morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-07-28
From: Napping near Lee, MA

To: Cookie Ladies' Home, MA
Miles today: 9.4

I was in no particular hurry to get going this morning. Mrs. Gorp brought my Jet Boil stove and lots of fresh ground coffee, so I laid in my tent and enjoyed the best coffee I've had in a long time. Little things can make such a difference! :-)I ate breakfast and finished enjoying my coffee, and then packed up my stuff. Mrs. Gorp was ready about the same time because I boiled her water and she used a coffee bag for her coffee.We started walking north on the Appalachian Trail through lots of water that was still standing on the Trail after yesterday's heavy rain. A very dry day on the tail..J It felt nice and cool out. It wasn't all that cool, but compared to what I've been walking through, it really felt great!We climbed Beckett Mtn, then walked on to Finerty Pond and saw a loon swimming around there. Mrs. Gorp got some pictures with her camera of the loon. I just took a picture of Finerty Pond and didn't try to get a shot of the loon because of my cell camera is only 2 mega pixel.We walked on to County Rd....a seldom-used gravel road and sat down for lunch. It was a good place because there was a breeze blowing and the bugs weren't too bad.We had a climb up Baldy Mtn next through some more slippery, wet trail, then eventually got to October Mtn Lean-to.I signed the register and used a smiley face sticker. I was looking through the register and saw where Blue Jay Le Fey wrote a note to me saying to be nice to Liteshoe.That's just plain asking too much from me! Wink, wink. :-)We walked on because the bugs were biting.We started seeing lots of green leaves lying on the ground about a mile before we got to Cookie Ladies home. They must have had a lot of hail here in that storm yesterday.Mrs. Gorp almost stepped on a snapping turtle in the middle of the trail. She walked right past it and didn't see it.When we walked up to the Cookie Ladies home, I saw Catfish sitting in a lawn chair talking on his cell phone. Catfish, relaxing I cooked dinner that Mrs. Gorp brought.... mashed potatoes, stuffing and chicken for dinner. It was filling! :-)Marilyn came out and talked for a while, the Roy came over and talked. I had 3 cookies that Marilyn made. :-)Mountain Squid drove up to pick up Bones and Ned and take them back to Rob Byrd's place in Dalton. I know Mountain Squid from '05, so we talked a while before he left.The trail today was a real mess...lots and lots of mud and water and more mud.... but, I had another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-08-06
From: Manchester, VT

To: Bromley Warming Hut, VT
Miles today: 3.0

What a road trip! Heavy rains, flooded roadways, 70 mile detours....and all for my ol' buddy Chief and Xmas.It took most of the day to get back to Manchester, then we did laundry and ate a couple McDonald's double cheeseburgers and fries, then headed to the trail-head where we met Chief and Xmas yesterday morning and headed out on the Appalachian Trail at 4:40pm after talking to Spider in the parking lot.We were walking through mud like my ol' buddy Chief has never seen before....till maybe today. Wink, wink ;-)We ran into 2 sobos by the names of Erin and Bear Dancer about 30 minutes into the walk.I'm sportin' a new shirt and white socks today. My new shirt is cotton! For those in the know, it's organic cotton. I paid more for that! :-)We passed by the Bromley Shelter side trail without stopping. We almost did because it was thundering out and getting darker, but figured we could make to the summit of Bromley Mtn and get into the ski warming hut before it rained. We still had a mile of climbing left.I have never seen Mrs Gorp move that fast before! ;-)We got to the hut shortly after it started raining, but just before the really heavy stuff came. There was heavy rain and thunder and some small hail.It was good to be inside the hut! :-) Mrs. Gorp in the Bromley Warming Hut, looking at the hail coming down outside. When the rain stopped for a while, I climbed the lookout tower and took a bunch of pictures of the skies...they were beautiful!I'll send them all into Hammock Hanger and hope she posts them without getting too mad at me for all the work. :-)I finished yesterday's journal and went back up to the top of the tower and sent it to Hammock Hanger. Name that building... privy, phone booth, no... I started shivering up there because the wind was blowing and it was probably in the upper 50's and I was a little wet still.I realized my new cotton shirt that I'm sportin' dried quickly. My Mountain Hardware microfiber shirt would have still been wet tomorrow morning. I think I'm going to like this organic cotton button up shirt for summer backpacking. I'll talk more about it when I get more experience.We are warm and dry in the warming hut tonight. I have my Jet-Boil all ready to brew my coffee in the morning....life is like a box of donuts! :-)A side note to all of you that I owe an email to. I haven't had a real computer to use since I was in CT at the Moosie's. I plan on answering all my email when I get to Mrs Gorp's home....sorry for the delay.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-08-09
From: Lottery Rd, MrsGorp's Excellent Hiker Hostel

To: Mrs Gorp's Excellent Hiker Hostel, Wallingford, VT
Miles today: 0.0

Today's entry is going to be a short one....I hope. :-) I got up just before 6am and started getting ready to head over to the restaurant in Morrisville for breakfast. Chief heard me and woke Xmas up, so we all went there together. We had two more mail drops to pick up from the PO, so we headed for Johnson first and got that one, then on to Jonesville, got that one and headed south to get me back to Mrs Gorp's Excellent Hiker Hostel. The Boys at Mrs Gorp's home...talking about just how horrible it was for them to walk a day in the rain. ;-)The "boys" dropped me off and stayed to talk for a while, then headed towards the southern terminus of the Long Trail. Mrs Gorp, Chief and Xmas talking about the grit that Stumpy has, to be able to walk in the rain and love it! That was Carlene's idea, so the "boys" had no choice in the matter...they couldn't go home till they actually did some walking. ;-) My ol' buddy Chief was saying something about needing two zeros before they would be ready to walk again. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that there's about an 80% chance of more heavy rains for the next two days? The Boys have a new found respect for Stumpy...just look at the admiration in their faces and how they look up to him! :-)They left with their discount motel coupon book in their hand...them "boys" is going hikin'! ;-) It ended up taking most of the day to get those mail drops and drive back to Wallingford, so I didn't get any walking in. I did get a few pictures of the "boys"....enjoy!!! I honestly think it must have been really horrible out there for them....because they knew they were going to take just a wee bit of criticism from me when I had to take another two full days to go up and rescue them from.....whatever it was that was so awful. Oh well......... :-) Another day spent hauling my good ol' buddies around near the Appalachian Trail...but not quite on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-08-16
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: Hanover, New Hampshire
Miles today: 0.0

I spent the day at The Long Trail Festival in Rutland, VT. It was great seeing lots of old friends. I'll try and list a bunch of the ones I remember later...maybe tomorrow. It was a great day for the festival...mild temps and no rain. Good music and lots of people to talk to. Some of the friends I've seen were; Water Baby, Juicebox, Redhat, Bob Peoples, Jewels, Trek, Pack Mule, Tenderfoot, Just Jack, Blue Jay, Madhatter, Blaze, Jackaroo, Colonel Chaco, Wak A Pak, Racoon, Lipstick, Sly, Rodney DangerTrail, Twisted Sister, Muleskinner and his wife, and Stiches. I know there were lots of others, but my memory isn't working very well right now. ;-) Tomorrow should be fun for me at the festival because my hiking/biking partner...Mrs Gorp put together a video of our cross country bicycle trips and has a scheduled presentation at noon. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-08-17
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: Hanover, New Hampshire
Miles today: 0.0

Today started out with another 12 cup pot of Stumpknocker's Blend all to myself!! Mrs Gorp fried up some eggs and bacon, then we went over her presentation one more time, just to make sure there wouldn't be any bad things happen in front of a room full of people to see her videos that she's made up of the three cross country rides her and I have done. Everything worked great...laptop, external speakers, digital viewer and all the electronic parts that goes along with all that stuff. We packed it all up in my truck...even her own table and viewing screen and headed back to The Long Trail Festival. We got there when The Old Phart was doing his presentation on a JMT hike he had done. When he was done, we set up and Mrs Gorp took over talking about bicycling and the 11,000 miles she rode in just over a year. I got to be part of the audience....just the way I like it! :-) It started out a little slow when she was talking about Adventure Cycling and what they do, but as soon as she started the video of the bike rides, she had everyone's attention. Not one person's eyes were anywhere but on the screen. It was great!!! :-) I have no idea how much work Mrs Gorp put into making those videos. She did an excellent job! Jewels and Draggin '05 were in the audience. Even though they had just finished their own cross country bicycle ride, they looked ready to start another one. :-) I walked around the festival afterwards and ran into Southpaw and his wife. Southpaw had walked around me back in VA, but then something lit a fire under him and he started pulling away on the Trail. I think I remember seeing in one register where he was about 10 days ahead of me. Well, he's another one that came down with Lyme this year and is now starting back on the Trail tomorrow...I think here in VT. I also saw Left Field and talked to Jackaroo again. I kind of made the rounds and talked to Trek, Sly, , Blue Jay, Boo Boo, Muleskinner and Wood Rose, Mad Hatter and even sat down and listened to a couple bands playing before heading back to Mrs Gorp's home. I had a great time this weekend at the festival and at Mrs Gorp's home, and am looking forward to getting back out and doing some walking tomorrow. I can't thank Mrs Gorp enough for picking me up from the Trail and bringing me back for the Long Trail Festival...and for making such a great video of our bicycles rides!! She even made me look good in the video somehow! :-) Another great day along the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-08-18
To: Hammock Hanger, Northern VT, Stump goes SOBO on LT
Miles today: 0.0

Note from Hammock Hanger: No you did not venture into the wrong journal. All that talk about Chief and Xmas not hiking the northern half of the Long Trail sparked a little flame in our man Stumpknocker. After the VT LT Festival a spontaneous decision to hike the northern half of the Long Trail with Mrs. Gorp came about. So once again the duo is out on the trail and Stumpy is walking Mrs. Gorp back home.I'll say no more and let him tell you more detail in his words. I wanted to get these pictures out there and let you know what was up, as I do not know when I will be able to get another transmission from him. It is quite remote in the northern sections of the Long Trail.I guess it is another great day on the Long trail.c/o Hammock Hanger Northern end of the VT Long Trail Stumpy goes southbound northern Vermont view Northern section of Vermont Long TrailMrs Gorp's feet. Chief never got his new shoes this way.
Date: 2008-08-19
From: Tenting near Laura Woodward Shelter

To: Tenting near Hazen Notch Camp
Miles today: 0.0

Long Trail 9.0 miles Today started out late. It rained hard all night long and had rained yesterday starting later in the day, so everything was messy. I made my coffee and ate the three donuts I had packed out. I was in no hurry and I don't think Yolanda Vega was in much of a hurry. Yolanda Vega near Jay¢s Peak? We climbed 1,100 feet up to the summit of Jay Peak. I thought about Lone Wolf when I came to the snow making machines because he used to work here making snow. It was lunch time when we got to the summit, so we walked into the gondola building and ate. It was about 50 degrees outside and pretty windy. It was warmer inside. Jay Peak is where my ol' buddy Chief bailed from his walk on the Long Trail. I was really surprised because it was so easy getting there. The trail didn't start getting harder till I walked on past Jay Peak. I guess it's a good thing Chief got off when he did because I'm not sure he could have walked those hill I walked today. ;-) We passed by Jay Camp without stopping, then got out to VT 242. We stopped there and dried everything out. That took about an hour, then we started a very steep ascent up to Gilpin Mtn. We passed by Domey's Dome next, then on to Chet's Lookout. I crawled up on the rock there, but had better views earlier today. Buchanan Mtn was next, then Bruce Peak. All place I had never been before. I have to say that I'm loving this northern part of the Long Trail. It really reminds me of parts of Maine. It's a tough walk, but very enjoyable. Yolanda Vega heading towards Jay¢s Peak? We had been walking what seemed like quite a while when we came to Hazen's Notch Camp. We walked there and talked to Windtalker and Ma while we cooked dinner. They had thru hiked the AT in '06 and are out for a section of the LT now. There was lots of mud pits along the trail today, but I still think southern VT is muddier...at least it is from what I've seen so far. This end is definitely harder walking with the steepness and ruggedness of the Trail up here, but it's beautiful. Yolanda Vega makes her way up the rocky mountain. (This is why some compare it to the Whites of NH.) I just had to mention that I called Lois at Dutch Haus B&B in Montebello, VA last night. I was trying to track down my ol' buddy Chief. I knew he would be there, but he had already been and gone. Lois said; "Now Stumpknocker, you know we have a three day limit here and Chief has already used his three days up." That's my buddy...started walking in VA about five days ago and already used up three nights at the B&B. :-) A very nice and cool day (50's most of the day) for a walk on the Long Trail. :-)TRANSCRIBER NOTE: For those not as familiar with this crazy hiking duo, they not only flip flop around from trail to trail, adventure to adventure, they also switch up the hiker name. Thus Mrs Gorp = Yolanda Vega,when she is on a SOBO hike.Looks like Yolanda Vega has decided to come out to play.HHPS: HH does not like it when the multi-photo doesn¢t work!!!
Date: 2008-08-20
From: Hazen's Notch Camp

To: South of Vt. 118, Eden Crossing, VT
Miles today: 0.0

Long Trail 12.1 miles I'm going to do general daily updates of this Long Trail walk. It's just plain harder to journal when you are walking with someone else. :-)We headed down to Hazen's Notch, a steep descent and then climbed 1,400 feet up to Haystack Mtn.We continued on to Tillotson Peak and then headed own to Tillotson Camp. The shelter looked out over the distant mountains and I could see our next climb...Belvidere Mtn.When we got to Belvidere Mtn, the trail stopped short of the actual summit by 2/10ths of a mile...uphill. Yolanda Vega said she's been up there and wasn't going again, but I would like it. Stumpy at the old firetower on Belvidere Mt. She waited while I took about half an hour and climbed the old firetower. It was definitely worth the climb! I could see Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond that, I could see Jay Peak and Canada to the north, I could see the Whites to the east and I could see Camel's Hump to the south.I walked back down to where Yolanda Vega was and we descend Belvidere Mtn and crossed Frying Pan Brook and set up camp about half a mile later.Yolanda Vega and I had walked around a young man by the name of Shane in the southern part of the Long Trail a few weeks ago. We ran into him today and Yolanda Vega gave him some brownies. He was one of eight nobos we saw today.
Date: 2008-08-21
From: South of Vt. 118, Eden Crossing, VT

To: Laraway Mtn
Miles today: 0.0

Long Trail 11.6 miles Today our walk took us past Ritterbush Lookout and then near the pond. We entered Devil's Gulch next. That's an area that has lots of huge boulders to climb around, under and over.We got to the side trail to Spruce Ledge Camp and sat down for first lunch. The camp was 800 feet up the trail and I didn't want to climb just to see a shelter. :-)We made a steep climb up Bowen Mtn and got to the north peak, then in about a mile, we got to the south peak. Yolanda Vega on going up. Next was a descent to Basin Brook before climbing up to the summit of Butternut Mtn. We descended 800 feet and got to Corlis Camp where we had decided to eat a late lunch or early dinner. Yolanda Vega goes down. The mosquitos were biting, so we went inside the four walled cabin and cooked dinner.We wanted to set ourselves up for a town stop tomorrow. It will be our 5th day out and Yolanda Vega could use a shower. :-)Yolanda Vega remembered how nice it was up at Laraway Mtn Lookout, so we headed up there for the night. What a great spot! I can see Mt Mansfield to the south and Lake Champlain sparkling in the setting sun to the west.I'm sitting 7 feet from a long drop-off and loving life! :-)p>I can't believe it's taken me this many years to finally find the time to walk the Long Trail. I LOVE what I've walked so far! It reminds me a lot of my favorite state on the entire Appalachian Trail...Maine, but so far I don't think it's as hard as Maine. ;-)Another great day on a little side trip from the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2008-08-23
From: Vt. 15, B&B near Johnson 

To: Madonna Peak
Miles today: 0.0

Long Trail 9.5 milesWe had an excellent breakfast at the B&B...farm fresh eggs, sausage and lots of blueberry pancakes.I wanted to write my journal before we left, so I got busy with that.Dave dropped us off at the trailhead somewhere around 9am and we got started walking north on the Long Trail.Our first climb was a big one...over 3,200 feet to the top of Whiteface Mtn.It was a warm and humid day. We stopped and got water from a nice cool stream, then finished climbing to Bear Hollow Shelter. We took a long break. I dried out my shirt and drank lots of water.We headed on up the steep climb of Whiteface. I haven't climbed a mountain that tough for a long time. I loved it! :-) There was a group of ten college kids at the summit, so Yolanda Vega and I didn't stay long.We did a steep descent of 600 feet to Whiteface Shelter and stopped for second lunch...and to dry out again. :-)We left after about 45 minutes and climbed Morse Mtn next. That was another fun climb with us skirting some steep stuff and working our way on to Hagerman Overlook. We descended another couple hundred feet before starting another very steep ascent up to Madonna Peak.I was walking along and Yolanda Vega was walking behind me when I felt a small earthquake. At least I thought it was a small earthquake until I turned around and saw that Yolanda had fallen and hit the ground hard. That evens up the fall count on this walk. :-) She was okay of course, or I wouldn't be talking about it like that. I could get hurt! :-)We got to the summit of Madonna Peak. It's got a ski lift that doesn't run in the summer. It got dark on us after we ate, so I stayed and took a bunch of pictures of the sun setting over the distant Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.Today's walk on the Long Trail was harder than any on the AT other than climbing Katahdin. It's a fun trail to walk! :-) Another great day on this little side trip on the Long Trail. NOTE: Stumpy is keeping his journal entries short as he is just relaxing and enoying his first time on the northern half of the Long trail. He is taking lots of pictures and feels they can tell the story better then any words. == Seems the duo is having a wonderful time on this side trip. ¢Hammock Hanger
Date: 2008-08-25
From: Tenting near Taylor Lodge

To: Tenting near Duck Brook Shelter
Miles today: 0.0

Long Trail 13.2 milesToday started off early because Yolanda Vega wanted to start off early. I made coffee at 5am, but never heard a sound from Yolanda. I drank my coffee and went back to sleep for a while. :-)It had rained hard last night and was still sprinkling this morning. It cooled off nicely and the wind was blowing through the tops of the trees.We finally started walking south on the Long Trail about 10am. :-)We had camped near Taylor Lodge and that was only about 1,800 feet high...we were climbing to Bolton Mtn at 3,700 feet high and we started climbing right away.The footing was slippery again after all the rain last night and there was more mud again. It was lunch time when we got to Puffer Shelter. We both sat inside the shelter to stay out of the cool wind. It was blowing pretty good and only in the 50's for a temperature. I love cooler weather! :-)We finished the steep climb to the summit of Bolton Mtn after lunch. It felt good to start climbing again after eating because I had cooled down a lot.I thought it was going to be mostly downhill after that, but it was rough terrain and there were lots of ups with all the descents. Yolanda Vega was right behind me on one steep rock face. I turned around just in time to see her feet slide out from under her and it looked like her knee was scraping all the way down the rock, but it was her wrist that ended up being the most sore. She landed flat on her butt.We stopped at a viewpoint and I took my shoes off and aired out my feet while I ate a snack. We kept descending and started looking for a tent site. I saw a few, but we were trying to make sure we got close enough to US 2 because a friend is picking us up there in the morning. Tomorrow will be a laundry, resting, eating kind of day. :-)We passed by a beaver pond late in the walk and I spotted a beaver. I kept walking towards the pond and the beaver slapped his tail.I got close to the edge of the water and the beaver kept swimming around looking at me. I got a few pictures of him before I walked on. Beaver in the pond.We got to Duck Brook Shelter and ate dinner, then set up camp nearby for the night.It was a very nice day...no bugs, temps in the 50's all day and mostly overcast. Another great day on the Long Trail...will be back on the Appalachian Trail in about 10 days and then I'll start writing my normal, long winded journal entries. :-)