morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-07-01
From: Kent, Connecticut

To: Mt. Wilcox North Lean-tto
Miles today: 68.3

Two good things happened yesterday. I hit 1500 miles hiked and I entered my 11th. state, Massachusetts. Other then that not much went right. It seemed like I had 3 legs and two didn't work. I fell 3 times the last time was an all out splatter on a slick black rock. Since I lost every last oz. of fat on my body it tends to hurt a lot. but no harm was done. I also had two run-ins with branches to my head. I had been expecting the terrain to be easier and was surprised by the hard rock climbs. After 18 miles of this brutality, Site-See, my hiking partner and I arrived at a road crossing. We hitchhiked in to South Egremont, to the Egremont Inn, an inn built in 1790. A hot shower and a soft bed sure helped my disposition. On Sunday we hiked 21.6 hot humid miles. My hiker book said that a lady in Salisbury, Connecticut makes her house available to hikers. I called her from 8 miles out and asked her if she had a room available. I told her two good looking men wanted to stay at her house. She offered to drive to the trail to pick us up. When I was walking toward the road, she yelled down the trail asking where the good looking men were. Maria McCabe is 80 years old and has been taking in hikers for years to supplement her social security. She is one feisty lady. She drove us to a neighboring town to a restaurant where we bought her meal. People like her make this trip worth doing. She has paper towels draped around the kitchen since she dries them out and uses them again. She has outlived 2 husbands and several boyfriends. When we returned to her house a red fox was in her backyard waiting for her. After dark it arrives in her back yard waiting to be fed. I tossed raw hot dogs out for it. She talks to that little fox like a little child. She said something that still resonates in my mind. She has notebooks for hikers to leave messages in and on cold winter days when she is lonely she reads from these books to read the nice things hikers said about her. That really spoke to me. Everybody wants to be needed, to have some worth. How easy is it for us to make someones day by letting them know we appreciate them. It takes so little, yet so often we are so wrapped up in ourselves we miss golden opportunities to make someones day. I started out this hike 93 days ago weary of people and their needs and needing solitude and nature. Now I am tired of hiking and need people in my life. We all know we need people in our lives we just don't always know we know it. Somehow that made sense when I thought it. Today was a better day, I had a meeting with myself this morning to work on my attitude which was not what it should have been. Unfortunately I can't blame anything on anybody else out here, its just me and the rocks and trees and of course those nasty biting bugs. Hey God, its good to see you back today. Where were you yesterday? New pictures should be up any day now. Thank you Ina for posting those photos to my site and for the food drops and for all the encouragement during this hike. Paul
Date: 2008-07-03
From: Mt. Wilcox North Lean-tto

To: Dalton, Massachusetts 
Miles today: 34.6
Weather: few clouds

Am at the Bird Cage in Dalton, Mass. Robert Bird opens his house to hikers for showers and overnight stay. He also does your laundry and shuttles hikers anywhere they need to go. He does all this for no charge. Asked why, he says he likes people and would otherwise be alone with his dogs. I am amazed by the kind people you meet on and off this trail. This morning at six thirty I stopped at the cookie ladys house. Marilyn Wiley and her husband Roy operate a blueberry farm there and have for years offered cookies to hikers stopping at her house. It was so early I was afraid the cookies would not be ready. I was ready to leave when Rufus, her dog, told her someone was there. She gave me 3 chocolate chip cookies. That was a good treat after hiking 2 miles. This morning I met a porcupine walking along the trail. It was a big one. I waited for it to finally leave the trail. That was the first time I had seen one in the wild. I saw one on the road at the North rim of the Grand Canyon several years ago but it had been run over by a car and quilled. I am here tonight with Padre, the priest, Rhino and Ronya his dog, both from Germany. Forrest Gimp a young lady from Philadelphia, Pa. She is meeting her boyfriend here tomorrow. My hiking partner Site See is also here. He is from the country of Wisconsin. They have a different language up there. I must go eat.
Date: 2008-07-05
From: Dalton, Massachusetts 

To: Williamstown, Mass.
Miles today: 23.3

Yesterday I only hiked 9.3 miles to Cheshire, Mass. I got a ride back to Rob Birds Hostel and spent the afternoon sleeping. Last night Tom Lavardi, a man who has another Hostel in Dalton invited the hikers at the Bird Cage over for a meal. There were around 12 hikers there. Today I hiked over Mt. Graylock, it was a 14 mile hike but was done in the rain. Mt. Graylock is the highest elevation in Massachusetts. It was so foggy at the top I could not get a picture of the Memorial Tower on top of the mountain. At 2 o'clock I had a six and a half mile hike down the mountain. It was steep and muddy and very slippery. I finally reached MA2 where I needed to hike a half mile to a store to resupply for several days. I was wet and tired and there was a motel across from the grocery store, so instead of hiking another 6 miles I checked into the Redwood Motel and got a hot shower and dryed all my clothes. I believe it has been close to 35 days since we have had a day without rain, heat or humidity. My plan tomorrow is to be on the trail by five o'clock and try to hike 28 miles. After hiking 4 miles tomorrow morning I will be leaving Mudachusetts and entering Vermont. I have 596.3 miles left to hike. It seems like I've been out here for a year. This hike is physically, mentally, and emotionally more demanding then I could ever have imagined. I am sooo ready to be done. But like my brother-in-law Paul Weaver says I am also sooo stubborn. The harder and more miserable the conditions get the more determined I get to finish this hike. Since I did two slower days there are more hikers catching up with me. That is good because it gives the mosquitoes more choices from their human buffet. The other morning when I met with myself about my bad attitude I told myself I chose to hike through these swamps, and that is where the mosquitoes live. Can anyone tell me why God created mosquitoes? It seems there is a function for every insect, but the skeeter really puzzles me. Blood sucking nasty little beasts! They don't have a preference whether you use Deet or Off.
Date: 2008-07-10
From: Williamstown, Mass.

To: Rutland, Vt.
Miles today: 90.9

Am at the house of Simon The Tanner. Did not see Peter though. I was at the top of White Rock Mtn. yesterday when I got caught in another rain storm. I got really soaked. No lightening or thunder though. I was still 9 miles from VT103 where the trail crosses it is 10 miles to Rutland. I called the number of a bus company that runs that route to see if I could get to Rutland to dry out. The number I dialed was a wrong number, however it turned out to be a hostel run by the Twelve Tribes Community. They are a group of folks living like the first Church in Acts. They run the Back Home Caf© and Simon the Tanner outfitter in downtown Rutland. There message is one of love one another. Not a bad message. They came out and picked me up at the trail and are taking me back this morning. Last night after I dryed out, Abner and Virginia Schlabach from South Royalton, Vt. met me at the Caf© here. They had offered to take me out to eat. They will probably think twice before doing that again. I ate an embarrising amount of food. Abner comes from the Bunker Hill area in Holmes County. When I spoke with him on the phone I remembered a lady we used to call, Ab Lula. That is his mom. That is going back over 50 years. We played the Mennonite Connection game to perfection. It was so good to meet someone with connections to home. Thanks for the visit Ab and Virginia. Sorry about that dent in the wallet. I hiked 29 miles on Sunday and over 20 each day since. Today I am only doing 17 miles. I plan on being in Hanover, New Hampshire on Monday. That is when the big miles will stop. Two days ago I hit the 100 day mark out here in the woods. It seems like a lot longer. I am averaging over 17 miles a day if you remove my 7 days off. Today its finally supposed to cool off. I am passing many nice ponds up in the Green Mts. Yesterday morning I jumped into Griffith Lake for a short swim. That was before I knew the rain was going to wash me. Two days ago I had a German Shepherd dog follow me. He arrived at mt shelter the night before and when I woke up he was sleeping on the floor beside me. He actually led on the trail. I would try to pretend I was going up a side trail to lose him, but he always returned. I finally got a young man I met at a road crossing to take him into Manchester Center, Vt. I was just about ready to give him a name, but that would have been trouble since I would have become attached to him. Well my ride is ready to take me back to my daily grind.
Date: 2008-07-13
From: Inn At Long Trail

To: Hanover, New Hampshire
Miles today: 45.0

Disclaimer, there was no Guinness tipped while at the McGrath Irish Pub, I am just full of blarney. Hiked two long day of 20 miles each and a short one of 5 miles today. I reached my 13th. state, New Hampshire on the 13th. I am in Hanover, N.H. on the campus of Dartmouth College. Last night I was at the Happy Hill Shelter. I met a South bound hiker there. I was asking him questions about the hiking conditions in Maine. He is doing a thru hike to Georgia expecting to arrive in Ga. in November. I asked about a section in Maine and he did not know because he had skipped that section. I am amazed that people will skip sections and still think they completed a thru hike. He is a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He has probably worked with enough politicians who think that a job half done is a job well done, that he thinks nothing about an incomplete hike. I have met many other hikers that are taking short cuts on their thru hike. I wonder why they don't just drive to Maine and walk several miles on the A.T. and summit Mt. Katahdin and tell everyone about their thru hike. That got me to thinking, perhaps a little deception could be useful, maybe I could use it to my benefit. Since I am going to be unemployed when my hike is over I had an idea. I am at one of the best institutions of higher learning in America, Dartmouth College. I decided to do a job resume from here. I was all over the campus exploring this college so I took a seat in front of a classroom and wrote this resume. Dear perspective employer, I am applying for the job posted on the student bulletin board here at Dartmouth. The executive vice president opening will be a good situation for me. The starting wage of half a million dollars is a little low, but am willing to prove myself. As I write this I will admit I am at the head of the class. While other students have gone home for the summer I am here with other students working on their graduate degree. The path to Dartmouth was not an easy one for me. While other students got here by their parents influence, I can truly say I arrived on my own two feet. Yes there were many obstacles on my pathway here, but I treated them as if they were mountains to be crossed. I do not wish to boast but I have never received a grade below an A. My grade point average is truly off of the charts. You will not find any professors or other students that will say anything negative about me. As a show of good faith I am asking for a fifty thousand dollar up front payment, as my true value will soon be apparent**. I have certainly enjoyed my time here at Dartmouth, how the time does fly. It seems like just yesterday that I arrived here on campus. I doubt that you will need any grade transcripts, but if they should be desired you can sent a request to the following address. Dartmouth Transcription OfficeSuite D Seption St.Attn. R Konter FeightI hope to hear from you forthwith. My bag is packed and I'm ready to travel. Paul Stutzman** At the restaurant I have often wished I could pay people what they were worth, however I was prohibited by law from going that low.
Date: 2008-07-14
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: hikers welcome hostel
Miles today: 43.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Did not get hired with that application and could not afford the tuition at Dartmouth so I left Hanover Monday morning. Climbed over Moose and Smarts Mountains Monday and Tuesday. Hiked 14 miles today and am staying at the Hikers Welcome Hostel in Glencliff, N.H. The hostel was a half mile hike down NH25. We will be getting a shuttle into Warren, NH. tonight to a restaurant and grocery. Tomorrow we climb over Mt. Moosilauke, that will be the first time we will be above treeline. The climbs either are getting tougher or I'm getting weaker. I am 63 miles from Mt. Washington. I am meeting a lot of South bounders daily. Most of the South bounders left Mt. Katadhin around a month ago. It looks like I will be finishing my hike around the 3rd. week of August. I don't know how I'll feel when I'm closer to done with this hike but right now I'm so ready to be done. I am just completly worn out right now. Some good news though, only 398.5 miles left. Just a little walk in the park. Phone reception is poor so far in NH. I am using the computer at the hostel. I will continue to drag this bag o bones over every obstacle between myself and Katadhin. Rhino and Padre the priest are also coming to this hostel tonight. I am with Site see, Traveler, and Cricket. There are also some Sobo,s here. Lots of good conversation.
Date: 2008-07-19
From: Liberty Spring Tent site.

To: AMC Galehead Hut
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: broken clouds

It rained and stormed for several hours last night. I was kept busy cleaning up rain that blew in the tent. During the night I had on all my clothes including my rain gear trying to keep warm. I turned on my cook stove 4 times during the night to keep warm. My winter gear is being sent to Gorham, NH. but I sure could have used it last night. This morning at 5 o'clock I had the tent dryed out, when another rainstorm hit. At 7 o'clock I packed up my wet tent and hit the trail. I hiked the 10.4 hardest miles of my life. I could never have imagined how difficult the trail would be in NH. Tonight I am at the AMC Galehouse Hut. There are a series of small lodges called huts in the White mts. I am doing a work for stay. I get to stay here free and get to sleep on the dining room floor. In return I have to work several hours. I also get to eat dinner and breakfast. It gave me a chance to unpack all my stuff and dry it out. I also met a lot of nice people here today. Hiked with Site See and Sir Bacon today. Sir Bacon is from Deer Isle Maine and his family owns several lobster boats. I am looking forward to eating several of those sea spiders myself when I get to Maine. It was very foggy and windy today as we hiked over Little Haystack, Lincoln, and Lafayette Mts. The path was very steep and wet and slippery. On the ridges the trail is marked by rock cairns. You had to search carefully to see them in the fog. I am going to try to do 15 miles tomorrow to Crawford Notch,NH. Hope you all have a good Sunday.
Date: 2008-07-20
From: AMC Galehead Hut

To: AMC Lake of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 25.9
Weather: fog

I am aware that my journal is not posting properly. I am at The Lake of the Clouds Hut, one and a half miles from the summit of Mt. Washington. I hiked 11.2 miles from Crawford Notch Campground. Got caught in the rain as I was walking along the ridge line 2 miles from the Hut. I can't begin to describe how I hate getting rained on, so I won't. One of these days I expect to wake up covered in moss sprouting mushrooms from all the moisture I've absorbed. This is really just a test to see if I can get this journal to work.
Date: 2008-07-21
From: AMC Lake of the Clouds Hut

To: Table Top
Miles today: 20.0

It is 3 o'clock in the morning as I type this. My bed is the top of the same table I ate at several hours ago. I am in the dining hall at Lake of the Clouds or as hikers call it, Lake of the Crowds. This is the largest of the huts in the White Mts. we fed 92 people tonight. Just my luck to do a work for stay at the bussiest hut. I was a dish dog for 92 folks. As part of my work for stay I talked to the group about my thru hike. Yesterday morning as I was about to leave Galehoue Hut, Hometown and Rethinker showed up. It was good to see them again. I had previously hiked with both of them. We hiked in the rain together all day. At 2 o'clock we had 7.8 miles to go to get to Crawford Notch. Sir Bacon and I decided to see how fast we could hike it. The path was easier but water filled. We did it in two and a half hours, however we still had a 3 mile road walk to the campground. No one would pick up 2 waterlogged hikers. We had planned to sent someone back to the trail to pick up site see, hometown, and rethinker. While we were about at the campground the three came out of the trail and the first car picked them up and they beat us there. It felt so good to shower and wear clean clothes. This morning the forcast was for thunder storms on Mt. Washington, so Site See, Rethinker and Hometown took a zero at the campground. I told them If I planned my hiking around weather reports I would still be in Georgia. That is why Sir Bacon and I are here sleeping on table tops and they are back down in the valley. My drive by shooter showed up again on my guest site. I had visualized him in a room trying to put thoughts on paper without using profanity. His pencil was down to a stub, eraser chewed off, and the wastebasked full of crumpled up paper, with him muttering to himself, I can do this. I took offence to his profanity and he took offence at my self rightous attitude. I deleted his entire entry, not because of his hate filled invectives but because he is too cowardly to sign his name. Now my Christian hating buddy it really gets difficult for you. Now you need to post not only without profanity but without your own judgemental hate. Since your type is so easily predictable, I would assume you will make up a silly fake name. The thing about profanity and Christian bashing is this, while it used to be done for shock value it is now so commonplace it no longer has shock value, and in reality is just mind numbingly boring. Now comes my quandry, tomorrow I hike past the cog train. It is a hiker tradition to moon this smoke belching rail beast. Is it proper for a self rightous Christian to flash the moon at them. In my case they probably could not see much since I have lost most of it. Where is Padre when I need him. Well my table is calling me back to bed. Apostle, party of one, your table is now ready.
Date: 2008-07-23
From: Table Top

To: Imp Shelter
Miles today: 27.9
Weather: fog

Another cold, wet, foggy, windy, muddy day in the White Mountains. I hiked 14.8 miles yesterday from Mt. Washington to Pinkham Notch Camp. I stayed in a bunk at Joe Dodge Lodge. It included dinner and breakfast. The food was delicous and I ate sooo much. It has been rainy and foggy everyday in the Whites. The only view was at Mt Moosilauke and a nice sunset at Lake of the clouds. I am hiking with Sir Bacon and he and I were the only two hikers at Mt. Washington. We were on web cam at seven fourty five. We hiked over Wildcat Mt. this morning, it was a brutal climb, especially since the rocks were wet. Sir Bacon, a 30 year old man is out here healing from a divorce. He came home from work one day and his wife told him she was leaving that day. He is a nice young man with the kindest heart I have ever seen. Back in Virginia he was hiking over a bridge and heard a kitten. He rescued it and carried it in his hat for a while. He tried to give it away without success. He hiked back 24 miles to a town to find a humane shelter, again without success. By now he is attached to the kitten. He gets a taxi to an airport, rents a car and drives home to Maine with his new pet. He gives it to a friend to take care of till he finishes his hike. Then he drove back to the airport and gets a taxi back to the trail. Two hundred dollars for the car, four hundred on gas, Sixty dollars for taxi, plus 3 zero days off from hiking. That's an expensive kitty. How could anyone leave a man with a kind heart like that? I have my tent set up inside the shelter tonight since it's so cold. It seems like every weather pattern in America ends up in New Hampshire. It gets very nasty up along the ridges. Tomorrow I hike to Gorham NH. I have a food drop to pick up at the Post Office. I plan to be in Maine on Satarday. Also Satarday I will hit 1900 miles and will climb Mahoosuc Notch, the hardest mile on the trail. I don't know what is happening to my journal. I sent an e-mail to Trailjournals about it but have not heard from them.
Date: 2008-07-24
From: Imp Shelter

To: Gorham NH.
Miles today: 25.3
Weather: fog

Hiked 8 miles into Gorham this morning. Got a hitch 3 1/2 miles to Post Office for a food box pick up. I checked into a motel close to PO and realized it was the same motel our family stayed at 15 years ago on a trip to the New England states. It brought back good memories of when Mary was healthy and the our family was together. Oh to have those days back, sometimes I wish I could just freeze a moment of time when the children were young and enjoy it for a long time. Time passes very quickly, the children grow up, grandchildren are born, spouses pass away, I quess we should just enjoy today to the fullest. To those wanting to know what I am seeing on my hike, it's this, rocks, trees, roots, all wet. Wind, rain, fog, and mist all wet. The clothes I am wearing from hat to shoes, you guessed it, all wet. The trails are rocky and steep and very slippery. There are places where there are boards to walk on, the problem is they are under water. The streams usually have rocks to hop across, they too are under water. I forded 3 streams today, one up to my knees. At least it washed the mud off of my shoes. To those worried about me mooning the cog railway, don't be. We crossed Mt. Washington to early for the cog to be runningyet. Although if I had it would have been a waning crescent moon. It is now a federal crime to moon the cog train. What a relief to know that crime wave has been stopped. A group of us hikers were talking about riding the cog train and mooning the hikers. So, John Schmid, your sending me to an intellectual think tank? Does he know I will be the lone turkey flying in with a bunch of eagles? These eagles keep telling me, don't fly so high, don't fly so fast. You didn't think I was going to let the skunk at the garden party off easy, did you? Hey, my friend, which one of those eagles are you? I'll bet you are the one without a name that keeps screaming Happy Thanksgiving to me. You call me nasty, my friend. Both my friends don't recognize me as such. You took what I said in humor and took offence, I took what you meant as offence in good humor. Words can only hurt if you allow them to. My friend told me to ignore him and maybe he will go away. I want him here. He helps bring out the message of my hike. Life is all about choices, we can choose to be happy or we can choose anger. We can't always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react. Those of us who have lost loved ones can stay stuck in grief forever or we can at least make an attempt at healing. It requires an effort but in all cases our loved ones would want us to find joy in our lives. We can toss Apostles and Saints at each other all day, but in the end the only choice that really matters is what you did about Jesus. I realize my methods might be strange but my motives are good. Well the eagles are calling for their leader so I must go, up up and away. Oops, look out belooow!