morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-06-27
From: Mt. Dew's House

To: Mt. Dew's House
Miles today: 0.0

Last zero day! It was really yucky out today, so we decided to postpone hiking one more day. For those of you who don't know, Mt. Dew and I are getting back on the trail at Waynesboro, VA instead of Bland, VA. This means we're skipping about 270 trail miles. That's a lot, but we'll go back and do them after we summit Katahdin!The reason for the leap-frog was simply timing. We'd both really like to summit Katahdin without flip-flopping, and with the time off that we took and the speed/mileage of our hiking, we simply didn't have enough time to get there before the mountain closes. Therefore, tomorrow we will be starting at the southern end of Shenandoah National Park. =)
Date: 2006-06-28
From: Mt. Dew's House

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Got started on the trail today around 4pm or so. Late start, but that was fine with us since it was REALLY hot out. The hike was a little harder then I thought it would be, but I'm not really sure what I expected after taking 7 zero days (although I did do a hike on one of them). We got to the shelter around 8:30pm and set up our tent. We met Jam Man, a section hiker who's doing a pretty big section. He was the only other hiker at the shelter. Had fun playing with the weird bear hang poles, then went to bed.
Date: 2006-06-29
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: Black Rock Hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Officially made it into Shenandoah National Park today! It was a nice day, although filled with crossings of Skyline Drive. The trail crosses the drive 28 times throughout the park, so it wasn't surprising. They provide nice reference/break points. One really nice thing about the Shenandoahs is that the maintaining trail club provides big markers at many points indicating how far things are in every direction. It's really nice to know exactly where you are and how far you have to go.When we got to the shelter, the Ridgerunner Web Breaker was there, along with Mountain Laurel, the woman who runs the ATC office in Harpers Ferry, Jam Man, and several other people. It was a lively evening, with much conversation and fun. Looking forward to our first campground in the Shenandoah's tomorrow (the campgrounds all have campstores).
Date: 2006-06-30
From: Black Rock Hut

To: Pinefield Hut
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: clear sky

Today was really fun. My first Yogi-ing experience. =) For those of you who don't know what Yogi-ing is, imagine the cartoon character Yogi Bear. He and Booboo are always trying to steal picnic baskets. Well as a thru-hiker, instead of trying to steal the picnic baskets, we're trying to get invited to join in. For Mt. Dew and I, this consisted of going to the picnic area to get water. There, we saw a group of elderly picnicers. We asked if they minded if we sat down at the second picnic table attached to theirs. We then proceeded to snack on some of our food and chat with them. After a little bit, one of the ladies leans over and asks if we'd like a chicken salad sandwich. Of course we'd like one, we're thru-hikers aren't we? We then were offered a soda, chips, applesauce and chocolate pudding. All were tasty and very much appreciated.After leaving the picnic area stuffed and happy, we continued on to the Loft Mountain Campground. There, there is a campstore. We proceeded to split a two-liter of soda, amongst other various treats. We left there late, proceeding on to the shelter fairly late in the day.
Date: 2006-07-01
From: Pinefield Hut

To: Fire Road Camping
Miles today: 15.0

Today was really exciting Prana and Iroc caught up with us! We were eating lunch at a shelter when I turned to see someone coming up the trail. I thought he looked familiar, but I wasn't quite sure who it was. Then I hear...."Rainbow?" As soon as he said it I knew it was Iroc. Prana was just ahead on the trail, and it was so nice to see her again!!! Mt. Dew and I agreed to meet them at the South River picnic grounds for dinner, and we all took off for there. Had dinner, then all four of us decided to push on to a fire road one mile past the picnic area. Now I realize we're not supposed to camp on or near a fire road in the Shenandoah's, but we really needed a place to stay, and we knew that there would be something there. Had a VERY interesting time getting a bear hang up. I had a hard time finding a tree with an appropriate limb, then I found one and it wouldn't hold all of our food. Finally found another one where I had to walk through tons of prickly plants to get to a tree to tie the rope off. Once it was completely dark I finally finished.
Date: 2006-07-02
From: Fire Road Camping

To: Big Meadows Campground
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: few clouds

Mt. Dew and I had so much fun with Prana and Iroc that we decided to spend the rest of the day with them! Actually, we didn't really plan it that way, but it just sorta happened. Had a good day of hiking, felt pretty strong even though it was frickin' hot. Got to the Big Meadows Wayside and had a good meal with Mt. Dew, Prana and Iroc. Good food and good company always make for a good time.Resupplyed, then Mt. Dew and I went to take showers and do laundry. We decided that all four of us should split a campsite so we wouldn't have to hike any further. We did just that, and we got a really nice campsite! Camping on a flat, grassy area is so nice.Went up to the lodge to have a drink at the taproom. There was live music, which was pretty amusing, especially because one of the waitresses kept joining the group. There was a fun audience participation round of "Ring of Fire" which I then got stuck in my head for several days afterwards.
Date: 2006-07-03
From: Big Meadows Campground

To: Campsite just past Skyland
Miles today: 8.5

Well, today was a bit of wash hiking-wise. Mt. Dew, Prana, Iroc and I went up to the lodge to have breakfast. The choices were awesome, and the meal itself was pretty good when it came. I had two pancakes, a big omelet, homefries and three biscuits (mine plus Prana's and Iroc's). I was VERY full when I was done. We then proceeded to hang out for awhile, then have lunch there too. I only ate about 1/2 my lunch because I was still too full from breakfast.Finally got ourselves hiking. Stopped for a brief rest at Rock Spring Hut, where we met the Flintstones, some southbound flip-flopers. I really didn't want to leave the shelter, but only doing three miles today was just not an option. We decided to push on to have dinner at Skyland, then camp somewhere just past it.As we were approaching Skyland, maybe half a mile from there, we saw a bear! Really what happened is that I was walking and I heard a big racket way up ahead. I looked, saw a bear running away as fast as he could and I screamed "Bear!" so that Mt. Dew would know. We didn't get any pictures, but I can officially say that I got to see a bear on the Appalachian Trail. Now I just need to see a copperhead and a rattlesnake.
Date: 2006-07-04
From: Campsite just past Skyland

To: Camp before Elkwallow
Miles today: 16.1

Not much eventful happened hiking today. Stopped for lunch/dinner at Thornton Gap, the Wayside which is closed indefinitely. They still have water, so we set up on the old porch to cook. A huge, but brief, thunderstorm came through while we were there, so we were really glad we were there and not still hiking.I got a really bad headache for the last few miles of the day, which made them absolute agony. I can't tell you how happy I was when we picked out our campsite. It was truly a stealth campsite - we couldn't find any premade ones. Mt. Dew tripped on the way into the campsite which was a little scary, but he was okay. Did a perfect bear cache tonight - I got the rope up on the first try, which was really nice!
Date: 2006-07-05
From: Camp before Elkwallow

To: Terrapin Station Hostel
Miles today: 16.8

Today I started out the day with a blackberry milkshake. Well, I had to hike a couple of miles first, but it was so good! The soft-serve ice cream machine isn't turned on until 11am, but the lady was really nice and took some hard ice cream out of the resale freezer and used that to make it - sickly sweet but really good!We got to Gravel Springs Hut and it started raining. Not just the few minutes and done kind of rain, but the all day kind of rain. I really wanted to stay at the Hut for the evening and not push on, but Mt. Dew didn't have a sleeping bag (just a sleeping bag liner), so we pushed on so he wouldn't get too cold that night.Hiked in the rain a fair amount of the way to the hostel and got there about 8:30pm. Got cleaned up, settled in and played a big group game of trivial pursuit.
Date: 2006-07-06
From: Terrapin Station Hostel

To: Terrapin Station Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

Another unplanned zero day for us. We got a ride to the grocery store to resupply, then hung around the hostel all morning doing things we were supposed to, then watching tv and playing more trivial pursuit. Decided to stay another night and got a ride into town to the AYCE buffet dinner and another grocery run for popsicles. Played more trivial pursuit, watched Family Guy and went to bed.
Date: 2006-07-07
From: Terrapin Station Hostel

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: broken clouds

Managed to get out of the vortex that is AT hostels. It's always hard for me to get out of a hostel and town. The lure of good food, showers, laundry and relaxation away from the bugs is a strong pull.Quickly hiked past one shelter and got to the second shelter, Tom and Molly Denton, around mid-afternoon. As we approached, we heard music coming from the shelter. There was a local day hiker who had brought his euckelele (I'm a music major, you'd think I could spell that, but no...). He said that he'd gone to study at Oberlin, and he was really quite good. It was really nice to sit there and listen to it.In addition to the nice music, the shelter had some really nice features. It had a front deck with a two-person adirondack chair, a separate covered picnic table cooking area, a covered firewood shelter and a solar shower. Really didn't want to leave, but knew we had to. Packed up and headed out to Manassas Gap Shelter, our destination for the evening. Not a bad shelter, but it was supposed to have a resident Copperhead or two, so we were careful.
Date: 2006-07-09
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: broken clouds

Yay for hostels! Mt. Dew and I were going to try to push on to Blackburn Trail Center today, but that would've been 17 miles through the Roller Coaster. For those of you who don't know what the Roller Coaster is, it's 13 hills in 12 miles. The trail basically has a really narrow corridor in that location, so the trail crews just have to route it up and over these 13 peaks. Very tiring and mentally demanding. We were VERY glad when we got to the hostel. There was even a nearby restaurant that closed before we had to time to walk to it; however, some very nice day hikers offered to drive us there. We had a nice dinner with them, then went back to the hostel. It was a very nice hostel, very enjoyable to stay at. It was in a really nice old stone building. The best part was that they had a hikers special. For $25, you could get the bunk, shower, laundry, use of the facilities including kitchen, a can of soda, a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and a Tombstone pizza. Needless to say, that's what we did. =)
Date: 2006-07-10
From: Bears Den Hostel

To: Mt. Dew's Parents' House
Miles today: 14.1

Since Mt. Dew's parents were going to pick us up today, we got to leave our packs at the hostel and slackpack - woohoo!!!! Yay for slackpacking. The Roller Coaster was hard even with the slackpacking, but we finally made it to Blackburn Trail Center. It was a really nice place, and the caretakers even left out cold lemonade and brownies for us while they were gone. Definitely a treat! Finishing up the day was tough. My feet were really taking a beating. I'm hopefully going to look for a new pair of boots in Harpers Ferry/Washington D.C., as mine are apparantly just not working.Mt. Dew's parents met us partway up the trail and we hiked back to the car at Keyes Gap with them. Had dinner at a nice hotel at the top of Harper's Ferry, then we drove back to their house. I took a shower, then immediately crashed.
Date: 2006-07-11
From: Mt. Dew's Parents' House

To: Mt. Dew's Parens' House
Miles today: 6.5

Did a day hike from Keyes Gap into Harper's Ferry. Went to the Outfitter and got some shoe advice (I'm going to keep mine for now with the Superfeet inserts in all the time). Also went to the ATC headquarters, where Mt. Dew and I got our pictures taken for the hiker book. We were hiker numbers 605 and 606 for northbounders this year. Gave JamMan a ride to the hostel, then Mt. Dew and I headed back to his parents house, where we had a barbeque complete with hotdogs and Maryland crabs. I was especially excited about the hotdogs, as I'd been craving them for weeks.
Date: 2006-07-13
From: Mt. Dew's Parents' House

To: Rocky Mountain Shelters
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: haze

We skipped Maryland today. My dad is coming in a few days and we're going to complete Maryland then. For now, we're going to do part of Pennsylvania. Started out at Pen Mar County Park, just before the MD/PA line. Hiked for a few minutes with Mt. Dew's parents, then headed out on our own. Passed a cooler with cold coke and pepsi - an awesome treat on a REALLY humid day.Went through three shelters in short order as they were all only a couple of miles apart. So far we've had several instances of trail magic and we've only been in PA for a few hours! Awesome!Stopped at Rocky Mountain Shelters for the evening - a .3 trek downhill. When we arrived there, we discovered that the tent pad at the top of the hill was the only tenting, so we hiked back up the hill. Not the best way to end the evening.
Date: 2006-07-14
From: Rocky Mountain Shelters

To: Milesburn Cabin Campsite
Miles today: 10.6

Today we got sucked into the vortex of Caledonia State Park, with picnic tables and trail magic. I suspect we would've been there even longer had the pool not been closed and had we not had to meet my dad at 2pm at Pine Grove Furnace State Park the next day. Eventually we pulled ourselves free of the vortex and continued on the 3 miles to the next shelter. There we got sucked in again, as this shelter was the most nicely maintained shelter I've seen on the AT. It had a windscreen, a chess/checker board, a rock-lined stream and hanging baskets among other things. There were more that I'm not mentioning, and we really wanted to stay. However, the meeting with my dad was calling, so we continued on. Stopped to camp early for us - about 6:30pm. It was nice to be into camp early for a change.
Date: 2006-07-15
From: Milesburn Cabin Campsite

To: Ironmasters Mansion Hostel
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: moderate rain

Managed to do 12.3 miles before 1:30pm. That's an impressive morning for us. We're usually pretty slow, but we just managed to keep trucking along. Did the half gallon challenge as soon as we got there. For those unacquainted with this custom, many thru-hikers try to eat a half-gallon of ice cream to celebrate making the halfway point of the trail. I decided to eat Neopolitan and Mt. Dew had vanilla. He ate his in 34 minutes and I ate mine in 39 minutes. It was actually less painful then I thought it would be, and I was contemplating a scoop of tastier ice cream just two hours later.My dad showed up to the store about 3pm, and we hung out for awhile dealing with food issues and stuff. It was really nice to see him and be able to spend some time together. At 5pm we checked into the hostel, then went swimming in a local lake. We then went to Walmart and ate dinner at a local biker bar.
Date: 2006-07-16
From: Ironmasters Mansion Hostel

To: Crampton Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

Back to Maryland we go! Got a shuttle to Harper's Ferry today. Visited the ATC office again, then began our hike around noon. The C&O towpath was pretty cool, but it did get pretty boring after awhile. Had a nice hike for the day. It was cool to have my dad along, although he was definitely a slower hiker then Mt. Dew and I, although not by much. He kept trucking though, and we got to Gathland State Park for dinner and a cold soda from the vending machine.All day I'd been getting more and more worried about the large bite/bump on my leg. It was pussing sorta, kinda oozing, and the skin around it was getting really hard. At this point, the red hard part was probably 6 inches across, and very yucky. My dad, Mt. Dew and I were debating whether I should go to the hospital in the morning. My dad made a compress out of black cherry leaves, and we hoped for the best. Now enter Pockets, Tonka and Riceburner. Pockets asks what's wrong with my leg, and I tell him. Then he points to something on his leg, and says "Kinda like this?" It was exactly like this. He tells me it's poison ivy. Now I'm very sad to have poison ivy, but I must say this is probably the happiest sad moment I've ever had. I was really glad I wouldn't have to go to the hospital for it. Poison ivy I can handle.
Date: 2006-07-17
From: Crampton Gap Shelter

To: Annapolis Rock Campsites
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: few clouds

It was hot today! Not just hot, but crazy, insane, crazy, insane, crazy, insane hot. We tried to leave pretty early to get a good start, but it was hot from the start. Got to Dahlgren Backpack Campground around lunchtime, where we had lunch, took showers and took a nap. Kept hiking to Washington Monument State Park, where we were desperately expecting to have a cold soda out of the vending machine. The vending machine, however, had other ideas. It was out of soda, so we had to make do with the luke-warm water from the pump. Because of this, we all decided we should visit the biker bar when we got a couple of miles further. This we did, and had a very enjoyable and air conditioned two hours eating and drinking beer and soda. Eventually though, all good things must come to an end and we hiked the two miles or so to Annapolis Rocks Campsites. It was late by the time we got in, so we didn't even look at the view, we just went to bed.
Date: 2006-07-18
From: Annapolis Rock Campsites

To: Travelodge
Miles today: 16.2

Today was a very interesting day. I know I haven't said that in awhile, so I feel like it's especially meaningful for today.It started out hot and just got worse. We hiked through the heat all morning, and by 1pm, my dad decided he was done. We tried to call the shuttle, but we couldn't get ahold of her. Mt. Dew and I decided to slackpack the rest of the way to the car and then we would come back to pick up my dad. This would've worked much better had we remembered our rain ponchos. About halfway to the car, a SLOW moving thunderstorm hit us. We had to ditch my poles and sit it out for awhile, then hike completely soaked, freezing and with full puddles in our boots. When we got to Pen Mar County State Park we tried to call for the shuttle again and this time we got ahold of her; however, she was busy, so we couldn't get a shuttle. We had to hike another 2.8 miles into PA that we'd already done. Luckily for us there was the trail magic cooler partway, so we managed to do it without dying, although just barely.We got to the car about 8pm, then we had to navigate our way back to my dad. We did so, then all three of us went to Burger King and checked into the Travelodge. Showers on the trail always feel like the best shower of my life, and this one definitely did. I used the poison ivy soap I got from Patches in an effort to contain my poison ivy. We'll see if it helps.
Date: 2006-07-19
From: Travelodge

To: Campsite
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Did laundry and resupplying this morning. My dad dropped Mt. Dew and I off at Pine Grove Furnace State Park around 11am, and we decided to wait out the hot part of the day. I was sad to see my dad go, but I was happy that I'd been able to share a little bit of the trail with him. I think he's planning his own thru-hike in a few years when he retires.Mt. Dew and I spent the afternoon playing cards, then got to hiking around 5pm. We were planning on night hiking about 15 miles, but about 8:30pm, neither one of us wanted to go any further, so we stopped for the evening.
Date: 2006-07-20
From: Campsite

To: Yellow Breeches Creek Campsite
Miles today: 12.1

Hard day today, although it didn't look like it would be too hard. The plan was to hike into Boiling Springs and spend the afternoon relaxing, then night hike the valley after it, about 14 miles. My headlamp broke though, and because it took us longer to get in then we thought, the Outfitter was closed when we got there. One of the reasons it took us so long to get there was the bugs. The bugs were so bad in the morning that we stopped at a store just off the trail and spent a few hours there recooperating. Mt. Dew called his parents and was really excited to find out that he had renters for both of his other rooms. When we got to Boiling Springs, to celebrate, we went out to dinner. We had dinner twice.The first time was at the pizza joint, where we got a pitcher of soda and a large pizza. We ate half, then saved the rest for breakfast. The second meal was at the Boiling Springs Tavern - really nice place. There we had seafood bisque, some reisling, a nice salad and bread, seafood linguine, dessert ice wine and I had some flourless chocolate cake. It was an amazing meal!!Oh, I also forgot to mention the excitement of pools. After being hot, sweaty and bug-bait all day, we really wanted a shower. There were no showers offered in town; however, there was a local pool. They only charged us $4 after 4pm, however, the pool was only open for twenty more minutes when we got there. We still gladly paid the money, and I can't tell you how nice it was to run and jump into the pool. It felt like a little slice of heaven on earth. I will forever fondly remember that pool.So all in all, a really long day that was really awesome at the end!
Date: 2006-07-21
From: Yellow Breeches Creek Campsite

To: Campsite
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: clear sky

Long, hot day today. Our hike was through the valley, getting from one mountain ridge to another. The trail goes through the woods some, but also goes through many, many fields. It was a very hot hike. Mt. Dew and I stopped at U.S. 11 to have lunch at the local diner and sit in the air conditioning. It was about 2pm when we started back, and it was crazy hot!!!! Got to Darlington Shelter around 6:30pm, and we cooked dinner then hiked out again. Found a stealth campsite and immediately went to sleep.