morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-08-15
From: Graymoor Friary

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 0.0

The weather was supposed to be real bad today. The forecast was for up to 4 inches of rain with 30 to 55 mph winds due to Hurricane Charlie, so yesterday we had decided to take today off. However, this morning the skies were gray but no rain. We had already slept in and Butterfingers & Wideload decided they weren't going to hike since they were getting off the trail tomorrow anyways to go to Butterfingers' sister's wedding. So the four of us decided to hitch into town to try and see a movie and Terrapin and I had to re-supply. Trogdor was also there and was supposed to go with us but we lost him when he went to check on laundry. We tried to find him but had no luck.We lucked out big time with a hitch into town. Church was letting out at the Friary so we were able to get a ride before we even got to the main road. Ellen, the lady who picked us up, was very nice and excited for us when we told her what we were doing. She even dropped us off at a movie theater with a grocery store right next door. To top it all off, she gave us her phone number and told us to call her when we were ready to head back to the Friary and she would come get us. I am still amazed at how nice some people can be.Back at the Friary we headed to the cafeteria where we had heard there was a free hiker dinner at 5:30. We were in luck that there was, and had some really good food, for free!!**********This entry posted on 9/15/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-16
From: Graymoor Friary

To: RPH Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: light rain

I woke up to some interesting happenings last night/early today. First some hiker apparently got pretty drunk at the sports bar. Only I didn't know this till the next morning. I went to make some phone calls while everyone else (Trogdor, Terrapin, Butterfingers, and Wideload) went to the sportsbar and when I got done I just went to bed. I awoke to some random person mumbling and making a big commotion. I got a bit nervous at this point. To me at the time I thought it was just some random hiker who just arrived and was basically freaking out. I saw a bunch of other people wake up and take notice but they just went back to sleep!! I wasn't too worried because I was with my 4 NOBO (northbound) friends and 4 other SOBO (southbound) acquaintences but at the same time I stayed up until this random person fell asleep. What I found out the next morning was this guy was also a NOBO that they met up with at the bar and he apparently had too much to drink.The other festivities that evening were being awoken (after drunk wierd guy) to a loud clashing where I though a tree was falling on me, but it was just a large branch falling about 200 feet away. Then we also heard (although I must admit I barely remember hearing this) a deer crying and moaning like crazy because we think it was being eaten by coyotes. To top it all off the heavy rains that we had expected yesterday finally came. It was a bit too exciting of an evening for me.Luckily the day was less stressful. the hiking wasn't too bad but the steep ups are still wearing me down more than I thought they would be.**********This entry posted on 9/16/2004Since there is about a one-month lag in posting the journal I just wanted to give a real-time update...Dan is coming down the home stretch. He is in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and really gearing up for the last state...finally MAINE! He says it's been tough hiking lately but his morale still seems pretty high. Just a reminder, too, that Steph has posted a lot of pics and stories on her site, and she is doing her hike for the March of Dimes if anyone is interested in supporting her. Her web site is at http://www.hikingAT.com.Jen ("the scribe")**********
Date: 2004-08-17
To: Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: broken clouds

There is a lot of rock showing up as we get further north it seems. It isn't the rocks like PA but large rock outcroppings all over and on top of a lot of mountains. It definitely looks like the other parts of the northeast that I've hiked in. Terrapin, Trogdor, and I made a stop at a pizza joint just off the trail at a road crossing. It was a good spot to dry stuff out and stuff ourselves with pizza for lunch. The shelters in NY haven't been the greatest. Tonight's shelter is pretty dirty and since all the shelters seem to be real close to roads there is always garbage around from the weekender who come out to party at the shelters. There also has been lots of junk hanging in and on the outside of shelters. Pieces of grills, cooking utensils, etc.**********This entry posted on 9/18/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-18
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 21.7

Today was a rough one. It actually wouldn't have been too bad but I pushed hard for the last 8-10 miles to try and be in Kent before 6 PM. I wanted to get to the Outfitters to take a shower before they closed. I would have made it, however when I got into town at about 5:30, I stopped at the church hostel we were going to stay at. I was going to drop my pack off then go grab a shower, however a note on the door said the hostel would be closed for the next four days. The only other option was a coule of B&B's in town. I called around and the only place that answered had a "hiker rate" of $110 per night. I can't even imagine what the normal rate might be. Right about this point it began to rain. Perfect. Nowhere to stay and it's raining.Terrapin was coming down the road at this point and suggested we hit the liquor store. Sure, why not? If we are giong to be stuck stealth camping somewhere we might as well tie one on first, right?Actually we had heard that the liquor store owner was nice to hikers and sometimes gave out trail magic, so we figured maybe they would know of somewhere else to stay in town. This was a good idea. The liquor store gave us each a free beer and told us about a pavilion in town we could stay at. So with our free beers we went down to the laundromat. While doing our laundry Terrapin found a water spigot with a garden hose on the back of a nearby building. He said he was going to go for it and take a shower (of sorts) using the hose. I though the was crazy. The hose wasn't exactly in the open but there wasn't a shower curtain either. Well, after I finished my beer and it got dark out, I changed my mind and went for it. Mama Noll would be so proud!!After our clothes dried we went into the nearby bar for some food and beers. We were even able to catch some of the Olympics.**********This entry posted on 9/18/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-19
From: Kent, CT

To: Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 17.0

Hot & muggy today. This made for some sweaty hiking. I also was a bit worn out from yesterday so I was slow going. I didn't leave town till after lunch and with 17 miles to go (not including the 0.8 mile road walk), this meant I would possibly be night hiking.Well, this is exactly what happened, and it wasn't a good thing, either, considering my head lamp is only good for reading. I was still a ways from the shelter when I came to a rocky uphill. The rocks weren't a big problem but following the trail was. Somehow I got off the trail (which can be easy to do even in the daylight when you're on one of the rock scrambles). Well, I got a bit nervous at this point because there wasn't exactly camping areas and I was low on water anyways. I looked for the trail again by trying to go back the way I came, but with the dark it was hard to tell. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes but I finally found the trail. I also decided at this point that I was getting a really bright headlamp no matter how much it weighed.At the shelter was a real nice father and son (Bud & Luke) out for a week-long hike. Luke was a very inquisitive kid but the two were great company.**********This entry posted on 9/19/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-20
From: Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: haze

There were some decent views today. One of the views looked down on a race track that Paul Newman races cars on, apparently.It was once again hot & muggy. The heat started to get to me today. I'm not sure what the temperature was but the humidity was bad. I was feeling pretty worn down when I came to a spring by the side of the trail. I filled one of my water containers and dumped it over my head. I did this a few times and felt much better. The spring water was ice cold and very refreshing.I made it into town around 5:00 and went to Maria McCabe's house. She takes hikers in and gives them a room for the night. I got showered up and headed down to the White Hart Inn to meet my friend, Brian, who was coming out to hike for the weekend. It's a good thing Maria takes in hikers because the other options in town were pretty expensive. A room at the White Hart is over $100. The beers there are $5 each. A long way from the 50 cent drafts in PA.I got a lot of funny looks while waiting for Brian. I guess being dressed in my 'camp clothes' that hadn't been washed in a week (I had to wear something while washing my 'hiking clothes' -the sweatier ones- in Kent), my beard, and funny looking camp shoes in a ritzy place, I deserved a few looks. Brian showed up after a bit and we went to find some food that would be cheaper than the White Hart. Well, we drove around for a bit and found one other place that was open. So we got a couple of $10 burgers and $5 beers...the same as the White Hart.When we returned to Maria's she was still up and we talked with her for a bit. She was a very interesting lady and had a lot of spunk for age 75! She told us all about her two husbands (she outlived both) and the two other men who had proposed to her. We also found out she loved to play scat, but only with two people at a time. So we went into the kitchen and Brian & Maria played scat for a quarter a hand. Well, at about 12:30 AM I was ready for bed. I left those two playing scat and headed up to bed wondering how I've become such an old man that a 75 year old lady stays up playing cards later than me?**********This entry posted on 9/19/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-21
From: Salisbury, CT

To: Brassie Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 4.6

We awoke to rain. The rain certainly hurt our motivation. Although Maria doesn't run a bed & breakfast (since she would have to go through a lot of stuff to do that) she did give us some melon and an english muffin.After getting my mail drop (thanks, Jen) and packing up slowly (waiting out the rain) we finally headed out. The rain had stopped when we left but the sky was still overcast. We got about 2 miles away from the car when the rain started up. The rain went from hard downpours to light rain. By the time we made it to the second shelter after 4.6 miles we decided to get in the shelter and change into dry clothes to wait out the storm.Well, the storm did let up but when Brian went to get water from the nearby brook we soon learned that we couldn't go much further if we even wanted to. The trail crossed the brook but the brook had turned into a raging river. We talked about places we could possibly try to cross by jumping between big rocks, but it would be about impossible to not step in the river. We both agreed that this was not a good idea. So we spent the rest of the day in the shelter munching on our food.**********This entry posted on 9/22/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-22
From: Brassie Brook Lean-to

To: Tom Leonard Lean-to
Miles today: 19.0

Today was the exact opposite of yesterday. We awoke to a sunny clear day, made some oatmeal, and headed out. Luckily the river had settled down enough to allow us to cross.We went over Bear Mountain and into Sages Ravine, which was a nice area with a stream running alongside the trail. We then crossed into Massachusetts and went up Race Mountain, which has a great cliffside walk up to the summit. Brian then toyed with the idea of staying another day, but decided he better head home, so we hitched bach to his car. I did some quick resupplying and then had Brian drop me off at a road crossing a few miles up from where I left off so I could get to the next shelter before dark.**********This entry posted on 9/22/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-23
From: Tom Leonard Lean-to

To: Upper goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: clear sky

Made some good miles today. I was on a mission to get a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning. There are caretakers at the Upper Goose Pond Cabin, and for a $3 donation they will cook up an AYCE pancake breakfast. That is what it takes lately to get me to hike big miles. I need that reward to do it. I'm glad I made the push to get here because the caretakers for this week (there are different ones each week) are a group of older ladies who hiked the trail in 2001. They are a great group of ladies and very fun to be around. Also here tonight are No Pain (a fellow NOBO), 2 SOBOs, and a father & daughter from Scotland (Thistle & Bob). Thistle & Bob were interesting and real nice to talk with. They had hiked a good portion of the trail last year until their visas wer up. They are out doing 2 weeks this year.**********This entry posted on 9/22/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-24
From: Upper goose Pond Cabin

To: Dalton, Mass
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

I awoke to a great pancake breakfast cooked by the 2001 thru-hiking ladies. I also met a lady (short-job) who is an acquaintance with my cousin, storywalker, who section hiked the trail. Small world.After a bit I headed out and quickly crossed the Massachusetts turnpike which for me was a neat thing. Normally crossing a four lane interstate isn't too much fun. (Don't worry, Mom, we go over or under, we don't play frogger.) But I've driven under this bridge where the trail crosses the interstate, and it is labeled "Appalachian Trail", and it is one of the first times I thought of doing the whole trail. So I had my little reflective moment on the bridge with highway traffic buzzing by.The hiking was fairly easy today and I got a nice view of Mt. Greylock from Warner Mountain. Greylock is the highest mountain in Mass.Once in Dalton, as I was walking into town, two guys on the porch of a house called me over. At first I thought it was two locals who were going to hassel me, but it was a hiker and Mr. Tom Levardi. Tom, as it turns out, allows hikers to stay at his house. So I sat down on the porch with them to talk and within a few minutes I was offered an ice cream sundae!! I love this town! I had planned on going to the birdcage hostel but this would do. A few other SoBos showed up later and since Tom wasn't working the next day he let us stay inside the house. (Normally he only lets hikers camp outside.) The two Sobos that showed up were interesting in the fact that they carried a liter of Yagermeister in a platypus (normally used for water)...**********This entry posted on 9/23/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-25
From: Dalton, Mass

To: Mark Noepel Lean-to
Miles today: 13.7

Well this morning I saw why the SoBo guy was carrying a liter of hard liquor. At around 8:30 this morning he was taking some pretty big gulps. I can't see how someone could drink that stuff and then hike!!Today (or last night) was the first time I had something stolen out of my pack. I had left my pack out on the front porch last night and this morning when I went out to pack up I noticed a couple of things from my outside pocket were sitting on a chair next to my pack. I know they were in my pack last night. That is when I realized my ziplock bag with my snickers bars and power bars was missing. I guess it could have been neighborhood kids, too, but I'm glad I always keep my wallet on me at all times. Had it been all my food I would have said something to Tom and the SoBos but since it was just a few candy bars I just let it go.Nothing too exciting as far as hiking. I made it part of the way up Greylock Mountain. I was in no rush today since I'm getting picked up by my cousin tomorrow afternoon not too much further up the trail.**********This entry posted on 9/23/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-26
From: Mark Noepel Lean-to

To: North Adams, Mass
Miles today: 9.6

I made it up to Greylock around 11 AM. I had some time to kill so I layed around in the sun for a bit and checked out the interesting memorial at the top of the mountain that is dedicated to veterans. Also at the top is a lodge with a snack bar. On my way in, though, a guy offered me the leftover pizza from a school group that didn't finish their lunch. SCORE!! Free food for me.After a bit, four other thru-hikers showed up including Terrapin & Goofy. They were slackpacking south for the day. I then called Storywalker (my cousin) and we arranged a meeting place. So I headed out to meet her.Storywalker was picking me up in North Adams, Mass to help me get a shower and laundry done. She even had a cold pop for me waiting in the car. It was nice to finally meet her since I had talked with her on the phone about the trail and she had even sent me a care package down in Tennessee. After getting a shower and laundry, my friend Jay from college picked me up and we went out to dinner with his girlfriend. It was real nice to see those guys again. After dinner I stayed with Jay since he will be hiking with me this weekend.**********This entry posted on 9/23/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-27
From: North Adams, Mass

To: North Adams, Mass
Miles today: 0.0

No hiking today!!! I shouldn't be so excited about that but it is nice to get a break. Jay took the day off work so him and I did some errands for us both for our upcoming weekend hike. My Uncle Mike will also be joining us and the plan is for him to come to Jay's house tonight so we can all head out in the morning.I'm not sure if I'll be invited back to Jay's, though, because tonight we saw a snake in his house (a little garter snake) that slithered under the dishwasher. I'm afraid to say that it probably came from my stuff... We tried to find it but it disappeared into the wall.**********This entry posted on 9/25/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-28
From: Vermont Rt. 9

To: Seth Warner Shelter
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: haze

My uncle and Jay were greeted with a pretty steep climb to start the weekend, but the good thing was, that would be the hardest climb for the whole weekend. So after we slogged up, we had a decently graded trail to the first shelter, about 4 miles in, where we took lunch. After lunch we had some nice muddy hiking and went through a swampy lake area that was real nice.My crazy Uncle Mike even got a chane to juggle for some kids out hiking with their family. That's right...I was worrying about ounces at one time but my 56 year old uncle travels with 3 juggling pins and 5 juggling balls. It was good that on our hike, Mickey & Mallory passed by us so they were able to meet my uncle and Jay. At the shelter tonight are a bunch of section hikers including Thistle and her dad, Bob (the Scottish father & daughter pair). Terrapin and Goofy also showed up later after everyone went to bed.**********This entry posted on 9/25/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-29
From: Seth Warner Shelter

To: North Adams (Sobo), then VT Rt9 to Goddard Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: clear sky

Although it rained last night, we awoke to a sunny day and had a nice hike out. Once back at the car, we grapped lunch (my uncle, Jay, & I) at a pizza/sub place. Then I got dropped off back at the trail.I had only planned on hiking one mile to the next shelter, but at the shelter was a large group of college age kids that were kind of annoying. So I decided to push on another 8.5 miles to the next shelter.**********This entry posted on 9/25/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-30
From: Goddard Shelter

To: Stratton Pond Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: light rain

I could tell I was back in the mountains this morning when I woke up in a cloud. (Literally!)At the shelter last night was Easy (real name J.R.) who happened to hike the trail in 2002. When we got to talking, it turns out that he summited Katahdin with my friend Handstand!! Once again, it is a small world!Today stayed fairly cloudy all day and when I got part of the way up Stratton Mountain, it began to rain. However, at the top it cleared up just enough for me to climb the fire tower and get a great view of the surrounding mountains.At the shelter tonight was a college orientation group from Princeton. There were about 10 of them. Normally these groups can be somewhat annoying and loud, but this group was pretty good, and they knew just how to butter me up by offering me food! That's right, they were cooking up some pita bread pizzas and made me one.**********This entry posted on 9/25/2004**********
Date: 2004-08-31
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Manchester Center/Bromley Mountain
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: light rain

OK, so I don't know if I hiked 10.8 miles or not. It could be more or less. I was hiking along on the trail, which at the time was following an old logging road. The blazes were very far apart and I kept worrying that the trail turned off and I missed it, but then I would see another blaze and keep going. Well, I must have started daydreaming or something, because I finally did realize I hadn't seen a blaze in a while, and I had just gone down a big hill. I got out my maps and realized I missed the turn, but I also saw that the logging road went down into town. So I just followed the logging road into town since I needed to buy some new boots anyways.On my way into town I also noticed in my guidebooks that the town had a movie theater and a mexican restaurant.....I had a plan forming. I went and got some pizza at a plaza in town when Mickey & Mallory showed up. After talking with them for a bit, they were able to save me from my no-hiking, movie-Mexican idea, and convinced me to push on 3 more miles to the top of Bromley Mountain. This was a great idea! I got some new boots and we made a pit stop at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream stand. (My second of the day...I had stopped on the way into town, too!) Then we hitched a ride back to the trailhead.Staying at the top of Bromley was great. There is a warming hut at the top (Bromley is also a ski mountain) that is left open as a shelter in the summer for hikers. There is also an observation tower at the top that gave us a great 360 view. We watched the sunset there too!**********This entry posted on 9/25/2004**********
Date: 2004-09-01
From: Manchester Center/Bromley Mtn

To: Greenwall Shelter
Miles today: 21.6
Weather: broken clouds

I hiked all day today with Mickey & Mallory. It was nice to hike with other people again because it helps pass the time. Although I did feel like I was somehow cheating on Wideload & Butterfingers. As long as they don't find out, I should be OK......The hiking was nice with some good views off some of the peaks we went up and over. At the end of the day, the three of us were all pretty beat. Right before the shelter was some wierd bunch of cairns. (Cairns are rock piles people usually make to mark the trail in some areas.) However here the cairns were all over the place. It kind of reminded me of the Blair Witch thing.At the shelter tonight was another Princeton group. Although for Princeton, they didn't seem all that bright. They couldn't get a fire going so Mickey helped them out. Then when it was going they started burning things? Things like their leftover mac & cheese, an orange, etc? These will probably be the next Enron people.**********This entry posted on 9/28/2004**********