morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-23
From: Campsite near Rice Mtn

To: Budget Inn, Buena Vista, VA
Miles today: 7.5

A Day of ContrastsDay 36: The thunderstorms turned to just storms last night and it rained into the morning. We put on our raingear, packed up the wet tent and hit the trail at 7:35am. We descended to the Pedlar River and crossed it via a suspension bridge then started our climb for the day. By the time we had breakfast by Pedlar Lake, the sun was starting to peek out...so off with the raingear. The trail was wet, muddy and slippery so we couldn't stride out but we made good time up the various gullies and valleys. We were amazed at the contrast to yesterday. Yesterday we walked the mountain ridges and went almost 10 miles without seeing water...today, walking the valleys we crossed some kind of rivelet or creek about every 15 minutes...some very stunning, like that in the attached picture. We stopped at a shelter for lunch, then continued our climb, finally arriving at VA highway 60 at 12:50. Spider had called a guy in Buena Vista, VA yesterday to arrange for us to be shuttled the 9 miles from the AT to town. Spider had scheduled the pick up at 2pm, but fortunately the driver arrived at 1:15 and we were able to get to town early. We were joined on our ride to town by Don's Brother who had slack packed 11 miles and ended up needing a ride back to Buena Vista. He's even staying at the same motel as us. We checked in at the motel, showered, picked up our supply box at the Post Office (Thanks, Bobbie) and did our laundry (Our clothes could almost stand on their own!!). The man who had helped us get the shuttle owns a wine shop in town, so Spider dropped in and bought a bottle of wine, as a way of thanking him. Thus we had a gormet dinner of fine Virginia Cabernet Franc and Subway sandwiches!! As I type this, we are having a huge thunderstorm outside...they even have severe storm warnings on TV. Gotta' love the weather in this corner of the country.
Date: 2013-05-24
From: Budget Inn, Buena Vista, VA

To: Budget Inn, Buena Vista, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Day 37: We awoke in a cozy warm, dry room in a bed...some things you learn to appreciate when you hike!! Surprisingly it was a cool morning, in the high 40s, with a blustery wind. We left the room at 7:30am and headed to the Bluedogart Cafe about 1/2 mile away...a local favorite among the hiking communiity. One of the things you get to do, as a hiker, is sign your name on their interior walls. After a great breakfast, we walked by the library to check out their hours, then headed back to the motel. Cathy talked to her sisters and their mother, Bobbie, is having problems getting around due to back and knee problems. It sounded like it would be best if we returned sooner rather than later. So instead of taking a leisurely, 3-day train ride home after our hike, we decided to fly home. As ET washed up some things and unpacked the supply box, Spider headed off to the library to make our travel plans to California next week. On Spider's return, it was time to eat again (It's amazing how with "Hiker Hunger" we are hungry within a hour of eating!!). The afternoon was spent relaxing, Spider watching golf (Of course!!), getting a start on repacking our pack and, oh yeah, snacking!! For dinner, we headed to a local mexican restaurant. Not surprising, the picture of the day is us eating...at the mexican restaurant. However, even with a mexican restaurant, something interesting about this town is how they pronounce the town's name, Buena Vista..."Buena" is pronounced to rhymn with "tuna" rather than the way we pronounce it in California (and, presumably how they pronounce it in Spain and Mexico). Physically we are still in pretty good shape except for our knees. Spider continues to be bothered on the steep uphills and , unfortunately, the brace he is using to strengthen the knee has rubbed some raw spots. ET is having problem with her knees on the long, steep downhills. However we think we can hold it together to finish the last 55 miles in the next 4 days...No Pain, No Gain!!
Date: 2013-05-25
From: Budget Inn, Buena Vista, VA

To: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: clear sky

I Can See for MilesDay 38: We had a leisurely morning because the shuttle driver couldn't pick us up until 9am due to a prior commitment. We awoke at 6:30 and both took a shower knowing it would be 4 days before we would have one again. We took advantage of the motel's weekend continental breakfast, but decided that wasn't enough, so went across the street to Burger King for one of their sandwich breakfasts. Back at the motel, we finished packing, checked out and waited in the lobby for our shuttle. He finally arrived at 9:35 saying his first rider had not shown up on time. We finally arrived back at the AT at 10am. We immediately started a 2000 foot climb. Fortunately, the trail was nicely graded and we made pretty good time. The skies was clear, with the temperature at a cool 52 degrees and a cold wind blowing...so much for summer...but at least there were no biting flies around!! We could tell it was Memorial Day weekend, we started seeing people on the trail almost immediately...throughout the day we probably saw over 50 day-hikers and backpackers. After our first break, we followed the ridgeline and soon broke out onto a bald with a 360 degree view of the area...a "bald", if you will recall, is a mountain top completely devoid of trees, just grass. Some are natural and some are manmade. The nice thing about a bald, besides the views, is you can often see the trail far ahead were you are going, as you can see in the attached picture. It reminds us of hiking the PCT above treeline and being able to see the trail far ahead. At lunch time, ET spotted our 5th deer of the hike. We finally arrived at our destination shelter at 5:50pm. There are probably 20 people camping here tonight. We tented away from the main group, because, as expected, they have a fire going and are talking and giggling way past "Hiker's Midnight" and our bedtime. A milestone for today was that we passed the 50 miles-to-go mark.
Date: 2013-05-26
From: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

To: Harpers Creek Shelter
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: clear sky

What Goes Up, Must Come DownDay 39: Fortunately, everything quieted down at the shelter and we had a good nights sleep. We were the first to get up in the camp and hit the trail at 7:40am. It was 45 degrees, clear sky and with a cool wind. We continued to follow the ridge with its periodic ups and downs of a couple hundred feet. We saw quite a few people on the trail, but not as many as yesterday. We finally climbed 700 feet up to the top of a mountain called The Priest. From the top we had great views of the valley far below and of the surrounding mountains. According to one of the other hikers, The Priest will be the last time the AT will be over 4000 feet until it reaches New Hampshire. After enjoying the views, we began the big descent to the valley...3000 feet below. The trail was very rocky so progress was slow. It took us over 2 hours to make the descent. An interesting thing was to watch vegetation changes as we went down. The Rhododendron were just budding at the top, but around the 2000 foot elevation they were blooming. A little further down the Dogwood was blooming. So I took a picture of it. Our knees were aching when we finally reached the valley. We crossed the Tye River on a suspension bridge...this was the river responsible for making this deep valley. Next we had a 1000 foot climb to get to our destination shelter. The day had warmed up to 75 degrees and still not a cloud in the sky (I believe this is the first cloudless day of the entire hike), so it was a warm climb up the mountain. We arrived at our destination at 5:25 and, as with yesterday, every nook and cranny was full of tents. We eventually found a marginal area to set our tent up. Tomorrow the crowds head home and by the end of the day the trail will be back to normal.
Date: 2013-05-27
From: Harpers Creek Shelter

To: Camp near Laurel Springs Gap
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: clear sky

Not all Trails are Created EqualDay 40: Happy Memorial Day!! Those camping around us started making noise at 6am..so that is when we awoke. We lay there for a while then got going. We hit the trail at 7:30 with a partly cloudy sky and 54 degrees. We immediately started a 2100 foot climb. Like yesterday's descent, today's climb was very rocky...the attached picture shows what I mean when I say "rocky"!! You can imagine how its difficult to make much speed on something like this...and we didn't!! We took our breakfast break on a large rock overlooking the valley below..these "picnic" breakfasts are one of the things we like about hiking. It took us about 3 hours to finally finish the climb. We stopped at the top to send off yesterday's journal and to make motel reservations in Waynesboro for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Then it was down, down. We stopped at a shelter for lunch then reconnected with the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had been away from it for a day or two, but we have paralleled it for over 100 miles over the last week. It was nice to reconnect with it because we disposed of our trash at one of its trashcans!! We hiked down the trail amongst the weekend campers heading home until we got to a parking area on the Blue Ridge Parkway...we were the only ones to continue hiking. We finally arrived at the spring we planned to camp near, except there were no camping spots. We talked to a couple of locals on the trail and they described some campsites about 1/2 hour up the trail. So we loaded up with water and continued up the trail...and I do mean UP. We immediately started climbing after leaving the spring..not a lot of fun with the extra weight of water!! After 1/2 hour of hiking we saw no campsites, but the area was reasonably flat, so we left the trail and headed 50 yards away to a little grassy area where we set up our tent at 6:15...a true "stealth" campsite. The sky clouded up today and we actually were sprinkled on, for about 5 seconds, and had some thunder but the day ended with partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow is our last day on the trail for this hike..don't know if we will escape without getting wet or not!!
Date: 2013-05-28
From: Camp near Laurel Springs Gap

To: Quality Inn, Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 13.3

And the Fat Lady SangDay 41: We are done!! We arrived at Rockfish Gap, our exit point from the AT at 2:20pm...it's amazing what a good trail and a desire for a shower will do. We got up early to get a jump on the day and hit the trail at 6:30am. We had 13+ miles to hike, we were unsure how difficult the trail would be and we wanted to get to Rockfish Gap before the Visitors Center closed at 5pm. The Visitors Center coordinates Trail Angels to shuttle hikers the 4 miles to Waynesboro. It was 60 degrees and partly cloudy sky. We had a brief climb that ended with some great views. We stopped at the top of Humpback Mtn on a rock overlook for another memorable "picnic" breakfast. The trail was rocky at first, but as we began to descend it smoothed out and we were able to make good time. We had "first" lunch at a shelter and "second" lunch 2 hours later. On the way down the mountain we talked to a hiker called Bamboo, because he hikes with 2 bamboo sticks as his trekking poles. When we told him of our section hike he said we were "LASHers"...Long Ass Section Hikers...so now we know what to call ourselves!!. When we arrived at Rockfish Gap, we were standing there looking for the Visitors Center, when a lady approached us and asked if we would like some fresh pasta salad and watermelon...a Trail Angel in the flesh!! And to top it off she said she and her husband would be happy to drive us to Waynesboro...can this get any better?? As it turned out it did..on the drive to Waynesboro they asked if we needed to stop any place else beside our motel...well we do have a box to pick up at the Post Office that has clean clothes for our trip home...no problem!! So we arrived at our motel in style with our box. You gotta love Trail Magic. We showered, put on our clean clothes and headed across the street to a CVS to replace the sunglasses ET had lost on the trail today...Oh ya, and pick up a couple of pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream!! Later we went to a local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. But we have agreed that we no longer have an excuse to continue the feeding frenzy...so tomorrow we will rachet it back to normal eating..Darn!!
Date: 2013-05-29
To: Quality Inn, Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Chillin' in WaynesboroDay 1 Post-Hike: I guess you could call this a zero-day but all day's are a zero-day until next year's section hike!! We awoke at 6:15am...it's going to be hard to go back to West Coast time. We walked over to the lobby and took advantage of the motel's continental breakfast. We talked to a hiker we had heard about called Lucky Strike. His name has nothing to do with cigarettes...it has to do with being struck by lightning about 2 weeks ago and he's still alive to talk about it. It occurred on the open area of Tinker's Cliffs that we passed a couple of weeks ago. He said he had a little damage where the lightning entered and exited his body but not much else. He took 4 days off to "regroup" then hit the trail again...these hikers are tough in a lot of ways!! There were other hikers at breakfast who are staying here too...we were a little sad to be leaving the trail as we overheard the others talking about what is ahead. At the same time we are ready to leave...we found ourselves talking more and more the last couple of days about the things that need to be done when we get home...the mental shift has begun. After breakfast, we started our zero-day activities by heading to the laudromat to do one last cleaning of our hiking clothes...don't want the airport bagage handlers to have to wear gas masks!! Spider checked us in for our flight tomorrow and confirmed our shuttle to the airport...at 5:15am tomorrow morning. We headed to A&W/Long John Silvers for lunch because ET wanted fish and that was the only place around she knew she could get it. It was already 83 degrees. A heat wave is hitting this area beginning today and it is suppose to be around 90 for the next several days...sure glad not to be hiking in hot humid weather. Physically we have ended the hike with everything intact except for the knees and even they are not a problem when we are walking around..it seems to be the extra weight of the backpacks and steep terrain that aggravates them. We relaxed in our room for the afternoonm..it is the nicest motel room we have had for the whole trip and it wasn't even the most expensive!! For dinner, we headed to an Italian restaurant that was recommended to us. We toned down the eating, no appetizer and no dessert!! We are anxious to get home and get on the scales to see how well the "Appalachian Trail Diet" has worked!!
Date: 2013-05-30
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

The Adventure is Over Day 2 Post-Hike: We awoke to the alarm at 4:30am, finished packing and vacated our room. We planned to sit on the bench in front of the motel lobby to wait for the shuttle, but the motel clerk said that the continental breakfast was ready, even though is was well before the posted 6:30am start. So we had a nice breakfast before the shuttle arrived at 5:15. It was about a 1/2 hour drive to the airport...we were getting a little nervous because we are used to arriving at least an hour before our plane leaves and we weren't going to make it. However, the shuttle driver seemed unconcerned and he was right!! When we arrived at the airline desk, there was no line and our packs were immediately checked as baggage. We joined the ~30 people who were sitting in the lounge area waiting for security to open up. 15 minutes before the small turboprop plane, see picture, was scheduled to leave, security opened up and we passed through and boarded the plane. You gotta love small, regional airports!! We had an uneventful flight to Dulles airport. Spider had his nose to the window as we flew over the Appalachians and picked out the Skyline Highway...It is the extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway that we will parallel on the AT through the Shenandoah National Park next year. After a ~2 hour layover our plane left for SFO. We landed early, caught BART and then the bus. Like last year, the bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and we got to hike the 1/4 mile up to our house, arriving at 2:20pm...a fitting end to our adventure. Now we have to deal with the pile of mail, weeds in the yard and a garden that is growing wild. ET is heading out tomorrow to take care of her Mom while Spider holds down the home-front. Like last year, we put together a list of what worked and what didn't work on this hike, including what items we brought along and never or minimally used.. Don's Brother, the thru hiker we met along the way, said their were two opposing philosophies to hike by: Comfort on the trail or Confort in camp i.e. the less you carry the more comfortable you are on the trail (and the easier it is to hike some big miles) but you may be cold in camp, don't have warm or enough food, aren't prepared for all contingencies...if you carry the extras, you are better covered for the unknown and more comfortable in camp...but your pack is heavier, your knees, shoulders and hips take more punishment and big miles per day aren't really possible. Our philosophy has tended toward the latter rather than the former. We may rethink that for next year!! As for the "Appalachian Trail Diet", we weighed ourselves when we arrived home, ET lost 10 lbs and Spider lost 18 lbs. Good diet but tough way to get there...Now let's see if we can keep it off!!
Date: 2013-04-30
From: Bly Gap

To: Beech Gap
Miles today: 12.1

36443 steps. Wrote about my bear sighting in the shelter register at Muskrat Creek Shelter. Assumed the trail name "Juno". Received my first trail magic: Pepsi at Deep Gap. I drank one, even though I haven't liked soda pop for years, to partake of the magic.
Date: 2013-05-06
From: Cody Gap

To: Fontana Dam Shelter
Miles today: 9.9

28126 steps. My first shelter stay.The other hikers said this was the nicest shelter yet. It's called the Fontana Hilton. It was nice, but shelters are much noisier than the woods, with all the laughing, talking and snoring.I also received some significant trail magic from a section hiker, Bob from Florida was ending his hike at Fontana, where he had left his car. He drove me 20 miles out of his way and back so I could resupply at a supermarket in Robinsville, rather than a convenience store in Fontana.
Date: 2013-05-11
From: Newfound Gap

To: Pecks Corner Shelter
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

29979 steps. Got a ride back to Newfound Gap in the morning from a Trail Angel named Mark. He had a good story about hiking the trail with his son. They had to stop an attempted thru hike in Southern Virginia, because Mark caught Giardia. Then when they got off the trail, they discovered that the son had a malignant brain tumor. He got it treated and survived. If they hadn't got off the trail, they wouldn't have detected it in time. They finished the thru hike together eight years later. The son now have five-year-old twins. Now Mark gives rides to hikers to give back to the trail.
Date: 2013-05-25
From: Little Rock Knob

To: Little Hump Mountain
Miles today: 14.4

41140 steps. Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. Starting a Carver's Gap, the trail was suddenly very crowded with weekend hikers. One named Chris gave me some dried mango and several granola bars. He wants to give trail magic so that some day when he does his thru hike, he will receive trail magic in turn. Chris's trail name is HBAS for Hides Behind A Smile. Thanks HBAS! You really helped me out.
Date: 2013-05-28
From: Upper Laurel Fork

To: Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 11.8

34814 steps. Black Bear Resort Hostel. I was heading for Kincora Hostel, which I'd heard had a 5pm shuttle into Hampton TN, where I wanted to restock food. I had little chance of arriving in time, but I hiked west up the road in hope. A convertible came from the west and the driver, Bob from Black Bear Resort let me know I had just missed the shuttle and offered me a ride to the other hostel. There was another hiker, Firestarter also in the car. I was walking in pain at this point after pushing hard to make the shuttle, so I accepted. I set up my tarp at the hostel, got a shower and laundry and restocked some food there. It was good.
Date: 2013-05-29
From: Dennis Cove Road

To: Watauga Lake - Griffith Branch
Miles today: 10.0

34137 steps. Stopped at a campsite about half a mile south of the shelter. I was asleep by 7, well before dark. At 10:30 I woke up to hear an animal walking nearby. I turned on my phone first, I didn't have my headlamp handy. A couple text messages came in and the alert noise seemed to scare away the animal. When I found my headlamp I looked out into the woods and saw two golden glowing eyes. Later from the head end of my tarp there was a hissing hoise, I turned and looked that direction and saw two raccoon sized bear cubs scurrying up a tree about 25 feet away. I kept my lamp aimed that way and eventually the three bears retreated to the woods to my right again. I turned off the light and slept a little when they had made no noise for some time.Then I awoke and they were near again. To my right. Two sets of distant blue-green eyes and one set of nearby golden eyes. The mother bear was standing behind a tree twenty feet from where I was lying. She stood, shook branches, hissed, cooed and purred. We had a stare-down lasting a half-hour or so. I tried to keep my light on her. It didn't occur to me to yell, but I was trying to get my ski-pole untied and it made some noise hitting my cup. She started climbing the tree a few times, as if I was a threat. Finally they gave up and left, and I got back to sleep. In the morning, I saw that there was some garbage from previous campers where she had been, and some more on the other side of my tarp, so I was probably set up right where she had wanted to walk. This was an exciting night!
Date: 2013-05-30
From: Watauga Lake - Griffith Branch

To: Spring before Turkeypen Gap
Miles today: 11.3

34246 steps. A thru hiker named Memphis passed me during the day at a spring and gave a cold fresh kiwi fruit he had acquired recently in Asheville. A nice treat! I camped at a campsite with two Southbound section hikers from Tennessee. Firestarter also showed up at the same campsite. I asked her whether she had heard my bear standoff the previous night. She had had her earbuds in listening to music int her tent 50 feet away and didn't hear or see any of it!
Date: 2013-06-01
From: Double Spring Gap

To: Spring north of TN/VA border
Miles today: 11.0

32171 steps. Stopped north of the border, but two miles south of town. I was looking forward to fresh fruit and pizza in town, but when I stopped for water and a rest, I didn't feel up to all the hurrying and scurrying of groceries and laundry in twon after a full day of hiking, and decided to camp one more night in the woods.
Date: 2013-06-06
From: Damascus, VA

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

36988 steps. After lunch with Don and Tycho at Jeepers Creepers, I continued up the Creeper Trail to trestle 38, and they went back home. The Appalachian Trail was detoured onto the Creeper Trail to route around some missing bridges which were damaged in storms in early May. I rejoined the AT where it overlaps the Creeper Trail before the trestle and continued up to the shelter, where there were several familiar hikers.
Date: 2013-06-08
From: VA 600 - Elk Garden

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: scattered clouds

33746 steps. I had nice clear weather into and through Grayson Highlands State Park. There were rock formations through the park and I took some of the rock-hopping side trails in addition to the AT to climb some of the formations.I stopped at Wise Shelter, just at the 500 mile mark, to celebrate that distance. I had lunch at Thomas Knob Shelter, where I met some younger hikers who had come this distance much quicker than me. Among them was Choo-Choo, a CMU student who lives only a few blocks from me in Pittsburgh.