morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-07-09
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: scattered clouds

We got a later start from the hostel this morning, but we got a quick hitch up to the trail. We immediately began our day with a large, rocky climb up Wawayanda Mountain. It was a steeper hill than we have seen in a while and was very rocky. We should have seen this as a sign of things to come for sure! We took a break at a creek crossing and then began another immediate uphill climb. Now, at the top, we are walking on a combination of old roadbed and walking trails. The terrain is pleasant and there¢s a lot of tree cover on this very sunny day! After crossing the junction with the state park and the Warwick Turnpike, the trail turned incredibly rocky and steep. We climbed up rock faces for nearly an hour before crossing the state line an into NY! For the next hour, we¢d be walking on large, slick rocks in the direct sunlight with no tree cover. The water sources were all completely dry as well, making for a hot day. We finally found a boggy stream, which after filtering was yellow, and drank a ton of water before heading down the hill up 17-A. We met two locals, Orion and Dan, who gave us some gatorade and told us about a creamery just off the trail at the road. We went with them to get ice cream and they told us there would be trail magic at the shelter tonight! We ate ice cream and filled up our water at the spigot before heading to the shelter. There were two more of those freakin¢ rock formations, but they have blue-blazed trails to go around them. This was awesome for me, as the sky was turning dark and it Looked like rain. We got to the shelter just as the trail magic crew was leaving and they gave us each a beer and headed out. It started raining about 20 minutes after our arrival, so we unpacked and prepped for a long night in a crowded shelter. The photo is from Prospect Rock, the highest point in NY.
Date: 2012-07-10
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: broken clouds

We headed out from the Wildcat Shelter a little later than usual. It thunderstormed one more time last night, so we were slow-moving. Also, it turned out that Squatch wanted to film us for his documentary so we spent some time talking to him. We headed out around 9 am for what we planned to be a 20-miler. We were quickly realizing it wouldn¢t be possible. I got ahead of Nokey and Testament at the first road crossing, but Sunkist, Roller, and Catnap were there as a trail angel had left water in jugs (crucial in this part of NY). I told them to tell the boys I¢d wait for them up at the top of the hill. I climbed several rocky and tough hills and sat down for lunch about 11:30. Catnap went by about 20 minutes later and I figured the other four would be close behind. I waited until 12:45 when they finally showed up! There are a ton of unmarked side trails in NY and the AT is poorly marked. The four of them walked nearly a mile in the wrong direction down to a lake before turning around and heading back up. The boys and I continued onward for more tough climbs (22 total for the day!) and got some more water trail magic from Captain Air America at the road crossing of NY17. As we climbed yet another brutal hull after this, a man walked by with two dogs moving really fast. I heard ¢hey there, Trophy Wife!¢ it was Incline! He started the same day as me and had to get off trail a few weeks back. He lives nearby and came out giving out Snickers bars to hikers! We then climbed Island Pond Mountain to go through the Lemon Squeezer. This pass was about 20 feet long and about a foot wide! We hear someone ahead of us and it¢s Chiba - much higher up than we were. The trail made a six-foot clinb straight up a slab of rock! There was a blue blaze around it labeled ¢easy way¢ and I proudly took it to the top. I didn¢t realize that we were still going to be in so many rocks in NY! These rocks ate brutal. We took a break up top and it was getting late. We decided to go to the next shelter (no water in sight) and make it a 14.3 mile day. Incline brought us beer, chips, candy, and four gallons of water and we spent the night with a big crew. We were so thankful for the water given to us today as we would have been in real trouble without it. The photo is of some of the terrible rocky trail we walked today.
Date: 2012-07-11
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Bear Mountain, NY
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: clear sky

We woke up late today as we were planning to sleep in and let our bodies heal. We set out from the shelter at 9:30 and it was just Nokey and me as Testament wasn¢t feeling great and wanted to catch us later. Nokey wanted to walk down to the lake, but I definitely just wanted to get a move on since it was so difficult yesterday and I knew today would be hard as well. For the first time in nearly 1000 miles, I hiked totally alone! I had a huge climb about 11:30 up Black Mountain and was rewarded with a view of the NYC skyline in the hazy distance. From here, I went straight down the steep mountain to Palisades Parkway, where a sign informed me it was only 34 miles easy to the city! I climbed up West Mountain and was surprised to see a stream with clean water running about 1/3 of the way up! I filled my water to the brim, treated it, and headed up the hill. I ran into Raindancer up top and talked to her for a few minutes before heading back down before climbing yet again. On the way down, I walked through a young beech forest losing all the leaves due to the draught conditions. I began climbing Bear Mountain and it wasn¢t too hard. For part of it, we walked on old road with tons of beautiful stone work and then we climbed up hundreds of beautiful and uniform stone stairs. When I got to the top, Starcraft was doing trail magic and had cold drinks and clean water. I hung out for over two hours before Nokey showed up bearing gifts: pizza and a coke from the lake! I had the pizza and shared the coke while we waited for the crew to show up. Chiba, Raindancer, Catnap, and Testament all showed up and we decided to stealth camp a little down the hill so we could climb back up and camp with a view of the NYC skyline at night. When we did finally see it, I had a surreal moment when I realized I had actually WALKED here to see this, 1400 miles! It was amazing as a moment. The photo is of the sunset that night.
Date: 2012-07-12
From: Bear Mountain, NY

To: Campsite
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: light rain

We left out from Bear Mountain early with Raindancer, Catnap, and Testament and began our descent down into the Bear Mountain Recreation Area. The place was a dump and had the feel of a creepy abandoned amusement park. From here, the AT walks through the lowest point in a zoo, but since the zoo is only open 10-5 we had to go around. They didn¢t blaze it and we ended up walking in the wrong direction before figuring it out and then walked across the Hudson River - this is the lowest physical point on the AT at about 140 feet above sea level¢¦ Does that mean it¢s all uphill from here?! We then walked steeply uphill on Anthony¢s Nose (yes, that was really the name of the hill!) and then up another steep climb that looked like an upside down V on the map before descending into what I like to call heaven, The Appalachian Deli! We all spent way too much money here and hung out with more hikers than I can name before we decided to head out for a few more miles. We did a lot of rolling hills here and the scenery was a lot of stone walls and pretty former farmland. At the lower points of the trail, we had some swampy stuff, but nothing too bad. We came on a slow-moving, but drinkable(!) stream and looked around for a campsite. We quickly saw one across the way and hopped the stream to find a great old roadbed with a pretty big campsite. Catnap, Raindancer, Testament, Nokey, and me all had plenty of room here with a raging fire and great conversation. The photo is one of the many stone walls I saw today. It has a double blaze that shows you which direction to turn when the trail changes direction. The top blaze is your guide.
Date: 2012-07-13
From: Campsite

To: Bill & Amy's House
Miles today: 17.7

We left the awesome stealth site all at different times. There was a short and easy 1.9-mile walk to a spigot with potable water, so I was motivated to say the least. I got there as Raindancer was leaving. She was saying she just wanted to shower in that water, so I decided to do what I could. I ended up washing my hair in the spigot and it made me feel like a brand new woman. We walked further through a beautiful area that looked like an old railroad bed and the waking to Fahestock State Park was easy. We passed a crew doing trail magic and I was the first hiker to walk on some new stone steps! I got to the top and Nokey caught up. We walked together for less than 500 yards when I rolled my ankle HARD. It popped twice and I nearly fell off the hill. I yelled it out for a bit before feeling better and walking. By this time, there was a due trail down to the lake area, which Nokey and I skipped. Turns out, the whole park was kind of crappy with no drinking water (a salt supply, like the kind for icy roads) had leeched into all the water. The lake was low and made for bad swimming as well, so I feel we made a great choice. We walked uphill twice, first up an unnamed and rocky summit and then up Shenandoah Mtn. There was an American flag painted on top, but it was way to hot to stop for photos. On the way down, it was hot and the air was stagnant. We stopped off at the Shenandoah Tent Area for water at a pump and it turned out to be a real oasis for us! There was an awning, picnic table, and a pump for water. We took turns washing off and washing our clothes in the pump and then laid out to dry in the shade. After sitting for an hour, Chiba joined us and we sat for another hour before deciding to hike on. We made it steeply downhill to the RPH Shelter at 5 and there were a ton of people there. It turned out to be epic trail magic from the crew working on all those steps! They cooked us giant steaks with salad, chili, corn on the cob, and all the cold drinks we wanted! We ate until 7:30 or so and decided to hike on to get in some more miles since we were fueled up. Testament decided to stay behind and catch us in the morning. Manboy, Voice of Reason, Catnap, Raindancer, Nokey, and me decided to head up the mountain to flat spot to camp when all of a sudden VOR had news we could stay at a woman¢s house who was doing trail magic! It was nearly 4 miles and be barely made it before it was crazy dark (9:10 pm!) but it was totally worth it. When we got there, there was an entire deep freeze full of Ben and Jerry¢s and we could have all we wanted! We ate happily before setting up our tents in the yard and calling it a night. The photo is the trail sign outside of RPH shelter. CT, here I come!((Post-trail note: it turns out I actually fractured my ankle when I twisted it. I had no idea it was fractured until about a month after the trail when I saw a podiatrist regarding the foot surgery followup from back before my hike. The fracture was healed and caused me some pain when the weather got cold, but now, nearly 2 years later, it doesn't bother me at all.))
Date: 2012-07-14
From: RPH Shelter

To: Pawling, NY
Miles today: 12.0

We woke up at 6:45 and got ready for breakfast - homemade waffles and bacon with juice and coffee! We also got another surprise - showers! After the shower and some phone calls, we headed out to get into Pawling as we all three needed to get to the post office Monday morning. We headed up the first of a few ascents and the trail was beautifully maintained. There were switchbacks and even the rocks sticking out of the ground were painted white so you could see them. Lots of Hikers came past us this morning and were lunching at the shelter, but we pushed on to sit down by the railroad tracks. After lunch, we ran in to trail magic from Mom, an orange soda and a ride in to Pawling! We got to town just as it started to rain and ran into Chiba at the laundromat. We did laundry and sat at the pub eating wings and drinking beer while waiting for Testament. We ended up camping at the pavilion in the park about a mile from town and were able to tent out of the rain. The photo is me at a large oak tree on trail this day.
Date: 2012-07-15
From: Pawling, NY

To: Schaghticoke Campsite
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: light rain

We had time to kill this morning so we sat at the pavilion when a familiar face showed up - Trail Momma! She gave us the ride the 1 mile to town to get to the post office and also gave us Gatorade and candy. We sorted through our drops at the library and then hopped back out on the road for a quick hitch to the trail. We immediately began climbing Hammersly Ridge. The ridge was a bit tough, but the scenery was beautiful and I saw a fawn and doe on the ridge. We descended to a point only 1 mile from the CT border and got some trail magic from Mac and Cheese, who welcomed us to the state with ice water and cookies! We got to the first CT border quickly and crossed into and out of the state 3 times. We climbed Ten Mile Hill and then back down to Ten Mile River. We sat down there for a break before our big ascent into camp. Testament decided his shoes were too wet to walk in, so he took them off and continued barefoot! We climbed a huge mountain up to Indian Rocks and then slowly walked on an undulating ridge to our campsite. We got there totally out of water after passing several dry streams to find there was a small, muddy, mosquito-filled pool of water. Overdrive and Peach were also there! I haven¢t seen Overdrive since Damascus, Va over 1000 miles ago! We pumped water and hung out for a few hours after eating all the junk food we had in our drop boxes. The photo is me at the CT border.
Date: 2012-07-16
From: Tent site

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: few clouds

I woke up at 1 am unable to bend my bad knee. After getting no sleep from the pain, I woke up at 7 am and got up, trying to walk unsuccessfully. We finally set out from the shelter around 8:30 and it took me 3 hours to go 2.9 miles. Nokey and Testament took turns carrying my pack for me and when we made it down to the first shelter, I finally got the knee to pop and the pressure relieved. We decided to go ahead and have lunch, skipping going into Kent, and then move on. we now had the hot midday sun to us and had some big climbs ahead of us, Caleb¢s Peak and St. John¢s Ledge. The ledges were steep and I actually fell down off them at one point, but no one was around to see me. I finally got some help from a southbounder and hopped back up to find Nokey and Testament waiting for me. It was pretty hot and we were all worn out. We decided to just stop at the next shelter making for the longest 10-mile day ever. The video posted sums it up. We went to bed at 7:30.
Date: 2012-07-17
From: Shelter

To: Falls Village, CT
Miles today: 18.1

After getting nearly 12 hours of sleep, we were ready to tackle the day and get at least to the next shelter 10 miles out before the big storm they were calling for came through. We began the day with a flat walk next to the Housatonic River through fields and sandy paths followed by a climb up to the Silver Hill campsite. From here, I walked with VOR, Peach, and Overdrive down the steep backside to Guinea Brook before continuing on alone. When I got up and over the hill to Hatch Brook, I met Headin¢ Out and Tag-a-long, an older couple from MI who have hiked the AT before and nearly every other long distance trail in the country. While talking with TAL, Nokey showed up and had a mini reunion with them, having not seen them since the NOC nearly 4 months ago. We climbed another hill and had lunch at the top and listened to the thunder for a while before heading out to the shelter. We climbed yet again and passed through some boulders before the clouds turned super dark and the thunder ominous. We made it down the hill and rocks and stepped into Pine Swamp Brook Shelter just as the rain started to fall. The storm quickly turned nasty with hail and lightening accompanying the downpour. We sat there with two SOBOs while our group showed up in the rain one-by-one. After two hours, we decided to head out another 3 miles to the Belters View campsite. When I got there, it was barely 6 pm and the small spring was running so the boys were filling up. I flipped to the next page in our guidebook to see what terrain awaited us in the morning to see we only had 3.1 flat miles to Falls Village, where we could camp in the yard behind a restaurant that opened for breakfast at 7 am! Needless to say, we booked it down to town and made it there by 7:30. Manboy, VOR, Peach, Overdrive, Testament, Nokey, and me all set up there and headed to the B&B, the only other place in town, to eat dinner. We feasted on gourmet burgers before staggering back to our camp in a food coma. The photo today is of a silo in one of the fields early in the day.
Date: 2012-07-18
From: Falls Village, CT

To: Laurel Ridge Campsite
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: clear sky

After a great breakfast last night, waking up in the yard to a cafe was the most epic feeling. We wandered in to fresh muffins out of the oven and three types of coffee. It was tasty, but we had to hike on. We headed out and climbed Mt Prospect and did some undulation before coming to a strange rock formation called Giant¢s Thumb. We then walked downhill and did a road walk through Salisbury. We passed a large cemetery and then turned back into the woods for a lunch break. The crew from last night all caught up and we met a new hiker, Pacecar. We all had lunch and then moved on to another ascent to the lions¢s head. After coming down from the rocks, we had a pretty flat section to walk through with several shelters and streams before we climbed our second Bear Mountain. At the top, there was a giant stone pile with views in to both MA and CT. We took photos before heading down. The steepness was reminiscent of the ledges a few days ago. We had to sit and scoot in some of them! At the bottom, in Sages Ravine, we were finally across another border and in to MA! We climbed an old roadbed up to Laurel Brook camp. We found an awesome spring up top with cold and clear water and filled up. We set up tents and decided to sleep with rainflies off since it was a 20% chance and finally cool enough to sleep. The photo today is Manboy on the rock tower on Bear Mountain.
Date: 2012-07-20
From: Laurel Brook Campsite

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up at 1 am to a downpour! Every time we woke up until 8 am it was pouring rain and it didn¢t seem like it was going to stop, so we began packing up all our soaking wet gear to head up Race Mountain. The ascent was steep and rocky with rain and cold wind. For 0.6 miles, we walked along a slick knife edge that would probably be nice with gorgeous views on a sunny day, but today it was terrifying. After doing a lot of slow walking uphill and nearly no walking and only sitting and scooting downhill, we were exhausted! We walked further and found the Racebrook Falls Trail and decided it was 1) Time for a side trail adventure; 2) Time to get off the mountain. We were shivering and could see our breath. Our hands were locked around our trekking poles. We walked downhill steeply and then saw a wonderful waterfall before getting to the road. We walked the road for about 2 miles before coming upon a sporting goods store. I walked in and asked if there was a cab company since we walked 2 miles without a successful hitch and the woman working there offered to close up and drive us back to Great Barrington. We got dropped off and grabbed up a hotel room. The whole crew made it in eventually over the course of the day. We had Indian food and ice cream for dinner and then crashed in a comfy hotel bed for the night.We zero¢d in GB to get some chores done. The boys went to see batman and I did DIY surgery on my toe. My toe feels better now and the swelling is gone, so we¢re in great shape. Tonight we get to stay at Button and Bearwalker¢s house. They¢re former hikers and run an ¢out of the book¢ hostel for us. They¢re super great people and we had a wonderful time hanging out.
Date: 2012-07-21
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Shaker Campsite
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: few clouds

We woke up to hot coffee at Button¢s and Bearwalker¢s house this morning. They were also going to give us a ride back up to the trail as well! I had a box with a new shirt waiting for me at the East Mountain Retreat Center so Nokey and I made the 1-mile round trip to get it since no cars are allowed up the hill. From here, we had to walk up to the trail about 1 mile away as well. After getting back on the trail, we immediately began a climb up to yet another formation called The Ledges. From here, we went up a steeper hill to the South Mount Wilcox Shelter for lunch. We sat there for nearly an hour before deciding to head on to the North Mount Wilcox Shelter to see if there was water. Manboy volunteered to go check an see since it was 0.3 miles away. Turns out there was none to be had, so we continued onward in search. We found a stream still running about a mile north, so we all stopped and filled up there before making the final 3 miles to our camp for the night. The next three miles weren¢t as hard as the map lead us to believe. We had a beautiful descent down a fern-covered and well-groomed hill before coming to the Shaker Campsite, which was actually the site of a former Shaker community. There wasn¢t any water here (so we thought) so we were happy to have packed so much here. A section hiker, Sunshine, checked her map and it indicated there was supposed to be a spring. We checked around and found a side trail straight to the source! It was so cold and pure, so we were happy to have clean water finally! We ended up having to get into the tent early because the mosquitos here we¢re relentless! Manboy was ¢cowboy camping¢ so I felt pretty bad for him. Tomorrow we hope to get in some big miles, but might not due to a storm coming. No photos today due to my phone shorting out. I can¢t get my phone to shut off and it is killing my battery.