morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-24
From: Tinker Cliffs 

To: Curry Creek
Miles today: 19.1

May 24, 2016 - Unfortunately, I slept right through the sunrise this morning - I just didn't wake up at my usual time. No worries, though - today, we would be passing through Daleville, VA. I didn't need a resupply, but they did have a BBQ place called Three Little Pigs that sounded excellent. Peach and I walked the 10 miles to town as quickly as possible and arrived just around lunchtime as intended. As we were coming down the last hill into town, can you guess who we ran into sitting on the side of the trail. If you guessed the injured Survivor, then you would have been correct. Frankly, we were shocked, but delighted, of course, to see the kid. Apparently, yesterday, instead of doing an easy day to rest his shin splints, he pushed 27 miles all the way to Daleville looking for our campsite. The reason he didn't find it was because he took a wrong turn and actually walked under the Tinker Cliffs rather than over them. Several hikers had made this same mistake while we were looking over the cliffs, but we never saw Survivor. Anyway, he ended up getting a hotel room and just waiting for us all morning at the trail head. The BBQ joint did not disappoint - Peach and I split a vinegar base BBQ sauce sandwich and a tomato base BBQ sauce sandwich and I ordered a small sampling of their wings. The best part of the meal for me was watching Hot Toddie and Steel, a long time vegetarian and pescatarian, order an entire rack of smoked ribs and sink their teeth into their greasy, tender goodness. Meat is truly a beautiful thing. After our meal, I headed back out on trail, but was soon hampered severely by my knee again. It seems that as I get near 15 miles or so, my knee sort of gives out and walking becomes very difficult. My friends graciously stopped 3 miles short of our original destination for the second day in a row and made camp near Critter Creek. Steel surprised us with marshmallows around the campfire and I grilled up some brussel sprouts using tin foil and the coals.
Date: 2016-05-25
From: Curry Creek

To: Cross Jennings Creek - Swimming Hole 
Miles today: 19.6

May 25, 2016 - As you know, I enjoy swimming every chance I get out here. So, in the trail guide, when our destination for the day was actually noted as a "great swimming hole", I was pretty pumped. I was hoping my knee could handle the 21 miles required to get there. Steel and I hiked together for most of the uneventful day. It was extremely hot in the sun, but the canopy of trees consistently provided much needed shade. We arrived at the swimming hole early around 4:30, which meant we had plenty of time to enjoy it. While I thought there have already been many better swimming spots than this one, it was undoubtedly refreshing after sweating our asses off all day. We cleaned ourselves and then dried off in the sun. Many fishermen had left dead squid and fish heads in the water, which made it difficult to relax. Peach soon arrived along with Two Souls, Lemonhead, Waterboy, Tanto, Iron Will, Waldo, Carjack (an adorable dog that was named for jumping into stranger's cars in the hopes of a joyride) and Fire Starter. Apparently, there was a campground down the road that offered free shuttles for some hot food. All of us rushed to squeeze ourselves into the bed of the pickup truck that served as the shuttle. As we were moving, the door of the truck bed snapped open and luckily the three of us leaning against the door caught ourselves before falling out. A double cheeseburger and a plate of fries later, the shuttle brought us back to the swimming hole where we set up camp. The trip was definitely worth it especially since we ran into the Warrior Hikers. My knee held up for the day, but it continues to cause me some serious discomfort. I still can't picture any scenario where the pain will go away. I can only see it getting worse without several weeks of rest.
Date: 2016-05-26
From: Cross Jennings Creek - Swimming Hole 

To: Big Cove Branch 
Miles today: 24.5
Weather: few clouds

May 26, 2016 - Thursday morning brought a small shower of rain before the sun came out and continued baking everything. I had two days and 38 miles to reach Mama Mountain Goat, which meant that today needed to be a pretty big day.Unfortunately, I just did not feel like hiking today. Probably because of the heat the past few days, but I was exhausted. It was just one of those days. Regardless, I kept trudging along slowly and taking plenty of breaks. I passed this cool part of the trail called "The Guillotine". Originally, I assumed it was just an incredibly steel section of downhill, but as you can see from picture, it's actually a large boulder that was caught in midair between two larger rocks. Very cool. Finally, as I was ascending the last big climb of the day with sweat pouring off me, the skies opened up and it started pouring. At the summit, I just sat down, took off my hat and let myself get soaked - it felt wonderful.However, the rain wore out its welcome 2 hours later when it was still coming down hard. With saturated shoes and blisters starting to form, Peach and I bowed out at 23 miles, 2 miles short of the shelter we were aiming for. We found a quaint campsite near a small stream just as the rain stopped. Hot Toddie joined us as we were finishing up dinner and I retired early as I was still exhausted. I cannot describe to you how good it felt to lay down and crawl under my quilt.
Date: 2016-05-28
From: Lexington, VA

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

May 28, 2016 - Despite the day off today, I still woke up around 6:30 and went downstairs to get coffee from the hotel lobby. Breakfast was in full service so naturally I indulged. After I was satisfied, I had major plans to take a long, relaxing Epsom salt tub in my room. Epsom salts have been very effective in helping my feet heal during short rest periods, so I thought I would try soaking my knee. While the bath was certainly relaxing and my feet were already showing signs of improvement, the warm water seemed only to aggravate the pain stemming from my IT band. The rest of the morning consisted of a trip to Walmart to finish my resupply. Then my Mom drove Steel, Peach, Survivor, Hot Toddie and myself into the center of Lexington to walk around and explore the city. My Momand I had a quick, but good lunch at a bakery and then we all headed back to the hotel to change into our bathing suits. The plan was to return to a spot on the river that we had passed on the way to the hotel from the trail head the previous day to do some swimming. We sat on the soft grass next to the river in the sun and shade alternatively and floated in the water when we needed to cool down. The riverside spot also offered up some excellent people watching of a couple atrocious, redneck parents. This one father actually encouraged his younger son to punch the older one in the face. The sun, the shade, the plush grass, the cool water and the people watching made for an incredibly relaxing afternoon. My Mom and I went across the street to the Italian place for dinner since it looked like they actually had some good pizza. The pizza was New York style and they didn't do a half bad job. We quickly realized that we should've gotten the cheesesteak, though - no less than 7 people ordered it while we were there. One man ate one for dinner and then ordered another to take home. Finally, Mom and I just hung out in the hotel room and watched a movie on television. It would be an early return to the trail in the morning so none of us really wanted to do anything crazy. A zero is meant for doing nothing anyway.
Date: 2016-05-29
From: Lexington, VA

To: Cow Camp Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: overcast clouds

May 29, 2016 - Mom got us all moving pretty early as she had a 7 hour drive back and wanted to get started. She dropped us off back at the trail head and we grudgingly started walking again. The first 10 miles were full of beautiful, relatively easy terrain. I recently started listening to an audiobook of the Count of Monte Cristo, which has kept me very entertained. We did have a large climb today of about 3,000 feet. Just as I was crossing the road to begin this climb, I noticed three gentlemen providing Trail Magic. Two of the gentlemen were photographers and had actually set up a photo booth to snap pictures of thru hikers for their blog. They noticed my tie so I obliged them by putting it on and posing for a few official snaps. They have my email so pictures should be coming soon. The third gentleman was Tom - Tom had been waiting for his girlfriend, Terrible Lizard, on Friday afternoon in the same spot we were waiting for my Mom. We had told him we hadn't seen her on our hike and there was no way she'd reach the gap by today. He had already hiked up the mountain looking for her. As it turns out, he had realized she must have thought they were meeting up Saturday instead of Friday. So, he drove around to the footbridge over the James River, hiked in and found her at the shelter 15 miles back. While we had thought she genuinely ditched Tom and truly earned the trail name "Terrible Lizard", it was actually just an honest mistake. Today, Tom was waiting for Terrible Lizard to finish a slack pack and, in the meantime, getting rid of all his beer and food to other thru hikers before his ride back up to Albany. I was the first to arrive and only left 11 beers later when all the beer had gone. Whoops. Except for those itchy alcohol sweats, I swear those beers made the climb up to the shelter much easier. Because the shelter was a half mile off trail, our usual group and Husker were the only hikers there. Since I positively knew that no one there snored (Survivor moans consistently, but we have no idea why) and rain was forecast, I decided to sleep in the shelter. That's only the third time on the whole trail I've slept in a shelter. I made pork roll and cheese bagel sandwiches over the fire with the resupply my Mom had provided.
Date: 2016-05-30
From: Cow Camp Gap Shelter

To: The Priest Shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: light rain

May 30, 2016 - Today was another easy day - a 16 mile ridge hike to The Priest Shelter. Not much happened, honestly, with the exception of a short detour to climb Spy Rock. This monolith was just off trail and provided a fun opportunity to take off the pack and do some rock climbing. Once at the top, I sat for a while and gazed out at the surrounding wilderness. I actually felt very out of place among all the day hikers seated up there. I was alone, covered in sweat, and surrounded by a veritable cloud of flies who were delighted this smelly piece of trash decided to sit there. All the day hikers actually smelled clean as I walked past them - it's amazing how I notice that now when I never did before. It's all relative. The Priest Shelter is pretty famous on trail because hikers write their confessions into the shelter register, which, as you can imagine, make for some pretty funny reading. Here are some of the things I learned: -An alarming number of hikers have shit themselves on trail-Many people do not dig cat holes that are the required 6 inches deep-Many hikers have yellow blazed portions of the trail -Olive Oil does not actually carry olive oil-One hiker took a revenge dump in the road, then felt bad and packed it into the woods. Just to give you an idea of what some of the entries are like. As to my own confession, that is between me and the Priest. The Priest is actually a mountain and known as one of the 7 hardest climbs on the AT. Luckily, tomorrow we would be hiking down the Priest rather than up.
Date: 2016-05-31
From: The Priest Shelter

To: Devils Backbone Brewery
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: broken clouds

May 31, 2016 - Just as my mother came to visit me this past weekend, Peach's parents were driving down this afternoon. The meeting place was Devils Backbone Brewery, but that meant Peach and I had to hike 16 miles before 2 pm when they were scheduled to arrive. This wasn't just any 2 miles though - we had a steep, 3000 foot descent spread over 4 miles and, immediately after we reached the bottom, an almost identical 3000 foot ascent also spread over 4 miles. The 3,000 foot descent was called The Priest as I explained in my previous post. We managed to get out of camp at 7 am on the dot and hiked with great speed. We didn't stop for a break until about 10 miles in when we were halfway up the monster. The day was hot and humid with temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s. With sweat dripping annoyingly on my glasses, my clothes saturated, and my hands slipping from my poles, I finally reached the rocky summit. I sat down, took my pack off and reached for a snack. Only then did I bother to look around me and proceed to groan with despair. I was on a false summit and the actual summit was looming over me like a big bully. So, I gloomily packed everything back into my bag and mentally prepared myself for another massive climb. As always, once I finally did get to the top, the climb didn't seem so bad. Plus, I only had 4 more miles to go before cold beer. Peach and I completed our 16 miles in under 6 hours and were seated at the air conditioned bar with pints before us by 1 pm. The climb definitely seemed a lot less bad than it had seemed 2 hours earlier. The brewery also let us camp on their property so we set up our tents and went back to the bar. As the afternoon wore on, several other hikers joined us: Bee's Knees, Pluto, Golden Boy, Sweets, Jingle, Ummgahwah, Cheddar, Chef Tumbleweed O.G. (Original Gangster), Fire Starter, Husker, Pharmacist, Steel and Survivor. Peach's parents arrived in the middle of the afternoon with his sister and dog, Scoober, who would be joining us for the rest of the thru-hike. Papa Peach was gracious enough to pay for dinner, discreetly pick up my tab and drop off most of the necessary ingredients for us to make pork roll, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches in the morning. I did convince the bartender to sell me a dozen eggs, which was pretty awesome. The rest of the day was spent consuming beer, socializing, and making s'mores by the campfire when the brewery closed. Again, not a bad life...
Date: 2016-06-01
From: Devils Backbone Brewery

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 19.1

Jun 1, 2016 - I awoke to hear the sizzle of grease on a frying pan. Other than sexually, I don't think there is any better way to wake up. Peach had started frying that pork roll and those eggs. I went straight to the large paper bag near the propane stove and selected my New Jersey everything bagel in preparation. Peach added the cheese and I toasted my bagel by placing it in the flame of the spare burner. And then the bagel sandwich was complete and then in my mouth. I actually pitied all the other hikers who were paying to have the brewery cook them breakfast. Peach also made me coffee, but when I went to the bathroom, I came back to find my coffee gone. Survivor had thought I was done with it so he poured it in his cup. Unforgivable. It will be a long time until I let him forget this transgression. Anyway, Peach's parents drove us back to the trail head - we had 19 miles to go to reach Waynesboro, a rather large hiker town. The morning passed swiftly enough and I noticed a new sound: Scoober panting. The dog certainly looked happy as he basically did wind sprints up and down the trail. He quickly learned to tone it down as he was exhausted at the end of the day. It was fun to try to prevent him from passing me.Survivor's shoes had finally failed him and were held together by a zip tie. He insisted that he was going to try to make it to Harpers Ferry, which is 200 freaking miles away. Steel, Peach and I resolved to pitch in and buy him a new pair from the outfitter in Waynesboro. A quick lunch break had me looking at the guide book and I noticed a movie theatre in Waynesboro. Steel and I immediately resolved to crush the remaining 12 miles and catch the 7 pm showing of Captain America: Civil War. Finally, a movie theatre. Well, we crushed the 12 in a little over 4 hours and immediately got a hitch from John, who, contrary to most drivers, actually insisted I sit my smelly, sweaty ass in his backseat rather than the truck bed. John gave us a quick tour of town and then dropped us off at the town campground, which offered free tenting to AT thru hikers. Steel and I then hurried to the YMCA to take free showers and do some quick shower laundry (we literally wash the clothes we're wearing while we take a shower and then wear them until they dry). Next up was another hitch from Tony and Emily (a lovely elderly couple) to the movie theatre. With an hour before game time, the two of us bought tickets, pounded a burrito from Moe's and then walked a half mile to the grocery store to purchase some cheap candy and wine. The movie might have been legendary - I especially enjoyed the Spider-Man reveal. When the movie ended, we noticed a man sitting up front by himself. We asked Cornbread (this was his nickname as a comedian) for a ride back to the campsite. Not only did he give us a ride, but he bought us milkshakes, too. I mean, how much better could the night have gotten?
Date: 2016-06-02
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Jun 2, 2016 - John had suggested Weasie's for breakfast and I fully intended to go there this morning. It did not disappoint - I gorged on 2 pancakes, 1 gigantic cinnamon bun, 3 slices of bacon, 2 hash browns, and 3 scrambled eggs. Damnit, I LOVE breakfast food. Since the outfitter didn't open until 10 am, Peach and I started to work on a hitch back to the trail head. Steel had some errands to run in town and would stop at the outfitter to purchase Survivor's new trail shoes. Speaking of Survivor, he was probably still sleeping through all of this. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face later when the three of us surprised him with new shoes. One mile into my hike, I passed into Shenandoah National Park. I completed the self registration as required and attached the slip to my pack for the next 101 miles. My goal today was the Blackrock Hut 21 miles from Waynesboro. As I walked through the park that paralleled the famous Skyline Drive, I couldn't help but notice that it looks like most of the other woods I've been in for over 2 months. I guess when I pass into a national park so celebrated for its beauty, I expected something grand and different. The same thing happened in the Great Smoky Mountains. However, both parks appear to be just ridge hiking with more camping restrictions than we're used to. Don't get me wrong - the park and literally all the woods I have walked through are absolutely beautiful. The national park just didn't live up to the pedestal I had unconsciously put it on. About 6 miles from the shelter, a thunderstorm rolled in and it started to rain. I put my pack cover on and kept walking as I usually do in this situation as I expected it to pass within an hour. I could not have been more wrong. The rain intensified until it was a deluge - my glasses were so covered in water I could barely see anything. It was easily the hardest rain I've ever hiked in and it went on for close to 3 hours before the storm transformed into a light rain. I walked into the shelter soaked to the bone. I set up my tent in the rain and as I went through my stuff, I realized the trash compactor bag I use to waterproof my bag had several holes. Puddles of water coated everything though, thankfully, my stuff sacks kept my clothes and sleeping quilt dry. At the shelter, I ran into Verge and Legs, who I hadn't seen since Hot Springs. Also there was Sleeping Beauty, Dolly, Farmer, Tree, Storyteller, Diatom, Mola, New Hampshire Bob (I'm quickly learning this 66 year old with a thick Boston accent is very crazy in a good way...can't wait to drink with him in town), and Miles. Peach had stealth camped 6 miles back and I had no idea what happened to Survivor and Steel. I guess I wouldn't be able to see Survivor's face when he saw his new shoes.
Date: 2016-06-03
From: Blackrock Hut 

To: Hightop Mountain Summit
Miles today: 22.1

Jun 3, 2016 - While the rain did finally stop in the middle of the night, none of my stuff had started to dry. My shoes actually had a puddle of water in them. Packing up wasn't so bad, but getting dressed was awful. Pulling my dripping wet clothes on, wringing out my socks, which could be considered lethal to someone not prepared for the smell, and pulling on my shoes with an audible squelch was not fun at all. However, all I could do was start walking. I tried not taking Aleve in the morning for my knee to see how I would feel. That was a mistake. While I had felt that the Aleve wasn't really helping, I could not have been more wrong. I barely made it a mile before I literally could not take another step without burning, shooting pains making their way down my leg. I just sat down and waited for the pills to kick in. I usually hate to take pills at home, but doing something unnatural (like hiking 2,200 miles with 30 lbs on your back) requires some outside help. Shenandoah has small restaurants called waysides every 20 miles or so that hikers can stop at for a bite to eat. I had decided to stop at the camp store near the wayside and wait for Peach behind me. I ended up waiting there almost 3 hours (I did take a shower and do some laundry), but after no sign of him, I pushed on.Rain had been forecast again for tonight, but as I walked through the afternoon, the sky only became clearer. After another 21 miles, I reached the Hightop Hut (shelter are called 'huts' in the national park for some reason) at the late hour of 7 pm only to have a ridge runner turn me away. She claimed that the shelter was too full and I should push on another 0.6 miles to the top of Hightop Mountain where I would find a spring and a handful of other hikers she had already turned away. So, already exhausted, I climbed another half mile to the top. I found a spring, but only one other hiker (Living Proof - this guy had brain cancer for 38 weeks and survived) and almost no camping sites. I just found a leafy spot in the middle of the woods, cleaned off in the spring and ate a quiet dinner on a rock ledge while I gazed at a spectacular view of the sun setting over the mountains. Living Proof joined me for the last bit of the sunset.I collapsed onto my sleeping pad and almost immediately fell asleep. I had been a little peeved at being turned away from the shelter, especially with my knee screaming at me. It all worked out though as I was treated to a nice water source and yet another ridiculous sun set. I also passed 900 miles which felt pretty damn good. Mountains are better than the beach.