morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-05-29
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Johns Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 26.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Terrible night sleep last night. There were fleas everywhere on the second floor that were biting and pissing me off all night. I got up three different times to apply insect repellent which did not seem to work at all. These fleas have a tolerance to DEET which I find a bit alarming. The plan for today was to hike up these massive hills and get to a crossing on the blue ridge parkway where some past thru hikers were putting on a massive hiker feed. The hiker feed was scheduled from 2-7 pm, but I still wanted to do another 16 miles after the feed. My plan was to get to the feed a bit earlier than 2:00pm so that I might be able to get some early action and be on my way. Upon arrival at the feed it became evident that I would have to wait around for a bit to sample all of the amazing cuisine. This was essential, since the smells of the cooking dishes pots and grill were tremendous. Shortly after 2:00pm most of my fellow hikers that I had been around for the past dew days appeared. I hung out until around 3:00pm and was one of the firt to leave. If I hadn't left when I did, I would have probably ended up in a food coma, face down on the side of the trail. We had lasagna, meatloaf, curry chicken, hummus, egg rolls, cheese rolls, chips and salsa. All of which were home made. Ace. Once I left, I had a rather steep climb but was met with another nice bit of trail magic. I found a fresh cooler full of ice cold root beer. I also took a few handfuls of the ice and chucked them into my camelbak which was an ace idea. This was the first time that I happened upon a brand new, fresh cooler of trail magic. Usually when i see a cooler, I don't get my hopes up, as it normally ends up being "trail tragic" with an empty cooler full of empty cans, etc. The afternoon walk had an abundance of wildlife. I saw numerous lizards, snakes and some massive spiders. I got to the second to last shelter just after 7:00pm with a nice flat four miles left, so it should be rather simple. Being Memorial Day weekend there were a lot of weekend warriors out around the bridge area. There were also a bunch of kids jumping off the 40' bridge into the river. Had it been a few hours earlier I would have joined them. I was a bit ticked off with myself for not researching the cool places to jump off into water. This was a pretty wicked height and would have been well ace if I had planned it better. I ended up hanging about with the kids for a lot longer than I should have. They were interested in thru hiking, and I was trying to get them to throw some flips or spins off the bridge. They did neither. Since I waited so long on the bridge, I had to walk the last two miles in the dark. I managed this without using my headlight again. I do have a perfectly good heamplamp, but wanted to be hardcore and work on my night vision. I got in when most were already in tents or asleep in the shelter. It was a long afternoon, but worth the miles.
Date: 2011-05-30
From: Johns Hollow Shelter

To: Brown Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: few clouds

I didn¢t get to see any of the other hikers when I got in last night, so it was good to see that I had caught up with Gator since today would be the day that he finished his thru-hike. He flip-flopped and started his hike from Maine towards the end of last year and then started from Springer around the same time as myself this year. Once he reaches Buena Vista, VA today, he will have walked the entire AT. Gator graciously gave me a block of cheese and a stick of salami since he wouldn¢t need it after today. I had another one of VA¢s 1000¢ climbs today. Even though it was a relatively gentle grade, I was still ridiculously tired from yesterday¢s miles. Today¢s initial plan was to do 23.9 miles and end the day with a 3000¢ climb. I have set myself a rather difficult itinerary to meet Serena and my mum in Harper¢s Ferry on the morning of the 9th, which means my average daily mileage has to be at least 24 miles. This does not give me much breathing room. Today was another super hot, sweltering beast of a day, so careful water planning had to take place. I leap-frogged with Gator and Arius for most of the day and managed to sneak up on Arius while he was hiking and scare the crap out of him, which I was rather pleased about. Finally in the afternoon, I came across a nice deep stream that I could cool off in, so I decided to take a dip and rinse off my awesome hiker clothes. It was only a short walk from the stream to the shelter and I really didn¢t feel like climbing the 3000¢ in the mental heat of the afternoon, so I decided to stay at the shelter and brave the climb in the cool morning instead. It was here that I finalized my itinerary to meet up with Serena and mum. The schedule will be hard but worth it. Tomorrow will be an early start because I will be banging out some fierce miles.
Date: 2011-06-02
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Calf Mountin Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: clear sky

Great night of sleep in an amazingly soft bed. I really didn't want to get up at all, but I had to keep to the schedule I had made in order to meet Serena and mum on time. They had prepared a very nice breakfast for me at the inn. I had bacon, eggs, grits, granola, fruit etc. I then had to run a few errands around town. I went to the laundrymat and played with my new kindle while the clothes were busy, then took my old boots and few other items to the post office to be sent home. The manufacturer of my boots will refund my money, which is why I'm not just chucking them. I had lunch at a small hole in the wall hot dog joint. A very nice man and his daughter were so intrigued by what I was doing they bought my lunch for me. Some people can be very nice. I quickly discovered how wicked kewl this kindle was. Alas, i did not have enough time to faf around with my journals. I had to hit the trail and do a quick seven miles. The b&b man gave me a lift back to the trail and I started hiking around 3:00 pm. The first thing I had to do was to fill out a back country permit for the Shenandoah National Park. I would be passing through the snp for the next few days. This is where I hear the bears are in abundance. The seven miles to the first shelter were easy because I escaped the hottest part of the day in town. Some nice folk had left a case of bottled water at one of the road gaps. I chuggged two. At the shelter there were two sections hikers and a thru iker named Glide. Since I had a little service I climbed into my tent early and updated some journals. This kindle is ace.
Date: 2011-06-06
From: Elkwallow Wayside

To: Jim & Molly Denton Shelter
Miles today: 24.4
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up at 4:45 am to get off the trail before first light. I packed up and had breakfast all before 6:00am. Elkwallow Wayside was just around the corner, but it wasn't worth it to wait for them to open at 8:00 am. Miles had to done. I had a good solid pace for most of the morning and my knee didn't seem as painful. I've been taking aleve (pain relief and anti-inflammatory). I met Y-Knot and Balance as they were waking up a few miles in. They said they would try to get to the same shelter I was heading to. I heard some rustling to the right of the trail, a little uphill. I froze, motionless when i saw the small juvenile bear waling towards me. I realized that he hadn't seen me yet, so I let him keep walking in my direction. I've now seen enough of these bears to know that as soon as he realizes I'm nearby he'll spaz off into the woods. So, this little ignorant 100 pounder walked right towards me and got as close as about 15'. He did the Kramer when he saw me. Exactly the way Kramer from Seinfeld does the jump back and flail around like a muppet move. Yes, I laughed and the wee guy let out a bit of wail of fear as he booked off around 30 mph. My pace was great for the day. I banged out 16 miles before lunch! Nice. I met Prophit and Guitar and some flip flop thru hikers who had just started. I got some trail magic on the way down to a road gap. i poured myself some sweet tea. Nice. Sugar and caffine always help me get up hills. At the road I met Raingear, Moses and Cackle. They just got back from aqua-blazing (taking a canoe down a section of river instead of hiking). I seem to be playing the purist card, so that would be cheating for me. I'd lke to walk past every white blaze. The sweet tea did the trick. I smashed the next 800' climb at a beastly 3.5 mph, uphill. I amaze myself with these weird spurts of energized fury. I'll have to remember what I ate and drank just prior. hmmm... the shelter did not hve good tenting areas; I still set it up on bit of a slope because the bugs were too bad to sleep in the shelter. There was also a shower! What?! Yes, a shower. Albeit, a cold spring fed shower. I enjoyed washing up in the afternoon sun, since I got to camp so early. everyone else I saw today eventually came into camp and we had good conversation in the choice seating arrangments this shelter provided.
Date: 2011-06-11
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Washington D.C.
Miles today: 0.0

We did have a nice sleep in. Checkout time was around 11:00 am we assumed so there was no rush. We sorted out all our stuff and my hiking gear and hit the road just before noon. We grabbed a quick lunch on the way in. Mum organized the hotel which turned out to be very nice. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza downtown and didn't waste time upon arrival. We checked in, dropped our stuff and started walking around the city. We walked past the White House where the were having a protest of some kind. We then walked back towards the Washington Monument across the park. Today as also a rather hot one, so frequent drinking fountains were a nice treat. We realized that there wasn't enough time to do many of the Smithsonians so we picked the museum of natural history. This one is one of my favorites. The live insect exhibits are the coolest. We all had a very nice time despite the heat of the day. We had made reservations at my favorite restaurant in the entire world, Fogo de Chao. If you are unfamiliar with these Brazilian steakhouses you must remedy that as soon as possible. There is no menu. One goes to these places to eat lots of amazing meat. They have an epic salad bar to start you off, but you can't allow yourself to fully utilize the salad bar or there will be less room for the main reason you're there. The waiter gives you a colored card with one side green and the other side red. Simple concept - green means bring me heaps of ace meat, red means stop bringing me heaps of ace meat. They have these dudes running around the restaurant with the nicest, most tender meat cuts. They cut them at your table in whatever amount you would like. I ate my weight in the glorious, glorious meats. We had a few cocktails and mum made friends with our waiter who happened to be Turkish. He hooked us up with a couple of free drinks and me with a wicked slice of chocolate cake for being an ace hiker. Nice. We all felt pretty tired after dinner and I had to tend to my new meat baby so we took the subway back to the hotel. We ended up watching some garbage TV and I did a bit of journaling before bed. Another good day off the trail with my ladies.
Date: 2011-06-13
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Rocky Run Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: broken clouds

I got out of bed around 7:00 am. Most of my gear was organized from the night before. I filled up my camelbak and had some fruit for breakfast (which I had bought at wal-mart the other day). I hit the trail at 8:00 am ish. The first few miles were cake since the A.T. follows a canal path. The temperature was much cooler than usual. This would lead me to believe that the afternoon wouldn't be too hot. I took the remainder of the fruit with me to eat in the first day or so. I made rather good time over the first half of the day. I stopped at Gathland State Park for lunch. This place had a lot of civil war buildings and ruins from early settlers. I plopped down in a picnic pavillion. Two random locals also joined me for lunch. They drove in, as is their usual routine, and gave me heaps of boring old people chat about their ancestry with the civil war etc. This was when I realized that I left my main lunch items in the fridge at the Town's Inn. I had purchased some pepperoni, salami, and cheese for little sandwiches. Crap. I will survive without the deliciousness, this just means that I don't have the protein that I was planning on. I saw a very large garter snake in the afternoon, much bigger than the wee ones that you usually see. Being my first day back on trail since my five day hiatus, I thought I would be well rested and strong. Quite the opposite. I felt tired and sore by 12 or 13 miles in. I decided to call it a short day and stop at the shelter 15 miles in. It was early still and I wasn't used to arriving with this much time to kill. There were a couple of young lads at the shelter with an older lady. They happened to be section hikers. The lads were in college and the old lady was their granny who wanted to hike part of the A.T. She was 79 years old. I was impressed with her attitude and capability at that age. These guys taught me a kewl card game called palace. We played a few hands before I said goodnight and climbed the nearby ridge where there were tent sites. I had some time to myself which I wanted to spend alone. I played with my kindle for a short time and retired early again.
Date: 2011-06-14
From: Rocky Run Shelter

To: Raven Rock Shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: light rain

I didn't have much enthusiasm to get me out of bed this morning. I got up slowly around 7:00 am then took my time getting my bear bag down and my gear situated. I didn't get on the trail until around 8:30 am. I passed a handful of hikers throughout the morning. They were mostly section hikers, but also a few thru hikers. The trail took me past the original Washington Monument built in 1827. It was a stone tower on top of a small hill witha nice view. I ran into Daydreamer, Next Year and Grimey up there. The weather was similar to yesterday, which was quite cool in comparison to the previous week. I had a quick lunch so I could keep trucking on. Someone had left some trail magic at the second to last shelter. There were two empty boxes of honey buns, but still a couple of soft drinks. I claimed the last Dr. Pepper. In partaking in the trail magic, one has to understand that you must pack out the rubbish a.k.a. the empty bottle. I also grabbed one of the empty honey bun boxes to burn at the next shelter (I will only burn paper and cardboard as trash, never plastic or foil). This is also where I noticed the first really stagnant water source that I've encountered. Luckily I didn't need to use it, so it wasn't a big deal. Had I needed to use it, I would have filtered and treated it. I look forward to the nasty sources to come, apparently they only get worse. Since the temperature was cooler, I managed to make it with a bit less water than I had been carrying. I got into the shelter around 5:30 pm and immediately decided to get water. The water source was 0.6 miles down a lame side trail. The source was nice, just annoyingly far. The shelter, however, was brand spanking new. It was two stories and had varnished floors with a covered picnic table etc. One of the nicer setups on the trail. A couple of section hikers were staying in the shelter also. They were nice guys who valued our opinions as thru hikers. They had obviously packed way too much food and gave me a Mountain House meal to eat. I did the nice thing and split it with Peru. It served as a mere appetizer as trail food goes. This was also the first time that I've seen bear cables since the Smokies, I think. I spent a while writing a couple of journals and lost everything due to sketchy service. Oh well...
Date: 2011-06-18
From: Boiling Springs PA

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 25.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Glide and I woke early to give our uneeded gear to Goldylocks and Forrest. we chucked a couple of bags of stuff in the back of their rental car. Their mum said that she would put our names down for a room at the Doyle hotel. We hit the trail at about 6:30 am. I let Glide lead the way, mainly because I didn't want to keep walking through the early morning cobwebs. Hehe. The walk out of Boiling Springs was a great deal of field hopping and was completely flat for about 12 solid miles. We made simple work of this section without the extra weight of our tents, sleeping bags etc. The morning temperature was nice. These fields were totally exposed for the most part, so in the hot afternoon sun they would have been fierce. We stopped at the first shelter for lunch where there was apparently a privy named "The Taj Mahal". If that's what the real Taj smells like, i have no desire to go there. It was a big let down, as I expected a glorious privy. The afternoon was just as solid as the morning. After all were were carrying 5-10 lbs instead of 25-30 lbs. This was actually Glide's first time slack packing and he didn't know what to do with himself. We got into town in the early afternoon. On the way to the hostel we grabbed a couple of lovely, lovely gatorades from a gas station. Gatorade is the thing I crave the most above all else. I always imagine an ice cold gatorade when it's hot. Before we checked into the hostel I spotted Oopma on the second floor balcony. He came down and we made arrangements to have dinner and drinks once we showered, etc. So the Doyle can be summed up by looking at it in two ways. Their restaurant is fantastic. The food and drink is great and all reasonably priced. Their rooms are dreadful. No air conditioning, no bug screens on the windows, and sheets were probably not changed since the 1950's. The communal bathroom was also the washing room. If you happened to be in the shower during a wash cycle the temperature of the water would roller coaster. This made for amusing and interesting shower routines. Oompa had apparently finished his thru hike in Buena Vista, VA (same as Gator). I didn't realize that he had also flip flopped. He was still planning on hiking for another month or so since he had a bit more time left on his visa. Tracy (Forrest and Goldylock's mum) had had to pay for our room in order to hold it. This was incredibly generous of her, so we thanked her greatly and paid her back asap. We had a great time over dinner and drinks with a few original gansters; Oopma, Glide, Forrest, Goldylocks, Tracy, Stan, Comfotably Numb, Leap, Shutter and some past thru hikers: Bag o' Tricks and JB. It was kewl talking with the past thru hikers since they were able to give us lots of tips and advice for the northern sections to come, stuff that the guidebooks just don't tell you. Like, how to not get caught stealth camping in the Whites etc. I ate a foolish amount of food but i thoroughly enjoyed myself. Good evening despite the lack of journaling.
Date: 2011-06-19
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

i woke up feeling fine. Glide and i packed up our gear and checked out by 7:00 am ish. we walked across the street where we were told they had a good breakfast. the food was okay, i've certainly had better. we walked out of the cafe and i decided that would hang at the hotel until checkout to catch up on journaling. i went back up to the room and journaled until i got kicked out at 11:00 am. i found Oopma and Stan chillin' on the balcony. i did a bit more journaling before lunch. i had made some progress, but i wanted to fully catch up the journals. it was at lunch that i fully caved in and decided to saty another night in the filthy rooms upstairs. Leap took off, he wanted to get back on the trail. i spent the entire afternoon in my room slowly typing away at the kindle. dinner with Oompa again, who also decided to stay. a few newcomers were added to the table; Bear Bag, Fiber, Veto, Pappy all got in town today. we had a couple of drinks and some Jager bombs before i retired to my chambers to journal to the wee hours. i felt that today was productive as far as my journals go. as far as the trail goes... there's always tomorrow.
Date: 2011-06-20
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Yellow Springs Campground
Miles today: 24.8

I woke up early, checked out and returned to the same breakfast cafe. The food was coniderably better today than it was yesterday. I was full and on the trail by 7:30 am. The walk out of town was a long one. It took me down a long residential street and then across the Susquehanna River. I had a small climb that was nicely graded and not too difficult. I stopped in at the first shelter for a quick poo and met Stan there who wasn't going very far today. I passed two massive groups of kids around 14-16 years old. The second group was entirely young girls who wanted to chat and ask questions to a real thru hiker. I hastily pressed on without much interaction. Unfortunately the young ladies caught up with me at the next shelter where they continued their interrogation of this poor thru hiker. This foolishness lasted a good half hour. They departed and from the top rafters came a loud snicker of amusment. Leap was still in the shelter from the pervious night. He didn't come out to help with the hiker quiz! I finished lunch and took off before Leap had gathered his stuff up. It'll be a super late start for him. I already have 11 miles in. I came across a wicked collection of snakes in a rock out crop. There was a large timber rattlesnake chillin' with three smaller copperheads. I have some ace pics that will soon follow. I passed a southbound section hiker just after the snakes, so I warned him and he absolutely freaked out. I had to talk some sense into the poor man; he was deathly afraid of snakes. I guess I should't have shown him the pictures I took. Hehe. He should be fine. The water sources were few and far between, but the day was cool and cloudy so this made it easier to handle. It seemed like it was going to rain at any minute, but we stayed dry the whole time. Today turned into a longer day because there is apparently a shelter within reach for tomorrow that can get delivery pizza! We can't leave too many miles on a pizza day. I set up my tent at a nice little stealth site I found. Leap wandered in just before dark. I just walked in one day what he did in two. Oh yes. Leap and I had good banter until it got completely dark.