morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2019-05-24
From: Partnership Shelter (VA)

To: Chatfield Shelter (VA)
Miles today: 7.0

We stayed in the shelter itself last night, but I somehow didn¢t wake up until 6am. It was weird to open my eyes and see that it was already light outside. I¢m a light sleeper to begin with, but it¢s even worse when I go camping. Apparently the answer to getting sleep is that you have to walk at least 14 miles. Because yesterday had been such a big day, we decided to take it easy today. We were the last people out of the shelter, and then we went over to a nearby visitor center to check out their exhibits, buy some postcards, and use flushing toilets!When we did start hiking, our destination for the day was the next shelter: Chatfield. It was only 7 miles away, which seemed appropriate for our 7th day on the trail. Again, a relatively flat day, but my feet were happy to get something of a break. We were the first ones who decided to stay at the shelter although we decided to tent. We ended up being joined by 2 people we had met at previous shelters and 2 new people. Of the 6 (non-rhino) people, 4 of us were women. That doesn¢t happen often. There was a nice creek right in front of the shelter filled with salamanders. We soaked our feet and watched people with trail legs push on. A quiet night to follow a night where there were a ton of people (shelters with pizza delivery tend to be popular) was just what we needed.
Date: 2019-05-25
From: Chatfield Shelter (VA)

To: Reed Creek Campsite (VA)
Miles today: 11.3

This morning I woke up at 6:30. I have trouble sleeping in that late when I have a bed to sleep in! However, the bags under my eyes were swollen. I¢m not sure what that was about. Today everyone was excited for trail magic and a restaurant meal. SC and I were again the last ones out of camp (I¢m gonna credit sleeping in and having some stove troubles for that). There is an old one room schoolhouse that is basically stocked with hiking essentials: chips, candy, and sodas along with a solid supply of toiletry items only about a mile and a half from the shelter and then a restaurant basically right on the trail another 3 miles later. As we were walking up to the schoolhouse, I could hear voices. I figured there was a gathering of hikers enjoying the trail magic. However, as I rounded the corner I saw a bunch of people who looked nothing like hikers. Apparently, the church that provides the chips and candy were here for their annual Memorial Day weekend picnic, and we were invited!They had all the usual cookout foods: hamburgers, hotdogs, pasta salad, baked beans, and lots of different desserts. It was only 9:30am, but we decided to stay. While we waited for the hamburgers to cook, SC and I decided to check out the museum visitors center. It¢s called the Virginia Settlers Museum and they have several buildings (including the schoolhouse) preserved to show what life was like for the early settlers and some exhibits on who the settlers were and what they found when they came to the area. Anyway, it was a nice little diversion from hiking. We ate (too much), caught up with hikers we knew, and met some new-to-us hikers. When a hiker we didn¢t particularly like showed up, we decided it was time to move on. The rest of the day was hot and we had a lot of open fields to walk through. SC was particularly excited to cross some train tracks. When we arrived in Atkins, we were still full, so decided against stopping at the Barn restaurant, but we did hit up a convenience store for some ice cream.Our goal for the day was a creek-side campsite between two mountains. That meant a long uphill followed by a long downhill and will necessitate a long uphill first thing tomorrow. We hadn¢t seen much water and I was dry by the time we arrived. We didn¢t do much looking for a tenting space: just set up camp by the first water we saw. We basically ended up with our tent on the trail itself. We had a doe visit us before bed.
Date: 2019-05-26
From: Reed Creek Campsite (VA)

To: Lick Creek Campsite (VA)
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: clear sky

Last night it started to rain about 10pm. There were also a couple of owls hooting at each other. Managed to fall asleep but woke up early. When I woke up I could still hear raindrops hitting the tent so I was making mental plans about how to pack up everything without getting wet, but when I got up to go to the bathroom, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. There were 4 of us at the campsite, and we were the first ones out. The other 2 passed us within an hour. One already had his tent set up when we got to camp last night. I thought maybe he was just one to keep to himself, but when he passed me he proudly announced that he had slept 15 hours.Everyone had hopes that being a holiday weekend we would see more trail magic today. SC was even told by a sobo that there was at a road crossing. We didn¢t find any but there was a pavilion with picnic tables (we didn¢t have to sit on the ground!). We had a snack, dried out the tent, and chatted with some other hikers who had stopped there. Today we had more meadows. They are probably some of the most beautiful hiking, but they are also hot with a lot of the sun exposure. Most of them also have cows, which means there are cow patties to avoid. So far none of the cows have expressed any interest in us for which Spike is grateful. Because it was a holiday weekend we did see a lot of people just out for the weekend. A section hiker noticed Spike and said, ¢I like your rhino.¢ I don¢t think the thru hikers notice him because if you¢re hiking this trail, you¢re already a little weird.We ended today next to another creek. We had dinner with 2 guys hiking together that we had met at the pavilion and a third guy staying across the creek. One of they guys said something to the effect of, ¢Are you kidding me? That one bridge was condemned (see 5/22 entry) and this one is held together with duct tape?¢ It did appear to be supported with duct tape ¢ blaze orange duct tape, to be exact. The creek was one of the larger ones we¢ve seen, and SC basically took a bath in it. I just sat on the edge with my feet in the water admiring the crayfish ¢ there were dozens of them!
Date: 2019-05-27
From: Lick Creek Campsite (VA)

To: VA 623
Miles today: 11.9

Last night before bed, SC asked if it was supposed to rain. I said, ¢No, but it wasn¢t supposed to rain last night either.¢ Well, about 9pm it started pouring. Earlier in the day, we had passed a bridge with a sign next to it to show how far above the bridge any flood waters might be (the creek was lower than the bridge at the time). When I heard the rain, I thought about that sign and hoped the creek we were next to wouldn¢t flood. I was lying there thinking about this in my half-asleep state and decided that other people were closer to the creek than we were, so we would probably hear them yelling if the creek reached their tents. Strangely comforted by this, I fell back asleep. The rain stopped by morning. No one had been swept away. Because we camped by a creek, it meant we started with an uphill. And this was a big uphill, 2000¢ over 5 miles. The original plan was to go to the Davis Farm Campsite, about 13 miles away, but I got to the top of Chestnut Knob (which was absolutely beautiful, by the way) and was feeling pretty good. I told SC that maybe we could push for Jenkins Shelter, an additional 3.5 miles.We had a nice downhill after Chestnut Knob and took a celebratory trail selfie at our 100 mile point. But then the trail turned evil. We would go up a short, steep hill and right back down, over and over again. In addition to the painful hills, the trail was covered with rocks, so I had to watch each step carefully. It became clear that we wouldn¢t be making the shelter. The exciting thing about this section is that we ran into a trail maintainer, and he allowed SC to paint a white blaze!Anyway, we adjusted our plans back to Davis Farm, but then we saw a campsite next to VA 623 and our feet decided they were done for the day. We made camp just a few yards from the road, but the traffic was minimal and consisted mostly of Amish buggies. There was no water around, but the trail maintainer had water in his car and shared with us. After getting ready for bed, I looked at my trail information and tried to figure out what to do next. We had planned to go into Bland from US-52, but we were still almost 16 miles away. That would probably take us 2 more days. We had plenty of food, but it had been 5 days since our last shower. I looked and saw another road crossing only 8.9 miles away (we could get a ride from the road we were camping by, but I got car sick just looking at it on the map). That would be our plan, 8.9 miles and then into town for a rest.
Date: 2019-05-28
From: VA 623

To: VA 615 (Bland, VA)
Miles today: 8.9

VA 623 was quiet over night and it didn¢t rain. We did get our first taste of whip-poor-will singing, but it only lasted about 20 minutes. When we started hiking, we faced a few more evil miles of trail before it turned into wonderful trail that was flat and dirt.  We were glad we had stayed at the road when we talked with another hiker who had walked to Davis Farm and found that there was only room for 1 tent and it had already been taken. We stopped into Jenkins Shelter for water and lunch. We met a few new hikers there, including one who had just seen her first bear, and by bear, I mean she saw 3 cubs and their momma!We had requested a shuttle pick up at VA 615 for 3:30. We got there at 3:15 and the shuttle was waiting. Next thing we knew, we were at the motel. The first thing I did was to wash my hands. I cannot tell you how great that felt. Next we took showers before heading across the street to DQ.  They were out of a lot of things: lettuce, pecans, cheesecake, napkins. But, they had food, so we ate some dinner with plans of getting Blizzards for dessert. However, before we finished eating they managed to run out of ice cream!  If a DQ has no ice cream, does it cease to be a DQ?
Date: 2019-05-29
From: VA 615 (Bland, VA)

To: VA 615 (Bland, VA)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Today was our first zero day.¢Micheal, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be.¢Actually, the day was pretty busy. We went to the post office, the library, and Dollar General. I also did laundry by hand in a wash tub. But the pack stayed off my back, and my feet appreciated it.
Date: 2019-05-30
From: VA 615 (Bland, VA)

To: Helveys Mill Shelter (VA)
Miles today: 9.1

We ran some errands before taking a shuttle back to where we had left off. We got started a little later than usual, around 10:15am. There was some trail magic going on at the road crossing, but I was still full from breakfast, so we didn¢t stay and partake. We did run into a couple of Hoosiers we had previously met at the Troutdale church hiker picnic (5/22). They had left the trail a few days to attend a wedding and had already caught back up to us. The trail today was smooth and relatively flat. We made good time to US-52: the place where we originally were going to shuttle into town. There was a place there to get food, but again, I was full from breakfast and our packs were heavy from the resupplying in town. We kept going to the first shelter: Helveys Mill. It was a ways off the trail and we got there just before 4pm. We got water and then set up inside the shelter.At first we thought we might be the only ones dumb enough to walk this far off trail to stay at a shelter, although eventually it ended up a rather popular place to stay. Some people tried to start a fire. It wasn¢t going well until someone used their cook stove as a blow torch. We¢ve met a lot of new people here. Until we get our trail legs, we¢re going to be meeting lots of new people. I think we¢re just behind the ¢bubble¢ even though there are still plenty of people south of us.
Date: 2019-06-01
From: Jenny Knob Shelter (VA)

To: Dismal Creekside (VA)
Miles today: 8.6

I woke up about 6:15. The nice guy was already out of camp. The loud crowd was asleep until one of their alarms went off at 7am. Apparently they were trying to get out of camp by 8am, but they were still packing up when SC and I left around 8:20. According to SC, they didn¢t settle down last night until 10:30. Today¢s hike was shorter than yesterday¢s but had a few good views and involved crossing a suspension bridge. We were aiming for Dismal Falls, and when we got there it was full of people we had met over the last few days including the loud crowd and the 2 Hoosier women. The water was cold, and it felt great to soak my feet. As always, Spike stayed as far away from the water as he could. SC and I spent just over an hour there. Everyone else had left by the time we decided to put our shoes on and move a little farther down the trail. We only went about a quarter mile before setting up camp in an ¢unofficial¢ campsite. We made dinner early and went to bed early hoping to get out of camp early to enjoy as much time at tomorrow¢s hostel as possible.
Date: 2019-06-02
From: Dismal Creekside (VA)

To: Sugar Run Gap, VA (WoodÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Hole Hostel)
Miles today: 13.1

As we were getting ready for bed last night, we saw several people walk by. After I had fallen asleep, I woke up to some nearby noises. I listened, hoping it wasn¢t a bear going after our food (we didn¢t have the best hang this time). Then I heard voices and saw the light of a flashlight. I looked at my phone, it was 10:45!  Pretty late for a night hike. When I got up, I was happy to see that our food had not been disturbed by any animals. We ate breakfast and packed up, getting out of camp around 7:35, nearly an hour earlier than usual.The first 6 miles were relatively flat and easy. We were following Dismal Creek and crossing a bunch of its tributaries. There was a lot of mud and several footbridges. I went slowly through the mud, hoping I wouldn¢t lose a shoe to the mire. Still, we made good time to the Wapiti Shelter. When we got there, there were still a couple of hikers packing up. One left soon, the other was still packing when we left.We were resting up for an upcoming climb. Fortunately, it wasn¢t terribly steep and there were great views on top (and cell service)!  We followed a ridge for a while and took a side trail to Sugar Run Mountain. I could look out and see where we would be hiking the next few days. Anyway, it would be mostly downhill to the hostel, and we were making good time. That¢s when we hit evil trail. There were lots of rocks, all different sizes, and I had to watch my steps carefully. I do notice that I am better at this than I used to be. My ankles seem stronger, and I move a little more quickly, but still, not my favorite. Apparently the state of Pennsylvania almost entirely like this, so I suppose it¢s training. On one of the larger rocks, I lost my footing and fell, landing on my pack. First fall of the trip¢I¢m surprised it took so long.Anyway, after 2 miles of evil trail, we got to the road that leads to the hostel. SC said her feet were mad at her and didn¢t want to go any further. I told her to tell them that we were only a half mile away, and it was on a road, so no more rocks. When we got to the hostel, SC was in heaven. First of all, the aesthetic of the place is so much like her house back in Indiana. And it¢s a farm with dogs and goats and other animals. One of the hikers also had a dog.  She said, ¢If I had known about this place, I would have voted to have taken our zero here!¢The first thing we did was to take showers and then put on loaner clothes (cotton!), while they did our laundry. Dinner was Mexican, and I ate a lot, but I have to say I wasn¢t full. Maybe my hiker hunger is kicking in?We went to bed just after 9pm. There were still some lights on in the bunkhouse, but I just put a blanket over my head and fell asleep in a bed with a real mattress and pillow.
Date: 2019-06-04
From: Cross Avenue, Pearisburg, VA

To: Rice Field Shelter (VA)
Miles today: 7.8

I didn¢t hear the others go to bed last night. I¢m the first one up, and I decide to take advantage of the flush toilet and shower. I then take a walk to one of the greatest supply stores known to hikers: Walmart. It¢s just down the hill from the hostel. The walk offers a great view of the hill (mountain?) we climbed down yesterday. I get some resupply items and by the time I get back, everyone is up. I make pancakes (some sort of grain-free keto thing?) while SC showers, and then I pack and clean up the hostel while SC makes her own trip to Walmart. Finally, at 10:30, we¢re ready to leave. We call our trail angel and she drives up as we walk out to the parking lot. She is with her husband and dog, and they let me run into the post office before driving us to the trail. We thank them and try to fit all the stuff we got at Walmart and our resupply box in our packs. We start hiking just after 11am. When I looked at the weather forecast a few days ago, today was only supposed to have a high of 66. Instead, it¢s in the 80¢s. I¢m hot, my feet hurt, and my legs don¢t want to climb any hills. Also my pack is heavy having just resupplied. The beginning of the hike is a lot of up and down with numerous road crossings. After one crossing, we see a local who encourages us to check out an old cemetery just off the trail. There were several benches in this stretch including 2 in the cemetery. I take advantage of every one.After the last road crossing before the shelter, I tell SC to not wait up for me. I take my sweet time up this hill, taking a leisurely break at a campsite, and then stopping to get water at the last creek before the shelter. When I get there, SC had already been there for 45 minutes and says she was starting to worry. This shelter is at the top of a ridge with a beautiful view of the sunset. There¢s 7 of us here (8 counting Spike). SC and I are staying in the shelter with another woman, 3 are in hammocks, and there¢s one tent. All 8 of us went out on the ridge to watch the sunset. We should be able to see the sunrise in the morning if it¢s not raining.
Date: 2019-06-05
From: Rice Field Shelter (VA)

To: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter (VA)
Miles today: 12.6

There¢s a saying on the AT: ¢No rain, no Maine.¢ If you¢re not willing to walk in the rain, you¢ll be unable to complete the trail. Somehow in the last 18 days we¢ve managed to avoid hiking in anything more than a brief sprinkle. That¢s not to say it hasn¢t rained, only that when it has it¢s either been at night when we¢re sleeping or we¢ve been in some sort of enclosure (shelter, hotel, or hostel).Today we would see if we had what it takes to be true thru hikers. I don¢t know if it¢s a good thing or not to have cell service at a shelter. At any rate, I spent the morning trying to figure out the weather. It had rained overnight, and it was dry but cloudy when I got up. My weather app was predicting thunderstorms at 8:30. Because we were on an exposed ridge, I decided to try to get out and into tree cover as soon as possible. I started hiking at 7:50 with SC leaving a few minutes behind me. Because of the risk for getting wet, Spike was hidden in my pack which I covered with a waterproof pack cover. It did sprinkle throughout the morning, but nothing serious and certainly no thunder or lightning. We stopped for a lunch break about halfway between today¢s 2 shelters. There the weather app was saying thunderstorms to begin at 12:30. I looked at the radar which showed more rain but nothing that looked like storms.As we hiked to the shelter, the rain started and it was more serious than the morning¢s sprinkles. I was throughly wet by the time I got to the shelter. When I arrived, SC was talking to a couple of guys who had passed us just before the shelter. After a break, they moved on and I entertained Spike and SC with stories of my college spring break backpacking trip to Arizona. Later we were joined by 6 other hikers for dinner. 4 moved on hoping to make it to the next shelter and 2 joined us for a night in the shelter. According to Guthook, it¢s haunted but I¢m not telling anyone else that. Anyway, we survived our first hike in the rain while keeping our important gear dry. Our shoes and socks are soaking wet, but that was true before the rain even started: our morning started out with several meadows we had to walk through, and our shoes were no match for the wet grass.P.S. We started and ended today in VA, but we were on the VA/WV border most of the day, so we were able to be in a new state for a little while.
Date: 2019-06-07
From: War Spur Shelter (VA)

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter (VA)
Miles today: 12.2

I forgot to take Benadryl before bed last night. I was awake from 12:30-3:15 and then woke up at 5:30. At least I got some work done. I figured out some of our options for the next few days of hiking and put the finishing touches on the last few journal entries. It had started raining last night as we were eating dinner and it didn¢t let up all night. It was difficult for all of us to pack up and go out into the rain. After 1.3 miles SC and I stopped for our 200mile celebration photo. Spike is in the photo in his raincoat (that is, a ziplock bag).I had started the hike in my raincoat but quickly was more wet from sweat than rain. I took it off when we stopped for the photo. The next couple of miles were were hiking up to Kelly Knob, but as soon as the trail leveled off I got cold. SC went out to the knob, but I kept going, knowing there wasn¢t a view.We stopped at Laurel Creek Shelter for lunch. It gave us a chance to dry off and warm up. There were four hikers trying to get up the courage to go out in the rain as I arrived. They were trying to psych themselves up to hike 30 miles to get to the next hostel that night. We had a hot lunch and a 200mile celebratory chocolate bar. We also had trouble working up the motivation to go back out in the rain and probably stayed at the shelter for a good 90 minutes. Finally we got going. I wore my raincoat and told myself to slow down if I got too warm. I ended up getting soaked, but I stayed warm. The rest of today¢s hike involved rolling meadows for several miles. I passed by the Keffer Oak, the largest oak tree along the trail. It was huge! It was raining too hard to get a picture, though. Then we started climbing up. Let me tell you, it was the most pleasant climb I¢ve experienced thus far. The trail maintainers here had put in steps! I mean, it wasn¢t steps all the way up, just when there was a particularly steep or rocky section. It was beautiful. I want to hug whoever did this (after a shower of course).Then I got to the top of the ridge, it was raining and foggy, and there were these huge rock piles. It was kinda creepy in the fog. The shelter we were aiming for was .4 miles off trail. However, the trail down was beautifully maintained as well.Today I hiked 12.6 miles in the rain and my feet didn¢t hurt. Maybe if we had gotten going earlier in the morning and hadn¢t stopped so long for lunch, we could have made it to the next shelter. However, this shelter seems like a good one as it has a huge covered deck in front to hopefully keep things a little drier. There is one other hiker staying with us at this shelter. It feels like we are the only people left in the world.