morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-07-11
From: Shippensburg, PA

To: Toms Run Shelters
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

Since I stayed up til midnight, which is waaaay past "hiker midnight," I was thankful that I did not wake up at 6am as usual but got to sleep in til 8am. In my non-hiker life I would not have considered 8am "sleeping in" by that is late for me on the trail. Rhoda made me a yummy omelette for breakfast then she dropped me off at Caledonia. The weather was perfect today but my heart was somber as I was thinking of my friend who died. I hiked barely a tenth of mile when I remembered that I needed to call in a refill for my prescription, so I sat on a log to do that, and when I heard a noise I looked up and saw Piper walking up the trail. Perfect timing. She had stayed in the park for the trail magic. We hiked most of the day together, which helped me take my mind off of my friend. Finding blueberries also picked me up! Today was significant in that we reached the actual halfway point (1,092 miles). Somehow I missed the marker, but Piper took a photo and showed me later. It was just a bunch of rocks that someone had arranged to say 1/2. Emotionally it feels like we should be farther than halfway by now. I think about what it would be like to start again at Springer and hike up to PA again. That's basically what I have to do, only on much more difficult terrain in the north. It's kind of discouraging, so I tell myself how much better shape I'm in and how much faster I'm hiking now, which helps. I can totally do this! No question!I decide to stay at Toms Run shelter even though it's 5:30. I don't want to go further. It's nice to have time to relax and eat dinner while it's still light out and journal at night. I try to go to sleep in my tarp, but some loud, rowdy, obnoxious kids show up and are loud til after 10pm. I sleep without a bug net and occasionally the bugs bother me but it's not too bad. I go to bed, for once not completely exhausted, probably because it wasn't hot and the terrain was, according to Piper, "So easy you could bring someone in a wheelchair."
Date: 2013-07-12
From: Toms Run Shelters

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

Before I went to bed last night I got a text from "Brenda from PA", who for some reason enjoys reading my trailjournal :-) She contacted me and said she wanted to bring breakfast to me at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in the morning. But when I checked my messages in the morning, I found out she got a flat tire and couldn't come. I'd already gotten up, eaten a granola bar, and was almost to the park by then. I was disappointed to not see her but happy that at least I could get a breakfast sandwich at the store there. Pine Grove Furnace is where you eat the half-gallon of ice cream (the "Half-Gallon Challenge"). Not to be a downer, but if I ate a half gallon of ice cream, especially at 9:30am, I would feel so sick I wouldn't be able to hike. So I ate my breakfast sandwich, an oatmeal creme pie and 2 mini muffins with some coffee and called that my breakfast. Not too shabby.It was raining, sprinkling or misting, most of the day but it was still a nice day. I hiked with Hawaii a bit. There was a section where the trail builders made a maze around the boulders which was pretty fun and really quite cute. I'd love to meet THOSE trail builders. They were probably having a lot of fun when they were deciding where to put the trail. When I got to the shelter a guy named Lost was there. He was a bit creepy. He wouldn't--or couldn't--stop talking (or smoking). He had been there three days, so he probably just wanted someone to talk to, but I can't deny that as I was laying there on my sleeping pad in the shelter, the thought did cross my mind to put earplugs in but I decided that would be rude. I would've put up my tarp but there was just no place to put it. Piper showed up and put her tent up right next to the shelter. Hawaii came and slept in her hammock. I was so glad they were there.
Date: 2013-07-13
From: Alec Kennedy Shelter

To: Darlington Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained all night so I was glad that I had to stay in the shelter because that meant I didn't have to pack up in the rain...I can't tell you how spoiled I feel with all these shelters. I've never had the option of NOT tenting on any trip before. I sprinted 4 miles down the mountain and across the corn fields to the adorable little town of Boiling Springs, stopping at Caffe 101 (the only restaurant in town) for breakfast. Piper showed up just after me and some nice bicyclist bought us coffee! I had the hiker's platter: eggs, meat, potatoes, toast, and pancakes for $7.50. What a deal! (or maybe I'm just used to overpriced breakfasts in the Twin Cities?) I ran a few errands including signing the register at the ATC Mid-Atlantic office and then headed out, looking forward to the next 12 miles of flat hiking. Thankfully the trail mostly went through the woods between fields so I didn't get too sunburned, though it did go alongside lots of fields. I had hoped to go 7.3 miles farther than Darlington Shelter but I guess I spent too much time in town. Oh well. 18 isn't bad.Darlington was a dry shelter--it had no water--so I filled up 3 liters at the spring a mile beforehand, "cameled up" a whole liter, and then hiked to the shelter. I set up my tarp, cooked dinner, and then played Pass the Pigs (which must be the lightest game ever invented...perfect for thru-hiking!) with a few others there. Found out that Piper stayed back in Boiling Springs because she left her tent poles at the shelter...and then her mom just happened to be in the area so she's taking a zero to hang out with her. I'm jealous and sad that I won't see her for a while but happy for her. I miss my mom, too, and wish she could visit me on the trail but I know that isn't going to happen as she's helping my brother and sister-in-law out with the new baby.
Date: 2013-07-14
From: Darlington Shelter

To: Clarks Ferry Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: light rain

When I woke up it was beautiful, sunny and not too hot. I decide it's the perfect morning to hang out in camp, so I take a few hours to read and pray and give thanks and (finally) finish a book I had been reading. I had talked with my spiritual director about taking a morning off in camp but still hadn't done it. It was also a good day to take a morning off since I was only going 15 miles to the shelter north of Duncannon. Hiking out it felt hotter but I made good time, even with rocks. A couple miles from Duncannon, all of a sudden, like out of nowhere, the bugs got really bad--horrible, actually. Mosquitos and gnats were everywhere. I put on some Deet and tried to swat them off but it was a pretty uncomfortable few miles down to the Susquehanna River and town.Duncannon is a town that has seen better days, but not recently. For some reason it, and the Doyle "Hotel" especially, really gave me that "I'm back in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania" run-down post-colonial Africa vibe. The Hotel is a far cry from a hotel. 100 years old, peeling paint, no private bath...Yep, sounds like Dar. There was no way I was going to stay there, but I had heard from Maw-ee that they have a great burger so I went in, gave hugs Fat Man Walking, Wonder Boy, and Mooch, and then ate a *wonderful* burger and fries and a cider while talking with FMW and Mama Goose and trying to fend off Mooch's flirtations. The guy's got no inhibitions! I was glad to see that the sleeping bag liner I had ordered had come in the mail...Thanks again Megan! xoxo! (When my old roommate found out I was hiking the trail, she gave me her REI dividend--isn't that sweet?!) I got a shuttle to the grocery store to resupply, came back and ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's, and then packed up and left at 6:30...just enough time to get 4.5 miles in before dark. As I hiked out, I counted 6 churches on or near Main Street. It's a wonder a town so small can support so many churches! I hiked across the Susquehanna (supposedly so dirty that nothing can live in it...sad) and then hiked up, up, up and across some big rocks, getting into the shelter near dark. As I was trying to fall asleep, a damn porcupine started chewing on the back of the shelter. It wanted the salt that somehow had seeped through the wood to the back of the shelter. I went around back to take a look at it and see if I could scare it away, and it just looked over it's shoulder at me. I was afraid to approach it as I didn't know if it could shoot it's quills out at me or something, so I just went back into the shelter, banged on the wall and somehow scared it off for a couple of hours til it came back later...Let's just say it was a long night.
Date: 2013-07-15
From: Clarks Ferry Shelter

To: Stealth camp at mile 1163.8
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: light rain

I did not sleep well, so I was not quick to get out of bed in the morning. A lot of hikers who had stayed the night at the Doyle showed up in the morning to get water, since there wasn't supposed to be any water for many miles past the shelter. With so many people hanging out, I wasn't in a hurry to hike. I think I left after 10am. It was hot (90s) and it's supposed to be hot all week. Yuck. I hiked all day, barely stopping because of the gnats. They swarmed my face and I could not out-hike them (they always kept up!). It was a tough day.When I saw Hamster, I knew Punkin would be waiting with trail magic at the next road crossing so that was good motivation to hike fast. Punkin's been doing trail magic while slack-packing her husband Hamster up the trail, so when I seen Hamster I know Punkin's gotta be nearby. They're in their 40s and spending their retirement money to do this. Living life to the full, I love it! When I got there, I drank a Coke, lemonade, and water and ate some donut holes...then dinner...then pizza that a former hiker named Hobbit brought us. As you probably have picked up, I can eat. A lot. I have Graves' Disease/hyperthyroidism, so my original concern before starting the trail was that I might not be able to keep the weight on, but I have actually gained weight. People keep telling me it's all muscle but I'm not sure! :-) After soaking my feet in the stream (where I saw a snake!), I hiked another 3-4 miles and saw my second rattlesnake--or I should say, it saw me, because it notified me of it's presence long before I saw it. I found a nice spot under some red pines where it seemed a shelter used to be (you could still see the cement base) and set up my tent and went to bed, very grateful that the gnats left me alone so I could sleep.
Date: 2013-07-16
From: Stealth camp at mile 1163.8

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 21.4
Weather: clear sky

I woke up at 8am, later than normal, and discovered that a porcupine had chewed up the cork handle of my trekking pole, which I used to set up my tarp! Grr! It was another beautiful but hot day. I hiked to the first water source where I made breakfast and then the girl I camped with, Siren, who was a Black Diamond gear tester, contacted her BD gear rep for me to see about replacing my trekking pole handle. I offered to buy the section that needs to be replaced, since it's not really BD's fault that a porcupine chewed it up :-) But gear companies like to do favors for thru-hikers, who do tons of word-of-mouth advertising, so Siren thought maybe they'd replace it for free. That would be nice!The gnats were pretty bad today. They like to swarm your face. They must like carbon dioxide, I guess. I decided to put my umbrella up for the sun and was amazed to discover it helped keep the gnats out of my face! Awesome! I fell for the 8th time (or so) on the trip, this time scraping up my knee and my hand a little but, but thankfully nothing (body or equipment) broke. I cleaned it up as best I could but didn't apply a bandage since I had nothing big enough to cover it.Then I hiked. Ate lunch. Hiked. Sweated. Hiked.After crossing under Hwy 81, the trail got really bad...as in, it looked like it hadn't seen a trail maintainer all year (or ever). The trail was overgrown, not maintained, and very narrow with tons of poison ivy (if I don't get poison ivy, it'll be a miracle), rocks, and thistles. It was awful. Siren agreed. We both took baths with soap at camp, just hoping we got all the poison ivy oils off in time. At 9:30 I made mashed potatoes with cheese and summer sausage. Since I was really tired and it wasn't supposed to rain, I decided to just cowboy camp under a tree. Tomorrow is my 3 month trailiversary...Wish I could call Maw-ee to tell her, but my phone is dead. Maybe I'll go into town tomorrow to charge it and order shoes, permethrin, and a bug head net...Bed!
Date: 2013-07-17
From: William Penn Shelter

To: Eagles Nest Shelter
Miles today: 19.2
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning, at the start of my 4th month on the AT, I am at mile 1,185.2...I have 1,000.7 miles to go! Just 1,000! If I hike 15-mile days from here on out, I will be done in 66 days. That's really soon. I woke up at sunrise, packed up and hiked out. I could tell it was going to be a really hot day. The trail from William Penn Shelter to the 501 Shelter was so nice compared to what I did last night--smooth, flat, and wide--that I made really great time. The 501 is a nice shelter with a solar shower. After my shower, which was cold because there are lots of trees covering the shower(!!), I hitched into the tiny "town" of Bethel, which doesn't have much but it DOES have a library, which sadly seems to be rare for PA. After getting some coffee at a convenience store and answering some curious questions from some locals, like "How can you hike in this heat?!!" (it was in the mid-90s I believe), I went to the library to order new shoes (my third pair of Brooks Cascadia 7s) and take care of some things online. I didn't mind staying inside the air-conditioned library for a while. Neither did the local Mennonites. About 15 or so Mennonites in traditional long-sleeved dresses must have come in while I was there. It was around 2pm by the time I got back to the trail. I hiked to a spot with a water source and a picnic table and decided to cook dinner at 4:30 because I hadn't really eaten lunch and was really hungry. The bugs were horrible so I put up my umbrella while I cooked and ate a pasta side. After dinner, I hiked on another 10ish miles, arriving at Eagles Nest shelter in the dark. The hike was for the most part unexciting and not fun--lots of rocks, buggy, somewhat overgrown. I wanted to make it to Eagles Nest so that in the morning I would only have to hike 9 miles to Port Clinton, hopefully avoiding the hottest part of the day. I cowboy camped and didn't have too much trouble falling asleep...Thankfully the bugs left me alone.
Date: 2013-07-19
From: Port Clinton

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: clear sky

I got a late start Friday. I was procrastinating on hiking out in the heat. I sorted through my gear and sent some stuff home. Was on the trail by 11:30, and yes, hiking out in that heat was so hard. Halfway up the climb out of Port Clinton, I stopped for water and picked a handful of raspberries. The trail wasn't too bad. There were a few boulder fields along the way but also a two-track road for a while which was so nice. When I got up to Pulpit Rock Overlook I got to stop for an hour to enjoy a nice phone call :-) That was a great break. But I still had 7.5 miles to go at 5pm. Thankfully the trail was nice and flat most of the evening, so I hiked as fast as I could and stopped to take photos of and marvel at the enormous pile of rocks known as the Pinnacle. Somehow I managed to get to the shelter, which had a house with a caretaker, at dusk. The caretaker gave us popsicles and let us charge our phones outside...Nice! I set up my tent and cooked dinner while I talked with Ketchup and Fat Man Walking. This shelter had a solar shower as well, so I rinsed off and went to bed. A great day!
Date: 2013-07-20
From: Eckville Shelter

To: New Tripoli Campsite
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: light rain

First thing in the morning was a big climb up a mountain, and I stopped to do some texting at the top. There I met a SOBO section hiker, the first African American woman I'd met on the trail, who told me that her favorite spot on the trail so far was the Beer Stein Bar in Wind Gap, PA, because you can camp there and they let you fix your own breakfast in their kitchen in the morning! Sounds great! It was a hot day and the trail was very rocky all the way to the Allentown Hiking Club Shelter where I stopped for lunch. Then there was a 2-track road. I had hopes to make it to Bake Oven Knob Shelter...but then I ran into Trail Magic! A triple-crowner named Jester and a guy named Bag-o-tricks were cooking hot dogs and had drinks and snacks. A number of us hung out there for a while. It was so great. I ended up hiking to a campsite (with water!) where I camped with a lady named Dimples. I called a friend and then went to bed exhausted but glad to have a tent...the mosquitoes were really bad!
Date: 2013-07-21
From: New Tripoli Campsite

To: Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: moderate rain

"The Heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament is showing his handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Yet their line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." Psalm 19:1-4The question I pondered as I hiked today was: What is creation saying to me? After hiking over the monstrous boulder fields at Knife's Edge, Bear Rocks and Bake Oven Knob, I think creation was asking (demanding?) some respect. And boy did I have a lot of respect for those rocks. They were awkward, huge, and steep. And you would simply not believe where the trailmakers put those white blazes. I'd look and think, they can't be serious, can they?! I was so glad I decided to stay at the campsite and not attempt to hike through there in the dark. As I was passing through the rock fields, all I could think about was, "If my mother saw me right now, I think she'd have a heart attack" and "If I make one wrong move, I'm going to be off the trail with a broken leg". But somehow I made it through, not without some stumbles, but safely. Whew.When I got to the road going into Palmerton (which we were advised not to walk), a family gave me a ride into town. I walked to the Borough Hall which houses the Jail House Hostel (though it never actually was a jail) and since I was there on the weekend and the building was closed, I called the numbers on the door. No one answered. I walked around the side of the building but didn't see any hikers. So then I went to the Police Station, as I was told to do, and rang the door. No one answered. Great. So I called Fat Man Walking, who I guessed was in town, but he couldn't hear my voice over the phone. Great. Just as I was wondering what on earth I was going to do, this hiker named Seven came up, saying, "I was on my way to the park but I couldn't pass by the best-dressed hiker on the trail!" (I hear this a lot.) Thankfully he walked me back to the Borough Hall and took me around to the OTHER side of the building and showed me the door to the Hostel. I don't think I would have figured that out on my own. When I went in I saw Ketchup there and he showed me around. It was basically a big room with bunks but there was a bathroom upstairs and a shower house. Pretty basic but FREE! There was a huge map of the eastern US spread out on a table with the trail marked and it was pretty amazing to see just how far we'd come. We did the math and figured out that I have walked farther than the distance from Minneapolis to Palmerton (about 1,100 miles). Wow!After I showered, Fat Man Walking, Ketchup, Acorn and some others went to the Chinese Restaurant for dinner. Then FMW and I went to the grocery store and got some ice cream...
Date: 2013-07-22
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Wind Gap, PA
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: broken clouds

This morning I woke up at 3am and I'm not sure I fell back asleep again. Ketchup and I hiked through Palmerton and got a hitch back to the trail. Then we started climbing up the steep, rocky trail over the Superfund site. (The ridge was deforested due to zinc smelting from 1898-1980, says my trail guide). The climbing was fun and soon we were looking 1,000 feet down over the Lehigh River and the town of Palmerton. The climbing was challenging but not impossible--just some hand over hand climbing. When we got most of the way up we ran into Acorn and the three of us hiked much of the day together. The rocks were plentiful but not as bad as in other sections, but halfway through the day it rained which made the rocks slippery and the hiking slower. We saw a big rattlesnake (#3).At Wind Gap we ran into Midway who was decked out in raingear and intended to hike back to the trail, even at 6pm. We convinced her to camp with us at the Beer Stein, a typical small town bar that is hiker-friendly and lets hikers camp behind the bar...AND allows them full access to the kitchen in the morning so they can cook breakfast! The four of us had dinner and a 2012 thru-hiker who was there bought us a pitcher of Yuengling...nice, even though none of us were big drinkers. Somehow we finished it and then crashed, looking forward to breakfast in the morning.
Date: 2013-07-23
From: Wind Gap, PA

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: light rain

The sounds of traffic woke me up at 5:30am, but I was thankful that I at least slept well. We waited around on the patio outside the bar, getting hungry, for the owner to show up. When he did show up we waited some more for him to let us in and show us where everything was so we could make breakfast. By then Midway had gotten impatient and left and another hiker, Rambo, had shown up. I made french toast and bacon and Rambo made scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies, and the 5 of us at a really nice late breakfast in the bar. After breakfast Ketchup waited for me while I picked up a prescription at the P.O. So it was 11 am by the time we started hiking. But we only had 15 miles to go to DWG so it was not a huge problem. It was very, very rocky today. I made good time at the beginning when the rocks weren't as bad but got slowed down a bit later on when it rained and my feet got soaked. At 3pm I ate lunch with Mooch, Rambo, Lt Cuckoo Bird, Acorn and Ketchup at the shelter.Not too long after I left the shelter I got to an old roadbed, saw a white blaze and started walking, lost in my thoughts and distracted by all the big puddles I had to walk through. Gross. Half a mile later I realized I hadn't seen any blazes in a long time. I looked ahead--no white blazes. I looked back--nothing. Thinking I must have missed a turn-off, I decide to walk all the way back to where the first blaze was, back through all the puddles AGAIN. I was looking for white blazes going SOBO, but only saw an old, faint one, not enough to really confirm that I was on the AT. No one else was around--all my friends were in front of me--so I had no one to ask for help. I decided to call Raindancer. She didn't remember that section of the trail. Hmm. I got back to the beginning and then I decide then to walk back down the road, looking closely at the trees this time and did see a few very faint white blazes. It was frustrating seeing how poorly marked the trail was and to know that I wasted all that time by second-guessing myself.So I was very tired and my feet were soaked and hurting when I got to DWG in the evening, later than expected. When I got to the hostel, Ketchup gave me a hug and then I took a shower and literally hobbled down the street to a pizza place for dinner. I was so stiff. Ketchup bought me an Italian beer (he's fluent in Italian). I went to bed in my tent behind the church.