morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-04-26
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

zero days - the weekends of thru hikers. in "modern society" these would be saturday and sunday. but for the hiking world, it is less structured. we can call a zero day at any time for any length of time. is one day not enough? ok, take one more. want to wait out the rain? take a day and relax.i'm reflecting on the very structured world i left two months ago. every five days i get two days off and the pattern repeats whether i need more or less time. to this i add more structure of working between 7am and 5 pm. yes, there is vacation time i could add to the weekends to simulate zero days, but there's conditions on when i can use those days.the flow experienced while thru hiking is much like the innocence felt when you're a kid. it is the experience of going with the flow. something i do more now than i used to, but still have a ways to go.imagine a working world where you can work any day of the week and work as little or as much as you feel necessary. imaging the leap of trust that would be needed because "productivity" could not be measured, because it needs a structure to be measured within. when you operate within a structure you are bound by that structure. your profitability is now limited by the structure. is the next step for modern work or business to drop it's structures and risk "not knowing". is obscene profit contained within this unknown? can modern business, can modern people, can i... shed enough structure to allow myself the freedom to have what i want? ...to have my dream in the moment?the book art of innovation talks about a company called ideo which is the most successful design company in the world. they do some pretty non-standard things as far as the business world goes and i believe their success is linked to their lackof structure.as i hike the trail it will be interesting to see how much structure i can let go of, what opportunities or experiences arise from it, and if i can hold this focus when this dream comes to a close and my next one begins.
Date: 2004-04-27
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: rice field shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: scattered clouds

i rose at 7 this morning and took my time getting ready. it was to be a short 8, maybe 10 mile day out of pearisburg. i could not get a hitch for the life of me, so i hiked down the road 1.5 miles to the trail. before jumping on i stopped at a small grocery store and bought a donut and an eclair.it was an easy hike to the shelter, uneventful except for me putting my left foot underwater at a stream crossing. i was mulling over going further today as i ate my bagels with peanut butter, crackers, and butterfingers bar for lunch. last night i told hippie i'd leave her a note at the shelter if i pushed on.it was cold and windy. the shelter register was full of comments about sending winter gear home and maybe that wasn't such a bright idea. i, too, sent my winter bag and insulating layers home. Brrrrr. it's cold, wet, and blowing at about 10-15 mph.i decided to wait for hippie. standing around wasn't fun since my body was now cooling down. i put on some layers and got into my sleeping bag. i'm wearing my socks in an attempt to dry them out.while typing this entry i fell asleep... sitting up... for an hour. guess i needed the rest. ok, condor, hippie, slim, and biscuit showed around 5pm. we made dinner and retreated to our bags. it's 40* now and will drop 10* more tonight. this will be a test of my summer gear. i am using a 40* bag with a liner and sleeping in all my clothes. i should be ok.where's slips, fitz, and poptart? they didn't show and for good reason. instead of sleeping bags they are using fleece liners. they'd freeze their butts off out here. we hope they stayed in the hostel tonight.correction... psycho poptart just showed at 8:45pm.well, i'm going to read a little bit then snuggle into my cocoon.
Date: 2004-04-29
From: bailey gap shelter

To: laurel creek shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: scattered clouds

74 degrees! that's like sitting in a blast furnace. the sweat was pouring off me today. water and gatorade mix were in abundant supply as were breaks to dry our shirts, socks, and packs. hippie and i finished up the day sunning ourselves on kelly's knob. slim and biscuit made it to the shelter near 7:30 and poptart is MIA... again. we think he forgot to take a turn after wind rocks. the old AT goes straight down a road but the new trail bangs a right after a big log. there were many register entries warning us about this from unfortunate travelers. pi and preacher even drew a map in one of the registers. today i tried out what i as talking about yesterday. i tried to accept everything that happened to me as being my choice. not very enlightening and in some cases my negative reaction was so fast there was no way for me to not feel victimized. one thing this did do is make me wonder. there is this 'self' that is everything. it likes to play with denial... a lot. you'd think it would be some kind of perfect being or something. this self is me too. some of self's choices are conscious, but 99% of them are unconscious. is self some kind of crazy uncle that thinks it is fun to stub toes and fly bugs into eyes? all this action, though not desirable, comes from somewhere. where?self.oy!ramana maharshi (indian spritual guy, not a trail name) would tell me to follow the question back to its source. who is the questioner? from where does the question spring? follow it to its source.i'm feeling my mind is too engaged in this. it's looking for logical answers and this is way past its knowing. i'll delve into this one again soon. now it is time for bed. we are going to try a 20 mile day tomorrow.
Date: 2004-05-01
From: audie murphy memorial

To: 4 pines hostel
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: haze

ok, i've been kidded about not having enough hardship on this journey and it looking like a roving party all the time. the pictures i take only show the lighter side of thru hiking.here's the part of the "romantic journey" i generally don't mention in my entries. i'm adding these things in a lighthearted way. this stuff doesn't bother me; it goes with the territory.-i hike about the same length of time people work in a day, sometimes hours longer. -i carry, consume, and burn 4000-5000 calories a day.-i sweat profusely for hours-i get my water from streams and springs. sometimes there's little 'floaties' in it. extra protein and fiber, i guess.-most privies don't have doors... some places don't have privies-some people out here really are nuts-when my gear gets wet, it may be wet for days. then it really stinks.-i smell all the time-my clothes smell all the time-my boots smell all the time-when i put on clean clothes the smell in my pack permeates the clothes in 15 minutes. and then they smell all the time.-my knees, legs, ankles, feet, and back muscles hurt everyday-ibuprofen, duct tape, and body glide are my body's best friends-salt lines appear in my clothing-i have blisters, calluses, and cracked skin on my feet-i bathe every 4-5 days-i clean my clothes every 5-10 days -for every woman on the trail there's about 20 men-the women smell tooat 4 pines hostel and the homeplace restaurant tonight: fearless leader, pappy, condor, hippie, slim and biscuit.
Date: 2004-05-02
From: 4 pines hostel

To: john's spring shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: light rain

now that last entry was interesting, wasn't it?in all honesty, hikers have a certain smell, but we don't smell it ourselves. folks who use perfume, deodorant, and irish spring every morning will notice right away.i hope folks now understand why we live it up when we can. the taste of town food or beer, the feeling of a hot shower is a much more sensual experience than before i hiked the trail. the padding on a restaurant booth catches your attention since the only thing you've felt so soft has been your thermarest pad.here are some things i did not mention in yesterday's entry:-listening to peepers, birds, streams-sunrises, sunsets-vague schedules-the wind blowing through your hair and beard-seeing the milky way-seeing/smelling wildflowers: azaleas, pink lady's slippers, violets, trilliums, buttercups, dandelions-wild animals -breathtaking scenery-meeting new people everyday and having instant rapport with both hikers and townspeople-trail magic-eating-sleeping under the stars-showers-eating-lying in the sunit's a good life ;-)hippie and i decided to do a short day today so we got up later in the morning.hippie shuttled fearless leader and pappy to the trail using their truck so they could slack a section back to the hostel.later in the morning scuba's father drove up and hippie and i shuttled him to rte 621 (by niday shelter) to meet and hike with his son. scuba's father, bill, also offered me a place to stay if i get to waynesboro too early for trail days. cool.yes, these total strangers give us their cars to drive around a state we don't live in. hikers have a lot of trust in each other.hippie and i chose to slack 6 miles and then hitch a ride back to the hostel for our packs. joe mitchell, who runs the hostel, gave us a ride to the place we finished our slack. we wanted to do 6 miles but it started raining after the first two. it really started pouring and we ducked into the old boy scout shelter, which is now called john's springs shelter. there we methoplight, squish, and rockhound. we were later joined by biscuit and slim. they decided to cook dinner and press on to the next shelter. the rest of us fair-weather hikers watched the rain for an hour and decided to stay put for the evening.
Date: 2004-05-03
From: john's spring shelter

To: daleville, VA
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: overcast clouds

hippie, hoplight, squish, rockhound, and i got up at 5:15 to get ready for our eighteen mile day. it was cold so we moved around slowly, trying not to exit our sleeping bags until the very last moment.we traveled to mcafee knob and tinker cliffs. each had great views but the cool temps and constant wind made us move on quickly after we took our pictures. no sun bathing today.it rained as we came into town and we all got rooms at howard johnsons. (raining = closest hotel with laundry and free breakfast.)hippie and i got a room together. we showered and got into our cleanest clothes and went to the "three li'l pigs bbq". there we had salad, burgers, and yuengling. (have i mentioned yuengling lager is the best beer i've ever tasted? go get some today.)after leaving the restaurant we got groceries, did laundry, visited the outfitter, and other town stuff. hippie flipped the tv on and started and endless rotation of channel surfing. tv doesn't do it for me so i grabbed the iron and pressed the pleats back into my kilt.hippie started taking digs a me: "you call yourself a thru hiker? it's bad enough you're holding that iron... but you're a guy on the appalachian trail holding an iron. there's something wrong with that." i guess i've blown my macho thru hiker image in her eyes. :-)the evening ended with a small pan pizza from pizza hut and two funny episodes of "blind date".
Date: 2004-05-04
From: daleville, VA

To: wilson creek shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: clear sky

after our long day yesterday hippie and i decided to do a shorter day today to rest ourselves. my feet did not hurt from yesterday's distance, but from yesterday's rocks. the bottoms of my feet were pretty tender as i stepped on rocks today.i want to meet wildcat and his son by friday at matt¢s creek shelter. they are a half to one day ahead of us. it also looks like dragon slayer is one day ahead too. i hope we all synch up... it will be like old times.(there was going to be this great section here called "the perpetual 'no'", but it's been taking a long time to finish. i'm pulling it from this entry so i won't hold up the future 6 days of entries i have sitting here. i also hear there's a lot of new pictures in the photo section... enjoy.)today hippie, squish, rockhound, hoplight, and i have completed 1/3 of the trail. w00t! off to bed.
Date: 2004-05-06
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Marble Spring
Miles today: 17.2

today is the day i split off from hippie. we have been hiking together since Erwin, TN and our plans are now taking us different places. she will be getting off-trail for a few weeks and i will be trying to catch wildcat and get to waynesboro before trail days.she did a ten mile day and i got to camp at 5pm after 17 miles. i could have pushed 5.4 more to get closer to wildcat but my legs have said they've had enough for one day. so i stayed put.tonight, at camp, it was me and "the old faht". hoplight, rockhound, alabama, and pooner pushed on to the shelter. as old faht and i ate dinner, two deer checked out our campsite. they moved around some, getting within 50 feet of camp. either the smell of the food attracted them or they knew thru hikers won't interrupt dinner for anything. they kept looking at us and we kept eating. only after we finished did we grab our cameras.i turned in at sunset and did some stretches and journaling.
Date: 2004-05-07
From: Marble Spring

To: punchbowl shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: scattered clouds

i hiked to the road over the new james river foot bridge. it was a road busy with big trucks that would pass and push me around with their air turbulence. i waited 20 minutes and got a hitch from a local boater who dropped me off in the "usual spot". the center of glasgow was small - really small, but had the amenities that hikers need.there are two small markets in town. both were pretty skimpy as far as re-supply options go. you get on the map in this country if your market has foil packed tuna and chicken. glasgow will soon be a forgotten ghost town in this hiker's eyes.i went for the market with the phone outside to check my email. while on the phone i saw a familiar pink shirt in the distance. i couldn't be sure, but she looked like dragon slayer. (since hikers have at most two outfits, it's not hard to ID them by their clothes.) as she got closer we both smiled. it's a great feeling seeing old friends. i hadn't seen her, like most of my second group, since hot springs, NC. that's about 500 miles ago!ds had a room in town and i yogied a shower almost immediately. that was wonderful since i wasn't going to stay in town overnight. we caught up on where we've been and where people are all along the trail. she introduced me to her curent hiking partners: jangles, hawk, hobo, and wicked lobstah.i got some lunch, did laundry, re-supplied, and got a hitch out from two young ladies, who were on their way to a BBQ, by 2:30.now came the painful part of the day - a decent uphill during the next 11 miles to punchbowl shelter in 80* heat. *pant* *pant*i got in with a little daylight to spare. the water at punchbowl was a little scarey. a spring-fed a pond and then the pond-fed a stream. we couldn't get water from the inlet so we had to get it from the stream. slightly discolored, it got both chemical treatment and was boiled tonight. at the shelter tonight: pelee, rambler, and stealth
Date: 2004-05-09
From: North Forks of Piney River

To: maupin field shelter
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: clear sky

today was a tough day. i hiked from 7:00am to 7:45pm. the first 16 miles had a couple of 4000 footers but most of the work was on the descents.i reached harper¢s creek shelter at 4pm. i was unsure if i would go on to maupin field shelter. it was only 6.2 miles away but it required going up Three Ridges - a lot of elevation gain for little remaining daylight. i took shoe-off break, ate some food, and re-hydrated myself before making the decision to go or not.my body was tired (who's wouldn't be?) but i felt i had the energy to go on and get to the shelter before nightfall without causing any damage to my legs or feet.so off i went in the 80* heat. the trail turned out to be decently switch-backed so the climbs were not killer. i rolled in at 7:45 and met rockhound, hoplite, and wildcat.wildcat had the cowboy tv on (campfire) and cheese and crackers out on the table. i dropped my pack and threw my body on the wood floor of the shelter. wildcat offered to fill my water at the spring while i relaxed. (what a guy)i chose to do a lot of miles today for two reasons. 1) to make tomorrow's hike much shorter and 2)a BBQ has been advertised in the registers at reed's gap from 10-2 tomorrow. food is a great motivator.my shoes didn't fit well today. i'm getting some blisters on my heel again. my shoes feel a half-size bigger and that lets my feet slide inside the shoes on the downhills. to compensate, i really tightened the laces. rockhound suggested my shoes were bigger because they were wet. i think he's right because they haven't been dry for days; the humidity's been too high and i've not had strong sunlight where i take my breaks.the shelter was active way after dark because of a few late arrivals. it didn't matter since we could sleep in tomorrow (that means 7am to me). it was only 2 miles to the BBQ spot and the festivities start at 10am.
Date: 2004-05-10
From: maupin field shelter

To: Paul C. Wolfe shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: scattered clouds

the group started out at about 9am hiking to reed's gap, two miles away.we arrived early. the food, coolers, and umbrellas were being put in place.green one, his wife, squish, and his fianc©, heather were among the organizers of this trail magic. sad to say, the temperature at 9:30 was 80* and we were ordered to start eating the melting ice cream because the charcoal was not ready yet. oh, the pain, the pain.so the first course was drumstick ice cream cones and several pints of ben & jerry¢s passed around.there were cookies, bars, tarts with fresh fruit, salad, lemonade, gatorade, deviled eggs, hamburgers, and hot dogs. as hikers we have to pace ourselves. once you hit that full belly feeling, you're done and can't eat anymore. so a little ice cream, some tarts, a hamburger, take a short break, go for another hamburger, some soda, take a break...we all sit around waiting for the first person to get up and leave. i chose to be the first one and began my 16 mile day at 12:30. that's wicked late and i will probably get into the next shelter near dark. a small price to pay for delicious food.i traveled at a relaxed pace today, might not have anything to do with my full belly, and met up with rambler around 2:30. we hiked in the remaining miles together, stopping to talk to a few southbounders. with about an hour of light left, we arrived at the shelter at 7:30. another late day, which i am not fond of because my journaling gets put off until the next day.the no-see-ums were out for the first time tonight, attacking me while i'm trying to get ready for the evening. i don't have a bug net (yet) so i mummy wrapped myself in my silk liner and breathed through the material as i slept.
Date: 2004-05-11
From: Paul C. Wolfe shelter

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: light rain

condor and i hiked into waynesboro today. as we hiked we talked about his trail name. condor is a guy who has a smile on his face all the time. many of us are jealous that he has this perma-joy that surrounds him.anyway, i brought up that the condor is the bird of the indigenous people of south america, much like the bald eagle represents the people of the united states/north america. this was told to me by some shamans from peru and equador. condor said that he had visited a shaman while he was working on a documentary in equador. he had some really interesting things to say about his experience in the jungle and the short few hours he spent with a shaman there. when we came out of the forest we went down to the visitor's center. as we crossed the highway, a SUV pulls up and asks us if we need a ride. it's 30-30! what luck... no hitching necessary. 30-30 (he's on trailjournals too) brought us to the post office and then dropped condor at the YMCA. i'm going to stay at the quality inn with 30-30 and giggles. after a quick shower, 30-30, giggles and i went to the library to do some internet. i got an email from grace saying she's not going to traildays and i'll have to find another ride. 30-30 offered to give me a ride on the spot, so that worked out well. grace also gave me xena's phone number as an option too.the rest of the day was spent napping and catching up on journaling.
Date: 2004-05-13
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: trail days
Miles today: 0.0

today i traveled to trail days in Damascus, VA with 30-30, giggles, lwop, and pez. it is a hiker festival and reunion which features a parade, bonfires, drumming, and lots of vendors and manufacturers. we arrived at the hiker campsite and set up our tents. this is not the best camping area. some have nicknamed this place "the swamp", i guess from past experience with the place.backpacker magazine has sponsored this year's trail days. from talking to the locals, it is the first time they have been sponsored like this. they have "welcome" banners over the streets and color brochures.gear vendors, such as: msr, osprey, mountain hardware, leki, granite gear, dana designs, as well as backpacker magazine are set up in the campground site which is something like .8 from town.why is it so far? there have been problems with hikers at past trail days so the campsites were moved way back to where the tent city is now.i gave my poles to leki for a free overhaul. many manufacturers are repairing gear for free here... just a benefit of being at trail days.at night burn made a large bonfire which attracted the sparse thursday night crowd and a lot of drummers. as the drummers banged away, a few people dance around the fire while most warmed themselves near the flames, sipping their favorite brew.- - -a reader sent me a question and asked how soon i get the emails people send me. the smarty-pants answer: i get them when i need to. timing is perfect out here.ok... every 4-5 days i get to a phone and can send/receive email. then, if i need to respond to an email, another 4-5 days may go by. if i'm doing large mileage days i may miss the next interval, and, yeah, 12-15 days may go by before i respond. i know, it sucks. be patient and email me again if i forget about you. i have a ton of mail in my inbox and sometimes i forget to respond to some of them.thanks.
Date: 2004-05-19
To: Rock Spring Hut
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: overcast clouds

i'm skipping a number of journal days here... i just haven't wanted to type a lot since Trail Days. my mileage on the website will be off until i send in all the entries for last week. right now i'm at about 905 miles near Luray, VA. i'll let everyone know when i get those back-entries done.today in the shenandoahs wildcat and i did 25 miles of sweet, easy trail. the air was cool and it was misty/rainy all day. it was a great section with just a few climbs and long expanses of near flat trail. along the way today we had our first bear sightings of the trip. the first sighting was of two cubs who scampered away when they saw us. the second, a young bear was eating on the trail when he saw us coming.the deer out here are domesticated or something. must be all the RVs and car campers feeding them. (thru hikers know the food in the park is waaaay too expensive to be giving it to a deer.) last night one stayed within 3 feet of me for five minutes. i just looked at him and i bet he was waiting for a handout... or i was some thru-hiker-salt-lick and he was getting up his nerve. i've never been so close to deer. it was a neat feeling.we stopped at one of the roadside restaurants or "waysides" on the skyline drive. i got a veggie burger, salad, and a blackberry milkshake. they were out of blackberry shake mix so ours were made of real ice cream. Mmmmmmm. yes, we are eating our way through the shenandoahs. i think it's a thru hiker tradition.at the wayside we bumped into grongor the destroyer (how's that for a trail name) and hsien-ko. they are getting off the trail - out of money. :-(the day ended up meeting talks with trees and mountain goat at the shelter. both wildcat and i still had restaurant food in our bellies so we had one ramen each or dinner. off to bed.