morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2020-05-22
From: Route 341

To: Mt Algo Shelter
Miles today: 0.4

We had a late start for our drive to NY to meet our friend Donna who is shuttling us to Kent CT.  We finally met her around 6:30 and hit the trail a little after 7. We had a decision to make.  Do we hike .3 miles and camp at the shelter or hike on to the next campsite which was on 3 miles. The next day was going to be a lot of rain.  In the end. We decided to stay at shelter instead of hiking at night and setting up. As we got to the shelter we ran into 3 hikers who I met in Pennsylvania when I was hiking.  We even talked about maybe seeing each other when we hit CT. It was nice catching up with them.
Date: 2020-05-23
From: Mt Algo shelter

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: light rain

I actually slept pretty good last night. There was a roaring stream that lulled me to sleep. I woke up at 4 am to it raining. Just great. Eventually I got up around 6:30 and it was barely raining.  The other hikers had been up and eating and packing up. I made my coffee and chatted with them. If it¢s one thing I love, it¢s my coffee in the morning.  Sidewinder got up and we said good bye to the guys.  Since it wasn¢t raining we packed up and started hiking.  In no time it started raining.  It was slightly refreshing because it was warm and sticky out. So we just hiked in the rain. As we were hiking we started seeing all these salamanders.   So we started counting them.  In the first mile we saw 100 salamanders.  For the whole day we saw 200.  We had a lot of slab rocks we were hiking across. It was treacherous and we had to be careful.  Rocks, moss and wet don¢t mix. We finally made it to 10 mile shelter and sat and ate out lunch.  In no time it started raining.  Then pouring.  We got cold fast so we started pulling out our gear.  We took a nap as we were all snuggled in our quilts. In the end we sat for 3 hours until the rain stopped.  Now we had 4 more miles to go. We had a mile climb right off the bat.  It wasn¢t as bad as we expected.  We meandered the rest of the trail and came to a foot bridge that was out of service. But we heard you could cross anyway.  So we did carefully. It was better than road walking a mile.  Made it to the shelter cooked, ate and set up by 8:00. As I am writing my journal we hear an owl going hoot hoot, hoot.
Date: 2020-05-24
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Route 55 NY
Miles today: 13.3

I woke up at 5 AM in the morning a little chilly from the morning air. I still had a jacket  I could  put on but as long as I stayed under my underquilt I was fine. I finally woke at 6 am from the sun shining.  Thank goodness   I made my coffee and read the log book.  It was fun to see names of previous people I shuttled.   Since sidewinder was still sleeping I decided to clean up the shelter. There was ramen all over and lots of trash.  I swept all the trash together and swept the floor.  I didn¢t want to touch the trash because of the Covid virus. We parked up and started our Hike. It was easy day with not too much elevation changes.  We had woods, swamps, plank boards,cow pastures and even a boardwalk section.  Then The fueling part started. We had 2 climbs the second one was a struggle. I wish I was a little younger doing these climbs.  But we did it.  We then walked along Nuclear lake which was pretty. Finally arriving at our car.  Then we were going to meet our friend Donna at South Mountain pass road to be shuttled to another section to hike. She informed us that the parking was closed.  What to do, what to do. So we flipped our hike and parked at the bigger lot.  We stopped for pizza with Donna before she dropped us off for our next leg of your hike.  Again I am snug in my hammock listening to an owl hoot. Till next time
Date: 2020-05-25
From: South Mount Pass Road

To: Dennytown Road
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain again. I looked at the radar and it show no rain. The weather channel show 5%. Just our luck. So I went back to sleep for a little longer than normal. Eventually got up and got our food that we hung so the bear couldn¢t get it. Then set my hammock tarp up into porch mode. That way I could cook my food and make my coffee and still stay dry. I was able to just relax drinking my coffee until  it was time to get Sidewinder  moving. We had a little over 12 miles today and we want to get it done because we have a  3 Hour drive home as well. The day started out not too bad. The rain has stopped and the hiking was fairly easy. I did have two pretty good climbs today maybe three but overall they weren¢t too bad. We eventually got to the hill top shrine on top of the mountain which was a nice place to sit and take a break. But then we pushed on to try and get our day done.  We saw quite a few day hikers again today and a couple people that were doing some overnights. A lot of people stopped and put their masks on when they got to us because of the Covid.  By the end of the day Sidewinder and I were both Sore. Sidewinders feet were really bad and I was just running out of steam. I think the three days back to back was just getting to me. I finally had our last climb and meander through the top of the mountain and then gentle long downhill until we got to our car. I have to say this hike was the most aromatic hike.  The honeysuckle were in full bloom.  It smelled so good. Yippee we were done 38.2 miles in the books
Date: 2021-08-06
From: Route 341

To: Route 4 
Miles today: 11.14
Weather: broken clouds

Our hike started by traveling 4 hours to Massachusetts where we met out shuttle driver/friend Susan.  I previously shuttled her in PA.  She shuttled a us about an hour south to Kent Connecticut where we would start our hike north back to our car.       We said goodbye to Susan and headed straight up the hill.  What a way to start.  We paced ourselves and continued on.  As we were hiking something scrambled off the trail.  To our surprise it was a bobcat.   It was staring straight at Sidewinder(Kara).   She froze.   I said take a picture.( she is always in the lead)   I eventually was able to get a video as it just slowly meandered away.  So that was pretty exciting.   We the came to St John¢s Ledges. That¢s exactly what is was.  This huge rock ledge we had to scramble down.  It was quite technical.  Then we had literally a 5 mile walk along a river.  Although the walk was not bad we were bombarded by gnats and mosquitoes.   There literally was a swarm following us.  We tried to keep a quick pace to get away from them and to make up some time we lost earlier in the day.  Our last part of our hike was another grueling climb.   It was steep and just seemed to never end.  Finally at the bottom we had the owner of Coltsfoot valley farm pick us and other hikers up.  We went back to his farm where we had a bed, shower and a fresh vegetable and pasta dinner and also cheese that he made on the farm.   It was a perfect way to end the day. We were so tired and didn¢t expect to get dinner too.  It was a full house with 6 hikers and the host.
Date: 2021-08-07
From: Ct route 4

To: BelterÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs campsite 
Miles today: 11.28

Woke up early to enjoy my coffee. The house was quiet while I set up my camp stove. Spirit a man who camped in his tent joined me and we chatted.  We had done the PCT and 3/4 of the way done the AT.  Eventually everyone was ready and we made a quick stop at the market for a coffee for everyone.  We then got dropped off and headed down the side of the mountain where we had to ford across the river.   I chose to take me trail runners off and put my crocks on.  While Sidewinder decided to chance it and go across.  She tiptoed across the rocks even with her coffee in had.  Not me.  I guzzled mine.  Of course after that there was another good climb.  I question my self if I am getting too old for this or what.  Maybe I should have trained more.       We passed several hikers the past 2 days.  Some section hikers some southbounders or SOBO¢s and we leapfrogged with several hikers going NOBO.  Today was a slightly boring hike with the only interesting thing being  Rogers Ramp.  It was a small narrow passage between rocks that we had to squeeze thru.  The mosquitoes again were terrible.  We stopped at the shelter for a rest and water.  Water is really prevalent in CT. This is helpful so we don¢t have to carry so much water.  We also saw lots of tiny toads while hiking today.  About 3 miles from our destination we came to Hang glider view.   As we sat and had a snack we could look out over Lime Rock Speedway. It was neat to see the cars racing from afar.  We had one more climb to do.  The last one always gets me.  But finally we made it to the campsite around 5:30. We set up with 2 other hikers and chatted while we cooked and ate dinner.  They are 2 friends from 8th grade who now are they hiking. I am happy to now be in my hammock relaxing. It¢a only 8:30 so I hope not to go to sleep too early or I will be awake at 3am.  Stay tuned
Date: 2021-08-08
From: BelterÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs campsite 

To: US route 44
Miles today: 9.4

I had the most restless night on the trail. First of all hikers came into our camp in the dark shining their lights all sound and talking loudly.  The finally leave and set up on the hill.  The were up talking loudly till after midnight.  Then I finally fall asleep and wake up again and take a sleeping pill.  I sleep for 3 hours and then am wide awake. Finally get up around 6:30. Enjoyed my coffee peacefully.  We stayed with 4 other hikers who we would leap frog with all day.  We were all excited to get moving this morning because Mountain side cafe was .2 miles off trail. Our limit is .3 for blue blazing.  We moved thru the trail pretty swiftly.  It was mostly down hill.  We also had some road walking and a short side trail to the cafe.  The food was amazing. I had a goat cheese omelet with pesto and tomato.  Side wonder and I also shared streusel French roast with apple compote.  It was amazing.  We left there and hiked along the Housatonic river. It¢s a huge river. This river is the most unused river.  For 3 days we have crossed paths with this river and have not seen a single person fishing or kayaking.  We weaved in and out the trail along the river.  Eventually we get to Falls Village. It¢s a cute little town.  I would love to go back again some day. We finally come to these rock slabs in the water with a falls behind it where our hiker friends were enjoying the water. At this point we were so hot we jumped right in too.  It was so refreshing. We then continued on our hike. We had to climb Mt Prospect.  It was no picnic..  All my muscles in my legs are so sore already.  It hurt with every step. But slowly we continued.  The mosquitoes were nasty again today. We continued with one more small climb.  Then some crazy switchbacks to get down to the road. The trail followed the road half way into Salisbury. We veered off and walked to Maria¢s house.  She is a trail angel who is 92 and has been taking in hikers for 20 years.  She was very happy to see us.  We have a bedroom with 2 twin beds to share.  Maria does not have a washing machine and the laundry was 2 miles away.  So we chose to hand wash our clothes and hang them.  They really needed it. There are 2 other gentleman in there 60¢s who are here.  They are thru hiking. Sidewinder and I went to this great pizza shop and got the best Italian meal and a glass of wine. We spent some time just relaxing and  giving our legs a break.  We have a hard day tomorrow.   Today also was the day that I celebrated 800 miles on the trail. I was pretty happy about that.
Date: 2021-08-09
From: US route 44

To: Raceback campsite
Miles today: 11.5

I woke up early and enjoyed coffee with the rest of the hikers. We talked about our plans for the day. Sidewinder and I were not in a big hurry today because we had plenty of time to do our miles.  It also was going to be a bit cooler today too. We said our good byes to Maria.  She was a neat lady. She really loves having hikers. We started our road walk back to the trail. Then a gentle walk thru the woods and then we began our climb up Lions head mountain.  It is described as a short but difficult climb.  It was an exactly that.  It sure did stretch the sore muscles.  Along this stretch we saw a flock of turkeys and a doe.  We then meandered thru the woods slowly climbing the mountain. We then finally climbed the peak of Bear Mountain. It was rather steep at the top with a huge rock carin that was built in 1885 on top you could see all around.   Bear mountain is the highest peak in Connecticut.  We began our decent down Bear mountain.  It was tough.   Lots of rocks kinda like a rock scramble to go down  and lots of slabs of rocks. It was pretty tricky.  Eventually we climbed down along Sages ravine. We walked all along the flowing stream with deep pools of water.  We took our shoes off and soaked our aching feet. It felt glorious.  But we couldn¢t get too comfortable we still had one more mountain to climb.  Mt Race was before us.  In the beginning we had some hard climbing and then it turned into climbing on these rock slabs surrounded by small pine  trees and blueberry bushes.  The blueberries were delicious.  We leapfrogged with several hikers thru  this section.  Eventually we came out to a summit.   It was beautiful.  I thought we were done.  But oh no.  We now had .6 miles of rock ledges to walk on overlooking the mountain.  It wasn¢t that hard but you were on the edge and also on an incline. Finally we crested and started down the other side.  We had a mile to go to get to our campsite.  It was a basic campsite but has a bear box and a privy and most importantly water.  We have another huge climb tomorrow.  I also miscalculated because of bad internet calculations and completed my 800 miles on Saturday not yesterday.  As I sit here writing this at 8:30 at night a few more hikers joined us to camp.  Not sure who they are,maybe we will find out tomorrow. There is also the strangest noise in the trees. It must be some type of bird.  Never heard it before.
Date: 2021-08-10
From: Raceback campsite

To: Jug End Road 
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: clear sky

I had the worst nights sleep ever.  I was so restless all night.  I really don¢t know why.  I even took 2 sleeping pills because I wanted to get a good nights sleep. On top of that these dang bird in the trees were making noise all night long. I think I finally slept from 3 to 7 am.  We got a slow start hitting the trail at almost at 10 am.  I think Sidewinder needed to let her feet rest.  We finished down the rest of the mountain only to start up Mt Everett. It is considered a grueling climb compared to the Whites in New Hampshire. It first started with rock scrambles then turned into sheets of rock.   We had to be careful with every step.  One wrong step and we were in for trouble. On top of this some of the rocks were wet from the humidity. This took us much longer as we continued up the mountain.  We finally reach the top with just about no view.   All that work and no view. Well going down was just about the same thing.   Only this time going down felt like we had more ups than down¢s. Ironically today I felt the best I have the whole hike.  My muscles weren¢t sore and I was less fatigued.  Eventually we made it to the bottom where our car awaited.   We couldn¢t wait to get there and change our sweaty stinky clothes.  Well there were 4 people there so we loaded up and started for home. In like true hiker fashion we stopped at the first mini mart and gorged on food and drinks.  It was soooooo good. In this section home we completed 49.2 miles, finished another state and completed a total of  800 + miles.
Date: 2023-04-05
From: Route 7 

To: Jug end road Massachusetts 
Miles today: 4.5

after working a half day we hard a 4 hour drive to get to Jug End road where we left off last time. We took 2 cars so we could shuttle our selves around.  We were about halfway there and decided to stop at the rest stop.  We pulled into separate areas and as we were walking to the door some sketchy people were gathering around my car.  Something seemed weird about this. We backtracked towards Sidewinders car and pretended to talk so we could observer what was going on. We decided to go in one  at a time to keep an eye on our cars.  They eventually retreated to 2 different cars.  After a while they left.  People always say about being safe in the woods.  By far this was more unsafe then any woods I have been in   We continued on our drive and eventually made it to Jug End road  We left one car there and then drove north to start our home at Route 7   It was a daily easy 4.5 mile hike meandering thru the lowlands of the mountains and some farm fields  Most of the mountain  NJ part was marsh and bogs  There were a lot of plank walk ways to follow.  A funny story, as Sidewinder got to the end of her plank it popped up 2 feet in the air, just as I stepped to go on the plank and landed on the bog. Luckily it was not deep and only one foot got soaked. After our hike we went to our hotel then dinner. Time for bed so we can hike tomorrow
Date: 2023-04-06
From: Benedict Pond parking lot. 

To: Day 2 
Miles today: 10.2

We started our day with dropping off my  car off at our ending location at Route 7.  Then grabbed Dunkin¢ on the way to the trailhead at Benedict pond.  We started hiking with our coffee in hand.  The mountain was so foggy you couldn¢t even tell there was a pond there.  We had about a half mile hike to the Appalachian.  As soon as we started we hit the marshy bogs again. I was waiting for one of us to fall in as we had our coffee in one hand and our poles in the other.  Luckily we didn¢t.  The day was fairly easy. As we were hiking we could see remnants of snow and a few ice patches. It won¢t last long as it warmed up rather quickly.  We made it to the Tom Leonard shelter and took a break there.  By this time we were sweating. I had shorts under my hiking pants.  So it was time to to get rid of the pants.  Who would have thought in April it would be so nice.  We head out again and get to an area where all the tress are down and had moss all over.  Turns out it was Tornado Alley. Most of our day we saw or heard lots of different birds. Woodpeckers etc. We also saw a newt and a mouse.  we have not seen a hiker in the 2 days of hiking.  The last leg of our hike was along the Housatonic river.  It is a glorious deep flowing river.  But it¢s contaminated and advised not to fish or eat anything from the river.  As we round the last bend we were greeted with trail magic.  86 year old Harry Sami makes hiking poles and leaves them for hikers.  You can donate to his coffee fund if ya like.  It was a great day and we finished at 3:00. It was expected to rain most of the day and turned out beautiful
Date: 2023-04-07
From: Main Road

To: Main road to Benedict Pond
Miles today: 10.4

I woke up to sidewinders alarm going off at 5:30 in the morning. There was no need for an alarm that early today. Eventually we got moving and went to the Market Place restaurant for breakfast. Food was delicious and filled me for most of the morning. We then drove our car to main road where there was a small parking area. Every day we have been leaving a car at one location and then hike to the other car and keep doing that every day. Today¢s hike started off as we headed into the bogs of Massachusetts, starting out with plank boards, and then eventually into decking. This boards were so lopsided and one was partially under water.  Then there was a bridge that looked like a triangle¢s from afar.  I never saw something like it.  We followed the wet lands for a while and eventually headed into the woods.  It was a much tougher day today with some climbs and some elevation gains.  I guess we were spoiled from yesterday.  We hiked about 6 miles and finally took a break next to a stream.  Once we stopped we had to dig out coats out. It was freezing. We carried on and next thing we ran into Anita who is a guy.  I never got the story of his trail name. Anyway he stayed with us at the hostel but I did t get a chance to meet him. We had a really nice chat. We continued and next thing it was like we were walking in a stream with ice and snow as well. One thing we noticed is that the trail was not well marked and not maintained very well. Often we had to go around huge trees and even wonder where the trail went.  Eventually we hiked to the Ledges which had a view where we could still see the snow on 2 ski lodges.  We didn¢t have much farther to go. We were praying the car was still there and that it didn¢t get towed.  We were in a state  park.  Thankfully it didn¢t.  One thing I can say is I love car seat warmers.  We were chilled today.  It was cool and windy.
Date: 2023-04-08
From: Becket road

To: Main road
Miles today: 9.3

We purposely had a late start today.  It was below freezing this morning so we figured why hurry. Let the morning sun take away the crisp morning air. We went to breakfast at this great little coffee place in town. They had grab and go sandwiches and yummy donuts. We hit the trail by 10.  The early part of our hike was not bad.  We headed down by into the woods on a gradual decent.  Eventually coming to a beautiful pond and Massachusetts turnpike. We crossed over the turnpike on an overpass made just for the hikers.  Then up the mountain we went.  It wasn¢t too bad of a climb up and over.  Eventually coming to Upper Goose pond.  It¢s not a pond but more like a lake.  We hiked about 3 miles around the pond on fairly easy trails.  We tiptoed across stones in streams, board walks and plank boards along the marshy areas.  Eventually hiking the mountain again and coming to Knee Deep pond.  Shortly after that we started climbing the mountain.  This was the worst part of the day.  I can not tell you how many times we questioned where the trail was or we¢re off trail all together.  There were so many big branches and blow downs across the trail or lack of blazes to even see where the trail went.  The Mountain is still covered in leaves and very hard to see the trail. Often we had to backtrack to see if we were on trail.  Sometimes we were not.  Luckily sidewinder and I have hiked enough to figure it out. It was quiet frustrating. Soon after we ran into some locals who were hiking and had a nice chat. He was a previous thru hiker and enjoyed hearing about our hike.  This seemed to change our frustrations into a better ending.  We had a mile down hill.  Again with not very good markings.  But alas we made it to the car.  Over all I am feeling pretty good.  My knee has a sore spot and the muscles are sore.  But better than I usually am.