I got about 6 done before before I was relieved of my duty and able to start eating. I ended up eating those six myself since the other hikers kept getting fresh ones.Since the Plum Orchard shelter in Georgia I've been trying to visit and look at every shelter I pass. Part of it is a curiosity in the architecture, but part is just adding something unique to my hike. Today I found a shelter that would have been my favorite, it had skylights, a big porch with seating, a separate cooking pavilion with a chair swing, and the camping areas had benches and some picnic tables as well. It lost a lot of points however because the water was quite far downhill. Not the steepest hill or the farthest water, but combined it was unpleasant. While getting water though, I saw tree fall in the woods (I heard it too).There was a large stretch of trail with very rocky terrain. But I still think Virginia was relatively easy and flat. There have been a lot of complaints from other hikers (myself included) about how VA wasn't flat or easy like we were told it'd be. But I think we misunderstood what we were told. If you compare the first 400 miles to the 500 in Virginia, there was no flat terrain in the beginning, whereas VA had large stretches of flat hiking. It did also have an equal amount of hills to make up for it. And when we were told we'd easily be doing 20 mile days we assumed that meant it'd be easy. Instead it was just as hard, but we got better at pushing ourselves to more miles.I walked into Harpers Ferry! This is another one of my emotional AT goals accomplished. In doing so I stopped in at the ATC headquarters and got my picture taken and added to the logs. I was the 819th person who stopped in thru-hiking northbound this year.After getting settled in to town, I got dinner with Uhaul and Fidel. Uhaul decided to go another couple miles to a hostel north of Harpers Ferry and Fidel, Timothy and I split a room at the Econo Lodge. But before leaving the historic part of town, Fidel and I got some ice cream and managed to hitchhike to the hotel.Fitbit -------------Miles: 23.2 Calories: 5300 Stairs: 377
Date: 2015-06-23
From: Harpers Ferry 

To: Harpers Ferry 
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up and took the early train to Rockville (6:50am). It was full of commuters heading into DC dressed in nice suits and such. I was definitely the most ragged person on the train. But with all the places I needed to go in Rockville, none of them opened till 10, so I got breakfast to kill some time (and cause I can always use more calories).Once things started opening, my errands consisted of the arts supply store (I'll explain why in a future post), a fleece throw (to replace the one that is more like a scarf), vitamin store (for trying new electrolytes), REI (to replace my broken Leatherman as well as a bunch of random snacks and such). I also got my nails done again and a haircut.In the afternoon I met up with Fidel (he was at the dentist in the morning) and his friend Lt. Dan (he thru-hiked last year). Lt Dan provided us with some good tips on the rest of our hike in exchange for making him envious of us to be hiking. After Lt Dan went back to work we got picked up by Fidel's other friends, the Smiths, and taken to a tasty, filling, Italian dinner.Fitbit -------------Miles: 8.5 Calories: 3200 Stairs: 47
Date: 2015-06-24
From: Harpers Ferry 

To: Dahlgren Campground 
Miles today: 17.2

As I was getting ready for bed last night and getting all excited to walk through Maryland in a day, I realized that wasn't gonna happen. I had lots of little things I still needed to do. And since I wouldn't be in Waynesboro that night, I'd need to resupply before leaving Harpers Ferry. The big benefit to not leaving too early is that I was able to go directly to the post office and pick up the cookies Galia sent me (otherwise they would have been forwarded on and not obtained for another week).I also had to go to the post office to mail out the extra hiking pole that Black Diamond sent. It should be noted that the poles I originally have aren't made any more, so I ended up with a cheaper set that is almost comparable.Before leaving town I got lunch with Fidel. While I was running my errands, he went to the dentist to get his tooth pulled. Instead of doing any more work on the tooth they decided it was better to just get rid of it entirely.The terrain coming out of Harpers Ferry was quite easy. I did 17 miles to get to the campground that has showers. However with my late start I arrived at dark and was just a bit too late to get the chili trail magic that Goldilocks and her family had setup. But there were still lots of snacks and sodas that I was able to have.Fitbit -------------Miles: 20.4 Calories: 4900 Stairs: 315
Date: 2015-06-25
From: Dahlgren Campground 

To: Falls Creek 
Miles today: 24.3

I passed the Mason Dixon line and arrived in PA. I had wanted to do it in one day, but getting the 40.6 miles of Maryland done in two days isn't so bad. I do have to say though that one could easily spend a week doing the Maryland miles to get full enjoyment out of all that's offered. Almost all the shelters are nice and new, there's a bunch of good campgrounds along the trail, not to mention all the historic independence/civil war sites.At the last shelter before PA, about five miles, I got a weather report from another hiker. All day it had looked like rain and there were occasional sprinkles, but the update indicated that there was 100% chance of rain at 6pm, which was just about two hours away. So as a light rain started on my final stretch I found myself talking outloud to the rain trying to get it to hold off for 30 minutes. It was mostly a one way conversation and I wasn't too sure how it'd work out for me, but in the end I successfully got my tent setup with very minimal rain.Fitbit -------------Miles: 24.1 Calories: 5200 Stairs: 441
Date: 2015-06-26
From: Falls Creek 

To: Quarry Gap Shelters 
Miles today: 19.9

Every morning I start off hiking there is a high percentage chance that I'll be getting spider webs in my face. This is partly because I leave a bit earlier these days, and more so because the other hikers aren't tall enough to clear them out of my face. So while suffering from this for many weeks, I decided to build a contraption to keep webs out of my face, instead of always having to hold my poles in front of my face. My original design called for using a metal coat hanger and drilling holes into the brim of my hat. But that would be too complicated, so I altered it to use pipe cleaners. Today was my first day implementing this contraption, and it was 100% effective. After last night's rain, I had spider webs all over me except for my face. It was great!While hiking through northern Virginia, the rocks drove me nuts. I've now realized that it wasn't the rocks that bothered me, it was that I had no expectation for rocks. I would start my day planning to get from here to there and suddenly find myself thrown in a pit of rocks. But now that I'm walking through similar terrain in Pennsylvania, I don't give it a second thought.As I was passing through Caledonia State Park, heading to the snack bar, I was approached by someone asking if I was a thru-hiker. He was part of the organization TEAM, and had brought out a group of youth escaping riots in Baltimore (I didn't even know there were riots in Baltimore). They had a bunch of food grilling and he wanted me to talk to the kids about what I was doing. It was primarily the adults who were so inquisitive about my hike, but there was one young girl, an aspiring journalist, who interviewed me. I was getting ready to leave, eager to beat any rain that might come, when the guy who lured me in got a passing Ridge Runner, Patches, to join as well. He then managed to get all the kids to sit down and be quiet (a difficult task), and had me and Patches "tell our stories" to the kids. During the talk I did a demo of my water filter, collecting water from the river and filtering it, and passing it around for the kids to drink.I got to the shelter without any rain coming down. The forecast changed for the rain to start at 2am and continue throughout the whole day tomorrow. I decided I would sleep in the shelter, joined by Low Profile, Right Click, Paradox and Rocksteady. It was a nice shelter that was very well maintained, but the highlight was that we watched the woman's world cup soccer match on Right Click's phone (the US beat China 1-0).Fitbit-------------Miles: 21.0 Calories: 4900 Stairs: 348
Date: 2015-06-28
From: Allenbury Resort 

To: Allenbury Resort 
Miles today: 19.3

The resort offered a buffet breakfast, but it didn't start till 8am, so I decided to eat my own food in order to be on the trail earlier. My goal was to hike southbound to get back to hiker feed at Pine Grove Furnace. What I failed to anticipate was all all the northbound folk I passed delaying me by chatting.While walking downhill to one of the road crossings, a bee came out of nowhere and must have mistook me for someone else, cause it wasted no time in landing on my face and stinging me just below my eye. It really hurt and as it started to swell up I came to the road crossing and checked my face in the mirror of a parked car. It didn't look bad and I had a lot more miles to do so I kept going. The swelling continued for the next 30 minutes, but didn't get bad enough to impair my vision, and by two hours later the swelling was fully gone.With all the chatting, I arrived at the hiker feed after most of the food was gone. There was fruit, chips and soda left and a handful of hikers. Patches, the Ridge Runner I met a couple days ago, was there as well as Flat, another PATC Ridge Runner. Flat was heading back past Boiling Springs so after a few moments in the AT Museum we headed out.We arrived at the the ATC Center in Boiling Springs just as they were closing, so I got all the info about town and then sat around contemplating camping vs staying at Allenbury again. As it got sunny and warm I thought I'd camp, but then as it got cloudy and chilly I decided it'd be too chilly without a sleeping bag. I hung out at Allenbury waiting for hiker to share a room with, eventually Spaceman came and I joined his friends for four people in the room. Tunes came in while we were having drinks and food at the bar, and I joined with him instead as he was by himself in the room.Fitbit -------------Miles: 20.3 Calories: 4900 Stairs: 366
Date: 2015-06-29
From: Allenbury Resort 

To: Carlisle 
Miles today: 8.0

I woke up not feeling quite right. I thought it might just have been dehydration so I drank a bunch of water and went back to bed. It helped but I still didn't feel right. I went to the resorts continental breakfast but found I wasn't very hungry. Though I didn't know what was wrong I figured hiking it off might work.Four miles into the hike I wasn't getting better, in fact I may have been getting worse. I really regretted leaving Allenbury with it's high quality at a low price. But in just another four miles I'd pass close enough to Carlisle, which had several hotel options. Taking an advil helped south the difficulty of the next four miles, which considering there was almost no elevation change while walking through cornfields, should have been a breeze.I checked into the Days Inn, and just stayed in bed for a few hours. But it was Fidel's birthday and him, Timothy, Tribute, and Marty picked me up to go out to dinner. Most of the night I spent shivering in a fevered state, but it was nice to see some other hikers, and spend time with Fidel on his birthday.
Date: 2015-06-30
From: Carlisle 

To: Carlisle 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I spent the night and morning sweating out my fever. Then managed to catch a ride to the movie theater and watched Inside Out. Got some frozen yogurt and a ride back to the hotel. Watched the woman's world cup match and some Simpsons. A relaxing day and I'm now eager to get back on the trail.Fitbit -------------Miles: 1.8 Calories: 2100 Stairs: 0
Date: 2015-07-01
From: Carlisle 

To: Duncannon 
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: light rain

I'm not sure what the sickness was. The only prevalent symptom was the fever. I had a bit of diarrhea in the beginning which may have been due to the large amount of fruit I ate. But it also might indicate that this was another strand of the norovirus. Either way I'm back on the trail and building up my body's conditioning again.Apparently there's a saying in Pennsylvania amongst the corn farmers that the corn should be "knee high by the 4th of July". Well with all the rain we've been getting, most of the corn I pass is over 5ft tall. I guess it'll be a good year for corn, at least PA corn.Today's miles were pretty easy for someone who just spent two days not moving much. There were two decent climbs, a lot of cornfields, and a stretch on a rocky ridge. This ridge came with a rock warning in the guide which was nice, but it didn't compare with the rocky stretch before Harpers Ferry.Duncannon has a few good options for hikers. There's a cheap hotel, Trail Angel Mary lets people sleep on the floor in her living room, and a campground with showers for $5 (that's where I was headed). First I wanted food so I thought I'd stop by The Pub. But there were a couple hikers coming down from Trail Angel Mary's who informed me of a hiker feed dinner put on by the church. It was a nice spaghetti dinner with homemade ice cream. And after dinner I started my way to the campground and noticed a nice house on the way with a for sale sign. My thought was that it was a nice house to setup as a hiker haven. Then I noticed another sign indicating that hikers are welcome to camp in the back and use the grill. Free camping seemed more tempting than paid camping, so I headed in the backyard to see if this was legit. There was a nice couple sitting in back, the 219's, and a hiker, Icarus, drinking beers. Sure enough, I was the 65th hiker sleeping there this year (when they were home). It was a great evening and if there was any plans to take a zero in Duncannon, this would be the place to do it.Fitbit -------------Miles: 19.9 Calories: 5000 Stairs: 234
Date: 2015-07-02
From: Duncannon 

To: Clarks Creek 
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: light rain

Duncannon has a restaurant that is known for its pancake challenge. If you can eat more than the previous record, the breakfast is free. I did not attempt the pancake challenge. Mostly because I wanted to be able to hike a bunch of miles, but also because I wasn't confident I could do it. The current record is 7, so I would need to eat 8, but these are big, thick pancakes. I had two pancakes and some bacon. If I weren't hiking I could easily have eaten four, but eight would be a significant challenge that would require a precise technique (which I'm not sure what is the right technique for such a thing).It was a rocky hike most of the day. Probably the rockiest terrain yet. But it was not nearly as frustrating as the rocky terrain of Virginia.For the past few weeks, with consistency, my feet hurt after 12 miles. I thought as I keep pushing my average over 20 per day the point when the pain starts would get later. But for the most part it's 12 miles exact. This was starting to become a concern because the pain was becoming more problematic. I began thinking that this was the body issues that I expected would knock me off the trail before I left Georgia. But I talked with a hiker that finished two years ago and he said by NH all the foot pains will go away. The hiker hobble we all have first thing in the morning will be gone as well. So that's good news. I've been telling myself that there is no way I'll quit in Pennsylvania, but I hadn't been too confident that my body could do much more after that.The hiker I talked to, Fat Man Walking, provided trail magic in soda/chips to Right Click, Paradox, Rocksteady and me. He bought a camper van a few months ago and is touring this section of the trail providing trail magic and doing day hikes. He even loaned me his extra sleeping bag till I get mine back in Port Clinton.Fitbit -------------Miles: 20.3 Calories: 4800 Stairs: 292
Date: 2015-07-03
From: Clarks Creek 

To: 501 Shelter 
Miles today: 28.8

Having the sleeping bag last night paid off when it got chilly in the wee hours of the morning. Even better, Fat Man Walking offered for me to take it with me to Port Clinton. But that meant I was adding a bunch of weight, so I took him up on the exchange offer also and left him my chair. I've been contemplating mailing off the chair and saving the weight, but it keeps coming in handy, so this will be informative on getting by without it.I spent the morning clearing cobwebs. I'm really happy to have my pipe cleaner contraption. I could actually see all the webs that weren't hitting my face.Half way through my day I got trail magic from Right Click and his family. They drove down from Connecticut to meet him and take him into town, but they also came with a feast for hikers. I had a sandwich, pasta salad, Gatorade, apple, and heaps of cookies. The only challenge was walking on to do another 13 miles.I arrived at the 501 shelter before dark, managed a "shower" (it was cold and low pressure through a garden hose, but felt good), and ordered a sausage sub and soda to get delivered. A great ending to a good day.Fitbit -------------Miles: 28.9 Calories: 6100 Stairs: 445
Date: 2015-07-04
From: 501 Shelter 

To: Port Clinton 
Miles today: 24.1

I packed up and left the shelter, though I was certainly tempted by a zero. It was raining lightly as I left, and I was pretty sure it'd rain more, but sitting around probably would have had me itching under my skin. What really sucked was that it didn't take long for the rain to stop being light and turn to a downpour. I got soaked and it sucked.The worst part is that, for the past 20+ miles, the trail has been poorly maintained. Large sections are overgrown and the only thing going for it is that there's hundreds of people walking on it weekly. The trail in this section clearly wasn't designed for the rain and there's sections of interweaving trails to avoid the mud. They don't seem prepared for the rain here and it makes hiking even more annoying than the rocks do (and the rocks are annoying).Everything is closed in Port Clinton. I knew the post office would be closed (the reason I'm stopping here) and I was expecting the hotel to be full, but it wasn't even open. It's closed for the week. The B&B was also closed. And since I thought I'd be getting a warm meal with the chance of camping outside, I decided to hitch into Hamburg. I made the poor decision of going straight to the hotel and getting a room. An $80 expense. I got the warm meal (Five Guys), a beer, ice cream (more moose tracks, it's still good), and laundry; but that was an expensive decision.Timothy and Kevin (Fidel) were staying in the same hotel. They stopped by my room and offered a persuasive argument for slackpacking with them. I had the problem of getting to the post office though, and even with Timothy's ideas, I couldn't come to terms with joining them.Fitbit -------------Miles: 26.9 Calories: 5800 Stairs: 262
Date: 2015-07-05
From: Port Clinton 

To: Hamburg 
Miles today: 14.8

It's Sunday morning and the post office in Port Clinton doesn't open till 12:30 Monday afternoon. I have a lot of time to not go anywhere. I found a road crossing about 15 miles up the trail which should be easy to hitch back from and so I called and arranged a shuttle to take me there from the post office after they open. So now I've got a lot of time with only a little ways to go. That meant I had time to visit Dunkin Donuts as well as stop in Cabelas (an outfitters for mostly hunting stuff but this is their largest store - it was big). Getting a hitch back to the trail was pretty easy too.Once again, the trail was significantly overgrown. The rocks were plentiful as always in PA, but it's really annoying to get scratched by branches all day. Even more so when they're covered in prickers. It was an otherwise simple day of hiking.The shelter at Eckville is neat. It's along the road behind a house. There's a shower area and places to charge a phone. I contemplated spending the night there, but I had some other ideas going. It was early enough that I could hitch back to Hamburg, go to the hardware store, get some food, then watch the woman's world cup match, and still try to hitch back to the free camping in Port Clinton. The ride I got hitching actually offered to take me to the hardware store. But first they had to find a white house that was part of a self guided haunted ghost tour. We found Schaumboch's Tavern, where many years ago the caretaker supposedly murdered his tenants, took some pictures and drove on.My goal at the hardware store was to find something that would help keep the strap on my pack from loosening during the day. After brainstorming with one of the employees I settled on alligator clips. We'll see how they work out. I also went to Subway for food, which satisfied a craving I've had since seeing someone with Subway in Glasgow, VA.While eating I ran into Squeeze who was also planning to watch the soccer match. He was going to get a room at the Microtel and offered to split it. The expense didn't make sense to me, but once I ended up in the hotel bar to watch the match, I arranged to sleep on the floor in his room for a decent price. Note: I got another pint of ice cream and it was delicious.Fitbit -------------Miles: 19.2 Calories: 4900 Stairs: 295