morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-04-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 12.0

Sometimes you have to make choices in life. Today, I was faced with the choice of continuing north bound with the bubble we have been hiking with or slowing up my hike so that I could spend a few days on the trail with my daughter. Well some decisions are easier than others. We devised a plan to hike some of the trail backwards so that we could enjoy the Grayson Highlands section with my daughter. Hopefully this time the weather will be more forgiving and the trail will not be flooded so we can enjoy it more. Thankfully, Papa Dale was gracious and agreed to slow up his hike too so we can continue on together. After our plan was hatched we decided to get some miles in by jumping north of Atkins, Virginia, and hiking back to Marion, Virginia, over two days. We walked to the taxi stand to get a ride to resupply at the grocery and then find our way to Atkins. We were for a taxi when a local couple pulled up in a pick up truck. They asked us where we wanted to go. We explained our plan and they offered to take us to the store to resupply and then on to Atkins. They even went to the local pharmacy that they owned and bought us some maps to help us plan a way to get my daughter on and off the trail. We truly appreciated their trail magic. We explained that we would need a ride back toward Damascus on Tuesday as part of her plan. The gentleman offered to take us if we could wait until the middle of the afternoon as he would be traveling that way anyway. (More trail magic!) They delivered us to the trail north of Atkins. We went to the Barn for lunch where we saw No Name and some other hikers we know. As we headed southbound we passed Earl Grey, Purple Haze and a bunch of younger hikers that have been traveling in our bubble. Upon reaching Chatfield Shelter, the ridge runner was there and he told us a lot about this section of the trail. It was very interesting. I explained that I was trying to hike part of the trail with my daughter and that we would lose touch with our bubble he simply said, "Families are more important. You¢re on a vacation. Hike your own hike." I will explain more about our plans over the next couple of days but we will be backtracking approximately 30 to 40 miles. So we will fall out of touch with our bubble for a while. But it is complete no-brainer to me.
Date: 2018-04-30
To: View Entry
Miles today: 14.0

The Ridge Runner from Chatfield Shelter told us about a good camp site. We arrived about an hour before dark so we had to set up quickly and make dinner. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped rapidly. We went from tee shirts and shorts straight into our cold weather gear. I was surprised by how cold it was when I awoke to the sound of coyotes howling at 2 am. We hiked the remaining miles back to the Mount Rogers Visitor Center and caught shuttle back to Marion. Jim Sparks, a local trail angel, who provides shuttles for donations, gave us a ride to the hotel. We hung out with a nice group of section hikers. We were fortunate to meet another individual at the pizzeria who agreed to give us a ride back to Massey Gap so we can re-hike through the Greyson Highlands with my daughter on the way back to Damascus. My wife will pick us up in Damascus and return us to the trail where we will continue our NOBO (North bound) hike.
Date: 2018-05-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 9.3

Papa Dale and I got up, had breakfast and finished our town chores. I was eager for my daughter to arrive and spend a few days on the trail with us. As Tom Petty said, "waiting is the hardest part." She arrived around 11 am and took us to the store to finish resupplying. We rushed back to Enterprise to return her rental car. A local trail angel, Fred, picked us up and drove us down to Grayson Highlands. We had a picnic lunch and started our journey back to Damascus. Immediately, we saw a herd of wild ponies. My daughter particularly liked the baby foals. We made our way through the Balds and to Fat Man's Squeeze. Thankfully, I was able to squeeze through again. Since we were hiking south, we encountered several people who had fallen behind our bubble including Flowbo and No Service. It was good to see them again. We camped on a hilltop meadow on Balsam Mountain and built a small fire and had dinner. It was a windy evening but the views were spectacular. Even more spectacular though was the time in the woods spent with my daughter. I appreciate Papa Dale taking the time from his thru hike to backtrack with us.
Date: 2018-05-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 17.0

We woke up and enjoyed the spectacular views from Hilltop Meadow. The full moon which illuminated our tent throughout the night was still on the horizon. What a great way to enjoy your morning coffee. We passed back over Mt Rogers and past Buzzard Rock again. We reentered the forest and went over a hard rocky section before the trail finally relented and gave us a break. We stopped in a beautiful pine grove for lunch.  The fragrance reminded my daughter of Christmas. It was really fun hiking with Papa Dale and my daughter. We passed by the shelter where we tented during our last-time through and I enjoyed telling my daughter about our previous journey through this section of trail. There were several awesome tent sites as we hiked but wanted to get closer to Damascus to make our hike tomorrow easier. Oops!! We didn¢t find another spot until four miles down the trail. We kept thinking that we felt good and that there would soon be another close campsite. Boy were we wrong. We ended up hiking 17 miles for the day. This was new record for my daughter. I was proud of her tenacity. We finally made camp on the banks of the Laurel River and we enjoyed a nice campfire. Our bear bag was hanging from the bottom of a nearby bridge as we went to sleep. I am looking forward to my wife arriving tomorrow. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. A perfect day was on the horizon for tomorrow.
Date: 2018-05-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 7.4

Today would be my daughter¢s last day on the trail with Papa Dale and I. We had enjoyed a nice really nice fireside dinner the night before. The banks of the Laurel River was our campsite. Our bear bags were hanging below a nearby bridge. This was a really clever idea that Papa Dale thought up. After a relaxing breakfast of coffee and Pop Tarts, we made our way back to Damascus. We were all quite tired from the day before. Upon our arrival in town, we indulged our "hiker hunger" by eating a large meal at the Damascus Diner. Then we proceeded to Mount Rogers Outfitter where Papa Dale picked up his new hiking poles and my daughter and I had our packs adjusted to improve the fit. We were able to enjoy a cold beer before my wife picked us up and drove us all back to Marion for the night. We showered, did laundry and resupplied quickly. Afterwards, we all enjoyed a nice pizza dinner together. A perfect ending to a nice three day hike with my daughter. On top of it all, I got to the pleasure of spending some time with my lovely wife. Perfect day.
Date: 2018-05-04
From: Price Ridge Road

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: clear sky

My wife and daughter dropped Papa Dale and I at the trail head and we proceeded up a steady climb to the ridge line above. It was really hard to look down and watch them drive away with the realization that it would be a long time before I would see them again. Others are bothered by blisters, shin splints, knee injuries etc. but for me the biggest challenge the trail has thrown at me is the emotional challenge of being away from my loved ones for so long. I have traveled extensively and been away from home frequently in my life, but I have never been away for an extended period like this. Well back to the trail.....We walked along ridge line before reaching a nice suspension bridge over a small river. It delivered us onto a highway and we knew that a popular hiker stop, Trent's, was just down the road in a half mile. The day was hot so a cold pop sounded awesome and I wanted to see Trent¢s. Out went the thumbs. It a few minutes a pickup with a flat bed trailer pulled up. The driver said hop on and we did! I don¢t think he even came to a complete stop. It was slightly dangerous and really fun. There were a half dozen hikers in front of Trent¢s when we pulled in and they were all cheering us on and laughing. The driver just hopped out of the cab and walked in. Hilarious!! We had lunch and talked to some of the locals. It was really quite interesting. After leaving our happy time there, we hiked about three miles to Dismal Falls where a group of younger hikers were enjoying the waterfall. We had time to set up our tents and have dinner before the rain storm arrived. It wasn¢t supposed to hit until tomorrow. But for now I am safe warm and dry at Wapiti Shelter. Many years ago a couple was murdered at a Shelter with this same name on a nearby trail. As I understand it, the old one was torn down and this new one was built. Strange that they would use the same name though.
Date: 2018-05-05
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Pearisburg Cemetery
Miles today: 20.0

Nothing will motivate you more to get up and get hiking than a rumor that you¢re going to get hit with a thunder storm. Papa Dale and I got up and got going quickly. Well, quickly for us at least. Everyone we encountered was going to Woods Hole Hostel. It is one of the oldest on the AT and is well known for their garden to table dinners. Since we were just in Marion we wanted to stay on the trail. We made it to the first shelter early. It had a brand new deck built on it, the first one I have seen. We could hear the thunder in the distance. We had to make a decision; sit in a shelter all day or make a mad dash over 10 miles to town. Off we went. Soon everyone we encountered was saying hotel and hostel was booked up. No Name and Earl Gray contacted me and told me where they were. We checked our Guthook App and decided to head for the MacArther Inn where Earl Gray was staying. As soon as we emerged at the trail head the sky opened up. Spirit Man was there trying to get a ride to Pearisburg. Our shuttle driver showed up in a pickup to take us to our hotel in Narrows. It was raining so hard we asked him to take Spirit Man to his hostel. He had to ride in the back of the pickup. It was a torrential rain. I really felt bad for him hunkered down in the back of the pickup but at least he got to the hostel quickly. As the name implies Spirit Man is a minister so he had faith that things would work out. An admirable quality. We raced through showers and laundry and joined Spirit, (different person) Donut, Earl Gray, Purple Haze, Red Hot and his girlfriend (sorry I forgot her trail name) for dinner. The storm arrived during dinner. It was spectacular. Glad I was not in my tent.
Date: 2018-05-06
From: Peters Mountain Trailhead

To: Pearisburg Cemetery Parking
Miles today: 19.8

First of all I want to thank everyone for the comments and support in my guest book. I can¢t respond from my phone but I sincerely appreciate your support.It was a good thing we were warned of the impending storms. We experienced a heavy thunderstorm on Saturday evening and again early Sunday morning. The local river was up about 3 feet as the owner of MacArther Inn drove us up the mountain to slack pack back to Narrows VA. We made a last minute decision to slack pack because of the weather and the long distance to the next resupply point. We wanted to lighten the load. Alan Neely owner of the Inn is an interesting character. He did construction and high risk mining before retiring and buying the Inn. He bought the Inn to save if from demolition. We talked about our mutual contacts in the industry. He looked somewhat surprised by the amount of water rushing off the mountain. His reaction was not lost on me. I wondered what we would experience in our hike for the day.As he dropped us off he said, "Be careful, looks dangerous. If you can¢t get through call me." We got out and met a hiker going NOBO he said the creek was 15 feet wide and waist deep. He was going to the road to walk around the hazard. We went up the trail and took a look for ourselves. We could hear boulders rolling over in the current. (Not a good sign.) Good thing we were going SOBO today. In the first two miles we had about 5 river crossings that would normally only require stepping over a few rocks. Today we hade to go though the woods to a safer place to cross. It was hard work. It took us two hours to go the first two miles. The trail had 3-4 inches of water flowing down it in places. We finally reached the ridgline and the hiking got easier. Well, until the rain pelted us again. We ended up walking through three rain storms. When we finally reached the trail head where Alan picked us back up and drove us to Burger King for dinner. Nothing else was still open on Sunday night. We chatted with Earl Gray and Purple Haze and prepped for another day of potential rain.Coming south we ran into several hikers we had lost track of including Swimmer, Jack Rabbit, Napoleon and others. We also saw Spiritman and we were glad he found shelter after we dropped him off the day before.
Date: 2018-05-07
From: Peter's Mountain Trailhead

To: Warspur Shelter
Miles today: 12.4

Today Earl Gray and Purple Haze were going to do the same slack pack we did yesterday. For their sake, I was hoping the rain runoff had subsided. We still needed to resupply and they were doing a much longer hike than us so we let them take the first shuttle. We were starting at the same location but there was only room for three in the pickup truck. The hotel owner, Alan Neely, returned for us around 9:30, so we had another late start but we were only targeting 13 miles for the day so it wasn¢t a problem. We we very surprised at how much lower the creeks and river were in just one day. Still the first crossing was too hazardous. If you fell in the water, there was little chance for survival if you were swept into the deep water just 30 yards downstream. We had a bad climb in the morning. Where the trail wasn¢t muddy it was rocky. So despite the shorter mileage, it was still a challenging day. Just to make things a bit more exciting we got to hike in another strong downpour. I have finally learned to just embrace the bad weather. As they say. No Rain. No Pain. No Maine. When we reached the shelter only BoBo and one other hiker were there.  We were surprised that the 5-6 hikers that passed us had kept going through the tough weather. I tented and the others stayed in the shelter. Of course, it rained again as we ate dinner. So I get to carry a wet tent tomorrow. I guess I should learn to embrace the shelters along with the weather. Warm and mostly dry in my sleeping bag now. It¢s hiker midnight, otherwise known as 9 PM so it¢s time to turn in.
Date: 2018-05-08
From: Warspur Shelter

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

The forest floor has been blooming over the past week. In some spots it is filling in quickly and turning the trail into the ¢big green tunnel.¢ The tree canopy above has quickly followed suit and has started to flourish after the spring rains. The woods are more lush and beautiful now but with every action there is an unintended consequence. In this case, some of the views are being hidden by tree foliage. This morning's hike went by quickly. We had covered more than 10 miles when we broke for lunch under the Keffer Oak Tree. It is supposed to be the largest Oak alongside the southern half of the AT. It is over 300 years old. We also stopped at an outstanding view at Kelly¢s Knob. I don¢t like heights so I was proud of myself for jumping over the cravas to get out on the point. The afternoon hike was difficult to say the least. The two large climbs for the day were both over 1500 feet which took its toll on us. The water stops were 6-8 miles apart which translates to; we had to carry extra weight. I was dead tiered when we rolled into camp after nearly 11 hours of hiking. On the bright side, we had two or three vistas with outstanding views of the mountains to the southeast. They seem to have a different ridge line which is impressive and they look like they are covered in green velvet. The day ended with a long ridge walk which was impressive and offered fantastic views of both sides of the mountain. We also passed the eastern Continental Divide marker. A long day filled with numerous points of interest and best of all no rain today!
Date: 2018-05-09
From: Niday Shelter

To: Stealth Site
Miles today: 16.4

I woke up to the sound of a turkey calling at 5:30 am. Up and rolling down the trail by 7:15 we left a few minutes behind Swimmer. He is a strong hiker so I was surprised when we came across him sitting on the trail about two miles into the first climb. He had turned his ankle leaving camp and was trying to locate a doctor to consult. We waited for him about an hour at lunch and he didn¢t show so I was concerned. I reached out to him later and he did make it to the road and was able to get a ride to assistance. If you get hurt on the mountain your quickest way to help is to hike to a road. It is very hard for outside assistance to reach you. I hope he is ok and is able to continue. Our first point of interest was the Audie Murphy Monument. He was the most decorated soldier in WWII and died in a plane crash at that location. Visitors leave tributes at the site. After a relaxing lunch beside a small river we made another long climb to the ridge line and walked down a couple of rocky ledges that offered splendid views of the mountains that we had crossed earlier in the day. It is rewarding to see how far you have walked. We reached a significant milestone when we crossed the 700 mile marker. Now it is only 40 miles to the 1/3 mark. Finally, we climbed to the Dragon's Tooth. This is a spectacular monolith on Cove Mountain. There were several young couples up there. Perhaps it is a local graduation or post prom tradition? It was also one of the most challenging climbs we have had. We had to put away our trekking poles and use hand holds. In a couple of places there were rebar steps. Papa Dale climbed to the top of the rock. This was not for me. The climb left us exhausted and the hike down was challenging. The young people flew past us in their tennis shoes! We didn¢t care we had walked 14 miles before we even got to Dragon's Tooth.
Date: 2018-05-10
From: Stealth Site

To: Campbell Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

We agreed to wake at 6 am and move out as soon as possible. Papa Dale had other plans. Before 5:30 he dropped my bear bag outside my tent and said are you ready for coffee?  I wasn¢t surprised by that but I was surprised when I stuck my head out and he was already packed up. No option but to pull the plug on my air mattress and get rolling. We hiked up the road and tried to hitch hike up to the Catawba Grocery which is really a convenience mart. We had breakfast and picked up enough supplies to get to Daleville, VA and moved on. The hike was fairly routine but we have been pushing hard lately so our tanks were somewhat empty. We reached a parking lot in Catawba where day hikers park to climb to McAfee¢s Knob. McAfee¢s Knob is a rock overhang that offers some of the best views in VA.  It is iconic on the trail and is one of the most photographed spots on the entire AT. There were a lot of people there.   We found some jigs of water left by trail angels so we refilled our supplies. We stopped under a large rock formation for lunch. We have not had good cell service for several days so we each spent our time catching up with our families. As we made our way to McAfee¢s Knob we ran into a lot of day hikers. Soon we ran into Cherokee Rose and friends. They gave us oranges and Twinkies. (More trail magic.) We learned that they also left the water in the parking lot. As we made our way up the mountain we heard thunder rumbling. Just as we arrived at McAfees¢s Knob a brief but heavy storm hit. There were two couples taking pictures. They scattered and we tried to take quick pictures. We returned to the trail hoping to make seven more miles and put on our rain gear. We ducked under a big rock formation and checked to make sure the pictures were good. No luck, the skies were too dark. We agreed to backtrack and try again. This time our luck was better. We had to change our strategy and make camp earlier to dry out our gear. So we pulled into a tent site at Campbell Shelter. Once again the thunder rumbled. I set up my tent, just as the rain hit. Later we made dinner and exchanged pictures that we took of each other. The third time was the charm. The sky opened up again. But we were safe and warm. Tomorrow will be a longer hike since we changed strategy, but I¢m sure glad to be safe and dry in my tent tonight.
Date: 2018-05-11
From: Pig Farm Campsite

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 15.0

Start pig Farm Campsite. 713.7 End Daleville 729.2 15.5 Miles Random thought of the day. How did the pioneers survive in the mountains? At home I can look out my back window and see deer, squirrels, birds and other random wildlife almost any day. In over two months, I have seen deer only twice on the trail and no bears (although lots of signs.) So it was a pleasant surprise when I saw two deer in camp this morning. Funny thing though...after hiking into Daleville, I saw about 20 deer on the hillside as I ate dinner.  Back to the trail. We needed to make it into town before dinner because our food bags were nearly empty. We really enjoy it when we run out of food just before we reach town because it means we carried just the right amount. Not too much but just enough. We try to carry no more weight than necessary. We took off early and pushed hard with a goal of reaching the town before 3 pm. We arrived at 2:55. Perfect! It was great to shower and do laundry after so many days in the woods with temperatures in the nineties. I had my first blister and my feet have been taking a lot of punishment on the rocks so I am really looking forward to a day off tomorrow.