morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-09-23
From: Rutland, Vt

To: Twelve tribes hiker hostel
Miles today: 0.9

Today is an unscheduled rest day to get my crown recemented at the dentists office. If you are using David Miller's ( AWOL) guide to follow my hiking progress, I forgot to mention that two days ago I hiked 14.8 miles from the Witurri Shelter to just beyond Thundering Falls road.Camping is not allowed at this magnificent waterfalls, so I camped legally beyond the falls. In an attempt to get the weight of my backpack down, I am mailing my tent and a few other items ahead to just over the Massachusetts state line.This means that for the next nine nights,I can only sleep at the shelters, which means my daily hiking distance will be shortened to ten or less miles per day. The extremely frequent and steep climbs and descents are taking a toll on my knees. The Vermont forest has many HUGE maple trees in it. I noticed lots of plastic tubing connecting all of the maple trees and running downhill for miles. This is the way maple syrup is now collected. The days of individual metal buckets collecting maple sap from each individual maple tree are gone. It takes ten gallons of maple sap to make one goallon of maple syrup. When I come to a fire tower in the middle of the forest my desire for a scenic I view trumps my fear of heights, and I go up for a look. The other day, feeling a bit pressed for time, I declined to climb to the top of a fire tower, which turned out to be a lucky accident for me. A few hours later, as I sat eating my lunch, I saw a very small sign that gave me the " heebie jeebies." The sign said the fire tower was closed and anyone who climbed the tower was subject to a fine of up to FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! There was NO sign on the fire tower warning people of this fact, nor was there any sign warning southbound hikers of this fact before they arrived at the fire tower. In a previous post to this blog I told of how I had been fined $150 for camping in an area where I had a permit to camp, and where BEFORE pitching my tent, I asked a ranger where I was allowed to camp, and then pitching my tent where he told me to pitch it. I appealed my fine to the authorities in Washington DC, and the fine was upheld, because " I should have known better than to camp there!" I could just see some bureaucrat fining me $5000 for climbing a tower that had NO sign telling me it was closed because "I should have known the fire tower was closed." In the future, I may avoid climbing other fire towers because of highway robbery fines for facilities that are secretly closed, with no warning that the facility is closed.
Date: 2016-09-24
From: Twelve tribes hiker hostel

To: Twelve Tribes Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 17.7

Today was one of those rare days where everything went perfectly. I did a 17.7 mile slack pack (no gear, just a day pack with water and my lunch.) Vermont has a very inexpensive bus that runs throughout the state. It is called "the bus." (I hope they didn't pay the advertising gurus a fortune to come up with that name.)It cost the princely fee of two dollars for me to take the bus to the start of my hike. However, since I am over the age of 60, they felt sorry for me and cut their extremely reasonable fare in half! I began my hike at 8:00 AM in a cold rain, which ceased for the remainder of the day shortly after I began my hike. The AT goes thru the Green Mountains of Vermont which are very beautiful, but also very steep, with lots of steep climbs and descents. I knew I would have to hustle to complete my entire hike before it got dark. My pack, with just lunch and water, felt light as a feather. The day was cool and cloudy, which was perfect for climbing steep mountainsides. I got a bit of excitement as I rounded a blind corner. A little over 100 yards from me was a bear! I don't know who was more surprised by the encounter, me or the bear. The bear and I both froze for a few seconds and then the bear went charging off into the underbrush as fast as it could go. I shouted out, "oh, come on now. I know I'm ugly, but I can't be THAT ugly!" My hikers guide (AWOL) warned that near the end of my hike would be a perilous descent for half a mile. When they give a warning like that, you know you are about to have some excitement, and the descent was indeed challenging.I finished my hike at 6:30 PM, just in time, then I had to hitchhike back to Rutland VT where the twelve tribes religious commune hiker hostel where I was spending the nite was located. I had my thumb out (hitchhiking) for about two minutes when I got a ride to the door of the hostel. I dropped off my pack, showered and headed out the door of the hostel to find a restaurant for dinner when I encountered a woman who is a member of the twelve tribes. It was a Saturday nite, which marks the end of the Sabbath for this religious community, and they mark it with an elaborate dinner, and she invited me to their dinner, free of charge. Shortly before dinner all of the twelve tribes members have a very short service where they give thanks and pray, and it was interesting to get to see that. It was just one of those rare days where everything went perfectly
Date: 2016-09-25
From: Twelve Tribes Hiker Hostel

To: Greenwall shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I left the Yellow Deli Hiker Hostel with a very heavy heart today. It is the last hiker hostel for the rest of the AT. It is always great to visit with the other hikers staying at the hostel and listen to the stories of their hikes, and I won't be able to do that as much after today. The Yellow Deli has a caf© downstairs from the hostel that is open 24 hours a day for 5 days a week. I stayed at the hiker hostel for 3 nites. The first nite I was there they had a free 2 hour live music concert with a hammer dulcimer, flute, guitar, and tambourine where they played Appalachian mountain music. The food in their deli is legendary. I ordered a strawberry smoothie with my meal at the Yellow Deli and it was delicious. When I tried to pay for it, they told me it (the smoothie) was on the house! They do not charge to stay at the hostel, it is by whatever donation you care to give. The people who run the Yellow Deli Hiker Hostel were very friendly and gracious, and I experienced no pressure to become a member of their religious community. Yesterday, I said it was a perfect day for me. My luck did not continue for a second day. Yes, it is WONDERFUL to slack pack, but the next day, when you put your fully loaded backpack on (heavier than usual, because I had just resupplied with three days worth of food), it feels like it weighs a TON. , and I began my hike with a very long and steep uphill climb. The bus I needed to take to the start of the hike did not run on weekends, so I called Tom, who is a former AT hiker who for a very reasonable five dollar fee shuttles hikers to the start of the hike. When I called Tom, he said he would not be able to pick me up until 10:00 AM, so I got a very late start. Today was the first day I would be hiking without my tent (I mailed it ahead to North Adams Massachusetts) so I will be limited to sleeping only in shelters until then. Just my luck, the first cold snap of fall rolled in that nite, and I slept wearing every stitch of clothing I own, which was just enough to keep me very warm. In the morning it was 39 degrees! If the filter to my water purification system freezes, it no longer works, so I put it inside my sleeping bag that nite. The advantage to not carrying a tent is that it makes my pack lighter for those long, steep climbs/descents over the Green Mountains. The disadvantage is that I can only sleep in shelters, which means less miles hiked each day. I am starting to think that maybe shipping my tent ahead was not a very good idea.
Date: 2016-09-26
From: Greenwall shelter

To: Lost Pond Shelter
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: broken clouds

My goal today was to reach Peru Peaks shelter. I got on the trail by 7:20 AM, and only one thing could have prevented me from reaching my destination. That one thing was miles and miles of half buried boulders on the hiking trail, and that's exactly what I got. By the time I reached Lost Pond Shelter, it was 3:00 PM. Peru Peaks was another 4.7 miles away. If the trail continued to be extremely rocky, it meant I would arrive after dark, and tonite was another very cold nite. I decided to play it safe and call it quits for the day. (The next day I discovered that the extreme rockiness ceased after Lost Pond Shelter. Had I continued, I would have reached the shelter with plenty of daylight left!) Oh well, better to be safe than sorry.) At nite, I put all of my food in a sack and hang it from a tree to keep animals from eating it. I have a very small sack that I fill with rocks, then tie to the end of a rope. I throw the rock filled sack over a high up tree branch and then hoist my food bag up the tree. I have been doing this for 6 months without a problem. Today I got a tree that decided to fight back. My rock bag got wedged between two braches that formed a "V", and it was too high up for me to reach. I dragged a picnic table to the defiant tree, stood on top of the picnic table, (which was not on level ground, and thus very wobbly) . and stretched my hiking pole up to the rock sack and tried to nudge the rock sack back over the top of the branch, while also trying not to fall off the wobbly picnic table. (I was great entertainment for the other hikers staying at the shelter.) They were of the opinion that I would not be able to retrieve my rock sack. They were wrong. After about half an hour, I finally got my rock sack back. I really need that rock sack, so I had to keep trying until I got it back. My triumph was very short lived, however. I had a water bottle just inside the shelter. It fell to the ground below, shattering the lid. That meant I had only one water bottle left, which is not enough water for hiking. I got a Trail Magic Miracle, because another hiker at the shelter had an extra empty water bottle that she gave to me. I could not have been more grateful for her gift ifitI was a bar of gold! I have helped people out of bad situations on the AT, and now a total stranger helped me out of a problem situation!
Date: 2016-09-27
From: Lost Pond Shelter

To:  Manchester Cener, VT
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: broken clouds

Today I hiked just under 15 miles, and all I did all day long was climb and descend several steep mountains. Yet because the AT was relatively boulder free, I was able to hike a long distance. There are four people from my bicycle club, Fred Glickman (he was the subject of a previous humorous posting on this blog), Bob, Joe, and Susan who are taking a mini vacation out to NH, and they decided to try to meet me somewhere on the AT. I also have a friend from my year long, around the world bike trip (Ron Molino) who invited me to stay at his house in Manchester Center, Vt. The only place that all 6 of us could meet was at Manchester Center. I was 3 miles from the end of my hike to Manchester Center. I had just summited Mt. Bromley, when I heard someone call out my name. It was my friend Bob, who along with Fred had climbed the mountain, hoping they would meet me. Bob asked if I was surprised to see him there, and surprised was an understatement! Bob and I and several other people from my biking club have gone on several of Bob's MAGNIFICENT kayaking trips. (On one such trip, we were deep in the Everglades, and did not end our trip until 11:30 PM, but that's another story) Bob has only one unbending rule for his kayaking trips. That rule is that there WILL be a happy hour during that trip. So I was not at all surprised when Bob pulled out a bottle of wine and three wine glasses and Bob, Fred, and I drained that bottle at the summit of Mt. Bromley and snapped pictures. I said that finding Bob on that mountaintop was a little bit like Stanley finding Dr. Livingston in the middle of Africa, and Bob said he had the same thought. We drank one bottle of wine between three people, so I did not drink that much wine, but I had not eaten much food all day, and to my astonishment, I was SMASHED and I still had to walk 2.5 miles and a 700 foot descent and as usual there were LOTS of roots and rocks on the AT, so it was an interesting descent! Bob asked Ron for a "very Vermont" place for the 6 of us to have dinner. Ron suggested a 226 year old tavern called "Ye Olde Tavern' and it was just like one of those quaint, charming places that have a lot of atmosphere that you see on tv about New England. Unfortunately, during dinner, I got an upset stomach, which cleared up shortly after I got back to Ron's house. Bob said that because I have hiked nearly all of the AT, he would pick up my dinner tab. Hell, if I had known he was going to do THAT, I'd have hiked the AT YEARS ago!!!
Date: 2016-09-28
From:  Manchester Cener, VT

To: Ron's House
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Last night when we got back to Ron's house after dinner, the first presidential debate was on, and Ron wanted to watch it, so that's what we did. Ron said there were more people watching the debate than there were watching the super bowl! I have been hiking the AT for over 6 months, and during that time I have watched very little tv, so I don't know much about what either of the two candidates have said or done. I felt the first debate was an UTTER failure, due to the fact that the person asking the questions was timid as a church mouse. He asked Mr. Trump only one tough question, about Mr. Trumps change regarding President Obama's country of birth. He asked Mrs. Clinton NO HARD QUESTIONS WHATSOEVER! The Founders of this country meant for the Press to be the fourth branch of the government, the one that reports on the misdeeds of the three branches. If the moderator is too timid to ask all candidates the tough questions, the debate can ONLY be a total failure. My other observation was that neither Mr. Trump (Republican Party) or Mrs. Clinton (Goldman Sachs/Oligarchs Party) deserves my vote. I will hold my nose and vote for Mr. Trump, but only because I believe that Mrs. Clinton is an even WORSE candidate, who seems hell bent on blundering the US into a nuclear war with Russia and possibly China as well. When you refer to Putin as "the new Hitler" and do LOTS of nuclear saber rattling, as Mrs. Clinton has done, that's not good. Mrs. Clinton also has many unanswered questions about her 33,000 deleted emails, her running of the state department as a pay to play game for the Clinton Foundation, and her health, and the poor, timid church mouse running the debate was too cowardly to ask a single tough question of her. The US is massing more troops on Russia's border than at any time since World War Two. Russia is terrified and preparing for war. If World war Three happens, it may mean the end of all life on planet Earth. And the poor, timid press utters not a single word about this? Are there any independent journalists besides Glen Greenwald, or is he the last one?
Date: 2016-09-29
From: Ron's House

To: Ron's House
Miles today: 0.04

There is a saying that says when it rains it pours, and that was kind of my situation. I didn't have any visitors for a few months, then I had 4 visitors from my bike club in Miami visit at the same time I was visiting Ron, so at dinner Ron and I told funny stories about the yearlong bike trip the two of us were on together.Of was great fun. The next day I had to go to the nearest Wal-Mart , 24 miles away to get more food for my hike, and Ron had a nice surprise for me. We went in Rons two seater BMW sports convertible, with the top down. Ron saw me squinting into the sun, so he handed me a pair of sunglasses. I was sure that some gorgeous twenty somethings, seeing me in a BMW convertible and wearing shades would mistake me for a movie star and ask for my autograph, but if there were any gorgeous babes who were impressed with me, they concealed their admiration very well. Two of Ron's adult children also went on the around the world bike trip. Ron's daughter, Julie, as an excellent cyclist. Ron's son, Trueheart, was by FAR the best cyclist in our group of 240 cyclists. NOBODY could beat Trueheart.One day, a very, very strong cyclist named Racer Bob decided that no matter how much he had to suffer, he was going to stay with Trueheart.Racer Bob managed to stay with Trueheart when the terrain was flat. However, in Racer Bobs own words, when they reached the first climb of the day, Racer Bob says it was as if the hand of God reached down and very quickly placed Trueheart on top of the mountain, with Racer Bob still far below. I am one of the few cyclists of that group who can truthfully boast that one day I cycled PAST Trueheart. This story becomes a little less impressive if you know that the reason I passed Trueheart was because he was repairing a flat tire.Once he fixed his flat, my lead over Trueheart very quickly vanished.
Date: 2016-09-30
From: Ron's House

To: Stratton Pond Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Last nite Ron, myself, and my friends Bob and Fred went out to dinner at a restaurant called The Perfect Wife. My Miami friends said I should tell my wife I ate in a restaurant that was named after her. There was also a bar at the restaurant and a list of excuses the bartender was willing to offer to wives asking about the whereabouts of their wayward husbands. For $1the bartender would claim the husband left half an hour ago. For $2 the husband only had one drink. For $3 his only companions were the boys from his job For $4the bartender hadn't seen the husband all day, and for $5, the bartender never heard of the husband in question.The nite before, Bob had announced his intention in advance to pick up my dinner check. My buddy Fred ordered duck,that nite and it looked REALLY good, but it was a bit pricey, so I had pot roast instead, so as to not take advantage of Bobs generosity Last nite, I figured everyone was responsible for their own check, and to my delight, duck was again on the menu, so I ordered it, along with a big bowl of soup and a decadent ice cream fudge brownie dessert. Bob then announced that he was picking up that check as well! Thanks,Bob. Say listen. .. Is there any way you can pick up my utilities bill as well??? ( just kidding) At breakfast the next morning, Ron had get another great surprise for me. He had some REAL maple syrup, which I put on my oatmeal.The stuff you buy in a grocery store that they call maple syrup is actually only 10% maple syrup, and the real stuff tastes SO much better. In a previous post I said it takes 10 gallons of maple sap to make a gallon of maple syrup. Ron says the actual ratio us 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
Date: 2016-10-01
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Story Spring Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: overcast clouds

In a previous post I talked about a two to three inch VERY bright flouresent orange newt I have seen on the forest floor. Yesterday, when I got to Stratton Pond, I saw several six inch long brown/black newts swimming in the pond. If an alligator were only six inches long, that's what these newts looked like. A forest ranger told me that the brown/black newts I saw swimming in the pond are the adult form of the orange newts that crawl around on the forest floor.The other two organisms I have seen that have impossibly bright colors are two different mushroom/toadstool species. One is the brightest yellow you can imagine, the other is an equally bright red. When nature gives a plant or animal a very bright color, it is often to warn that organism is VERY poisonous.
Date: 2016-10-02
From: Story Spring Shelter

To: Goddard Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

When I was in Rutland, I made a decision to mail my tent ahead to North Adams, Massachusetts to make my pack lighter as I labor up the incredibly steep Green Mountains of Vermont. This turned out to be a mistake for two reasons. The first reason is that for several nites, I can ONLY sleep in the three walled wooden shelters along the AT. This means that I average ten miles per day, or less, whereas if I have my tent, I can camp at ANY campsite, and do more miles per day. The other reason mailing my tent ahead was a mistake is that it suddenly started getting very cold at nite and the wooden shelters only have three walls, so they are not nearly as warm as my tent. At nite, I put my water filter inside my sleeping bag, because if it freezes, it will no longer safely purify my water. Last nite I was camped on a mountaintop and it began to rain/mist. I got up in the middle of the nite, and I think I saw snowflakes, but I am not positive it was snow. It sure was cold, though.
Date: 2016-10-03
From: Goddard Shelter

To: Bennington, Vt
Miles today: 10.1

I am treating myself to a hotel room tonite for two reasons. The first reason is that while I have not been cold the last few nites, I have not been warm either. Also, the lure of a nice hot shower, good restaurant food, tv, and a chance to catch up on my blog was just too much to resist.Ok, here are my musings for the day. A few towns ago, I saw an amusing bumper sticker on a car. It said:"What happens in Vermont STAYS in Vermont, but nothing happens here." I would like to add that sometimes the best way to prevent yourself from looking bad is to keep your mouth shut. Here is an example of that.I spent a few days hiking with two guys in their mid twenties. One of the young men told me that he had to use the woods bathroom so urgently that he narrowly avoided an unpleasant outcome. Ok, fair enough. That's just chatter among the boys. Each shelter has a notebook where hikers can post their thoughts. This young man changed his story and proudly BOASTED that he had soiled himself. The fact that he had (possibly) soiled himself would not of itself cause him to lose stature among the other hikers, because we all have had bathroom emergencies. However, the fact that he BOASTED about it and then signed his trail name will make him look like an idiot to other hikers, and the AT grapevine is very strong among AT hikers. When two or more hikers meet, they almost always stop to exchange pleasantries. I can't tell you the number of times I have introduced myself to a total stranger hiker only to have that hiker tell me a story he heard about me from another hiker.So when this young man introduces himself, he may find that his new trail name is Depends!
Date: 2016-10-04
From: Bennington, Vt

To: Seth Warner Shelter
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: broken clouds

I want to apologize for my lengthy lapse in posting to this blog. It has turned cold here in New England and I am racing Jack Frost to complete this hike before it gets REALLY cold. In the old days before it got cold, I would take a complete zero day, and that gave me enough time to do all my errands plus my blogging. I tried to cheat and do everything on a "nero"( half day hiking, half day doing chores, and I ran out of time to blog. So every day I hike and feel guilty for not blogging for such a long time. Again, please accept my deepest apologies for this. When I was having dinner with my bicycling friends, they asked me what my next big adventure is going to be. This question caught me completely off guard, becase I have not yet finished this trip, and my friends are already anticipating my next trip. However, after a great deal of careful thought, I have a DREAM trip in mind. I want to be the first person to walk across Antartica in the dead of winter, barefoot, wearing nothing more than a speedo swim suit, and hopping on one foot. To my astonishment, no one has ever attempted this feet (yep, pun intended). I am trying to drum up corporate sponsorships for this project. So far, several funeral homes have contacted me. Imagine that!