morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-06-25
From: Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: haze

"They're not lice, are they?" I whispered to Touk. Our room at the hotel is rather alive with little white bugs. "I sure hope not!" she replied, "Anyways, lice don't look anything like this." I'm willing to credit her as a authority and hope for the best. There has been a gala wedding event today here at the hotel and we were evicted from the hiker-rate penthouse suite and poked into a room of humbler aspirations. The co-inhabitors are crawling across my little screen as I write. Yeeaachh!!! But why are we still in town and not on the trail? Why the moving wallpaper as opposed to a fresh breeze rustling the tent? Answer: it seems that the plague has decended upon us.      Early this morning I pulled my still tourist weary body out of bed and found a very sick Sunshine with her sleeping bag in the bathtub. She had been sick all night and thought she might have contracted some giardia. As always, a smile accompanied the news. Wretched news! Through the day, she's felt better and better but at that morning hour and all through the morning for that matter, she was horribly sick. I almost wanted it to be giardia just to mentally quarantine her illness away from us. We're thinking that it's a nasty virus though. Anyway, she's now laughing without pain and though she's still weak, we'll be hiking out tomorrow.    Bugs!!! Creepy, crawly, skittly, translucent... Aauurghh!!! I just pattered down to the front desk to express my outraged grumpyness in my typical shy bashful manner. "Is there any chance you could put us in another room?" I asked, trying to use my best version of my Mom's proactive-consumer front. "Oh honey, all the rooms are like that..." she lamely apologized, then the clincher: "...you're in the country now dear." Yes, 1010 miles of walking through the Southern Appalachians and I'm now braving the wilds of seersucker curtains and cotton sheets; a few frail thruhikers against an army of bugs. Heaven preserve us!
Date: 2005-06-26
From: Harper's Ferry

To: Harper's Ferry... still
Miles today: 0.0

Bright yellow paddles flash up and down erraticly. Crazy kyakers and hordes of rafters are slithering past me on the river. Touk and Sunshine, Wolfsong, Starfire and Zing all went upriver and are now floating down towards the sandy spot I'm sitting. We are on the banks of the Potomac River, backpacks strewn randomly and poles flung haphazardly all over the sand in the wild rumpus toward the water.    The rock dwellers are having a quiet and probing chat about mandatory immunizations and the like (touk opinion- "gotta die of somethin..keep your creepy needles away from me!!!!!"). A bearded hiker friend is making magic on a backpacker guitar. Drat it all! I'm struck again by the name-forgetting malady. Peanut is drying out her hair after a long swim and Mother is just chillin' like a villian on this great communal rock. Clothesline and Foto are here too, stuck in the same 'manana' vortex that we are in. So nice here---we could just stay and camp??? Nah, it's time to brush off the sand and strap shoes on my feet. The heat of the day is over and we're in good shape to climb that dreaded mountain that Sunshine keeps telling me about.    Harper's Ferry was incredible. We tromped around the old streets and marveled at the archetectural playground layed out for us. Touk took all sorts of marvelous pictures of the zillion visual layers of rooftops and brick and stone walls. They say that Harper's Ferry is the phsycological half-way mark... Whatever! Perhaps for the slightly confused, nominally deranged thruhiker, of course we are all pretty mad to be walking thousands of miles just for the joy of it. Anywhoo, Onward to that true middle point.    I read this wonderfully wonderful quote yesterday regarding this madness and I'd like to align myself with this madness of sorts.   "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." ---Jack Kerouac
Date: 2005-06-29
To: Penn-Mar Border
Miles today: 0.0

June 29th... And all is well..Scene- The wonderful, the dangerous..and stealthy team Pooh Bears Siesta is found scattered all over a lousy stealth campsite 2 inches away from a (very dirty) railroad on the PENN- MAR border...hmm..the scene is dismal with all of the members for some reason not moving virtually at all... acting very lazy, moaning and groaning each time their feet touch anything of substance..like a breeze.. or if anyone mumbles anything along the lines of.."hey you lazy knob its time to GET UP..there are MILES to HIKE, there's a mountain with your name on it somewhere up in MAINE"...(emphasis added to the words that produce the most negative body language among the carnage)...Actually the mumbling perps are only parroting what their conscience's are whispering to them...AT hikers don't need reminded of Maine..they might get violent...nor will it get them moving after a brutal 24 miler.. no.. inspiration to get up should move more along the lines of.. HEY! 3 miles till town me stinking beauties..ICE CREAM!!!...etc...you would see movement among the dead THEN for sure..welllllLLLLlll.. Another state goes up in smoke and is gone behind the fats and the burliest.. I mean... the fast and the furious.... Maryland was beautiful... under all the ROCKS.. and uh.. HEAT induced mirages of water sources...and past all the boyscout troups and youth groups turning the trail the APPALACHIAN ROAD..it really was beautiful.. (even to my brain which has been slow baked since Harpers Ferry).. We did not attempt the quad state challenge..hah. we did not even challenge ourselves to THINK about it much...its a painful thought... even breaking Maryland up into three days made us feel completely bushed and ready for another zero. PA is calling our names and luring us with death-on-more-rocks threats. . its..my opinion (yeah this is touk here) that Maryland is Penn's acomplice in testing the hikers sanity with frog frying heat on the earth's bones of chunky stones which we bust and bruise our poor feet and AT 1000 miler egos on....however.. I don't think you could pay me enough to hike back into Maryland sooo...I guess death on the rocks is my option...or looneyville.. hmm.. I'm weighing them both in my mind..ONWARDS TO MAINE!!
Date: 2005-07-03
To: Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 0.0

1,105.9mAs we hiked through the Shenandoahs, Gypsy, Touk, and I spent quite a bit of time discussing movies, and it was decided that Gypsy needed to see Finding Neverland and we all needed to watch the new (as in a few years ago) Peter Pan movie. The problem: as thru-hikers we don't exactly walk around with VCRs. Yeah, we may briefly possess a TV when we stay at a hotel but still we're lacking the necessary equipment. We arrived in Front Royal, out of the Shennies and nearing Harper's Ferry, Saturday afternoon, resupplied, ate ridiculous amounts of food, checked out Movie Gallery - yes they had the movies but no they don't rent VCRs - and headed towards the outfitter. We came to a large shopping center and paused to consult Wingfoot to locate the exact spot of our desired destination when a man walked up and asked if we were thru-hikers. The packs and bewildered expressions must have tipped him off. He introduced himself as Big Bear, a 95 thru-hiker, and thus began our sort of one-sided relationship in which he showered us with kindness andwe gave him the gift of immense gratitude. I think we got the better end of the deal. Big Bear drove us all around town hotel shopping, showed us where to eat, and helped us locate a church for the next morning. After a few stops we found a good deal on a room but Gypsy came back with the news that they didn't have VCRs (we were asking about VCRs and pols as well as rates) to which Big Bear responded, "You need a VCR? I've got an extra that I can get for you." Booyah! He then shuttled us to the movie stores and let us use his membership card to buy the movies. Peter Pan and Finding Neverland were now a part of our future. They were both magical (I do believe in fairies!) and the night was perfect. And you know what I said earlier about how thru-hikers don't carry around VCRs? Well, the next morning we did until meeting with Big Bear later in the day. We each had a turn feeling utterly ridiculous, carrying a VCR complete with cables all around town while the rest of our possessions were on our backs. I think we each half expected to be questioned by the cops - "Ladies, where'd you get such a fine looking VCR? Who'd you steal it from?" The cops must have been taking the day off because these fugitives on the run made it back to the trail before finding themselves behind bars.
Date: 2005-07-05
From: Boiling Springs, PA

To: Duncannon/A Phone Message Home From Touk
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

1,130.6mHey family, This is Touk. We are in Duncannon and we are just wandering through. I hope you guys had a happy 4th of July, because we did! We were able to get shuttles to see some fireworks. They were far off but we were able to see them amd we had a whole lot of fun.We are staying at the Doyle Hotel which is this monster falling apart hotel that was like only $19 a night to stay. Which is pretty much a hikers place to hang out. It's pretty cool! Duncannon is really neat! We'll be coming back for the "Hiker Feed" in a couple of days and then we'll be up at the Delaware Water Gap probably in 2-3 weeks.Well, we're already hiking the mountains again. We're no longer hiking in the pansy Shanandoah 'hills". It's pretty much ups and downs and sort of hot and miserable, but we're doing fine and having lots of fun! Getting closer to Maine. Gypsy and I are gaving a ball. Hope you are having a fun time. Miss you and love you. Missed your mail drop, but hope to get it soon. Hope to talk to you guys soon, we'll call you when we come back here for the "Hiker Feed". Well, love you. ByePS.From Gypsy Momma-Phone messages are far more informational than journal entries! Miss my girls;>/
Date: 2005-07-06
From: Duncannon/A Phone Message Home From Touk

To: Somewhere in the middle of PA
Miles today: 0.0

"Twentyish?""What did we do today? Twenty-two or something?" All day we've just trucked on, colliding in snack break jam-piles every so often. It begins to blur together; the miles, the days...the hike. Yes, even the hike is blurring. Is this a bad thing? Yeah, maybe, but then again maybe not. It mixes the colors of every day's details into a grand impressionist painting, and I'm more than a little partial to Impressionism. Enough of that blather though, except to say that I'm really digging this new book of mine; The End of Art. It's provoked a lot of thought on that link of aesthetics between the spiritual and physical.   The fire is crinkling and cracking to pieces in front of us. Camped at some random road in the middle of Pennsylvania, the talk is appropriatly random and mellow; as if we have hundreds of miles to follow up the meandering paths of each others thoughts. Sunshine, Touk and I have folded ourselves into another hiking cadre: the Sleezebags. Charming folks by the sound of their name, eh? Songline has donated his music to the spirit of the circle here, Touk is singing her way to sleep in the tent and the conversation wheel keeps turning around. Camel is giving Caboose a hard time about the mad cowboy camping that he's done; putting our pansy cowboy camping to shame, shame, shame. "You know what I want to do?" Sunshine asks. "Swim in one of those mountain lakes in Maine, late at night under the moonlight and hear a loon call." We sit in silence for a moment. "All I want to see is a huge bull moose, standing in the water..." Songline throws out. I (LuLu) want to cowboy camp above tree line when we get up north, nose all cold with the fresh mountain air, stars hard and cold in the sky. Yeah, Maine, the way life should be. Another day is dying and we're all sleepy and unmotivated. Maine is still a long way off.
Date: 2005-07-07
From: Somewhere in the middle of PA

To: Still Somewhere
Miles today: 0.0

1,201.5(Port Cinton) I've not had a rotten day by any stretch of the imagination. This grouchy mood has just overclouded me though, making me feel very stiffled and crazy. Is this 'journal-worthy'? To write about grouchiness? Worthy or not, it's a part of life.    Tropical storm 'Cindy' is pelting the shelter with rain and slipperyifying the fine Pennsylvania rocks for tomorrows twenty-five miles into town. Perhaps that has a lot to do with my moodiness. I don't even want to write! Bah Humbug! And yet I have no other vent. Aauurrgghh!!!
Date: 2005-07-12
From: Still Somewhere in PA

To: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

1214.6m (17.5miles hiked today)Bake Oven Knob Shelter "Yikes! Your feet are nasty, LuLu!"    It's true, my feet are in awful shape. The Pennsylvania Rocks are none too gentle with any part of my old body, especially those two battered, stinky appendages called feet. If you were to look at the soles of my feet you would see the purpling bruises all along the arches.[Ouch!!!] Thankfully the day is over though and my feet are propped up on my food bag in our tent. I've got heat rash all over my back and am very generally miserable. There isn't any romantic lens that I can cast this day through, It's been absolutely nasty and dispiriting, bringing us to this shelter exhausted, only to find that the spring is dry and the next water source is eight more miles up the trail. Aaurrghh!!! I hate this drought. I hate feeling lousy. I really hate poison ivy and I'm beginning to understand why my Grandfather moved to Michigan and never returned to Pennsylvania.       Do you want to know what sounds good? I've started to paint imaginative pictures of things I'd like to do with my life. [I realize full well that this is a form of mental escapism but as I referenced earlier, I'm not exactly 'loving' PA.]..... I imagine myself in a splendid bed with my feet up on a pillow. All around the bed are stacks of books just waiting to be read. Preferably my true love would be reading a book by my side and keeping me warm when the room got too cold, of course it never gets half as hot as Pennsylvania because it's a dreamworld - splendid place too! Unfortunately, I haven't the pillow, the bed, the books or the true love. All said, I might as well stay on the trail.    Eagle Eye got off the trail today. Sunshine, Touk and I took pictures with him; bittersweet summit pictures at a random road crossing. "I don't know," he said "It just...just sucks!" There really isn't anything else to say. Eagle Eye has some major foot issues and can't keep going. It makes me a little nervous about my feet. With less than two days to go here in Pennsylvania, I'm looking forward to some healing days. I've gotta get my body strong for New England. Sorry for being so glum today. I'm giving you a pretty fair slice of the pie though. If I had sugar I'd sugar-coat it for you - instead you have it raw and real............
Date: 2005-07-13
From: Bake Oven Knob Shelter

To: Leroy Smith Shelter,PA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

1238.1mLeroy Smith Shelter (hiked 24miles today)    Well, as much as sleep can revitalize and renew a person's perspective, the physical doesn't change all that much. Pennsylvania was still a harsh reality to my feet today, but I've gotta vote today my favorite day in PA.    I woke up and was on the trail at 5:30 this morning. Touk had encouraged me to do what I had to do to make it work. Leave her to pack up the tent? Sure, no problem! She had caught my slow moving carcass in seven miles. Now to my credit there were many blueberries eaten between points A and B. Through the boulder field and up onto this blissful ridge that made me thing about heaven. A cloud was blowing over me, cooling the air and reminding me so much of sailing. Little stunted trees stood in groves dropping absolutely scarlet leaves on the fern undergrowth. I love the smell of ferns and the feeling of sailing and the taste of wild blueberries. All frustration just melted away with the delight of just being alive. How good it is!    Hooky and Tiny Dancer had hiked up to lay in wait for us, never dreaming that we would willingly be coerced into going to town for breakfast. Yeah, baby! Hooky definately hooked us up with some car-riding action, some food-eating action and some music-listening-to action. So much for my early start!    Lehigh Gap was amazing! My Mom would die to see the preposterous predicaments we put ourselves in, mainly toeing the skinny line between the rocks and falling to our deaths. Good times were had by all, even the LuLu. 1000 vertical feet in like .4 miles---Wow!    What we were actually climbing was the remains of the largest zinc mines in the world. Craziness! Once we got to the top, there was a long ridgewalk through more sun-scorched wasteland. It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off, dead tree skeletons and nothing else but steaming rocks. I got to hike and chew over some conversations with Tiny Dancer. Good guy and some sound usage of the old noodle. He is a truth-teller; conveying the truth and letting it do it's own work.    I'm now in a shelter after a weary 24 miles. Twenty tomorrow and I'll be saying goodbye to Pennsylvania. Yee-haw!!
Date: 2005-07-14
From: Leroy Smith Shelter,PA

To: Deleware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 0.0

1258.6mDelaware Water Gap, PennsylvaniaChurch of the Mountain Hiker Hostel(21miles hiked today)    I could hear the church bells ringing as I came down the mountain. Word on the streets was that the church puts on a meal for hikers every Thursday night. Yummm!!! Even as the thoughts of food danced behind my eyes, a second thought bounced in; The fact that I was the last one hiking into town and the stack of hungry hikers already there was thick and competitive. [sigh.] Well, I sleazed into town and rinsed up in the echoing hostel, hoping beyond hope for leftovers. 'Yay!!!' Salads and Blue Mountain Huckleberry Crumble, Watermelon and the last of the Lemonade. So much goodness and welcoming cheer to this wonderful place where we can shake Pennsylvania from our feet.
Date: 2005-07-17
From: Culvers Gap/Fire Tower

To: Somewhere on the AT
Miles today: 0.0

starting point: fire tower outside of Culvers Gap.ending point: ? hopefully Unionville,NY ? (21miles)   I'm starting to get a little sketched out. The last time I saw Touk was yesterday morning, still snoozing with Mouth and Ox; her night-hiking companions. It was long after dark when they pulled into Mohican Outdoor Center from Delaware Water Gap (10 miles) Aauurghh!!! She makes me worry! While I was rustling about in her backpack for laundry, she woke up. "How far are we going today?" She asked. "To that second shelter up." I answered. "Twenty-one miles?" "Mmm,hmmnh! That's the one."   Well, that was the last I saw her grumpy morning face. Now I'm sitting on a mountain, almost to the tippiest-toppiest most point of New Jersey; High Top. All day it's been spitting and sprinkling in between cloudbreaks and sunshine. Once again the sky starts breaking up and threatening my sensitive little Pocketmail. Pack it up in the rain---hike a little further and wait for the sun to come out.   And it did! I'm loafing with the gang: Sunshine, Songline, Caboose, BalliShag, Romer, Socks, York, Bear, Noodle, New Heart... yeah, we're all here and Bear brought news that Touk has been spotted and is still alive and walking. She sent word that she might make it tonight...maybe not... I've definately been replaced as a pertinent part of the Gypsysister combo deal. [sigh] Tskk,tsskk!!!    As I was hiking this morning, chatting with Caboose, we came up to the top of Sunrise Mountain to find a horde of cyclists finishing up some mad time-trials. A lady called out "Are you guys thru-hikers?" It turns out that her husband thruhiked in "02 and she did some major sectioning. Even crazier, she and her husband just had my friends Sherlock and Circuitrider over last night for dinner, showers and beds! Mmmn... sounded nice! It also sounded nice to find that those loafers aren't too far ahead. I'm totally not into this game of playing chase.   Speaking of playing chase, the Toukness has arrived. She really wasn't too far behind but ended up getting amazing trail magic involving burgers, AC, showers and other goodness. Aaurrgh!!! Jealousy!!!
Date: 2005-07-18
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Somewhere In N.Y. State
Miles today: 0.0

Miles: 15.2 Blast!!! Aauurghh!!!Started in Vernon, New Jersey.Stealth camping alongside Y17A.(Yes, that's NEW YORK!!!) Too may times people have told me about the upcoming trail I have yet to hike. "Just a long, gradual climb..." or "My personal favorite jaunt of the AT..." I'm always left in a muddle. Did we both hike the same trail? New York has introduced herself with a bang! My, my! We had heard about the Virginia Blues and the Pennsylvania Rocks but New York has saved herself for us to find out about. What a pain! Painful little steps and painful little mountains with those charming white blazes that say; 'You a chicken? Climb me!'   We ran out of water for the first serious time. Right at the border and then those thirsty, uncomfortable ten additional miles. There was a grouchy, crazed look behind our eyes. Then, Up to the road and the voice of Oblivious shouting down, "GypsyLuLu! Touk! Is that you guys?" We stumbled out onto the road to find the Troll family and Gordon & Sue. Those two are really awesome trail angels and were prepared with a certain nectar of the gods commonly known as Gatorade. Mouth, Navagator, Songline, Touk, Sunshine and I...Mmmnn, mnnn, Life is good when you can drink deep.
Date: 2005-08-07
From: Dalton,MA

To: Bennington, VT. An Update From GypsyMomma
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Bennington,VT Approx.1595.00 miles hiked, 576 miles to go!!This Is GypsyMomma, The girls haven't been in touch with the home base much lately due to high mile days and lack of common courtesy, so I will fill you in what I know. Having hiked some consecutive twenty mile days, GypsyLuLu was feeling cronic fatigue, sore joints, stiff neck, emotionally spent etc... So the gang stayed at the Birdcage and slackpacked on Tuesday at which time LuLu hardly made it back to town, so they all had a zero on Wednesday. I got a call on Saturday from Benington VT from the Touk saying LuLu was sick, and had been to the ER for antibiotics for Lyme Disease symtoms. (I can picture the group literally dragging her off the trail and into town.) She is very sick but with the help of Tylenol and the antibiotics Touk said by Sunday morning LuLu's fever had broke and they were going to try to hike on a few miles. I'm hoping Touk stays with GypsyLuLu and only drags her as far as is reasonable. Sounds crazy I know, but doesn't it all? GypsyMomma