morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-06-10
To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 23.1
Weather: overcast clouds

we had a sunrise today! and blue skies all over! boo ya!it was a perfect day, a perfect day for anything, whether you like to hike, or sit alone and think, or sit with friends, or a pleasant mixture of them all (Tolkien fans unite!) and that's what i did.i hiked alone for the large part of the morning, stopping at vistas along the way--these are the first clear views of Pennsylvania we've been blessed with. orb catchs up with me while i'm sitting at one and he said that a chipmunk almost fell on him. it fell right in front of him from a tree above, ran over to a bush and looked up at orb with an expression that said "did you see that? i hope not". the chipmunks are everywhere, but none have attacked me from above yet.[Editor: I guess I get what I pay for with these mail-order attack chipmunks... not even the right person... jeesh]around noon, i find LT having a lunch and join her and then up hikes orb so we hike together for the rest of the day. the original plan for the day was to hike until we felt like stopping. Port Clinton, the next town on the trail, is a long day's hike away so we could either camp just south of town or walk right in tonight. the 3 of us could NOT make a decision about what we wanted to do and we kept putting it off until around 6pm. we were maybe 4 miles away from town and decided that we needed some ice cream STAT so that was that and we hiked to Port Clinton. this town as a huge pavilion on the outskirts that they let thru-hikers stay in for free so that's where we were headed. when we got into town, around 7:30ish, SueBear is there talking to a guy with a truck who said he'll take us anywhere we need to go, so we got a ride to a great little ice cream shop immediately. talk about service! the guy's name is Fred and he is the caretaker of the pavilion so is use to dealing with hikers during the summer months.while we were headed back to the pavilion, some dark clouds started rolling in. I'm glad we decided to push into town! the mileage of the day is 23.1--i earned that ice cream!
Date: 2003-06-11
From: Port Clinton

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: light rain

the pavilion i slept in last night was located right next to a major highway which kept me from getting much sleep. i kept waking up with a jolt when the the big trucks went by because i thought i was being run over. we went to get some breakfast down the road around 8am and after that did the boring town chores. fred, the guy who took us to get ice cream yesterday, drove us to the big grocery store to resupply for the next couple days. he's a great guy. typhoon, slippers, lucky, earl, his brother and nephew (keith) each walked into town this morning also. later, lady, stringbean, wizard, cosmo, and tapeworm show up.orb, LT, and i were GOING to buy new hiking shoes at the outfitter today. mine have been with me since damascus, and for trail runners, 700+ miles is definitely pushing their limit. however, the outfitter in town has relatively no shoe selection at all. i would have thought that Pennsylvania, being the state with the killer rocks, would at least specialize in boot sales! oh well, my feet will have to weather the rocks until i get to delaware water gap i guess.the 3 of us leave town around 4pm and were planning on hiking until we felt like stopping. which was 6.1 miles for the day. we're camping near the windsor furnace shelter with lady, lucky, stringbean, and wizard. orb got a great fire going which kept us entertained until around 10pmish when a thunderstorm rolled in and it started to rain. oh well, we're use to it but we got some sunshine and hot weather earlier today so i won't complain!
Date: 2003-06-12
From: Windsor Furnace Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 20.6

the thunderstorm lasted until midnight and managed to get almost everything soaked. despite the weather, i managed to catch up on some sleep that i lost the night before. it was overcast in the morning but didn't look like it would rain. the trail today had some decent views of the state. it was hazy in parts but i sat around at some of the vistas for a while. sometimes, even if the view isn't spectacular, it's nice to sit up in high places to think, or not think at all.later, orb and lucky caught up and we walked to the next shelter together. this shelter, the eckville shelter has a caretaker who lives in a nearby house and, besides other duties, he sells ice cream, sodas, and snacks to hikers. it really hit the spot too--even though it wasn't very sunny today, the humidity made it feel really hot (it's amazing to think that a week and a half ago it was in the 40s during the day!).7 more miles to the next shelter where orb and i find LT hanging out with earl. LT, orb, and i decided to hike on another 4 miles to a road crossing with a nearby restaurant that lets hikers camp in their backyard for free. we get there around 6pmish, set up our tents and have our camp dinners. i then start reading them a little of the Hobbit but only get 2-3 paragraphs into it when orb says "was that thunder?" and it starts to sprinkle on us. no hobbit tonight! we start packing up our stuff into the tents and were going to just retire to them for the night, even though it was still early. BUT (and this is easily the highlight of the week, maybe month) Danielle, a woman who works as the landscaper for the restaurant, walks up and offers to take all 3 of us back to her house for the night. the best kind of trail magic comes at the most unexpected times! before accepting, i make sure she understands how bad we all smell (pretty darn bad!), but she is a hiker and backpacker so ! understands. what an angel!so now instead of heading for our tents, we're rushing to tear them down and pack them up before it really starts raining hard. within an hour of leaving for her house, it starts POURING rain. we would have been trapped in our tents and probably getting a little wet too, if not for danielle.before going to her house, we stop for some great ice cream which really made my day. once at her house, i got a shower (it had been a week and a half since my last one!) and then had one more pleasant surprise happen before the day was spent:it turns out that danielle has just gotten back from a month and a half long tramp in new zealand. as some friends might know, i've been playing with the idea of making new zealand my next "big" trip after the AT. so i got lots of incredible information about her adventures there and saw some of her pictures too. incredible! it'll be great to talk/email her in the future about details for my trip, which seems more plausible now. to top it all off, we got beds to sleep in too. you ROCK the casbar danielle!for mileage today, it was 20.6. the amgic was an incredible way to end a long day of hiking.
Date: 2003-06-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 18.6

it was a dark and stormy friday the 13th...well maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was certainly overcast and drizzly all day. after feeding us eggs and bagels, danielle dropped us off on the trail around 7amish. honestly, not a whole lot happened today. it started out raining and cold but that stopped around 11am and then got humid around 3pm. and we just hiked a bunch. i kinda wish i could write about something really interesting that happened, but nothing did. which is not necessarily a bad thing either.but the rocks of Pennsylvania are definitely worse than from a couple days ago. it really slows me down, since i've fallen enough to realize that i should be more careful.today we hiked 18.6 miles and are camped in the rain. hopefully it won't be a repeat of the storm we saw last night but managed to avoid!
Date: 2003-06-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 16.0

it drizzled off and on last night, but it didn't storm at least. i was low on water so was anxious to get to the next water source which was 10 miles away. i got out first and pushed through these miles as fast as possible--i hate walking without water. the sun came out in the morning to keep me company.i caught up with leapfrog and we talked and walked until we got to the shelter around 11am when he pushed on and i ran for some water.after chugging a liter right away, i found a clearing to spread out my stuff, while waiting for LT and orb who both show up a bit later. we were settling in for a long lunch and were visited by 2 day hikers--wannabe and "her husband" (that's how he introduced himself) who have been following my journal online and we chatted for a while about thru-hiking (and about Tolkien stuff too).later, when it was the 3 of us again, i started reading the Hobbit, when AGAIN i am interrupted by a rainstorm (shesh!) so we rush to pack up our gear and make a dash for the nearby shelter. the storm lasted for a good hour, but we entertained ourselves with the Hobbit so the rain can't stop us everytime!so by the time the rain stopped, we had been in this area taking a break for maybe 4 hours. yay! around 4pm we got back on the trail to do ~6 more miles. we're camping up on top of a ridge tonight and we saw a sunset! i don't know the last time i saw one of those. AND i also saw one star when it got dark...wow, stars do still exist!
Date: 2003-06-15
To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

huzzah! it's my 3 month anniversary! i haven't said i rocked it in a while so i'll say it now: i rock the casbar/casba/casbah! i got up kinda early because there were some ill placed rocks in just the wrong places under my tent. today is (sorta) my last day in Pennsylvania and boy did the terrain today sum it all up. Rocks rocks and more rocks! But the weather was perfect in the morning and it seemed to make it all better. we even caught a couple vistas of the state before we walked into the town of delaware water gap. it's a little odd being here--my parents have a picture of me and my Huge family at one of these vistas 20 years ago, when i was a little person. i don't remember it, but it's neat coming back as a thru-hiker.my aunt judy and LT's grandma both live near the Gap so the 3 of us are taking 2 days off from the trail to visit them and orb's hanging out with my family. we had ~15 miles to walk today (i'm not sure about the exact mileage because we're not sure where we camped last night). the sun was shining and it was a lovely day for walking.i think we got into town around 1pmish and spent the rest of the afternoon at the church hostel (which is a GREAT place to stay if you don't have an aunt in town who loves you no matter how bad you smell). LT's parents and grandma show up and take us to a nearby outfitters for new shoes (Pennsylvania killed the old ones). they aren't the shoes that i would have wanted, but hopefully they'll work out on the trail okay. after saying a temporary goodbye to LT, we head back to the hostel for a while since my aunt can't pick us up until 7pmish. Lucky, Wicked Wizard, and Stringbean are there by now too, eating pie and they tell me where i can find some cheesecake, so off we go on a quest! and boy do we find it: white chocolate Rasberry Cheesecake...booyah!LoadRunner and Apricot, Cosmo and Tapeworm also show up at the hostel later. cosmo has quite the surprise for loadrunner too: he just Happened to come across a little generic action figure at a yardsale whose face looks EXACTLY like loadrunner. i am still kicking myself for not getting a picture of him holding it. it's awfully spooky.later, my aunt judy shows up and meets all the guys (and one other girl). from there, judy takes orb and i back to her house. it is great being here--it's been so long since i've been able to visit. i only see judy, len (husband), and justin (son) briefly during the holidays and only in Kentucky. and it's neat thinking that i Walked here from Georgia too. Judy works on an organic farm so tomorrow I'll be able to head out there and see what she does and help out a little, maybe use more muscles than just my legs for once!
Date: 2003-06-16
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

this morning, orb and i got to go to the organic farm where judy works. i was amazing at the different techniques they have for farming without using the conventional mentions (ed: methods) involving all the chemicals and pesticides. Very educational. i got to help out for a couple hours as well and that was fun.the weather was perfect for the whole day, perfect for a day off or for hiking or anything at all. after lunch we went back to the house and got some laundry done and drying in the sun (SO much better than using a dryer). it is so great of judy and her family to have taken us in for these 2 days. it's nice to have a day off and i think it helps give me perspective on why i'm hiking.
Date: 2003-06-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

orb and i goto sleep in today! until 8amish when the sunshine told me to get up anyway. another sunrise! a symbol for more to come!this will be a very short journal, because i did a whole lot of nothing today and it was wonderful. the most productive thing we did was walk to the grocery store and get food for the next couple of days. th most pleasant thing we did was have a wonderful meal with judy, len, and justin in the evening.i threw my old shoes away today too, which was very traumatic for me--they've survived about 800 miles but were dead long before we got to delaware water gap. montrail shoes rock.i've realized that i haven't made it very easy for my brother to keep track of my mileage up to this point. i have currently walked 1277.8 miles and have 894.8 left to go. but since the beginning, i've cared less and less about the mileage and more and more about enjoying this while i can (rain or shine). i don't really intend on making it easier for Broberry to keep track after this point, but now you know where i'm at right now! Editor's Rant: Well poo. I just spent an hour today correcting the mileages and NOW she tells me she "cared less and less about the mileage". That's it. Fine. See if I care. NOW we see the violence inherent in the system! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some world dominaton to plan.
Date: 2003-06-18
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: View Entry
Miles today: 14.0

we got up and out early this morning. after saying goodbye's, judy dropped orb and i off at the hostel at the water gap where we met up with LT again. i made a quick stop at the post office to go through my bounce box and i also found some cards that friends had written--thank you to all!-they mean a lot and i'm sending them home to keep. one friend even sent gift certificates for dairy queen--woo hoo!at this point in the trail, i don't have anyone else to meet up with until the end. this is kinda sad, but overall it's really good timing because now i don't have to conform to any schedule and can just focus on hiking and living it up while there are still miles to hike. so now, we hike until we (or just i) feel like stopping, not worrying so much about mileage.we were on the trail in the morning and had a nice hike to a glacial pond, Sunfish Pond. they call this (i'm not making this up) the 7th natural wonder of New Jersy. whatever that means!we hiked on and stopped at a vista overlooking some NJ farmland and fields down below. although the weather was hazy and overcast, we could see the land right below us. after sitting there relaxing for a while, LT says "what is that down there? what kind of animal is that?" there was a little brown speck moving through a field. me, who obviously has no sense of perspective or how high up we are says "it's a cat!" now i realize that if it were in fact a cat it would have to be about 5 feet high to be seen by us at the overlook. i hope i don't have nightmares about giant cats tonight (MEOW!) anyway, we decide that based on how it was moving, it was a bear! neato! i kinda thought my first bear sighting would be more exciting, but this bear was at least 1/4 mile away, downhill. it was still neat seeing it. chances are we will see more though--New Jersy has a huge bear population.[Editor: 1: Goldberry is incorrect. 2: People in charge of my Giant Cat breeding project are going to be severely diciplined for this breach of security. 3: New Jersey's bear population will shortly be under control if we can get the kinks worked out of the Giant Cat project. It may however have the side effect of destroying any cat toy factories there.]we hike on from there and find a lovely, not superrocky campsite. i'm not sure exactly how far we walked today but it wasn't more than 14 i think. they (who exactly is this "they" that i put so much faith in anyway?) were saying it was going to rain all day today, but was only overcast so all is well.after a pleasant reading of the Hobbit (i think LT is not only listening now, but maybe interested!), we did some stretches, situps and pushups. yep, folks, it's not enough to hike all day! we're hard core! actually, we're just trying to work out our arms and other muscles that don't get used much during the day... but we're still hard core i think.
Date: 2003-06-19
From: Near Giant Cat

To: View Entry
Miles today: 17.0

i didn't sleep very well during the night and don't have a reason for it, so used this as an excuse to sleep in a little. when we were packing up our tents, LT found out that some animal did his "duty" on her tent stuff sack and one of her socks. not a great way to start out the day...(not if you're LT anyway, if you're her friends it's kinda funny).anyway, after i start hiking, i start thinking about all the vistas that the trail walks by but that i've missed because of bad weather (like this morning which was rainy and foggy). so i'm kinda bummed as i walk along. and then i see A BEAR! it saw me first and was standing in the middle of the trail watching me from about 40 feet away. since it was foggy, i could see its sillouette very clearly. we stared at each other for a good 20 seconds (which felt like a long time then). i have been told to make a lot of noise if i come near a bear and i would have if it would have started walking towards me, but i didn't want to disturb the silence and peace of that moment. on the other hand, I'll admit my heart was racing too. but the bear decided to let me pass and he walked off the trail a ways. i walked by slowly, keeping my eye on him, and after i pass i keep looking back to make sure i'm not being followed. i'm calling my bear Mr. Peabody. soon after this, orb catches up to me and must have walked very near Mr. Peabody on the side of the trail without seeing him. we walk together to the shelter where LT is waiting for us. after a long lunch at the shelter, we're back on the trail and run into skeemer! who apparently saw Mr. Peabody near my sighting later that morning. we had a nice walk and caught up on our trail experiences.[Editor: Perhaps it is time I checked in on my Giant Cat breeding project... Bears walking around unmaligned cannot be a positive indicator.]orb, LT, and i walked on to the next shelter where we're staying tonight. orb has a sprained ankle so we might slow down a little in the next day or so. skeemer, magnolia, sally, and snail are also here for the night.[Editor: Glad to see that Goldberry didn't go all soft and start posting mileages for me every day. Let it be known that the mileage is now off AGAIN and it's NOT MY FAULT!]
Date: 2003-06-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 18.3

WARNING: negative attitude today!due to someone snoring throughout the night, i didn't get much sleep...that is, until after he left--then we all slept in until 9am. i this this is the latest yet, but it felt good. besides, wonder of wonders, it was raining hard AGAIN and no one was anxious to get drenched. and it was cold, of course. it's the 20th and this is the same weather we had on the 3rd of JUNE. what's wrong with this year? in journals from Georgia, i mentioned that i will have to come back and hike that state in a section since i missed so much due to the weather. with that philosophy, i guess i'll have to hike the entire trail again.granted, the vistas and views were not my only reasons for this hike. but day after day for weeks i've been hiking past these vistas in the rain and clouds. yes, i'm still enjoying the hike and the friends i've found emmensely, but on days like this, the Hiking is No Fun. so i've decided to be in a sour mood today--tomorrow, i'll be better.anyway, the 3 of us hike together for the day since we're not sure about orb's ankle. the pace was slow at first, but after a couple miles, orb starts feeling better. it rained the Entire day, of course, and yes, it was cold still. we stop into a nearby ranger station to escape the weather momentarily and find out that, with windchill, it was 45*--have i mentioned that it's suppose to be JUNE now?i am so a child of the sun. i need sunlight! i like being hot! go ahead, try me! i challenge you June, while you still have 10 days left!(puff-puff) okay, sorry about that. anyway, we hike and hike and don't talk much the entire day cause no one is in the mood. but when we had about 4 miles left, we made up a story about 3 super-hikers with super-hiker powers who find out that a supervillian is controlling the weather. we... i mean they capture him and save the day and the weather gets better. good story, eh?[Editor: I personally feel it must have been a lousy, depressing story. And I would apologize for the apparent malfunction of the weather satelite/orbital space laser, but first it's Microsoft's fault... they never said not to use both pieces of software on the same orbiter. Now I have weather control locked on "Rain" and a space laser that can't cook a pre-defrosted hot dog. Secondly, apologizing would not be in character for an Evil Overlord. I also note that I have editor's noted on each of the last 4 trailjournals, so I will have to calm down now. Perhaps inflicting another season of "Joe Millionaire" on the populous will relax me...]we drudge (perfect word) on through the downpour (i didn't realize clouds could hold so much rain) and get to the Murray shelter. thank god, this is a great little shelter too, privately owned and maintained. a ridge-runner, gina, who is staying here the night said that the chance of rain for tomrrow is... 100% oh boy!we hiked 18.3 miles, which was not the original plan because of orb's ankle, but he said it was feeling much better. tomorrow will be a better day--it's only up from here!
Date: 2003-06-22
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Vernon, NJ
Miles today: 0.0

we took an unplanned zero-day at the hostel today. when we woke up, it was pouring down still and this continued until 4pmish. so we 3 decided to NOT make ourselves miserable and to enjoy being dry and clean for a day while it's raining it's heart out outside.highlight of a delightfully boring day: dairy queen! boo ya!
Date: 2003-06-23
From: Vernon, NJ

To: View Entry
Miles today: 19.1

i woke up this morning and thought i was dreaming... it was ... su... sunn... what's that word? i can't remember it... Sunny! blue sky and sunshine! and it stayed for the whole day! and hot to boot! boo ya again! I'm glad we took a zero yesterday cause my attitude today was a total 180 from how it was on friday. i actually enjoyed hiking today! (missed it too)after doing a chore or two to clean up the hostel, we got a hitch back to the trail around 9amish and hike hike hike. with a smile on my face! these are the days that i've been waiting for. i was one very happy hiker for the whole day. and it happened to be the day i hiked into new york and left NJ behind. and it happened to be a day when the trail was blessed with some splendid vistas and some fun rock scrambles too.and orb gave me a pack of gushers too so i'm just on cloud nine. the bugs were annoying today but it's better that than rain for me. we're camping at Fitzgerald Falls tonight. we hiked 19.1 miles today. total mileage: 1360.1 (i'm finally getting the hint that i should include this in my entries...3 months late)[Editor: Well, I guess I heated up those red-hot pokers for nothing. And a total mileage, too! I didn't even expect that! Well, time to put these things away, then... OUCH! :@]good times ad by all, or at least me today!