morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-05-21
From: Troutville

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: moderate rain

11 miles. 220 to Wilson Creek shelter in the rain and the water source was downhill. I didn¢t actually get out onto 220 until late so that¢s why I only got 11 miles in. No, it was 12:30 as a matter of fact and one of the reasons was it was raining and I was kind of hoping someone would show up who would share the hotel room with me and I was gonna take another zero day. Spiderman did end up showing up. He was actually behind me at this point. He¢d ended up dropping out for trail days in Damascus. ..but he was not willing to stay so I hiked out. I ended up passing him along the trail as well. I pulled into Wilson Creek Shelter which was a really beautiful shelter, oops wrong shelter, Wilson Creek shelter was not a nice shelter.
Date: 2003-05-22
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: overcast clouds

The rain continues and continues. I started at 8:35 and caught up to Jason (Spiderman) at one point again. To Goblets Gap Shelter by the way. I had also decided that I¢d bring bagels and salami and have that for lunch. So I stopped on the AT and had a couple. I also had some olive loaf and then I ended up stopping again at Cove Mountain shelter and had two more bagels and mashed potatoes. I was pretty down with all kinds of things happening. With Christine at home, I started think a lot about that and the rain was a bummer. I started feeling like I was getting sick after being wet for 5 days non-stop and being cold. Definitely something was going on but I decided to go ahead and push on. It was a total of 21 12 miles to Bryant Ridge Shelter. Which was a very nice place. A beautiful shelter. Lots of room. Two levels. I ended up taking the entire top level for myself which was great. The creek ran right by it. Cooking was nearby and really nice. Jason, Dan and I were the only people together in that shelter. Jason had developed serious feet problems with his boots. I tried to explain to him that he had a serious bacteria problem in his boots and with him rubbing blisters that bacteria was entering his feet. I gave him a pair of liner socks and some plastic bags and gave him some instructions on what to do. Total elevations gains to this day were 180,776.
Date: 2003-05-23
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Big Island , VA
Miles today: 5.0

Started out in the morning. Still continuing in the rain. Somewhere along the trail there I decided that I was kind of fed up. Pretty early in the morning. Probably the first two hours. I decided I was gonna get off the trail and decide what I was gonna do. I was soaking wet at the time and definitely feeling sick. Something was very wrong and Christine was pressing on my mind greatly. I made a couple of phone calls. I called Tony and told him I was getting off and coming home and I called Kelly to tell her as well and she offered to come and get me which was very nice of her. So, I got up onto Skyline drive and started hitching. Walking about 4-5 miles in the rain until somebody finally picked me up. Really nice guy..ended up driving me into town. That town being Big Island, Virginia where I had a mail drop. That was part of the reason I was gonna end up hiking 27 miles totally sick. I wanted to be close to the road so that the following Saturday I could hit the post office. I was beginning to have major problems with scheduling post offices and being able to get to them on time. I was having to wait around to get my stuff. But I got to Big Island, Virginia and got my mail drop and sat outside the post office trying to make all these arrangements for all this stuff. Decided I was gonna hike up to the gas station and get a soda or a beer or something while I waited for Kelly to show up. I ended up taking the wrong road¢¦going in the wrong direction for a couple of miles before I realized it but Kelly found me and we ended up going into Stanton where we spent the night. The following day she drove me around Waynesboro. I picked up my mail drop in Waynesboro as well. My bump box that Eddy had sent still hadn¢t shown up. Then we made arrangements to catch Amtrak that afternoon to come back home. Got on the train at 4:30 and headed back to Florida.
Date: 2003-06-18
From: Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, PA(zero day)

To: Rausch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 28.8
Weather: mist

28.8 miles. That was from the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, PA to the Rausch Gap Shelter.   I did not get up at 5:30 as I had intended. My eyes opened up at 7:15 and there was a twinge of a hangover trying to take over which I quickly tried to get rid of. I got my backpack all filled up and went down to the bar. The waiter was serving breakfast by 8:00 and all the other hikers were sitting there eating. I sat down and got a cup of coffee. I ordered some eggs and toast and sausage. Then I packed up and tried to put my new boots on. I had to punch 3 extra holes in because they didn¢t have holes to lace up high enough to be comfortable. I put my backpack on and hiked out of town with a group; Cuz, Snort, Clover and Cuz¢s partner ( I still can¢t remember his name). We met hikers coming in right outside the door. ..Bearbait had just walked in and I was recommending for him to stay there like I had done. Take a complete zero day. It was well deserved rest and very much enjoyed. Duncannon is a cool town. It is definitely one of the best trail towns. As good as Hot Springs, as good as Erwin and as far as I¢m convinced it¢s even better than Damascus. There are a tremendous amount of hikers in town. The people are very friendly. The atmosphere is fantastic. It¢s definitely suburbia at it¢s best. I would love to live here. The trail goes through Duncannon for¢¦I would say¢¦a mile and a half or so out of town through the neighborhoods then it turns off and goes over the Susquehanna River¢¦over this long bridge. Then it goes into the woods and starts going uphill. The uphill is about 1000 feet or so but it didn¢t seem that bad. I don¢t know if it¢s because I¢ve gotten used to it now or what. It leveled off at about 1400 feet from 490 feet or 490 feet to 1500 feet. The stone steps turned into a bunch of rock hopping for a good three miles and then the trail leveled off and the walking is pretty good so far. I¢m going to try and make a 33 mile day despite the fact that I only started walking at 9:00. We¢ll just have to see how it goes today. When it comes down to it¢¦.where I end up is where I¢ll be. I got here about 8 o¢clock. It was a long haul from 9:00 in the morning until 8 at night. Pretty level ground for the most part. There are rocks. There were two significant climbs of about 1000 feet each. I got to the shelter and the shelter was growing close to full. Everyone scooted over so I could get in. Don¢t really know anyone that was there.   A couple of people that I had seen before¢¦.a girl that I had just seen at the Doyle hotel as a matter of fact and Bob from Athens was there. That¢s where I sacked out for the night after making some chili mixed with ramen noodles and olive oil. It turned out to be very good.
Date: 2003-06-21
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Palmerton in Lehigh Gap
Miles today: 0.0

I got started early once again. I woke up about 6:15. No, I got up about 5:00 and got rolling about 6:15. I was walking. A couple of the other people also started up early. One guy was trying to get up to town to get a hotel room. I guess he was in a big hurry. He wanted to get out of the rain. But so far this morning we¢ve been very lucky with the rain. A couple little drizzles it seems like. It¢s hard to tell if it¢s drizzle or if the wind is just kicking off some rain from the trees. That¢s possible too. I am now in the famous rocks of PA. It isn¢t horrible for me but then I¢ve had a lot of experience with the rocks and caving. I can imagine what some of the other people who haven¢t had experience with the rocks must be going through. Probably pretty horrible. They¢ve got some places where you¢re walking through some flat areas and there¢s rocks sticking out of the ground there. It¢s completely flat so you have to keep trying to walk around the rocks. Then you come across what I¢d like to call boulder fields but boulder fields (at least in my mind) have this image of big, brown rocks and they are not big brown rocks. The high description there is rocks of every size. Completely irregular and every shape. The worst one¢s being either the big, flat rocks that are just covered in green slime(matter of fact all the rocks are covered in green ) and mud. Since they are all wet this morning everything is slippery and sliding. But the big, flat, sloping ones are dangerous. You walk on them and the next thing you know your feet are out from under you. Also there are sections where there is no walking around the rocks¢¦.too many rocks. There are so many of them and they¢re sticking up out of the ground and they are sharp¢¦it¢s like walking on mines. You can see them run through the bottom of your shoes. I made a quick stop here at the Allentown Shelter. It¢s about 10:00. I¢m readjusting my pack because it¢s definitely not sitting right..only to find out that the new pack I had bought only a couple of days ago is screwed up. It¢s starting to tear. I attempted to call the company and they are closed on Saturday. They¢re out of Williamsport, PA so I¢m hoping I can do something about it pretty quick before the whole pack disintegrates. Anyway, there are people around here. I¢m gonna run down as far as Lehigh hopefully. I wasn¢t gonna go into town but I figure as miserable as I am and as miserable as the weather is that if I can get down there by 6:00 I might just stay in a hotel room tonight. Especially after sleeping in the toilet last night.
Date: 2003-06-24
From: Kirkridge Shelter

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: clear sky

From the Kirkridge Shelter to Mohican Outdoor Center. 16.2 miles. I got up really early at 4:30 in the morning or so . It was getting light. I packed up my stuff and dropped down to the town of Water Gap immediately to go eat breakfast at Water Gap Diner. I had corn beef hash, eggs and coffee. Then I walked down the street to the outfitter who didn¢t open until 9:00. So, I walked down to the church and hung out there a little while. I walked to the post office after that. I had gotten 3 packages. One, replacing the backpack I had gotten from Equinox that had ripped. The second one was my Montrail boots that Eddy had shipped and the third package was a digital voice recorder that Kelly was exchanging for the one I had. A nice package¢¦it had a couple of surprises in it. A couple of awesome cigars in there. A Romeo y Julietta. At any rate, I took care of the mail. I bought some bug repellant and bought batteries and things. The walk today was rocks, rocks and more rocks. Just because we left Pennsylvania doesn¢t mean they end. The 5.9 miles from the shelter down to Delaware Water Gap not only had rocks but it had mosquitoes. This was a heck of a sunny day and after all the floods and the rains the mosquitoes were just everywhere. They were swarming. If you stopped there would be 30 of them on you. I ran as fast as I could to get into town. I was the first. I got up first and ran the fastest. I hung around until about 11:00 and then took off out of there and decided it was a long way and I would not make it that far. I could only do the 16.2 miles. So, I got into the center and I¢m buying 3 sodas and drinking them. Talked to the girl a little bit and decided I was going to sleep on one of the platforms. I was looking for accommodations and they had cabins and they had a bunkhouse. Here I lay on a platform with all my stuff scattered around me. Basically just lazed around for most of the day. The rain I don¢t care about but once my pack gets wet I¢m screwed. I sat there and Nik waxed boots. One of the other hikers and some of the other people I had just met have just come into the bunkhouse.
Date: 2003-07-06
From: Retreat Center

To: Zero Day
Miles today: 0.0

Zero day. Got up pretty early considering I wasn¢t in any hurry. I only had 12 miles to go to get to Tyringham from the hostel. I had all day today and all day tomorrow to get there. I was considering taking a zero day at the hostel and just walking the 12 miles in to Tyringham for my mail drop Monday in the morning. In the meantime Spiderman came out and we talked and he said he was leaning towards taking a zero day off which pretty well cemented what I was going to do. I told him heck yeah¢¦let¢s go take a day off. We¢ll go into town and take a day off. So, with that decision made we asked the lady at the hostel if we could stay the next night. She said barring anyone else coming in we could. She gave preference of beds always to hikers coming hot off the trail. Which I think is only fair and we agreed to that. She said that there were two bikes in the garage which we were welcome to use to go into town. It was 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning by the time we decided to go. Actually, it was earlier than that. We ended up getting down into town around 10:30. It was a pretty steep downhill. Number one the drive going up to the hostel itself was 12 mile long and very steep. I had to walk it last night. The whole road going into Great Barrington from Lake Buell road was also very steep. So, we basically just coasted with the brakes on all the way down for the most part. We proceeded to hang out and had a good time the entire day in town. We went to a couple of the outfitters which were very classy. We went to the drugstore. We went to the K-Mart in town and the food store and just kind of re-supplied on little things. We rode into the shopping district in Great Barrington which is basically about 14 mile long. Very touristy. Very upscale shops on both sides and completely packed. There were people everywhere. Then we went over to Friendly¢s Restaurant and had breakfast and rode the bikes some more. Around noontime or so we went back to the Brewery Restaurant and hung out there. We drank some beer and talked to some of the people coming in and out. A couple bought us a beer there while we were talking. We basically spent the whole day being tourist on bicycles. We didn¢t get back to the hostel ( we had to walk the bikes up the driveway in the dark) until 9:00. We spent the full day really, actually having a good time. Today was zero miles and a zero day on July 6th.
Date: 2003-07-24
From: Hikers Welcome Hostel

To: Two Zero Days
Miles today: 0.0

Thursday, July 24th & Friday, July 25th   This is a zero day as well as the following day¢¦Friday. We just hung around the hostel. I got a ride out with Pack Rat if he was going into town and if he was going to mess around. I watched people hike in and hike out. There were alot of people I had passed and hiked with. It was kind of sad for me. I was kind of disappointed that I was even there. It was pretty hard to watch all these people come in and gowhere I should be going. Some of the people I can remember coming through were Skeemer, Mouse Bait and B-rocks. Trucking came through¢¦.Bob from Athens, Timber, Sticks came in as well and his buddy, Russ the Rat ? and probably another 12 a dozen or so people that I don¢t remember now but I will fill in later. Also, as has become normal the past couple of days there were tons of SOBO¢s pulling in as well. So, the place was basically packed every single night and would pretty well clear out at the end of the day. I¢d see maybe 15 hikers hike in and hike out. On Friday after Pack Rat had done all of his shuttles to various places for slackpacking and dropping and picking people up I rode around in the car with him for a few hours mainly to pick up this other hiker who had gotten horrible Lymes disease. He had to be emergency picked up from one of the shelters which he stayed in. We took him to the hospital and dropped him off there. The guy was in bad shape. I don¢t remember his name. He was an Italian guy. We spent a good part of the day, a few hours at least, hangin around town and waiting for him to be released which he finally was. We took him back to the hostel. One of the people that I ran into here, which was quite a coincidence considering they weren¢t actually hiking the Trail thru, was a couple that had picked me up in their van way back at Laurel Fork Lodge the day that I was hiking up from there. That was months ago. Since they weren¢t hiking the Trail linearly they had actually jumped all the way back up to New Hampshire and had hiked through the Whites and came back. It was a big surprise. I¢ll have to pull up their names again from way back in the journal at Laurel Fork Lodge. Anyway, for these two days there wasn¢t really a horrible lot to report other than to just sit around and eat¢¦.drink beer and watch people come in and watch them walk out again and tell them I wasn¢t going with them. My intention was to stay at least a couple of days and see what the knees were going to do. They were starting to feel a lot better pretty fast. Friday evening I decided that I might try to slack pack Moosilauke which is the first mountain in the White Mountain chain. Pack Rat would take any number people that wanted to go for $25.00 a carload. The couple with the van, B-rocks, Mouse Bait and myself decided that we were going to get dropped off there. Mouse Bait, B-rocks and myself walked back to the hostel.
Date: 2003-07-28
From: New York City

To: New York City
Miles today: 0.0

Monday 28th, Tuesday 29th, Wednesday 30th of July   I basically hung around at Mike and Estees house. Hung out with them and got reacquainted. It¢s been a long time since I¢ve seen them so we sat around and talked about old times. Mike and Estee are hosts that are gracious to a fault. They are providing everything in the world that I could possibly want and refusing help with anything. It¢s been great to see them again. I¢ve had a great time here in Staten Island. I watched Mike and Steve play SoCom?? which is a war game online. I played on the computer and sat around and talked to them and drank beer with them. We went out one night to a sushi place. Estee, myself, Mike and Steve¢¦and pigged out on all kinds of sushi. Basically I just tried to wind down from my time on the Trail and tried to enjoy my time with my friends. I tried to recover from my knees. Mike has been feeding me pain killers which I have been pretty happy to take at this time. It¢s been very difficult to sleep with the knees. The swelling seems to be going down and the pain is not as strong¢¦but it¢s sharper I guess because all the fluid in the joints of the knees were kind of protecting the knees. As the swelling and the fluid go out there is no protection so certain moves give me a sharp jab of pain. I do have some limited mobility but I am convinced that there is something pretty well damaged. If not in both knees certainly in the left knee. It hurts. It hurts especially if I¢ve sat for a few minutes and then try to get up and walk. It takes a lot of walking to walk comfortably and walk without a limp.
Date: 2003-01-07
To: Burr Oak 1
Miles today: 0.0

Arrived at the park late, at sunset, and the rangers looked at me like I was a bit crazy for being out there in winter. They told me I was the only one out there that night, and that they'd watch to see if my car was gone the next day, to see I was safely out. So I did a night hike for the first few miles until I hit the designated campsite. It was darn cold. Pitched tent, tried to cook dinner, but I was right by the lake and was getting all the wind, kept blowing the stove out. Or blowing the flame in all directions. Ate the almost-warm meal and crawled into my bag. Was woken several times through the night by wind which sounded surprisingly like animals scratching on my tent, and by the cold. My feet never did warm up, despite having a fleece vest and a pair of long underwear wrapped around them. In the morning, while trying to cook breakfast, I found that the flame which had seemed uncontrollable the night before was now invisible. A bit uneasy with the prospects of this, I allowed it to be blown out and munched on trail mix and pop tarts. The day's hiking was beautiful, up and down the foothills of Appalachia, tracing the edge of a lake. I could tell that the lake was well used during the summer, with all of the different docks and swimming areas on the map, but in the winter I had it all to myself. It was wet and muddy, and got muddier as I went on, as the recent snow melted in the afternoon sun. Because of this, the trails looked different on the return, like I wasn't actually retracing my steps back to the car. I got back to the car exhausted. I would guess I hiked maybe fifteen or sixteen miles in the two days.
Date: 2003-01-29
To: Burr Oak 2
Miles today: 0.0

Headed out to Burr Oak again yesterday, this time in the afternoon and with a little better weather projection. I went in the opposite direction from the Park Office this time. I decided to make camp early, and so after having walked out about two hours, I doubled back to a site I'd seen about an hour before, that I'd thought would be perfect to camp in. First of all, it wasn't an actual campsite. All the designated camping areas are large cleared areas, either parking lots or fields, and while I don't mind this for environmentalist reasons, it does make for a colder night, when you consider there are no trees blocking the wind. The place I'd passed was a little cave, or rather a sort of overhang, with soft brown dirt and plenty of rocks around with which to pound stakes. Also, as most of the trees in Burr Oak have few branches within rope-throwing distance from which to hoist my food bag, I figured that I could simply climb up over the cave and toss it over the side. And finally, the campsite was absolutely beautiful. It was shielded from the wind and cozy, but you could see out onto the lake, frozen over and patched with snow except where deer and rabbit tracks wandered. Icicles as long as I am tall hung from the lip of the cave.It was a good night. I slept well, and was warm, except for my feet which just don't seem to warm up, no matter how dry and thick the sock. I tested the Esbit stove I bought last week, and found out that if I carry it in cold weather, I'll need at least two fuel tabs per pot boiled, an estimated 4 tabs per day. I'll have to compare this to the weight/cost of the Pocket Rocket and alcohol stoves' fuel consumption. But this is the only thing I'm still wrestling with. All the rest of the gear is bought and ready, and as an added bonus, I finally got ahold of Kurt at Wanderlust Gear, and I should have my tent within the week! I feel so close!