morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2017-08-11
From: Just north of Little Gap

To: Black Mountain Tavern and B&B
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: overcast clouds

At 6.5 miles the descent into Lehigh Gap is the hardest I¢ve had since the Whites, hundreds of miles ago. Steep, 1000 feet deep, more big boulders than the Whites, slippery, high-angled open granite. My trekking poles got quite a workout. I¢m very pleased to report no falls.I started the day thinking 22 or 23 miles, but just past 20 at highway 308 is a tavern, hiker friendly it says in my guidebook. I call and Ken, the owner, answers. I can sleep out back or he has a B&B with rooms open. ¢Hiker Friendly,¢ we see that term often in AWOL¢s guidebook. And I know there are places that are neutral or slightly negative or maybe even a bit put out when hikers hang around outside with their packs or fill up every electrical outlet charging their little vampires ¢ smart phones and battery packs. But I never thought I would see a sign like the one blazoned across the front door of the one building near the Lehigh Gap road crossing.¢NO HIKERS¢The springs have been dry and I needed water. I set my pack on the ground, unhooked my water bladder, adopted a humble look and opened the NO HIKERS door. The receptionist stared, I shuffled my feet and looked down, ¢I don¢t want to use the bathroom, but could I get a little water?¢ I got a nod and a reluctant point of a finger toward a water cooler. I couldn¢t help but think of a different era when the sign would have been ¢NO COLORED¢ and it wouldn¢t have been one business, but an entire region.It seems that all day long almost every northbound hiker felt compelled to warn me about the ¢Knife Edge.¢ Even Ken at the tavern seemed to scoff when I said I¢d be there at 7:00 pm. ¢You got the Knife Edge in front of you,¢ he warned. And then with 5 miles left it started to rain. Hard. Umbrella up. What I said about Maine rocks holds true for Pennsylvania rocks, too. Trust no wet rock. Is it my imagination or did the rain just pick up as I climbed up onto the Knife Edge rocks? http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  More often than not I¢m in a three-point stance, the other hand holding the umbrella. It¢s about two football fields long. One step, one foot plant at a time, a ridge-top jumble of rocks like a small slice of the Mahoosuc Notch. I am so glad when I drop off it and re-enter the green tunnel.  Here's the view from the Knife Edge:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Rocksylvania it is:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Now I sit in a tavern with two other hikers, jawing away with trail stories. One is a Special Forces AT Relay team member, part of that relay group we met some of back in Vermont. And this guy knows our friend Wilderness Bob from the PCT in 2007. I¢m dry, I¢ve got a burger ordered and ¢¦ Is this thru-hiking on a rainy 20-mile day? Life is good.ScoutP.S. It¢s two days before I can start my next Frodo countdown. T minus 6 days and holding.
Date: 2017-08-12
From: Black Mountain Tavern and B&B

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: moderate rain

Let¢s talk fires. Fires on the AT are the same. And they are not. On our PCT thru-hike, 165 days, we had three campfires. I only lit one. Tony lit one and Laurence the Spring Guy lit the third. I like campfires. But when you¢re thru-hiking you don¢t have the time, you are bone tired, hiker midnight, 9:00 pm, comes around so fast, there¢s no wood or no fire ring or it¢s against regulations. On the CDT it was the same. And for the AT, all of that has held true. Even though almost every shelter has a fire pit in front of it. I think I¢ve been at two campfires so far. Fires. The PCT has multiple sections of trail closed at the moment, due to forest fires, current and past. In the first 700 miles of the PCT it¢s evident that at least half the forest or chaparral around the PCT has burned in the past fifteen years. (Frodo: Hmmm¢¦ I think I need to see data to be convinced it¢s that much.) Charred tall trunks, stumps, and dark ash. On the CDT dozens of miles in Glacier and Yellowstone are full of 40- to 50-foot-tall burnt skeletons of trees, the ground sterile since the fire was so hot. And those fires were in 1988. In 2008, 800 fires were started by lightning in one huge storm in northern California, many along or near the PCT. Hikers trekked under an orange sky, bandanas over their faces.In almost 1000 miles on the AT I have seen one small burn. One. I took a photo of it. It was less than a football field in size, not a thousand acres.One more way our big three trails strikingly differ from each other. My left heel and Achilles tendon are hurting. There I said it out loud. (Frodo: Well, sort of.) It gets worse as the day goes on.  Some days better than others.  I¢m sure Rocksylvania is not what the doctor would order. It¢s always hard to know what to do. I¢m sure hiking 20 miles a day on rough terrain would also never be part of any prescription.Turbo Turtle, the woman NOBO with Cheese, two days ago said she had been experimenting with drawing turtles in the registers. Here are two:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  and  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...There were some rocky stretches today http://www.trailjournals.com/j..., but a lot of fine trail, too. I¢ve been hearing about the big copperhead snakes lurking in Pilot Rocks. I¢d been shown photos, and a few hundred yards before that spot a day hiker came at me with an out-of-breath warning. But as hard as I looked, I didn¢t see any snakes. (Frodo, insert here some snarky but loving comment.) (Frodo: Nothing I could write would be as amusing as your parenthetical!)I am in my tent with a glass of red wine from local overly-equipped one-nighters. I topped 21 miles and tomorrow morning I¢ll drop into Port Clinton, PA, for a visit at their ¢Peanut Shop¢ and hopefully knock on the door of the members-only Firemen¢s Club and get some of the only pizza around.And today some fantastic news finally started circulating in my family. I¢ll share it with you soon. (If Reuben Scout sends me another ¢Please, Scout¢ video, make that right away.
Date: 2017-08-14
From: Rock and Sole Hostel

To: Interstate 81 stealth camp
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: few clouds

¢5¢¢1000.00¢  ¢13.2¢I know, Frodo is probably waiting for me to add these up wrong. I¢ll show her ¢ I¢m adding up nothing today.The ¢5¢ is of course ¢6¢ subtract ¢1¢, the days left till I see Frodo. ¢13.2¢ is the number of miles I have to hike to reach a milestone. Since mile 100 at the end of the 100-Mile Wilderness I have been a 3-digit midget. As I write this I¢m munching on lunch ¢ smoked Gouda, Waverly crackers, dried fruit and Raisinets (Frodo: lovingly purchased, packed and mailed for you by your adoring wife, who DOESN¢T just sit at home eating bob-bons all the time.)(Not that you ever said I did, I just want your readers to know that.) And I now have under 4 miles to the ¢ drumroll, please ¢ 1000-mile mark. I will step over the stones in the trail or whatever is there and I will be a 4-digit AT GIANT!Today, I don¢t think any climb or descent was over 200 feet. And if it was, it didn¢t feel like it. The whole day we traversed long Blue Mountain. At noon, after only 6.6 miles ¢ I got a late 8:30 start from the Rock & Sole Hostel ¢ I had a pleasant surprise. I heard a ¢hello¢ from a hiker in what otherwise had been a day empty of people. It was Nature Boy. I saw the young Dane a week ago with Sheriff, when I was on a zero day. Unfortunately, Sheriff had to leave the trail for the time being and Nature Boy is hiking on. I was surprised he was behind me; I had thought they were a day ahead.We leap-frogged toward the 1000-mile point, both eagerly anticipating it. It would be about 0.2 miles before the 501 Shelter. I thought about taking my picture next to the marker, thought about how that would feel, calling Frodo if I could. At 4:20 pm I thought I should be there. I checked my map. I checked the AT Guthook map app. I had hiked a full 0.1 beyond 1000 miles, a city block. I had seen nothing. I walked slowly ahead. There was Nature Boy at the shelter trail junction. ¢Did you see anything?" He asked. And there was nothing right there either. What are we SOBOs, chopped liver??NB and I started gathering rocks. I laid my trekking poles down to provide a guide so the numerals and letters would be in a straight line. ¢1¢ ¢0¢ Take a picture now; it only says ¢10!¢ ¢0¢ ¢0¢ and ¢SOBO.¢ Then we made a rock cairn of Pennsylvania¢s finest. Here are photos:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...And then I posted it on Facebook. Now it truly is real. NB had done 20, and I walked on to do 6 more and make 20 miles myself. We said our good-byes. He¢ll probably catch me again tomorrow.A mile later I hear footsteps. It¢s NB. He tucks in behind me for the next hours, till I¢m well over 20 miles. We find a rough campsite at 8:00 pm, we chat and tell life stories. What great company.It¢s way late. Frodo would chide me if I wrote the time.
Date: 2017-08-15
From: Interstate 81 stealth camp

To: Shikellimy Rocks
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

¢4¢ And I¢m not talking about golf. IMF.The trail is often on an old carriage road today and it passes once-bustling towns. Old is a relative term; these towns existed in the early 1900s. Rausch Gap, once a coal and mining town of a thousand in the early to mid 1800s, is now nothing more than a sign and some flat spots. http://www.trailjournals.com/j... Out West there¢d be ruins, tumbled-down walls, old stoves. But here pervasive rain, snow, and summer heat have scrubbed the remnants from the face of the Earth. The West¢s dry climate might well have preserved them. On the PCT and CDT there were old cabins, mines, iron stoves.I hiked with Nature Boy for 34 mile and then I stepped aside for him to move out at a 20-year-old¢s pace. I¢m still trying to give my left heel and Achilles the pace they deserve. I plan 20 miles today; NB plans 24. When will we see each other again? It¢s now lunch 10.5 miles along. I¢m at Yellow Village, another town that is today only a trailside sign, and I have seen no one in the last 10 miles.I did walk through the longest meadow since New Hampshire. http://www.trailjournals.com/j... Actually it must be an old once-cultivated field. Come to think of it, have I seen any natural meadows? They form in the Rockies and in the West, dotting the PCT and CDT. But not here; why? Manter Meadow on the PCT is 30 miles long. I did have some good nature photos today.  Above is a bee lazing on a lavender-colored flower.At first I thought it was pretty and I started to bend down to get a picture of one. But then I realized that they dotted the trail. Red, yellow, and orange leaves. It¢s mid-August. I started hiking weeks before the summer solstice and now the first signs of fall approaching are upon us:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...The other change is even more dramatic; we are losing daylight like a balloon with a pinhole losing air. In Maine, first light was by 3:30 am and now it¢s after 5:30 am. Right now it¢s 8:52 pm and it¢s been dark for at least a half hour; when I was in Maine I could still be reading without a headlamp.It¢s a fine balance out here ¢ appreciating your hike and not rushing, yet getting in the miles so you can finish before snow, all the while gauging how your body and mind are faring.Tonight I¢m tired, a bit too sticky, and I wish the AT didn¢t assign those personal gnats to buzz-bomb my ears and hover an inch away from my eyeglasses.I know the cure ¢ a pizza in Duncannon tomorrow. After 16 miles the trail winds right through town.
Date: 2017-08-16
From: Shikellimy Rocks

To: Duncannon
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: mist

¢2¢(Frodo: Hmmm¢¦. 2 is correct, since Scout will see me Friday morning and today is Wednesday. But yesterday he had ¢4¢. I have been biting my tongue, figuratively.)It¢s 8:30 am, an hour and a half on the trail, and a tall southbounder (me) meets a tall northbounder. What does one immediately say to the other? (Play the Jeopardy theme while you think.)Answer: ¢Yay! No more spiderwebs!¢And two miles later I can tell you exactly where he camped, the Peters Mountain Shelter, because the @%#& spiderwebs begin again.For my left heel and Achilles I have been religiously taking aspirin.  I even got some more at the Rock & Sole hostel Sunday night. But when I took two of those yesterday they were absolutely bitter in my mouth. What was wrong with those Rock & Sole aspirin? That was the wrong question. This morning while reaching into that same pouch of white pills I turned it over and looked at Frodo¢s handwritten label ¢ Flagyl! The question should have been, ¢What¢s wrong with the doofus taking the pills?¢And speaking of things going wrong, when I sat down on my freshly blown up NeoAir pad last night I heard a ¢sproing¢ I¢d never heard before. I turned it over and the above photo shows what I saw. Something has burst inside. I hoped it would last the night. (Frodo: Well, did it???)Today¢s hiking was more ridgetop ¢ meaning I knew it from my map, not because I could see it ¢ with a final long drop to cross the mighty Susquehanna River and walk the streets of Duncannon. There were white-blazed telephone poles, just like in Hanover. For weeks I¢d received warnings about the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon. Nice owners, but the place is ancient, they can¢t keep it up, and worse. My sprung air mattress tipped the decision and I went in with minimal expectations. I am the only hiker here (and with the NOBOs essentially gone and early SOBOs thinned out, I may be the only one in town). I have the corner room suite, and I didn¢t expect air conditioning or a refrigerator (which I don¢t have). The queen bed, sheets, and pillows are clean, even if the other furniture is far less than pristine.  For $25 and with the smiles of the two owners, I¢m happy and satisfied.But as a flip side (Do you remember ¢45¢ records with a second song on the ¢flip¢ side?) let me show you some photos of the Rock & Sole Hostel from last Sunday night and what $45 got me. Two generous home-cooked meals plus this:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Finally, my hat¢s off to this section¢s hard-working trail maintainers. Take a look at this photo. Do you know what it is?  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...I saw not one, but many of these. That is a large-bore, hardwood blowdown, painstakingly cut with an axe! I can hear the sharp thud of each hit and the snap of those woodchips hitting the ground. That¢s hard work! Thanks.Off to eat some more.
Date: 2017-08-17
From: Duncannon

To: Carlisle
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: light rain

¢1¢ In this case it is not ¢The Loneliest Number.¢ And speaking of that song, do you remember the name of the band that sang it? Hint: the name came from a graphic term describing the coldest of Australian nights.  "Mate, on a cold night you grab one of your dogs and sleep with it. On a real cold night you grab two dogs. And, Mate, on a night to freeze off a witch¢s ___, now that¢s a 'Three Dog Night.'¢On the AT so far the coldest night has been one where you might reach for a lap dog.The AT Guidebook, (AWOL¢s Guide) had a ¢very rocky¢ warning for the climb out of Duncannon to Hawk¢s Viewpoint. How do I say this¢¦. The ¢rocks¢ were steps, the climb was sedately steep, and there was nary a wild rock jumble in sight. Not complaining here. Just observing.And speaking of guidebooks, maps, and apps: I am the Troglodite out here. On the PCT up till a year ago more than two-thirds carried paper maps, the ¢Halfmile¢ maps. This year it went down to one-third, with almost all relying on smartphone PCT-dedicated map apps, either Halfmile or Guthook. Here on the AT, 90% rely on the AWOL Guide, a list of waypoints with 0.1 to 6 miles separating them, combined with an elevation profile in the background. Of course everyone relies on the nearly ever-present white blazes. A small percent use the AT Guthook smart phone map app. Hardly anyone uses a topographical map.Except me. ¢Remember these,¢ I say as I pull my map out of my pocket.Trailside ripe corn-- I was so tempted to liberate a few ears. (Though someone told me it's grown for animal only consumption, not human):  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Mid-morning, traveling a largely lovely trail with small ups and downs, I hear footsteps behind me. ¢Just Simon¢ is SOBO and zooming. He actually started on the PCT in the spring. ¢You¢re Scout. I should have stayed at your place.¢ He¢d had a difficult time using public transport to get to the PCT¢s southern terminus. After 200 miles, he saw the incredibly high snow ahead and made his own wise decision. He jumped across the country to start the AT. Simon is German and figures he may only have one chance to hike a long trail. He slowed down his planned 30-mile day to hike with me for a few hours. We both were thirsty for company.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Here¢s something incongruous. On the better known trail, the AT, maybe one of 15 thru-hikers is an International, well under 10%. What is it on the PCT? Simon agreed with my own observation ¢ a third to 40% of PCT thru-hikers this year were from outside the U.S. Why the striking difference?I know you¢re expecting an answer from me in this paragraph. But I¢m still pondering the possible reasons.Tonight I am in Carlisle, at a Super 8 motel, a quarter-mile off the trail. No one would want to sleep on my wounded Neo Air pad. So I¢m making a wise decision and sleeping on a bed. Tomorrow in the morning at one of the half dozen road crossings I¢ll see ¢¦. Frodo!¢Nite for now.
Date: 2017-08-20
From: Shippensburg Road

To: Hermann South B&B
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Frodo: I'm writing today's entry so Scout can take off this zero day.After spending a restful night in Jordie¢s guestroom, we head out at the oh-so-civilized hour of 9:00 am. Jordie drops us off at a metro station. We ride the metro to the airport, then fly to St. Louis. Well, that must seem kind of random. Why are we headed to St. Louis?I¢m sure some of you can figure out why, but if anyone reads this months or years from now, it will be less figure-outable.We are headed to the center line of The Great American Total Solar Eclipse. From the St. Louis airport we will drive 2 hours west and a bit south to stay at a little B&B out in the countryside one mile from the center line, so we should have 2.5 minutes of totality tomorrow about 1:14 pm. We just decided to do this a few weeks ago. It seemed at first that it wouldn¢t happen, since all the accommodations in the path of totality appeared to be fully booked. But I was a bit resourceful and a bit lucky, and here we are.Yes, I know it might seem a bit profligate to fly somewhere to spend two nights just to see an eclipse, but it¢s kind of fun to do this kind of thing on a lark, and we figure that¢s one of the reasons we worked hard in our careers. Besides, it¢s a TOTAL solar eclipse!But first we have some family and friends to visit. Scout¢s dad has a first cousin, Jay, here in St. Louis. He and his lady friend Esther take us to a late lunch at O¢Connell¢s pub, famous for its burgers. And they are good!  The photo above is from our meal in this venerable establishment.Then we head to Ballwin, just west of the city, to see the Jacobsmeyer family. Scott Jacobsmeyer is on the Board of the Pacific Crest Trail Association (Scout just finished three 3-year terms on the Board, including three years as Chairman.) Scott has hiked with us in the North Cascades of Washington and for a section of the CDT in New Mexico, including crossing the upper Gila River literally a hundred times. He has five wonderful kids and the whole family has driven up from Texas to Scott¢s parents house to see the eclipse. (It gets confusing, alternating between ¢Scout¢ and ¢Scott¢.) Scott¢s folks are very welcoming and we have a great visit. Scout hands out his gold AT tattoos to all and sundry, and a couple are applied post haste:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  and  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...We are all hoping for clear skies mid-day tomorrow. We arrive at our B&B as dusk turns to full dark. We are glad to be here, and fall asleep with visions of coronas dancing in our heads.
Date: 2017-08-21
From: Hermann South B&B

To: Hermann South B&B, Just north of Drake, MO
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Has the country collectively gone bonkers?  Every citizen has cardboard sunglasses. Campgrounds go for $300 a night, a night¢s stay at a Holiday Inn Express is $400 and the news reports that every Porta Potty in Idaho has long been spoken for. You won¢t catch me indulging in eclipse mania. But they say that birds nest, chickens roost and the stars come out. When else will I ever have a chance to see a total solar eclipse?  It¢s a nine hour drive to reach Tennessee, the closest point of the totality swath to where I was Saturday evening on the AT. Where was I today at 1:13 pm? Why was there spontaneous clapping all around me? Here's the main reason I took this two-day zero (In addition to the fact that my body would have screamed at me if I didn¢t)¢We were flying to see the eclipse. We flew from D.C. to St. Louis, rented a car and drove an hour west into the center of the totality zone. Two minutes and forty seconds.Fifteen minutes beforehand the temperature started dropping as if it was 8:30 or 9:00, not mid-day. There were only fifteen of us, and we hadn¢t known each other before today, but everyone was oohing and ahhing and exclaiming, like at a fireworks show, a rock concert, and a wedding all at the same time.  Here we are:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  and http://www.trailjournals.com/j...I have seen Venus come out in the middle of the day. Wow. It wasn¢t quite a wedding, but right after the celestial show was over, a young woman of a couple, held out her ring finger. Her boyfriend had proposed during the two minutes of totality. The heavens stuns us and life goes on below. Tomorrow, I will find myself back a mile south of the AT midpoint, pack on my back to continue south. I will have one more wonder to ponder for the Appalachian Trail.