morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-04-16
To: Airport
Miles today: 0.0

Well, the day is finally here. We finished our to-do lists, dressed in our hiking clothes and headed down the street with our packs on our backs to the bus stop. We also carryied a paper bag with various items in them that we wanted to keep close to us for safety, security or convenience. We made it to the airport about 1.5 hours later. We checked our packs as baggage and carried our paper bags through security. Now we are waiting for our "Red-eye" to Charlotte, NC. There we will pick up a "puddle jumper" to the Tri-Cities Regional airport in northeastern Tennessee. We are using some of our Reward Miles for this trip, so decided to fly First Class!! Hopefully the extra space will allow us to get a little bit of sleep! We are excited to finally be on our way after all the months of planning.
Date: 2013-04-17
To: Mountain Harbour B&B
Miles today: 0.0

Ready For the First StepAfter a long overnight flight..and not much sleep, we arrived at Charlotte, NC. After a 4 hour wait our 40-seater turbo-prop plane took us to the Tri-Cities airport just outside Johnson City, TN. The lower elevation of the flight made for great views..until we entered the clouds over the Appalachian Mts. It got a little bumpy then, but we had an uneventful landing...in the rain!! According to the B&B owner who picked us up at the airport, it's supposed to clear up tomorrow..let's hope he is right. When we arrived at the B&B, the hostel was overrun with AT hikers coming off the trail due to the rain..some even bit the bullet and paid the price to move up to the B&B..which now full too. Since we already had a reservation, we were bumped up to their biggest suite. Our bodies will be in shock when we have to sleep on the ground tomorrow night. We had dinner at the local pizza place and then back to the B&B to repack our packs so they will be ready for the trail tomorrow.
Date: 2013-04-18
From: Mountain Harbour B&B

To: Slide Hollow
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: broken clouds

On the ATDay 1: Well, our bodies are finally back on the AT after an 11 month hiatus. We enjoyed the huge breakfast spread at the B&B which included french toast with honey-pecans syrup, grits with shrimp sauce, banana bread, homemade biscuit and gravy, egg souffle, and about 10 additional items. Since we were joined by about 10 AT hikers that were staying in the B&Bs hiker hostel, it was obvious Mary, one of the owners, is used to feeding hungry hikers!! After a big breakfast we paid our bill, finished packing our packs and headed for the trail at 9:10 am. It was a 0.3 mile walk up US highway 19E to the AT. We stepped back onto the AT where we left it a year ago. The trail immediately began to climb. As we hiked we were soon passed by all the hikers we had met at the B&B: Onyx and Dragonfly, Zag and Owl, and many others...it's obvious we are "city soft" and they are all "trail hardened" after being on the trail for over a month. We saw a couple of beautiful waterfalls today...all running fully with the recent rains. We bypassed the shelter we had planned to stay at and went 0.8 miles further to a camping spot next to a small stream. We arrived in camp at 4pm. We bypassed the shelter because there has been a major outbreak of the Norovirus on the AT in this area...so we decided to avoid being in close contact with a lot of people for a week or so until we get a little further away. More on this later. Rain is forecast tonight and tomorrow so we are experimenting with something new, as you can see from the picture.. a tarp over our tent. The idea is that the tarp will protect the tent if it hails and we can set up and take down the tent in a rainstorm and not get everything wet in the prossess. Tomorrow may be our test if the forecasters are right!!
Date: 2013-04-19
From: Slide Hollow

To: Campsite below White Rocks Mountain
Miles today: 11.4

It's Raining in Tennessee!Day 2: The weatherman was right; the rain started last night at about 10pm. Fortunately there was a break in the rain when we got up at 6:30am and broke camp. The new set up with the tarp worked well. The rain poured off the tarp without hitting the tent. Soon after hitting the trail it began to rain lightly, but it soon stopped. It kept this pattern up for most the morning. Then at 1pm the brunt of the storm hit and it rained hard for 1.5 hours. Unfortunately with the passing of this front, the temperature dropped 20 degees..it's going to be a cold night tonight. The attached picture was taken at a viewpoint during a lull in the rain. You can see that there aren't any leaves on the trees yet..just buds. Spring has only recently arrived here. So no "green tunnel" yet on this year's hike, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. One nice thing is that with no leaves on the trees, we get better vistas. Unfortunately, we walked right by our planned camping spot and didn't realize it until a half mile later. So we are now setup in a marginal campsite. The rain has stopped but the wind has kicked up significantly, the temperature has dropped into the high 30s and a dense fog has appeared. Don't think we will see any vistas tomorrow!
Date: 2013-04-20
From: Campsite below Rocks Mountain

To: Pond Flats
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Sunshine at LastDay 3: I guess I am not a good forecaster of weather for the East Coast. We arose this morning to not fog, but clear, blue skies...and really cold. How cold was it?? To tell you I first need to explain a little about our "home away from home". As you may have noted in previous pictures of our tent, it has "wings" that stick our from both sides. These are vestibules. They are little areas protected by the rainfly that goes over our tent, however they are outside the tent itself. The vestibule is useful for storing such things as our boots, which we take off before entering the tent...thus keeping the tent space clean. Likewise, on rainy days the vestibule is the area to store wet things keeping the tent space dry. Spider has rigged a small clothesline in both our vestibules so we can dry out our wet items...which is what we did last night after walking most of the day in the rain. So how cold was it this morning? Our hanging wet clothes in the vestibules were frozen stiff as boards!!! Brr!! When we realized how cold it was when we woke at 6:30am, we decided to stay in our warm sleeping bags until the sun came up. When the sun finally hit our tent at about 7:30am, we got moving. However we hit the trail wearing just about all the dry cothes we had. Fortunately, as we dropped in elevation and the sun had a chance to do its work, the temperatuire rose to 58 degrees eventually. We really appreciated the warmth of the sun as we slowly peeled off layers of clothes as we hiked...We passed beautiful Laurel Fork Falls as you can see in the attached picture. Soon after the falls we had our steepest climb yet this trip, 1800 foot climb over 3 miles. We are camping tonight near two hikers, Oynx and Dragonfly, who we meet at the B&B where we started. It will likely be cold again tonight but not as bad as last night, thank goodness!!
Date: 2013-04-21
From: Pond Flats

To: Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: clear sky

Water, Water EverywhereDay 4: The night was not nearly as cold as the previous night and all our wet clothes are dry. We hit the trail at 8am and immediately headed down. In the distance was large Watauga Lake. We knew our day would be spent skirting the edge of this lake. After descending to the lake, we found a temporary sign saying that the AT along the lakeshore was flooded because the lake was higher than normal. No kidding, the nearby picnic tables were submerged!! I suppose the lake is high because of all the rain they have been getting and flood control is in effect. The sign then described an alternate route, using local streets, to get around the flooded area...so that is what we did!! Once back on the trail, we weaved in and out of the various fingers of the lake, with the water sometimes lapping at the edge of trail.. Around 1pm we made it to the dam that forms the lake and took the attached picture. It was built by the Tennessee Valley Authority, just like the Fontana Dam we crossed on last year's AT hike, except unlike that dam which was all concrete, the Watauga Dam is earth-filled. After crossing the dam we started our big climb for the day...1500 feet over 4 miles. Sure didn't plan these hikes well to have the big climbs in the warm afternoons!! Finally reached our destination shelter at 5:45pm. Our plan was to camp next to the shelter, but it was perched on a knife ridge with no flat tent space to be found...so we are sleeping in the shelter. From the shelter we have grand views across Watauga Lake. There is only one other hiker in the shelter with us, Riverguard. A twenty-something young man who started today at noon where we were at noon YESTERDAY...ahh youth!!
Date: 2013-04-22
From: Vandeventer Shelter

To: Campsite near Tenn. Hywy 91
Miles today: 10.6

Cruis'n on the RidgeDay 5: The cold wind that had come up late in the afternoon yesterday, blew all night. Fortunately, we were pretty well protected in the shelter, but it made for a cold start this morning. The shelters we are seeing in Tennessee are a little more basic than some of the ones we saw in Georgia and North Carolina last year..just 3 walls, a roof and a raised platform to sleep on. The attached picture shows ET at Vandeventer Shelter. As we hit the trail, the day was a cool, clear and sunny. However as the wind died down, the day warmed up to the high 60's...good hiking temperature!! Today's hike was mostly following the Iron Mountain ridge we had climbed up to yesterday. A few good climbs, but a lot of level walks and downs. We had great views down into the valley below...we finally passed the last arm of Watauga Lake down in the valley about noon. Both of us enjoyed today's hike. We feel like we are getting into the "swing" of this hiking "stuff"...Spider even found himself humming a tune as he strolled down the trail!! We finally saw some animal-life (besides birds and lizards!) a cottontail rabbit. You'd think we would see lots of deer, fox or, god forbid, bear out here, but like last year, there seems to be a dirth of wildlife. We passed by an interesting memorial site today. It was a rock and marble headstone to Nick Grindstaff. The story is that in the late 1800s he headed west to make is fortune, but along the way was robbed of all his money. He returned back to this area, moved into the mountains, that we are hiking in, and became a hermit. When he died in 1923. his family and friends erected this monument to him. The headstone says "He lived alone and he died alone"...kind of sad. A local we saw on the trail said that some of his family still lives nearby and annually go up to the monument to pay their respects. We arrived at our campsite at 4pm..the earliest so far!! It gave us a chance to do some laundry and general gear maintenence. Tomorrow will be another long day, so we enjoy the extra rest.
Date: 2013-04-23
From: Campsite near Tenn. Hywy 91

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

Wheelchairs on the AT??Day 6: Another great day of hiking. We got started at 7:30am knowing we had 12+ miles to go. Within a half mile from our camp was a gift from "Trail Angels", soft drinks and frosting filled oatmeal cookies. For those that don't know, Trail Angels are people who help out hikers for free!!..some give rides to and from the trail, some provide a place to stay and some provide food. In this case it was the local Baptist Church. We couldn't resist so we grabbed a cookie each and Spider grabbed a Coke. 100 feet up the trail, we crossed Highway 91, then hiked a 0.5 mile section of the AT set up for wheelchairs. The attached picture shows it meandering through the cow pasture..and I do mean COW pasture. You had to be careful where you stepped to avoid the "land mines" the cows had left behind!! Then to add more excitement to the hike we passed through another pasture...and the herd of cows were still there. The older cows gave no mind to us but the young calves ran away with their tails in the air..it was obvious who was used to seeing hikers. Best yet we now had to watch out for fresh "land mines"! After exiting the pasture we stopped for breakfast..the oatmeal cookies were a wonderful addition. Spider savoured every drop of the Coke during lunch...it's the little things that excite out here on the trail. We made good time on the trail again today, but about 10 young thru-hikers zoomed past us today...more than we have seen all week. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and most of these "youngsters" are doing 20-25 miles to get to the town of Damascus, VA before the rain. We are tenting next to a shelter tonight that is 10.6 miles from Damascus...our destination for tomorrow. There are about 20 people here who couldn't make it to Damascus today, ready to charge down the mountain with us tomorrow!!
Date: 2013-04-24
From: Abingdon Gap Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

Goodbye Tennessee, Hello Virginia!!Day 7: We entered into Virginia at 11:40am this morning...we have now hiked through 3 of the 14 states transited by the AT. However, Virginia is the state with the most AT miles..so the remainder of our hike this year will be spent in Virginia. The day started early for us. We got up at 6:30am and hit the trail by 7:30. We hustled down the trail hoping to get to town before the predicted rains came. After a picture at the state line, we continued to Damascus, VA and made it by 1:30pm...you know the saying about horses going back to the barn!! Worried that the rains would drive a lot of hikers into town tonight, Spider had phoned the Hikers Inn yesterday from a mountaintop and made a reservation for two nights. It's a good thing too because every place had "No Vacancy" signs up when we arrived in town... Including the Hiker Inn. We are in a small room in the hostel with a queen bed. We share a bathroom with the 4 people that are in the group bunkbed area of the hostel. The first thing we did was shower and get our dirty clothes to the hostel owner to launder (hope he wore a gas mask and used rubber gloves!!). As we waited for our clothes, the rains came...we are happy to be under a roof and dry!! Once we got our clean clothes back, we headed to the local cafe, Blue Blaze, for dinner and a drink. Sure is nice to eat food that wasn't freeze dried. For those of you that don't remember, the AT is marked by a white, vertical stripe 2" wide by 6" long on trees and rocks along the trail and are called "white blazes". Side trails to water, hostels, parking etc. are marked with blue blazes...thus the source of the name of the cafe. Tomorrow is a "zero day" in that we will hike no miles on the AT...although we will hike around town picking up a few extra things we need for the next week of hiking...more on that tomorrow.
Date: 2013-04-26
From: Damascus, VA

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Back on the TrailDay 9: We were up at 6:30 this morning, packed up and walked to Mojoe's cafe for breakfast. At 8:20am we finally broke the power of the vortex (Spider calls all towns a "vortex" because they suck you in with hot showers, good food, warm beds etc. and try to keep you there!!). We hiked 0.3 miles up the road, crossed the road and entered the forest. Then the climb began. We had to get from 1900 feet at Damascus to 3300 feet at the shelter. Needless to say, as we trudged up the mountain, we were passed by the twenty-something thru-hikers we had seen in town. As we approached our day's destination, we had a great view of Whitetop Mountain, so Spider took a picture of it. It is the second highest mountain in Virginia and our destination for tomorrow. We are scheduled to camp on its right flank, but we will decide if that makes sense when we get there tomorrow, given that a rainstorm is coming. Even with our late departure from Damascus and our day of climbing, we still arrived at the shelter at 2pm. We considered pushing on, but the next known camping spot with water was 6 miles away...probably a little too far for us and our packs recently loaded down with a weeks worth of food. But it is obvious we are beginning to develop our "trail legs"
Date: 2013-04-27
From: Saunders Shelter

To: Campsite on Whitetop Mtn
Miles today: 11.9
Weather: clear sky

Climbing to the HighlandsDay 10: We were awakened by light rain on our tent at 3am...fortunately it had stopped by the time we got up at 6:30. The skies were dark and threatening especially to the west. We just hoped the showers that the weatherman forecast would hold off until we got our hiking done for the day. After leaving the shelter the trail worked its way down the mountain, giving up most of the hard-earned elevation we had gained yesterday. In fact we walked about 1 mile on the Virginia Creeper Trail. I took a picture of ET entering the Creeper Trail from the AT. Turns out we have seen more of the Creeper Trail than we expected. If you recall from my earlier post, this was a railroad right-of-way that has been converted to a hiking/biking/horseback riding trail...It runs for 33 miles along the Laurel River. When we left Damascus yesterday we walked 0.3 miles on it until the AT left it to climb a mountain...only to come back to the river later. As the AT yoyoed up and down and in and out of gullies, we could look across to the other side of the river to the gently graded Virginia Creeper Trail. When we finally left the river yesterday we had a steep climb to the shelter..only to return to the Creeper Trail today. If we had taken the Creeper Trail, we would be miles ahead and with a whole lot less effort!! I guess that's the price of being an AT purist..we get to have the mountain experience the AT designers intented!! After leaving the Creeper Trail we began our big climb for the day, 1500 feet over 3 miles. The rain had held off so far but the skies still looked threatening. Finally at about 2:30pm a light rain started to fall and we had to stop and put on our raingear. For those of you who have never hiked in raingear, especially uphill, it's something that you put off as long as you can..because once you encase yourself in an impermiable outfit then exert some effort, it's like being in a sauna. You are almost as wet from perspiration as you would be from the rain! Fortunately, the rain stayed light and we made it to the top of our climb, to just below Whitetop Mountain, pictured from a distance in yesterday's post. We had wondered from afar what caused the white at the top of Whitetop Mountain, limestone, chalk, or...?? When we got there we found out it was yellow grass...who would have thought! We finally made it to our campsite at 4:30. The rain was beginning to get stronger, so we quickly set up the tent and got our dry gear inside. As I am typing this post, it is pouring rain outside. The forecast for tomorrow is rain!!..oh boy!!
Date: 2013-04-28
From: Campsite on Whitetop Mtn

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: light rain

Rain Ruins the DayDay 11: It rained all night and on into the morning. So we had to take down a wet tent and carry it. We ate breakfast under the tarp before we left, rather than our usual pattern of walking an hour before we eat. In the rain, it is a real hassle to stop, set up the tarp and try to stay warm while the water heats up. So we set out hiking in the fog, wind, rain and the temperature at 45 degrees at 8:20am. Since the weather didn't improve, we decided to hike to the next shelter, which was 6.7 miles away, without stopping. We figured we could warm up there when we ate lunch. After our big climb yesterday we are now in the Western Virginia Highlands and will be up here for the next couple of days. One of the unique things up here are the Highland wild ponies...and we saw one and got a picture of it!! We walked around the southern half of the highest mountain in Virginia, Mt. Rogers, but you couldn't prove it by us since we could only see about 50 feet around us because of the mist and rain. We finally arrived at the shelter cold and hungry at 12:20. After finding out that the second story of the shelter was empty (yes a two story shelter!!) and listening to the rain pound against the shelter roof, we cried "uncle" and decided to call it a day. We changed into dry clothes and crawled into our sleeping bags and finally got warm. However, in the course of the afternoon other hikers showed up, wet and cold, and joined us on the upper level. We are now 10 people on the upper level and 10 on the lower level of the shelter. This will be our highest sleeping place on this trip at over 5400 feet. For all of our short day, we passed the 100 mile mark on this hike. We will now have to adjust our hiking schedule by hiking some more miles to make up for this short day. We were both content to lay in our sleeping bags and listen to the young hiker banter...that was until ET heard a pony whinny outside. She was up in a flash with camera in hand and she got some great shots of a herd of the wild ponies. The weather forecast varies with who we talk to..some say rain for the next 3 days and others say clearing tomorrow...we are obviously hoping for the latter!! Either way it is going to be a cold morning tomorrow, it is already down to 40 degrees at 7pm!!
Date: 2013-04-29
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Old Orchard Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

A Hike Through the HighlandsDay 12: It poured rain until the early morning with the final shower hitting at 6am. We were happy to be inside even if we were sharing space with a bunch of people and a bunch of wet clothes! We hit the trail at 8:30am all geared up for more rain. The skies were covered in dark clouds and it looked like it could rain any time. Our hike today took us through the highland country of Virginia. It is distinctive in that it is largely treeless, in contrast to the hardwood forests we have been walking through up to this point. The area is covered predominately by grass and rock...as seen by the attached picture. Unfortunately, it makes for hard walking because the trail is mostly rocky. In some places they are big rocks that force you to jump from rock to rock or step up or down. In other cases its smaller rocks which means a turned ankle or stubbed toe if you don't concentrate where you are putting your feet. Definitely not a trail for a stroll or gawking at the views..and very trying on the ankles and knees. Originally we had planned yesterday to traverse the area to the next shelter. As we walked it today we were so happy we had decided to stay at the Thomas Knob Shelter. The area was open so we would have been at the mercy of the stong wind and rain. Likewise all the rocks would have been wet and slippery. To top it off, the next shelter, Wise Shelter, can only hold 8 people...so had we pushed on to this shelter, there likely would not have been room for us. As we traversed the Highlands, the weather stayed cloudy, with wisps of fog in the valleys and on the mountain tops. It made for some fantastic views...when we stopped to look. The excitement for the day was we came upon another herd of the Highland ponies. ET was able to get within 10 feet to take some great pictures. When we finally left the Highlands and arrived at Wise Shelter for lunch, we also celebrated hiking 500 miles of the AT between last years hike and our hike so far this year. After leaving Wise Shelter we walked through some forests and some lower-elevation highland-like country...all the while watching the sky getting less dark. In the last two miles descent to our current shelter, the sun accually broke through..What a wonderful sight!! A guy we met on the trail said the forecast for the next 3 days is for partly cloudy and warming..we certainly hope so!!