morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-05-19
From: Abingdon, VA

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

We've spent the last three days avoiding the forecast lightning storms on the AT mountain tops, safe in our Super8 Motel room. But to be fair, here in town we didn¢t get many of the storms that we saw nearby on the Doppler radar.  So, we explored the area each day in our car. We found good places to eat and visited antique stores in Abingdon, Bristol, and Chilhowie. In one small store in Bristol we learned from the store owner about ramps. He told us that the ramps are now out on White Top Mountain. All we know about ramps is that¢s how you enter and exit an interstate highway. He said no, they¢re plants you can eat. They grow in damp areas at high altitudes. They are wild leeks, something like scallions. They¢re supposed to be really good when added to fried potatoes, if you like onions. We never expected to learn about edible vegetables on the AT from an antique store owner, but that¢s why we like meeting and talking to folks wherever we go. There¢s always something interesting to learn. Tomorrow we¢re getting a shuttle from our motel in Abingdon to the trail head at TN 91. Last week we hiked from there back south to Dennis Cove Road. This time we¢re hiking north to Damascus, VA and saying good-bye to TN. We have to leave our car in Abingdon instead of Damascus because Trail Days is in full swing there.  There would be no place to park our car and no one to shuttle us out of town during the festivities.  But Trail Days will be over when we reach Damascus, so we shouldn¢t have a problem getting a shuttle back to Abingdon to get our car.
Date: 2018-05-20
From: TN 91

To: Tent site at 457.0
Miles today: 8.5

Up by 6am we were all packed, checked out of the motel, and ready to meet our shuttle driver by 9am. He arrived right on cue and by 10am we were hiking north from TN 91. The first 1.5 miles were through a farmer¢s meadows. The first meadow had a nice gravel path with the grass on both sides mowed. The second meadow we shared with his cows. We had to be careful where we stepped because the cows weren¢t careful where they plopped.  With the sun shining on us out in the open field, it got really hot.  But once we hiked back into the shade of the forest, it was 10 degrees cooler. We made it to Double Spring Shelter, three miles of hiking, by noon, so we stopped there for a lunch break. Because the next shelter, Abingdon Gap Shelter, was too far away to reach today, we filled all six of our water bottles so we¢d have enough water to cook our evening meal wherever we stopped to camp. We left our lunch spot by 1pm. Two hours and 3.5 miles later, we arrived at a busy road, Rt 421, where there¢s a picnic table and a spring, so we stopped for second lunch and visited with some other hikers.  One was a girl from Australia, and one was a guy who went to West Point and is just finishing 8 years in the army. We hiked another couple miles and found a nice tent site along the trail. Our 8.5 miles today is a pretty good day¢s hike for us, considering the late start we had. It was a gorgeous day, and the trail was easy hiking.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be more unsettled, so we¢ll see how it goes.
Date: 2018-05-21
From: Tent site at 457.0

To: Tent site at 463.3
Miles today: 6.3

The forecast for today was partly cloudy in the morning until 9am when the chance of thunderstorms was to start and then increase as the day progressed.  The Abingdon Gap Shelter was three miles away or about a two hour¢s walk for us, so we slept in a little longer this morning, planning to start hiking by 7am. We got going by 6:50 and were making good time for just a few minutes, when I heard Woofie go uh-oh behind me. One of her eye glass lenses had fallen out on the trail. She had heard it hit the ground and stopped immediately. We found it right away, but the screw was missing from the frame, so we couldn¢t fix it. Luckily, she had a spare pair of glasses in her backpack. That little episode cost us the 10 minutes early start we had, so now we were right on time as planned. When we arrived at the shelter at 9am, we found that the forecast had changed. The stormy weather was delayed until noon. We began to hope that, like the day before, the bad weather would either be delayed further or never arrive.  We also became optimistic that we could hike the remaining 10 miles to Damascus for our first ever 13-mile day. We left the shelter at 9:30 and covered almost four miles in the next two hours. At the half-way point by only 11.30, we were pretty sure we could make it, even though we could hear thunder in the distance. But we weren¢t worried because the radar showed it to be 10-15 miles away to the east and moving away. A few minutes later we came upon a tent site, where sat a couple and their dog, whom we¢d been leap-frogging with all morning. As we said our hello-agains, we felt a few rain drops, so we started putting on our pack covers. But within a minute of the first rain drops came a heavy downpour. Everyone scrambled to put on their rain jackets. The others disappeared down the trail in the rain. We put up a tarp between two trees and made a quick lean-to. There we sat on our packs on the ground under the protection of our temporary shelter for about 45 minutes until it stopped raining. Looking at the radar, it showed that the storm had popped up right over us. That¢s why we had no warning. But with the forecast for more of the same weather for the rest of the day, we put up our tent and decided that 13 miles wasn¢t happening. We climbed into our tent, traded our wet clothes for warm dry ones, and were happy to just camp there for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow will be a short day with just 6.7 easy, down-hill miles into Damascus. We¢ll get a ride back to our car at the motel and a room for the night. We¢ll also see about getting Woofie¢s glasses repaired at the Walmart eye-glass center in Abingdon.
Date: 2018-05-22
From: Tent site at 463.3

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 6.7

It had cleared up over night, so we had a nice sunny morning to hike in. As we hiked, we passed several more tent sites along the trail, many of which had also been occupied by hikers over night. We talked to a few of them for a few minutes as they prepared for their day of hiking. One couple, Infinity and Alex, were from England. At the next tent site we stopped and talked with Diamond Blue Eyes, a 69 year-old retired army medic from PA, before hiking on.  Just as we arrived at the TN/VA state line, he caught up to us again. To mark the occasion we took a picture of him with his phone and he did the same for us with ours.  It was lucky for all of us that that is where he caught us. We covered the remaining 3.5 miles to Damascus, arriving by 11:15. We were starving for lunch, so we walked to the place we knew they had great hamburgers only to find it closed. It seems that they had run out of food over the Trail Days weekend and hadn¢t yet restocked. So we walked another block to a diner and got the hamburgers we craved. After lunch we went to one of the outfitters in town to request a shuttle back to our motel in Abingdon. We got our ride at 2pm and were in our room before 3pm. We¢ll be taking at least one day off because I came down with a cold and need a rest day to recover.
Date: 2018-05-24
From: Abingdon, VA

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

Tomorrow we¢re heading back out to the trail. The last two days, beautiful as they could have been for hiking, we¢ve spent in our motel room while I tried to get over a cold that hit me fast and hard on the night before we got into Damascus. The easy walk into town had me dragging by lunchtime, and I¢ve been feeling lower than low for two days. Today finally yielded some improvement, so we drove to Damascus and scheduled our shuttle ride for early tomorrow morning to Massie Gap in the Grayson Highlands. We expect the 31.5 mile hike back south to Damascus to take us four days.For most of the hikers we meet, that distance would be a two-day hike. And for a couple hikers, Produce for example, it¢s only a one-day hike. But a thru hike is like a job to hikers. They wake up, hike, go to sleep, wake up, hike, etc. They have a schedule to maintain to get to their goal at the other end of the trail before Mt Katahdin is closed to hikers in mid-October. For us, hiking the AT is our vacation trip. So why would we want to finish a vacation trip in a day or two when we could enjoy it for as long as we want.  We could take even longer to hike the 31 miles, but that would mean carrying more days¢ worth of food, and heavier backpacks. It also means more days without a shower.  So a break at some point, even from a vacation, seems wise for two smelly hikers in one small tent.
Date: 2018-05-26
From: Elk Garden, VA 600

To: Tent site at 488.7
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: few clouds

Today¢s hiking took us up one side of White Top Mountain, across the top, and down the other side.  The forecast for today was for an 80% chance of thunderstorms starting at 7am. So we got up early enough to be hiking by 6:40. We got the tent packed away, still dry, and our pack covers and gaiters put on. We were ready for anything. We got lucky for awhile and made it to the tent site on top of the mountain by 9am without any rain. We stopped and eat our breakfast meal for a half hour. By time to move on, the sky had darkened, so we put on our rain jackets. We refilled our water bottles at the next spring we came to just a short time later before continuing on across the mountain top. As we walked, the clouds descended to the ground, and we were walking in thick fog, then light mist, then light drizzle. When we reached the point where the the trail started down and the view of the surrounding valleys were supposed to breathtaking, we could only see a few yards in front of us, just enough to see where the trail went. The trail was steep and very rocky. And the lower we went, the harder the rain came. It made for very slow going because of the slippery rocks and roots. We met at least a couple dozen hikers climbing up on their way north. And I kept looking along the trail for ramps, the wild leeks we¢d learned about a few days earlier. I think I saw one and pointed it out to Woofie, but because of the rain, she didn¢t care to stop, and I didn¢t feel like picking it either. So it¢s still growing there unmolested. We finally came to a tent site where we could stop for lunch by 1:30. It was raining quite hard, and had been for a couple hours. We were wet and tired, so I picked a nice level spot between two trees, hung the tarp to make a shelter from the rain, then put up the tent under it. We climbed in and changed into dry clothes before eating lunch. Tired, but warm and dry, and still raining outside, we knew that we¢d gone far enough for today.
Date: 2018-05-28
From: Marion , VA

To: Marion, VA
Miles today: 0.0

We can¢t remember ever feeling as worn out as we were last night when we reached our car. Backpacks and wet shoes came off immediately. Although, our plan was to drive straight to a motel in Marion, VA, I hadn¢t the strength to drive for another hour without first getting a hot meal. We drove to the other end of Damascus to the Subway we¢d passed on the way in. We were in luck, arriving at 8:45, 15 minutes before closing. Something about starving must have made that meatball sub the best tasting one we¢ve ever had. We left at 5 past closing time. We made it to Marion and got a very nice motel room. It took us a couple more hours to unpack and layout everything to dry before we could relax enough to go to bed. We¢ll be spending at least two, maybe more, rest days here. Our feet and legs are retaliating today. They are really sore at us for doing what we did to them. But our room looks like a tornado strike, so it may take at least that long to get everything dry and put back into our packs.
Date: 2018-05-30
From: Marion, VA

To: Marion, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Tropical Storm Alberto tracked farther west and didn¢t dump on us here in Marion, so the weather would have been good for hiking. But our legs and feet are still telling us to forget about it.We did get our gear dried out in a brief sunny period and visited the laundromat to get the laundry done yesterday. Also, as expected we saw lots of hikers there. Laundromats and grocery stores are hiker magnets. Today we visited the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area HQ.  It¢s located at the AT trailhead on VA 16. They have a secured long-term parking area and regular daily bus service into Marion. We hope to line up a shuttle back south to Massie Gap in the Grayson Highlands for our NOBO hike back to Marion. It¢ll be real convenient to have the car waiting for us right at the Rt 16 trailhead. But first, Woofie has to vanquish her cold. So at least one more rest day is needed.
Date: 2018-05-31
From: Marion, VA

To: Marion, VA
Miles today: 0.0

With all our colds and other ailments and infirmities vanquished, we¢re heading back out on the trail tomorrow.  We¢ve arranged for a shuttle with Rambunny, AT 2004 Hiker, to Grayson Highlands State Park from the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, where we¢ll leave our car in the long-term parking area.Woofie gets to see more ponies tomorrow, maybe even the beautiful Fabio.
Date: 2018-06-01
From: Massie Gap

To: Tent site at 507.0
Miles today: 6.5

We checked out of our motel at 7:30 and arrived at the the Mount Rogers NRA by 8am as it opened for the day. We got our parking permit and parked in the long term lot. Rambunny arrived by 8:15. We had her go into the visitor center to correct the phone number that they had given me. The day before when I¢d tried to call her cell phone, I got some poor guy who said he¢d gotten a few dozen calls for Rambunny in the last couple of weeks since the visitor center had been giving out the wrong number. It turns out that Rambunny doesn¢t even have a cell phone, so who knows how they got a cell number to give out for her. But it¢s all squared away now, so that guy shouldn¢t get any more calls that aren¢t his. On the ride to Massie Gap, she told us about her 2004 AT hike. That¢s when I found out that she¢s good friends with Stumpknocker and Mrs Gorp, whose trail journals I¢ve read. It was in those journals where I¢d heard the name Rambunny before. So I¢ve met a real trail journals celebrity. She dropped us off by 9am.  We started hiking in a stiff breeze as we crossed the open field. We were glad to get into the trees of the AT. The dark threatening storm clouds of the morning evaporated under the strong sun.  The rest of the day just got nicer and nicer.We stopped for a lunch break at the Wise Shelter and met several other hikers, some were thru-hikers and some were out for just a week. They all complained about the terrible rainy weather of the last week. Although more rain was forecast for today, it was nice so far, and the next few days are supposed to be nicer. We hiked for a couple more hours through some of the most gorgeous scenery. About 2:30 we came to a nice tent site and decided to camp there even though the sun was shining and the sky was clear. Our feet told us they wanted to stop for the day. We set up the tent and climbed in for a rest. About 15 minutes later it starting raining and continued for more than a hour. We were so happy to be warm and dry.
Date: 2018-06-02
From: Tent site at 507.0

To: Tent site at 514.4
Miles today: 7.4

It rained for a couple hours after we made it into our tent yesterday. It stopped for a while, and we managed to cook and eat our evening meal before it rained some more. It rained almost all night. I loved it. The sound of the rain makes me sleep so well. Woofie, not so much. We had to wait for the trees to stop dripping down heavily when the wind blew so we could pack up our tent. We finally got going by 7:50 in heavy fog. The trail was very wet, muddy, and slippery, and for the next couple hours between the dark overcast and the thick forest canopy, it stayed very dark and hard to see to hike. Along the way a hiker and his dog passed us. We came upon him again later as he was trying to make a phone call from the trail. As we passed, he ranted at us that he¢s the unluckiest thru-hiker on the trail. He had some of his things stolen from his pack, his dog is injured, his hiking partner left him because his attitude was too negative, and now he just found out that someone is using his credit card info to buy things online. I¢d say he has a right to be unhappy about the way things are going for him. We thought he must¢ve met some low-life character at Trail Days in Damascus. Later we met him again at a shelter where we stopped for a lunch break. He said the card info is being used in his home town of Milwaukee, and he thinks it¢s his father doing it.  What interesting things we learn just hiking along on the trail!We hiked on for a couple more hours, climbing to the top of Iron Mountain. Yes, now that we¢re in VA, they can reuse all the names of things. So this time it¢s Iron Mountain in VA instead of TN.  Woofie wanted to take a nice rest at the top. But when we found that we had cell data service, we checked the radar and saw storms heading our way. So we hiked down the mountain after a too short rest to try to reach a tent site a mile away before it started raining.We made it to the tent site and put up our tarp first in case it rained before we could get the tent set up. Still dry, we got the tent up. Still dry, we repositioned the tarp over the tent so we can get it packed up in the morning if it¢s raining then. Still dry, we cooked and ate supper. Now the forecast is for no rain until late tomorrow afternoon. Woofie will sleep well tonight. Me, maybe not so much.
Date: 2018-06-03
From: Tent site at 514.4

To: Trimpi Shelter 523.7
Miles today: 9.3

Knowing that we had a longer day in front of us, we got up early and were hiking by 6:30. It was nice to have a clear and dry morning to hike in. The trail was gently down hill and smooth for a couple miles, so we made good time, almost two miles in the first hour. Around 9am after a long steep climb we were rewarded with a nice water fall. We stopped for a break at Comer Creek Falls and had some snacks. While there, Ronrico, from Michigan, and Rattlesnake arrived. Rattlesnake got his name for seeing a lot of rattlesnakes while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. They¢d been hiking for days without a shower, so they went for a swim in the cold pool below the waterfall. I hope they made it out of the water again, because they never caught up to us again all day. After another long climb we made it to High Point by lunchtime so we broke for lunch. It was nice on top with a cool breeze. Woofie was enjoying herself there until she was surrounded by a flock of millipedes, which she hates. I rounded them up and saved the day for her. It was another warm humid day with storms forecast for the afternoon, so we decided to stop early and camp at the Trimpi Shelter. We got here by 2:30 and had to set up the tent as quickly as possible. Not because of rain, but because of swarms of mosquitoes. So we were trapped in our hot tent in mosquito heaven and praying to the thunderstorm to arrive. It was forecast for about 5pm, and it arrived right on schedule. And, being a storm, it was over by 6pm so we could cook supper. And there were fewer bugs then, too. Tomorrow is supposed to be a clear, cool day, just right for doing the last ten miles to get back to the car. We have to reach the Mount Rogers NRA HQ before they lock the parking lot gate at 4:30.
Date: 2018-06-04
From: Trimpi Shelter 523.7

To: Mount Rogers NRA
Miles today: 10.0

After the cold front blew through last night, the sky cleared, the rain and humidity were gone, and there was a nice cool breeze. This morning it was only 54 degrees, 10 less than yesterday morning. With an early start and a cool clear day, we were sure we could cover the 10 miles to the car before the gate closed at 4:30.  And the trail cooperated nicely, too. The path was smooth and gently down hill for the first couple miles.  After a half mile we came to a meadow that the trail passed through for another mile. After the first hour of hiking we¢d already gone two miles. The thought of getting to the car and going for town food helped propel Woofie along the trail.  We ate our Clif Bar breakfast while still hiking around 8am and didn¢t stop for a break until 10:40. After four hours of hiking we¢d covered almost seven miles, leaving only three more miles to do with almost six hours still left. We sat for about 30 minutes and finished off almost all of our snacks, first the cheese & crackers, then the chocolate covered donuts. Not long after we got going again, Woofie spotted a small bear on the trail in front of her. But It was long gone before I could get a glimpse of it. We took the last three miles slower, just because the day was so beautiful with the sunny sky, cool breezes, and flowering bushes along the trail. We made it to the Partnership Shelter, just .2 miles from our car at the Mount Rogers NRA parking lot, by 12:50 pm.  We stopped to talk to Babushka and her hiking partner, Orphan. We¢d met them several times in the last two days. They were finishing the same section that we¢d just done, but their car was left at Grayson Highlands. They needed a shuttle ride back, so I gave them Rambunny¢s phone number. We got to the car by 1:15, covering the whole 10 miles in about 6.5 hours. Woofie was already looking forward to getting a shower and a pizza. We got a room at the same motel in Marion, VA we stayed at last time, and were surprised that so many of the hikers we¢d seen over the last few days were also staying here. With showers taken and pizza eaten, we dried out all the wet gear from our packs. Since one good deed deserves another, we went back out and had chocolate milkshakes.
Date: 2018-06-07
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

As they say, all good things must end. And since we¢ve reached the end of the time we planned for this hike, this hike is over, and we¢re heading home tomorrow. We had hoped to make it as far as Daleville, VA, in two months of hiking, but when we lost the first two weeks back in April because of snow still in the mountains, it turned out that Marion is as far as we could get in six weeks. We always plan on ending sometime in June because the days are getting too hot. But we¢ll come back in early fall to carry on where we left off. So today, instead of resupplying and packing for more hiking, we took a drive up to the Big Walker Motel in Bland, VA to see what the next part of the hike will be like. When we got there, the first person we saw was Matriarch, a 75-year old lady hiker from Oklahoma we¢ve already met in two different sections of the trail. She¢s going to complete her thru-hike by jumping up to Mt Katahdin in mid summer and hiking back south until she¢s finished. And we¢ll be able to follow her on TJ under the trail name Okie.  What a great surprise. We¢ve had a great time this trip. Some of the sights were even more beautiful and awe inspiring than the ones from our previous hikes. And the best memories are of the many new friends we made along the trail. We hope to see them on the trail again in the future.
Date: 2018-08-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

After having an attempt never fully get of the ground in 2013, I'm ready to go. 37 hours on Greyhound buses from Louisville to Bangor and a couple of days with friends in Ellsworth, the time has come for these anxious feet to hit the trail. This trail has been on my mind nonstop through ups and downs, college sports and tedious days on the job. Countless miles hiking in Arizona while in college simply kept reminding me of what I wanted to accomplish eventually, and the fact that I'm actually starting today has me busting at the seams with so many different emotions. Nervousness followed by fear then giddiness. I guess all that I can do now is start walking south!