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

To: Boone, NC
Miles today: 8.7

I slept sooo good last night! I have no idea why except that I slept all the way through the night and didn¢t feel any of my soreness. This is definitely the BEST shelter I¢ve been in yet. It¢s kind of weird because when a huge gust of wind would come through the barn would sway a little. I wonder how many winds like that it will make it through. Once I was up it was the usual routine of packing up and cooking breakfast which was oatmeal since it was bound to be a cold, rainy day. And it was. Not so much a cold day but definitely a windy day. Although the wind was nothing like yesterday it was still bad. Especially when going over the Hump Mountains (more balds). The wind seems to always be the worst on the balds. Gee, I wonder why!? Today I hiked with Cap¢n Ben and Christie because we were the last ones to leave the shelter this morning. Seems like most everyone was going to do a 20 miler to the next shelter and a couple were trying to make it all the way into Dennis Cove Road which takes you to a hostel in Hampton, TN which is 25 miles away. Stephen, Mark, and Heather were planning to go about 15 miles and camp for the night. Ben¢s parents came down for the night with some trail magic so I went into town with Ben and Christie and his parents to spend the night. We got a room at the Holiday Inn and went out for some Mexican food, mmmmm. Guess what! I finally did my laundry J and I¢m so excited to have clean clothes you have no idea. The last time I used a washing machine was in Hot Springs, can you believe it? According to the Weather Channel we are gonna have many, many days of rain ahead of us. I¢m very disappointed, my camera battery died today. I went to take a picture, a very cool one at that, and nothing. Turned it on and off a couple of times hoping to bring some life to it but NO, NADA, ZILCH. It¢s dead. Oh well, at least I can get one tomorrow.
Date: 2003-05-07
From: Boone, NC

To: Laurel Creek Hostel
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Ben¢s parents took us back to the road this morning and his mom was able to give out a little trail magic to a bunch of hikers. Three of them came up with a dog that we thought belonged to them but it turned out it started following them back around Overmountain Shelter earlier in the day. It was after 1:00 when we finally hit the trail and wouldn¢t you know it, the dog was following us. It¢s a little hound dog. She¢s a little skinny but has been getting a lot of hiker leftovers. It was actually very cute. She started out following behind the one of us who was last in line. After a while she got between Ben and me. She would stay in front of him for a little while, then she¢d run ahead until she could see me, then she¢d stop and wait for Ben to catch up, then run ahead again until she could see me again. This went on all day. We had only planned on going 10 miles to Walnut Mountain Road where we were going to call the guy from the hostel to come and get us but we had no idea that it was the road when we crossed it. You see, they¢ve relocated the trail and added 4 more miles in the process. That¢s fine and all but because the maps and books haven¢t been updated and there were no signs we had no clue as to where we were all day. This frustrated us all very much, especially when we realized that the road we had passed was the one we wanted. No problem, though, because we called when we got to the fire service road 3 miles up the trail. When 7:00 rolled around and we were still walking, I was wondering how much farther we really should go before we stop and put up our tents. Just when I was about to give up hope, Ben came walking back toward Christie and me with a soda in his hand saying we reached it. John, the guy who runs this hostel had left a cooler with sodas and snacks out for people to try to persuade them to stop at his place. Christie and I were so excited to get the last 2 Moon Pies in the box along with a soda. It was an immediate mood lifter. It was bout 7:45 when we reached the road and Christie gave the guy a call. About 45 minutes later he came and got us. We did start to get a little worried that he wasn¢t going to show but then he came driving down the road. Happy to see him we piled in the truck and started driving away when the dog started howling then following us. John was nice enough to stop so we could put her in the back and bring her with us. From what I can see in the dark, this is a pretty nice place. We arrived here to find Stephen, Mark, and Heather. While we unloaded our stuff, John got us set up with a cabin and made us some cheeseburgers. Now I¢m ready for bed.
Date: 2003-05-08
From: Laurel Creek Hostel

To: Laurel Creek Hostel
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Up at 7:00 this morning and got ready for today¢s slack, then headed down to breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and OJ. Then the van headed out shortly after breakfast to drop everyone off. After a nauseating ride we were left at the road we came off of last night for our 10-mile walk back to Dennis Cove Road where the hostel is. Today¢s hike seemed to be pretty easy and we made good time. Some of the sections we went through didn¢t seem all that nice. We crossed a lot of little roads and felt like I was walking along someone¢s property. Once we came off the trail, Ben and I walked down to Kincoras to pick up our mail drops before heading back down Laurel Creek. There are a lot of people here tonight. We¢ve all gone in on ordering pizza, I think they ordered something like 10 of them. It sure was Good! And I topped it off with a pint of ice cream. The rest of the night we all just sat around socializing. A great way to end the day. I was originally planning to slackpack with Ben and Christie for a few days but now I¢m not sure that¢s what I want to do. I¢d really like to keep up with Stephen, Mark, and Heather. I¢m really tired mentally and physically and my knees are bothering me so slacking is probably the best thing for me to do right now. I just don¢t want to get too far behind those guys. I just realized that I haven¢t had a day off      (a zero day) since Hot Springs.
Date: 2003-05-09
From: Laurel Creek Hostel

To: Laurel Creek Hostel
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

Didn¢t hear the alarm go off this morning nor did I hear the thunderstorm in the middle of the night. I guess it was pretty bad because everyone is talking about it. I also didn¢t hear Ben and Chuck get u several times in the night. I guess I was tired. So I had breakfast and got ready to slack. Boy, am I glad I slacked today, it was much easier going north to south on this part. Walked around the dam this morning and had to deal with a lot of downed trees from last night¢s storm. Didn¢t really like the walk around the dam because of all the garbage and tires floating in the water. Out major climb today was over Pond Flats. We ran into Stephen, Mark, and Heather as we were coming down from there and I¢ve never seen these guys so winded before. They were all huffin¢ and puffin¢ and looked terrible. When I saw how they looked I was soooo glad I was hiking south over this mountain. Saw a really nice waterfall towards the end of the trip. I wish we would see more of those. Came back here to the hostel and got cleaned up. This place is packed tonight and I waited for John to come back from town so I could get a burger for dinner. While I waited for him I just hung around visiting with everyone. Sat and talked with Farmer for a while and he gave me a couple of beers and a couple slices of pizza to hold me over until I got my burger. Once I did eat dinner I came back up to the cabin to work on my food box. I¢ve decided to go ahead and slack one more day so now I only have to carry 2 days of food to get me into Damascus. Whooo! I can¢t believe I¢m going to be to Damascus in 3 days! Well, it¢s late and I¢m slacking 16 tomorrow so good night all.
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Laurel Creek Hostel

To: Laurel Creek Hostel
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: light rain

Got a late start this morning, the shuttle dropped us off at the trail at 11:00. Even though we had 16 miles to cover we took it pretty slow. The terrain was nice, there were a lot of ups and downs but they were real easy. In my opinion, the toughest part was the last .5 mile and only because it was a steep down hill. We stopped and talked to a few people as we passed but not like yesterday. Today was a great day to do some hiking, nice and sunny and NO RAIN! I saw another snake today, supposedly it was a copperhead but I really have no idea since I know nothing about snakes. Ran into Iron Chef this afternoon, good to know he¢s still alive and back on the trail. He still doesn¢t look all that well, though. Now I guess Heather is sick as well. I really hope I can avoid this bug that¢s going around. I guess there are quite a few that have had it but I only know of three. We made it back to the road by 7:00 and John pulled up to get us right after that. We stopped at the pizza place and put in an order to be delivered to the hostel. Tonight was spent eating pizza and hanging out with everyone. Smokey made it in, she¢s staying down at Kincora¢s but was here hanging out for the night. Tomorrow I go back to the full pack and will be to Damascus in 2 days. A lot of people are going to pull a 23 miler and be there in one day but since I have no desire to do that I¢m taking 2. It looks like we¢ll be getting a late start again in the morning. I hate these late starts more and more.
Date: 2003-05-11
From: Laurel Creek Hostel

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: heavy intensity rain

The day started off rainy but cleared up by the afternoon. Nice blue skies and lots of wind. We all slept in until about 9:00 because of the rain. By the time John got us out to the trailhead it was almost 2:00. I wasn¢t too thrilled to be starting that late since I really don¢t like getting into camp after dark. Amazingly, I was here by 7:00. J The hiking really wasn¢t bad at all but I wasn¢t enjoying having my pack on at all. It is still giving me problems at my shoulders so when I get into Damascus for Trail Days I¢m going to see about having it fixed or possibly buying a new one. I can¢t believe how tired I am. I¢m camped here with Cap¢n Ben, Auntie Em, Viking, Moxie, Crazy Talk, Iron Chef, and Parkway. I expected to come in and find the shelter full but there was no one else here. You¢ll never guess what I had tonight. Moonshine!I had my first taste of moonshine tonight compliments of Parkway. He and Farmer bought some from some guy fishing at Laurel Creek the other day. It wasn¢t bad.
Date: 2003-05-12
From: Abingdon Gap Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

I feel like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. I need to oil up my knees in the morning before I hit the trail. Got a bit of a late start this morning, didn¢t get on the trail until 10:00 but I made great time and was in town a little before 2:00. It was a nice sunny day but the wind was pretty bad. It was rather chilly unless you kept moving. It¢s a little creepy walking along listening to the trees creak, knock against each other, and the branches falling. That¢s how it was yesterday and today. This is a neat little town, I think I like this one the best although Erwin wasn¢t bad either. About one half mile before I reached town I saw 2 deer. They startled me at first because I couldn¢t see them but I could hear them. Came into town and got myself a bunk at The Place, a hostel run by the Methodist Church. If you stay in the hostel it¢s $4 or you can camp on the lawn for free. It is really nothing special, just a house with a bunch of bunks and a small kitchen, heaven to a thru hiker. Right now I¢m wishing the group wasn¢t so spread out. Smokey is a few days behind, Stephen and Mark and Heather are a day ahead. Christie and Ben are staying at a B&B for the night and I¢m just sitting here at the hostel relaxing. There are plenty of people here that I know, just not the ones I¢m used to being with. I¢m thinking about doing another slack Pack tomorrow. I¢m hooked, it¢s like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I just fly up and down the trail. There is this bug going around and it seems like every day someone else is getting it. Two more people I know got it today. Scary!
Date: 2003-05-13
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: few clouds

I think I wake up every 2 or 3 hours last night. The only reason I can think of for that happening is because I had the alarm on my watch set for 7 am and I wanted to make sure I heard it so I didn¢t wake the other 3 people that were sleeping in the same room. So I was up and to the Side Track Caf© for breakfast by 7:30 and at the outfitter¢s at 8:00 to get in the shuttle. I hiked with Sidewinder and Parkway for most of the day. After we had lunch I walked mostly by myself. The highlight of the day was being followed for 3 miles by a deer. It came up and sniffed at my boots. I can¢t believe how unafraid it was. It just walked sown the trail behind us and whenever there was a gap between us he¢d come running until he was right on our boot heels. I kept wondering when he was going to become inpatient enough with us not giving him any food that he was going to come running up one of those times and nip at the backs of our legs. But, of course, that didn¢t happen. It was such an off thing to happen, though. We had planned to stop at one of the shelters for a lunch break and before we had gotten close Sidewinder tried to scare off the deer. Didn¢t work. He continued to follow all the way there. We did manage to lose it after lunch because someone else showed up before we left. The hiking today was actually fairly easy, no major ups. Got back to town about 5:00, made myself some dinner and wandered around for a while. Right now I¢m just hanging out at the Sidetrack Caf© listening to some music and waiting to get on line. The gangs all spread out so things are a bit quiet. I¢m not meeting up with Smokey until Friday. Stephen, Moo and 42 will be in some time tomorrow afternoon. Ben and Christie left some time today and will probably be back on Thursday.
Date: 2003-05-14
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Didn¢t do much today. Went to breakfast With Iron Chef, Moxie, and Crazy Talk then went back to The Place and packed up all my stuff. Got a ride out to the campground. It¢s like one half mile or so outside of town. I guess they are trying to keep all the partying out of town. I hung out for quite a while before I put my tent up because I was feeling too lazy. Smokey came in and I wasn¢t expecting to see her until Friday but that¢s okay with me. The two of us went back into town to pick up some supplies (food, drink, etc.) before coming back to camp for what we thought was the night. Then Stephen, Moo and 42, Superman, Torch, Windtalker, and Pipes came in. I went back into town one more time with them for some dinner. After that the rest of the night was spent socializing around camp.
Date: 2003-05-17
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Okay, today I actually did something. I went for a 17-mile bike ride down the Virginia Creeper Trail. It was so much fun and the trail was real easy. The shuttle dropped us off about 17 miles out and it was all down hill from there. Saw the parade go by, I wasn¢t in it because I was supposed to be on the bike ride but the vans didn¢t get out in time so we got to watch it instead.
Date: 2003-05-18
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, I made a little mistake. I didn¢t realize that toady was Sunday and I need to go to the Post Office to mail out my box so I had to hang around another day. I spent a good majority of the day in the outfitter¢s trying to get a new pack, which I did. It¢s a Gregory Deva and I think I lost about 6 pounds overall. Jeff, the guy that runs the place, worked with me. He went through my pack and showed me what I should get rid of and then showed me how I should pack my pack after he fitted me for one. I learned today that my torso is 19 inches long, who knew? I really like the new pack but it is going to take some time to adjust to it. My Kelty was 5400 cubic inches and the Deva is a little over 3600. The real test will be when I get out on the trail. Tonight I¢m staying over at Dave¢s Place (another hostel). They have one of those huge expedition tents set up out front so that¢s where I¢m going to be sleeping since it isn¢t costing me anything. Other than that, all I did was mess around with my new pack and go to dinner with Cap¢n Ben, Auntie Em, and Two Dog Night.
Date: 2003-05-19
From: Damascus, VA

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Yes, I finally made it out of town. It was rather difficult to get into any kind of groove today. I¢m just way too tired. I didn¢t sleep very well the last two nights and boy has that affected me. Once I got up to Buzzard Rock I stopped for lunch. It was pretty windy up there so I found a nice little spot out of the wind, at least as much as it could be. I actually dozed off for a few minutes. Got here to the shelter around 7:30, claimed a spot on the upper level where it is away from this cold wind and then made dinner. There are 10 of us on the upper level and only 2 down stairs.
Date: 2003-05-20
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Old Orchard Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

What an awesome day it was! Right after I left the shelter I saw 2 deer. Then a couple miles later I got to see wild ponies. It was so cool! One actually came up to me and started licking my arm. I guess it wanted the salt to go with all the grass he was eating. A little while later, after we got into Grayson Highlands State Park I saw more wild ponies. Eventually arrived at the shelter where I set up my tent and made some dinner. Even though I didn¢t really feel like hiking today it turned our to be wonderful. It did not rain, I got to see wild ponies, two deer, went through Fat Man¢s Squeeze, got to camp and enjoyed a nice fire with Cap¢n Ben, Auntie Em, and Two Dogs. No complaints about the new pack so far.
Date: 2003-05-21
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: light rain

Woke up to the sound of light rain falling on my tent this morning and went back to sleep until about 8:00. It was a slow steady rain that has lasted all day and has just now stopped at 8:30 pm. Over all the hiking wasn¢t bad, the pattern of the falling rain makes it easier for my mind to drift off. I only stopped once today to eat because there just wasn¢t any place to get out of the rain. The one time I did stop was only because Ben and Christie had set up the rain fly to their tent over some branches so we had somewhat of a shelter to eat lunch under. The last 1.5 miles of today¢s hike felt like to was never going to end. I was so happy when I finally did get here. I made mashed potatoes with tuna and a Three Musketeers for dinner. Oh, and when I walked into camp Two Dog Night pulled out of her pack an orange soda for me (yesterday that was all I had wanted). She also brought Ben and Christie a soda. At one of the road crossings today she got a ride down to a little store and got goodies for the 4 of us. Isn¢t she awesome! I¢m so exhausted and ready to sleep but Two Dog, Crazy K, and a couple of others are playing cards on my bed. My knee is bothering me some these last couple of days so I¢ve been loading up on the Vitamin I (Ibuprofen). Well, good night all! By the way, I¢ve broken the 500-mile mark!
Date: 2003-05-22
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: light rain

What an awesome shelter this is! It¢s 2 stories, has a shower, yes, I said shower, a sink with hot and cold water, and with about a one-minute walk up to the Ranger Station you can call out and order pizza. You can pretty much live here. Actually, there was a hiker who stayed here for like 16 or 19 days once. The hiking today was really easy. There were a lot of level stretches and where there were hills, they weren¢t very bad but sort of a rolling hill. It was a little rainy this morning when it stopped but the trees kept dripping. The wind did pick up for a while, a really cool breeze. Only stopped once today for about 10 minutes because it was too cool. Got into camp at about 2:30 this afternoon. It was nice to get here so early. I guess it was around 4 or so when a bunch of us went up to the phone to order some food. Two Dog and I split an extra large pepperoni and mushroom pizza with a 2 liter of Pepsi. The 2 of us and Dylan, Cade, Cap¢n Ben, Auntie Em, Viking, and Pushing Up Daisies all sat up at the Ranger Station while we ate our dinners then sat up there for what seemed like hours talking. Then we all came back to the shelter and are upstairs in our bags keeping warm and chatting. Hopefully, I¢ll get a better nights sleep tonight. Last night I slept next to Crazy K and he let his dog Barley sleep on the platform with us, which was fine because he was down by our feet. Well, during the night Crazy K started talking in his sleep except it was fore of a yelling and it woke us all up. Then Barley worked his way up in between the tow of us and was pushing on my back which I also didn¢t mind except I kept envisioning his nails going through my bag. Well, I¢m still full from dinner but I think I¢ll go have me a Snickers before bed.
Date: 2003-05-23
From: Partnership Shelter

To: US 11 / I-81 (Atkins, VA)
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Okay, so I¢m actually not in Atkins. I¢m in Blacksburg, VA but I got off the trail at Atkins. You see Cap¢n Ben had this lovely idea that we call his parents to come get us here and slack this whole section and of course that sounded good to me. So here we are, Cap¢n Ben, Christie, me, Two Dog and Pushing Up Daisies. See, we had originally planned to walk to Pearisburg then call their parents to come and get us and then to start slacking as far as we could to the north. Ben¢s mom and dad came and got us and then we came to Blacksburg. Two Dog and Ben are staying at his parents house, the dogs (Dylan and Cade) are in the neighbor¢s back yard with their dog, Chuck is at his parent¢s house, Pushing Up Daisies, myself and Christie are at her parent¢s house. Christie¢s mom made dinner for us all. (chocolate peanut-butter brownies, yummm). Her parents are great as are Ben¢s. Since none of us had any clean or dry clothes, Ben¢s mom hooked us up with some of his sister¢s clothes. I got a pair of jeans J and a pair of socks from her then Christie gave me a shirt and some clothed to sleep in. This is great, COTTON! I¢m glad to have been able to get a hot shower and a home cooked meal. Now that we¢ve finished eating and visiting I¢m ready to get some sleep.