morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-05-06
From: Damascus

To: 2 miles north of Damascus
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Total of 6 miles. Well, I walked into Damascus around 8 o¢clock with the intention of going in there and getting my mail drop, mailing stuff out, getting a shower, doing laundry and getting out of there. So, I got there at 8 and the post office isn¢t open yet so I went over and ate breakfast at the Sidetrack Caf© where I ran into Peppermint Patty and ???. They told me they were dropping off the trail. Peppermint Patty had decided that they were no longer having fun and there was no point in their being on the trail if they weren¢t enjoying it anymore. You could obviously tell that they were disappointed. They were very emotional about it but they had decided to leave. So, I went to The Place Hostel where I did my laundry and showered and continued to get dragged into staying in town. Sometime around 12 or so, Tucson, Mary, showed up and I offered to take her to lunch where we went to the Country Restaurant and ate. I started dragging my feet about doing the mail thing. I finally did that. Yacker was at the place also and he left in the morning fully loaded and ready to go out on the trail and came back about 3 hours later. I¢m sitting at the hostel and I said ¢what are you doing¢? And he said ¢I quit. I walked a few hours and decided that I¢m tired of walking in the rain and I quit. I¢m getting off the trail.¢ By the time 5 o¢clock or so had rolled around in the afternoon I was pretty well feeling embedded in town. I had wanted to leave around 12 and got distracted with hanging out and Mary was trying to convince me that I really didn¢t need to go. I finally said forget it. I got my pack on at 5:30 and walked the out of there intending on getting out and not staying overnight. Walked about 2 miles and figured out that I had left my cell phone at the hostel. So, I had to turn around and walk 2 miles to get my cell phone and walk back again.
Date: 2003-05-09
From: Wise Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 30.6
Weather: scattered clouds

From Wise Shelter to Partnership Shelter 30.6 trail miles. I got up early. I got on the trail by 7am realizing that I¢d have to haul it to get down into town in Troutdale to get my mail drop. I took a little bit of a short cut. I went down to Virginia Highlands horse trail instead and got down to the Troutdale trading post by 10 am in the morning. Which was fantastic. I had a huge breakfast with 2 biscuits, gravy, sausage patty, eggs, hash browns and toast. Walked down to the post office from there. I got my mail drop and sat outside the post office for about an hour and did the mail thing. I sent my jacket and my polypropylene jacket to Jan in the bump box. Also, I sent a few things home and then I got the out of there. I stopped at the trading post again real quick and loaded up on cigarettes and cigars. Then I started hitching a ride about half way up to the trail. I got picked up by a really nice guy who was willing to take me as far as I wanted to. But I decided to get on the trail again and walk as fast as I could. It was basically dark when I pulled into Partnership Shelter. That¢s located in Mt Rogers headquarters. One of the reasons I decided to walk that far this night is because at Partnership Shelter you can hike 14 mile to Mt. Rogers headquarters and use the phone there and order pizza. Have pizza delivered to the shelter. A very neat thing. Also, they had showers there andthey had a real toilet. It was just amazing. So, I set up the hammock. The place was very crowded. The shelter itself was very crowded and there were tents all over the place. It was like a little tent city. People were all over the place at the Mt Rogers headquarters. There were probably 50 thru-hikers hanging out at the time. But anyway, I went up to the headquarters and ordered a large dark anchovy pizza and a two liter bottle which I shared with other people. I went and had a hot shower and used the bathroom. Used the telephone. Called up several people that night. Got some pretty good sleep.
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Crawfish Gap
Miles today: 18.0

Partnership Shelter to Crawfish Gap. A total of 18 miles. I started at 8:15 in the morning. This was a very fast walking morning for me. I started clocking myself using landmarks to tell the distances and to time myself and then sit there and do math in my head while I walked. I clocked myself walking at about 3 miles an hour. Again, I was walking this fast because I had a destination which was the truck stop at Atkins, Virginia. I had made a conscious decision that I was going to start eating in town as much as possible these days. I was also going to start eating as much meat as I possibly could. Atkins VA has a little truckstop that the trail goes right past. So, I pulled into the bar and restaurant there and had a ribeye and a salad and all kinds of stuff there. I ended up sitting next to one of the other hikers I had seen on the trail several times. He ended up being Trog. We basically ignored each other. We ate. Then I got up and went over to one of the gas stations that was there which had a Dairy Queen in it and ordered a nice double dipped Dairy Queen ice cream. I also bought a couple bottles of heat (which is the operable fuel source for alcohol stoves) and a couple of AAA¢s for my radio which had only one earplug on it by this time because I had broken the other one. So, I was listening in mono. I sat there at the truck stop for a little bit. Ended up walking out of there with Sue. Sue is this guy who got his trailname because he kept singing the Johnny Cash song. I walked with Sue for a little bit and stopped a little short of when he did. I¢d already walked my 18 miles. I stopped by this creek which was a great little camping spot. I was out there by myself. Along the way we had passed one of the two Petes and Strike, with two buddies. One of them was giving everyone else a lesson in plants. Anyway, I camped by the creek. By myself. Sue decided to go on, so I set up my little hammock. About 40 minutes later, Pete pops out and Strike pops out with his 3 buddies. One of them had apparently gotten hurt. They asked if they could camp there and I said yeah. They changed their mind and hiked up a little bit. So, I got all set up and Trog showed up at dusk and set up his tent.
Date: 2003-05-11
From: Crawfish Gap

To: Chesnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Crawfish Valley to Chestnut Knob Shelter. 16.7 miles. I woke up to finding four new tents in the morning. Trog says they had come in around 10:30 in the morning. They hadn¢t realized that there was no water at the shelter they were headed for. There were a lot of uphills this day with a total of about 5000 feet elevation gains. It rained hard and all my gear was wet again. Completely soaking wet. Everything was soaked. So, I ended up stopping, popping out in the road. I laid out everything to dry across all the trees and stuff. I repacked and kept on walking to the Chestnut Knob Shelter. Which is an enclosed stone structure. Boy was I glad it was enclosed because this was a very windy place. It was a grassy knob with elevation of 4409 feet. The wind was just kickin through there. It even sounded like you were on the inside of a steel drum in the shelter. But that was ok because at least is was not windy inside. Trog showed up at the shelter. Actually, he¢d shown up a few minutes before I did. We were the only two in that shelter for the evening.
Date: 2003-05-12
From: Chesnut Knob Shelter

To: Bland, VA
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: broken clouds

Chestnut Knob Shelter to Bland VA. A hike of 21.8 miles. This was a long run. Pretty good terrain. Kind of flat, which helped out. When I say kind of flat that means elevation changes were only 500-600 feet. I got into Bland about 4:30 in the afternoon. I took off in front of Trog with the decision to get into Bland and somebody had left trail magic along the way. Apple juice, grape juice, V-8..all kinds of stuff. It was very nice. Also it was another day when I was doing the clocking and the math in my head and I was doing well over 3 miles an hour which is an extremely fast pace. Much of the hike was over this creek, I¢d have to look up the name, but you crossed it like 15 times. What was interesting was, there were no little bridges for most of this creek. We had to basically rock hop across it. These crossings got a little more adventurous as you went along. Some of them you just had to stop and scratch your head and figure out how you were gonna get across this thing. Anyway, I got into Bland VA and wasn¢t really intending on staying in town but I did end up staying in town. I started walking, no one picked me up for awhile and then this old guy, this old guy in an old truck, offered to take me wherever I wanted to. He basically told me the lay of the place. Told me that the Dairy Queen was about the best place to eat and that it was right next to the Big Walker Motel and that kind of did it for me. I decided I was gonna go stay at the Big Walker Motel that evening which was a bigger expense for me. $60.00 on my own. But it was well worth it although the lights went off at dusk and stayed off for about an hour and a half. He dumped me off at the Big Walker Motel. I went in and got a room. They put me up upstairs with no laundry facilities. The guy told me that I was welcome to wash my clothes in the bathtub and hang them over the railing..which is what I did. As I was hanging stuff on the railing I happened to look in the window and here was another hiker whose trailname was Duck who I had originally run into at Hot Springs when he was sick. I think he had actually given me his sickness at the time. But here was Duck. I was looking through the picture window and his pack was laying on the ground inside and his boots were on. He¢s dead passed out on the bed. You could tell he just walked in, dumped his pack off and fell out on the bed and had gone off to sleep. So that got me laughing. Anyway, I got situated in my room and then walked down to the Dairy Queen which of course downhill. I walked down to Dairy Queen and had an ultimate burger and a six piece chicken strip dinner. The Dairy Queen was attached to a Shell gas station. I walked next door got a six pack of Corona¢s and a pack of cigars¢¦went up to my room and grabbed a Corona and a cigar. I ran a nice hot bath¢¦I don¢t normally take baths but I got into this nice hot tub of water with the telephone and a Corona and a cigar.
Date: 2003-05-13
From: Bland, VA

To: Virginia 606
Miles today: 18.6

18.6 miles. Bland Virginia to Virginia 606. I got started hitching this morning towards the trail when a couple picked me up. They had actually been the couple who had been the trail magic the day before with the apple juice, grape juice and V8. They had me jump in the back of the truck and who should we pass also hiking back to the trail but Trog who earlier that day had told me there was no way he was gonna stay in town either. It turned out he had stayed at the same hotel I was and was heading back up to the trail. So, he ended up picking us up both and dropping us off at the trail. Now, where he dropped us off we had skipped about 14 mile of the trail which was a walk along the road. Trog insisted that he had to do the complete trail. He was a purest. So, I offered to watch his pack while he went back and walked the 14 mile. I also decided to go ahead and walk this day with him, so we walked together and we got into Virginia 606, the road. We crossed it and pitched tent just on the other side or he pitched his tent and I pitched my hammock. He kept insisting that I pitch my hammock. I had a very difficult time finding a place to pitch camp and decided that I was going to continue sucking up food every chance I got and ran down to Ted¢s ? Grocery which was 1/8 mile down the road. I got my flashlight and ran down there. I got Trog and I both 24oz Natural Light Beers, 20oz cokes and a pint each of chocolate ice cream and cherry vanilla ice cream. They are 1000 calories a pop. Trog was very happy with this actually and we went to bed full and completely hydrated. Matter of fact, too hydrated. It was a cold night and I had some really sudden urges several times in the night to get up and pee because I had drank the beer. Also, we didn¢t get on the trail this morning until 9:30 in the morning.
Date: 2003-05-14
From: Virginia 606

To: Docs Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Virginia route 606 to Docks Knob Shelter. This was a very hard hike. Virginia has turned out to be a very challenging state to walk through. They say that it¢s an easy state and in terms of elevation changes it was probably less than what we have encountered in the past but to kind of make up for that you are presented with a lot of challenging terrain. In terms of the rocks and the roots and the obstacles you have to climb over. A lot of ridge walking, which was usually pretty rocky. You're basically walking along the ridges and it drops away from you on both sides. This requires in some places that you use your hands and feet to get up over some rocks and stuff. You just get presented with all kinds of interesting variations on rocks. Some places you just have loose, sharp rocks that you are just constantly tripping on. Then there are other places in Virginia which had rocks and roots and trees that people had cut off three or four inches above the ground but you can¢t see them because there are so many leaves on the trail that you don¢t know about it until you hit it with your toe. Which is not a good thing when you have a pack on you and you are walking downhill or uphill it doesn¢t matter. When you¢re walking uphill hitting a rock just drains you of energy. It¢s as if you¢d taken 6 sets of steps, takes the same amount of energy. Walking downhill is just downright dangerous. You can go flying on your face. Then there¢s other places where you think the rock is flat and you have a stable ground to walk on. You have no choice but to walk on the rocks but they seesaw on the trail and you can¢t tell on the trail which ones seesaw. Then there are other places where the entire mountainside is nothing but smooth, sloping rocks covered with lichen and moss. Very treacherous when they are wet. In one case, I took such a hard fall, in the rain, walking across these smooth rock faces that I didn¢t even know I had fallen until I was laying on the ground. Just no warning whatsoever. My feet went under me and the next thing I know is I was laying on the ground wondering if I had broken my hip and my shoulder. Luckily, I didn¢t hit my head. This day we were dealing with all these rocks and stuff. We ended up hiking from 8:45 to 6:30 and Trog was ahead of me the whole time and all I could do was watch his feet keep tripping on all these rocks. Every time it happened it was causing a severe amount of pain because he had hurt his hip pretty badly. Trog was a great hiker. He has just persevered. But he had hurt his hip on a bad fall earlier on in his hikes somewhere and every time he hit a rock it caused him severe pain. Also, I forgot, when we woke up that morning (Trog wasn¢t even awake) I ran down to Trents little grocery store again and had gotten each of us eggs, toast, sausage gravy and biscuits. Which Trog was very happy about.
Date: 2003-05-15
From: Rocksmouth Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: overcast clouds

7.8 miles from Rocksmouth Shelter to Pearisburg VA. I also hiked this with Trog. We had intention of staying there. I had a re-supply there. I had a box come in and so we got a room together at a motel. Eddy was also coming to meet me for his third hike on the AT. Pearisburg was kind of a fun town to be in. I ran into a sports bar with Trog and we had a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes and coleslaw which was really excellent. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my laundry, which was one of the reasons I had walked into town. Now this was a mile and a half back. So, Trog went on to do his laundry and I went back to get mine. I got caught in this crazy, severe rainstorm in the middle of the day where the wind was whipping sideways. I had my raincoat on, but no pants. It was cold. It was in the 50¢s with a severe rainstorm. I got absolutely drenched and I had to pee so badly and there was no where to pee. So I ended up having to run as fast as possible back to the Rendezvous Motel and take off all my clothes. I threw those in the laundry as well and got something to put on so I could walk back to the laundry mat. So, while the laundry was being done¢¦I called Christine (who was back home in Florida) and she tells me she¢s decided to leave school, move home and get a job. I went ahead and went shopping. Got some Clorox because I had forgotten to pack bleach in my bump box. I got bagels, margarine and salami and then met Trog over at the Chinese all you can eat place and had dinner there. Then he went shopping and I went to the sports bar where they had Long Island Iced Teas. That was something I had been looking in vain for along the trail for almost 2 months. The southern section of the AT, when you¢re going through North Carolina, TN and GA is mostly dry. None of them serve beer or anything for the most part. Much less hard drinks. So, we went back to the motel. Hung out¢¦waiting for Eddy. He finally showed up at 11:30 in the evening with more Long Island Iced Teas. Also, I should put in something about Melvin and his marooned car and I gave him 5 bucks to drive us around town.
Date: 2003-05-16
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: light rain

22.8 miles. Pearisburg VA to Baileys Gap Shelter. This ended up being a pretty good hike with Eddy. I was very strong on the uphills. I was feeling good finally. My breath was in. We had stopped first to eat breakfast at Dairy Queen and got some eggs and ham. Country ham with biscuits, gravy and toast. We sat there and ate breakfast with Trog. You could tell he was kind of sad that I was no longer hiking with him. He knew that Eddy and I were gonna run. We got the owner of the hotel to agree for us to leave Eddy¢s car in the parking lot there and we ran. We hiked together most of the day. Did a lot of talking. It was good. This was a long hike for us and at the end of the day the shelter we were going to was a good climb. 700 feet uphill and it was getting close to dark. At the bottom of the hill I told him I was gonna run up ahead and get to the water source and get us some water rather than to do it in the dark. During this day it started raining again and it never let up. So I decided to get off the trail.
Date: 2003-05-17
From: Baileys Gap Shelter

To: US 42
Miles today: 17.0

17 plus miles. Bailey¢s Gap Shelter to US 42. It just rained. Now the reason we were hauling it to US 42 is because that¢s where Eddy needed to get out. He started off 15 minutes ahead of me. We were fairly level ground. It had been raining non-stop the whole time. At this shelter, a guy who¢s trailname was Searching, his buddy was picking him up at US 42 to take him into Blacksburg. Eddy asked him if he could possibly drop him back off in Pearisburg which the guy had agreed to do. It was a big plus that Eddy didn¢t have to hitchhike back. So, we made an agreement, because it had been raining non-stop, I wasn¢t gonna sit out on the road in the rain. So I sat out at the shelter for an hour and let him and Searching hike ahead and then I would meet Eddy back at the road and he would bring Corona¢s and we¢d sit there for a bit drink Coronas and then I¢d haul it to the shelter..the next shelter which was 7 miles uphill and he would go on. What ended up happening was, when I got up to the road, I sat there for an hour, and I had cell phone reception, so I called a bunch of people. One of them being my friend Kelly in Richmond who talked me into going and hanging out with her in Blacksburg instead so I made that decision to do that. Eddy came back with the Coronas. He drove me into Blacksburg and dropped me off at a hotel there but not before we had gone out and pigged out at the Texas Steakhouse. Awesome place to eat. Really good place. Then later Kelly showed up at the hotel.
Date: 2003-05-18
From: US 42

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 4.2
Weather: light rain

4:30 PM is when I got back on the trail. That¢s when Kelly dropped me off. We had spent the day driving around to different places. We had breakfast,lunch and we had dinner back at the Texas Steakhouse again, of course. She took me to the outfitter, actually several outfitters, where I ended up replacing my shoes once again with garnet trail hikers. I gave her my other pair and asked if she could possibly get them fixed for me. I got back on the trail at 4:30 and walked 4.2 miles to Sarver Hollow Shelter. In the rain of course. This was a steep, wet uphill going up. The trail leading off the AT to the Silver Hollow shelter was really terrible. It was steep downhill and it was raining so much that basically it was a creek running downhill. Very muddy. Very wet. The water just ran over and into your shoes. It was a considerable distance down. However, the Sarver Hollow shelter was a very nice shelter. A bunch of people there including Dirty Harry, Truckin and Viking. I also found out that Searching who¢d gotten dropped of earlier in the day in Blacksburg had hiked up earlier in the day to the shelter and passed it and had a heart attack. He ended up having to drop his pack and get assistance back down the trail. It was quite a big shock. This day at Sarver Hollow shelter I decided to stay in the shelter. It was quite crowded but I slept perpendicular. I found a little space to sleep in and woke up in the morning and it was one of these nights where the clouds had dropped down and surrounded us. Everything was soaked inside the shelter, outside the shelter, in your bags. Everything was absolutely soaking wet which made it very miserable. There was no way to dry the stuff out.
Date: 2003-05-19
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: 4 Pines Hostel
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: overcast clouds

21.8 miles. Sarver Hollow Shelter to 4 Pines Hostel. 4 Pines Hostel was basically this guy's garage. Trog and I hiked there. Nice long hike. Actually, Trog and I did not hike there together. I caught up to Trog somewhere around 4pm in the afternoon. I knew I was gonna catch up to him at some point because of the nasty, wet rocks. Some really unusual formations. Dragons Tooth was the kind of place where you basically had to hug the cliff while walking down these very narrow, sharp rocks. I ended up catching up to him and we walked into the hostel together. The place was already loaded down. I put all my clothes out to dry. I washed some of them in the sink and the owner took orders for pizza. We just basically hung out that day and I told Trog that on the following day I would be running 25 miles. I had a mission to get all the way to Troutville.
Date: 2003-05-20
From: Fort Lines Hostel

To: Troutville
Miles today: 25.5

The rain continues. 25.5 miles to 220 in Troutville. I pulled into the Econolodge there, got a room and went to the Chinese buffet and pigged out. I had 4 plates of the Chinese buffet. I was determined to get in as many calories as I could at this point so I got doughnuts and beer and a pint of ice cream which was Swiss Almond Cherry Vanilla. Some crazy stuff. A 1000 calories worth of ice cream. Sucked everything down. Almost 11,000 calories. I also decided to try a different backpack I bought from the outfitter here. I didn¢t buy it until the next morning so it was kind of rush. I just wanted to change things up.