morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-05-24
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Syms Gap Meadow
Miles today: 11.9

Today was a sad day for me. I had to say goodbye to Opus today and continue on alone. The trail doesn¢t seem the same any more without Opus. It just feels wrong.        Opus left at 11am this morning with Radar and one of his friends. They offered to drive him to Blackburg so that he could catch the Smartbus to Roanoke. Opus and I had a long, sad goodbye before I had to watch him drive away from me. I¢m thankful that I still had Bear Blaze and Funky Monkey with me so that I didn¢t have to hike out alone.        It was a steady climb out of Pearisburg and the humidity was just awful. We were all pouring sweat in no time. Towards the top of the climb we came across a baby deer just beside the trail. It was crotched down instinctively to hide from predators. It was so small (as far as deer go) and was covered in tons of white dots. I guess we must have spooked the mother. I got a good photo and couldn¢t help but be sad as we walked away from it. What if it had been abandoned? Life can be tough sometimes¢¦today is just tougher.        We got to camp around 6pm and I set up my solo tent for the first time out here. It is tiny and different. Everything I seem to do today just makes me miss Opus.        We all were treated near sundown with a beautiful rainbow and a fiery, red sunset. It was so beautiful, but did little to lift my spirits today.        Opus, I miss you, man.                Love,                        CervezaWeather: Hot, Humid!
Date: 2010-05-25
From: Syms Gap Meadow

To: Campsite at mile 654.7
Miles today: 16.4

So Bear Blaze was instructed to give me a card from Opus last night. The second I read it, I just started crying. I didn¢t realize how hard all this was going to be until it all just hit me last night. There¢s nothing sadder than crying into your mashed potatoes.        I felt a little better this morning, but still blue. It kind of sucks to be doing things by myself when I¢m used to doing them with Opus. I left out of camp before Bear Blaze and Funky Monkey this morning. It was both peaceful and sad. I was thankful for the time alone.        Bear Blaze caught up with me once I hit Pine Swamp Shelter for lunch and I was thankful to have the company again. Funky Monkey caught up as well, but we soon lost her again when we continued past the next shelter.        A weird thing happened today when we got near VA 635. A little dog that resembled the little brown dog from the movie ¢The Jerk¢ started following Bear Blaze and me. He was so cute and super playful, but I was afraid of him following us too far and getting lost. He followed us for two miles before we had to turn and tell him to go home. He cowered and crawled under a rhododendron bush. I felt bad and sad about the whole thing but it was the only way to get him to stop following us and potentially go home. Why does everything have to be so sad lately? I just need a good day soon.Weather: Hot, humid. Not good for hiking.
Date: 2010-05-26
From: Campsite at mile 654.7

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

Today I woke up at 6:30am due to our campsite comrades and their ever early wake-up time. This is two mornings in a row that they have woken me up. With the early wake-up time I could have gained some mileage. But what did I do instead? Well I rolled over and went back to sleep.        Bear Blaze and I started hiking today at 9am. I think we are starting to get to know each other and we seem to make a good hiking pair. It¢s been nice to hike with her since Opus has been gone. I will lose her this weekend, though, when her family comes to visit her for three days. She said she is going to try to catch up with me though. I also lost Funky Monkey since she hiked less miles yesterday and didn¢t catch up today. I think she is taking it easy since she is planning to spend the weekend with Cosmic. I am now trying to catch up with Gonzo since he is hiking on this weekend as well. Maybe we can hike together for a bit before his family comes out to meet him, and I lose him as well. I am still nearly 30 miles behind my schedule and I am trying to catch up.        We had two big climbs today that just wiped both of us out. The first was a 2,000 foot climb up to Kelly Knob and the second was 1,500 feet up to the ridgeline that runs across Sinking Creek Mountain near the shelter we are camped near now. These two climbs combined with the heat made today hard on my body.        I got a call through to Opus from our lunch spot atop Kelly Knob. He got back to Seattle alright and seems to be doing okay.        Well, once Bear Blaze and I rolled into camp tonight, we both hobbled around like a couple of old ladies as we put up our tents, hung our bear-lines and cooked dinner. She has dubbed me with the ¢old lady¢ name of Liza and I dubbed her Agnes.        Well, it¢s about time this old lady put her aching body to bed.Weather: Beautiful day today! A little too hot on the uphill, but way less humid today. Sunny too!
Date: 2010-05-27
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: scattered clouds

It was a warm night last night. It was nice to sleep on top of my sleeping bag and feel the night air. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and only slightly sore. The bad thing about this morning is that I discovered that I am covered in poison ivy from head to toe¢¦literally. The people I hike with do not get it nearly as bad as I do or else, not at all. I guess some people are more allergic to it than others. I look like I rolled around in it. It¢s starting to get to me. Any advice from anyone? Please!!        The climb out from Sarver Hollow Shelter on the blue blaze trail to the shelter was awful. It¢s like a half mile and 500 feet up. Future hikers beware! It¢s a nice shelter, but the trail may or may not be worth it.        Bear Blaze and I walked about 6 miles before stopping for lunch at Niday Shelter. There I took a bucket bath with a wash cloth and soap in hopes that I could get the poison ivy off of me. It was really refreshing and made me feel a whole lot better. My one complaint about being out here is not being able to shower every day.        After lunch we had just 10 more miles to go and about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. The climb after Niday Shelter was long, steep and hard. We were being chased by rumbling thunderclouds, so we hiked up this hill double-time so that we wouldn¢t be on a ridgeline during a thunderstorm. Bear Blaze and I were pouring sweat. It was the most I have sweat this whole trip. Jumping in the creek before the climb really helped as well.        Once we got to the Pickle Branch Shelter, we saw a hand written note by Gonzo! Gonzo had left Pearisburg a day before us and we have been trying to catch up. Finally, we are almost The Motley Thru again! We just need Funky Monkey to catch up.        We spent the evening catching up and eating dinner. It is so good to have all of us back together¢¦almost. Funky Monkey! Where are you!?!Weather: Hot! Humid! Not good hiking weather for hills. Thunderstorm scare after 3pm, but fizzled out.
Date: 2010-05-28
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Catawba, VA
Miles today: 12.6

Woke up this morning at 6am without an alarm. My body is adjusting to the hiking schedule, which means I get up when it¢s light out and the birds are chirping. And when it¢s dark out and the owls are hooting and the frogs are chirping, I¢m asleep. I woke up Bear Blaze at 7am and grabbed my food bag. I rolled by Gonzo¢s tent to see if he wanted coffee and he inquired as to when we had started getting up at 7am to hike. To which I pointed out that everyone else had left out of camp by 6:45am except us. It¢s a sign that summer is nearly here and the days are getting longer.        Our day started with a climb straight up for two hours to the top of the Dragon¢s Tooth. The trail resembles a rollercoaster of sorts as it rises to the ¢top¢ just to reveal yet another false summit. It was pretty hot by the time we reached the top, but the views were incredible. We ate our lunch and made some phone calls before starting down the other side of the mountain. The climb down proved to be just as trying, as we scrambled down rocks hand over hand.        Gonzo set me and Bear Blaze up for our first hitch into town. You can check out the video on his trail journals page. Big shout-out to ADAM for stopping to pick up three smelly hikers. Good luck with grad school, man, and thanks for supporting AT hikers. ?        Our hitch brought us into the tiny town of Catawba, VA where the infamous ¢Hometown Restaurant¢ hails. This restaurant is probably the most famous restaurant on trail, so of course, we couldn¢t pass it up. We sat with five other thru-hikers (Chicken Feathers, Pilgrim, Shag-man, Overload and Ohio-Bro) for a family style dinner with mash potatoes, fried chicken, green beans, roast beef, home-style Mac & Cheese, biscuits with apple butter, country gravy, coleslaw, sweet tea and lemonade. And for dessert, hot cherry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a fresh cup of coffee. It was heavenly.        We ended up staying in a storage room out back of the Catawba General Store since a huge thunderstorm moved in while we were eating, making our plans to climb up on the ridge just outside of town seem ridiculous.        That night I met some more repeat offenders, which is what I like to call repeat thru-hikers. One had thru-hiked 3 separate long distance trails; another 7; and the last was about to complete a double triple crown. It is crazy how many repeat thru-hikers that I have met on this trail in the last few weeks. I¢m nearly 700 miles in and working to complete just one thru-hike, let alone 2 or 3 or 7!        Whelp, time for bed¢¦or should I say: time for floor. Weather: Very hot and humid. Big thunderstorm after 5pm.
Date: 2010-05-29
From: Catawba, VA

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: broken clouds

Well, Cosmic Jackpot and Funky Monkey came through again. They drove out and met me, Gonzo and Bear Blaze at the Catawba Grocery Store to give us a 20 mile slack-pack today. We left from the McAfee¢s Knob parking lot at 10am with light packs and light feet. I was thankful for the easy hike today since I believe I have developed shin splints in the last week. I also had not showered in 5 days and the humidity has been freaking awful! I now have rashes everywhere from athlete¢s foot to poison ivy to backpack rash. Sounds fun, huh guys!?!         It was just 3.5 miles up to McAfee¢s Knob from the parking lot. It was awesome to be at one of the most famous places on the AT and we all took tons of photos to highlight our accomplishment.        The rest of the day took us along a ridgeline with expansive views into the farm filled Virginian Valleys below. Although today was a beautiful hike, we were all dragging by the time we hit Daleville. It has been a long week with hot and humid weather and difficult terrain.        We checked into the Howard Johnson Express right near the trail on US 220 and quickly showered before heading across the street for Mexican food and cervaza! That bath tub never saw it coming. LOL.        After dinner, Bear Blaze left with her sister, brother-in-law and niece to spend the holiday weekend with them. Funky Monkey and Cosmic left to go back to their B & B; leaving me and Gonzo at the HoJo-X. We spent the evening stuffing our faces and zoning out to the television. Feeling good now.Weather: Hot and humid.
Date: 2010-05-30
From: Daleville, VA

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

The morning was lazy enough with TV watching, phone calls home and lots of eating.        In the afternoon, Gonzo¢s family showed up from Maryland and treated me and Gonzo to Southern BBQ and took us to re-supply. Susan, Sarah and Rudy, if y¢all are reading this, thank you so much for the trail magic. You all are wonderful people and it was a pleasure to spend some time with you all.        I spent the rest of my day repacking my re-supply, cleaning my gear, uploading photos and making phone calls. It was awesome to clean all of my gear since I¢m sure it¢s all covered in poison ivy. I have found out that I am really allergic to it. Yay! (Sarcasm). Also, I have found that after 2 months on trail, my backpack has become so foul that I even gross myself out. So I filled our bathtub with hot water and threw in some Oxi Clean. The directions said to put in one or two tablets; I put in 9. I¢m desperate not to reek anymore. I also bought some witch hazel for my poison ivy and some Aspercream for my shin. I am now ready for the next week. Bring it on!Weather: Hot and humid with an afternoon rain shower.
Date: 2010-05-31
From: Daleville, VA

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

Well, we woke up this morning with good intentions of getting out of here, but to no avail. Gonzo¢s family took us (Funky Monkey, Cosmic, Gonzo and I) out to breakfast this ¢morning¢ (11am). Once Gonzo and Funky Monkey said goodbye to their loved ones at 1pm, we planned to head out. In the 20 minutes that we took to loiter outside of the hotel, a huge thunderstorm had taken center stage. The wind was blowing hard and the rain came down in sheets. This storm raged on for a good hour while we tried to decide what to do. It was the reoccurring lightning bolts in the hills that we were about to hike up into that made up our minds. So we booked the hotel room for one more night and settled in to rest and relax for one more day.        This is the first double zero that I have pulled this entire trip. It¢s probably a good thing since I am developing shin splints in my left leg and rest is the only thing that gets rid of them. And when you are a thru-hiker, you don¢t really rest your body much. You just keep going and try to do as much damage control as you can along the way. Not the best thing for the body.        We all wanted to go swimming, but the pool was closed for treatment, so Gonzo and I went to play pool instead while Funky Monkey got sucked into reality TV.        All in all, I think we all made a good decision not to hike into the hills today. Back to the grind tomorrow.Weather: Hot, humid. Big thunderstorm.
Date: 2010-06-01
From: Daleville, VA

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: light rain

We all slept in ¢til 9:30am today and then hit the trail at 11am. It was hot, humid and uphill the whole way, but it felt good to be back on trail. The pound cake and large coffee I had this morning dad well to fuel me up hills and through one passing downpour of rain. I felt good today; strong, fast, and positive. Only minor knee aches, but those never seem to go away.        Gonzo, Funky Monkey and I took our time getting to camp and pulled into the Wilson Creek Shelter at 6pm. We made a fire and cooked some hot dogs that Gonzo packed in for us for the Memorial Day holiday. Shortly after 8pm, Bear Blaze pulled in completing our group, The Motley Thru. It feels good to have all of us together again and to be back on trail.Weather: Warm, humid, sunny with one afternoon shower. It¢s beautiful tonight; clear skies and a light breeze.
Date: 2010-06-02
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Jennings Creek
Miles today: 17.0

The Motley Thru actually all got up and out of camp by 9am this morning. It was a miracle. I¢ve become the early riser of the group. (No laughing if you are reading this, Opus).        We did 17 miles in pretty decent time since the terrain was so good. The only complaints today were the heat and gnats that constantly fly into your face when you are reaching the end of your plethora of patience. Luckily, there was a good swimming hole at Jennings Creek. Once I jumped in, all of my troubles from the day just melted away. It¢s interesting how things that bother you on trail can seem so dramatic and important until you get a good night¢s sleep or a shower or a good meal or, in this case, a good swimming hole. Weather: HOT!!!
Date: 2010-06-03
From: Jennings Creek

To: Thunder Hill Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: clear sky

I woke up this morning with the realization that a 2,200 foot climb lay in my immediate hiking future. I was not looking forward to this, but I was trying to keep my chin up. I walked past the field of poison ivy to my bear bag trying not to re-expose myself to any more of it. At this point, I have gotten so much poison ivy I am traumatized.        The Motley Thru got up and climbing by 9am and we made it to the Bryant Ridge Shelter by mid-morning and stopped for a cup of coffee before the big climb up. The shelter is tri-level with a wrap-around porch. It is one of the nicest ones that I have seen on trail. There I found the biggest spider that I have ever seen outside of a cage. It was nearly the size of my hand!        After that we tackled the 2,200 foot climb up to Cornelius Shelter. I was in the lead, but for some reason, I couldn¢t keep up my pace today. I lost the crew when I stopped for a minute. I was sitting there eating my Snickers Bar when I felt something climbing up my leg. This is a normal occurrence and you usually just brush the intruder off. I looked down and saw a big red tick. AAAAH! One in five hikers on the trail will get Lyme disease and apparently this section of the trail is the worst. That spun me into paranoia about ticks as I climbed up this mountain. All of a sudden everything seemed hard. I was losing it. My pack was too heavy; this hill was too steep; there must be ticks everywhere; the gnats flying into my face were unbelievable; and the bee flying into the side of my head every 15 seconds was driving me insane! Why am I putting up with sweltering heat and humidity, gnats, spiders, being covered in bug bites, poison ivy and hiker rashes constantly, not to mention risking Guardia and Lyme disease!?! It¢s the first time I have seen a crack in my resolve to hike this trail.        Near the top of the climb I ran into Funky Monkey who started pointing out some pretty cool plants to me, including Jewel Weed which helps relieve poison ivy. All of a sudden I got lost in identifying wood sorrel, sweet wooddrift, wild ginger, garlic mustard plant, spider wort, and jewel weed. Suddenly I was distracted from my freak-out and got lost in a world of new plant knowledge. Funky Monkey really saved me this day and I really don¢t think she knows. If you are reading this sometime far in the future, Funky, I just want to say ¢Thank you¢.        Before I knew it, I was at Cornelius Creek Shelter having lunch with The Motley Thru.        The rest of the day was a little better for me and we made it to Thunder Hill Shelter by 6pm. There Trail Angel John Harney was there cooking up pancakes, eggs and sausage with cold orange juice for the hikers. It was just the trail magic I needed today. Thank you, John. You really made my day brighter.        We are all sleeping if the shelter tonight. We played cards to wind the day down and then hit the hay.Weather: Too hot.
Date: 2010-06-04
From: Thunder Hill Shelter

To: Matts Creek Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: broken clouds

I got a late start out of the shelter today at 9:45am. It was turning out to be another less than motivating day for me. By 1pm we had hiked only 7 miles. So after lunch I started hauling it to get to James River by 4:30pm. Jumping in the river was my only motivation for moving so fast and pouring sweat as I did in this heat. Bear Blaze, Gonzo, Funky Monkey and I all made it within 2 miles of James River before we were intercepted by a police officer hiking back on the trail looking for The Motley Thru. So we all had to sit at Matts Creek Shelter while this officer ran our driver¢s licenses and asked us questions about where we were the last couple of days and whether we had weapons of not. It turns out that the gentleman we had met yesterday at our lunch stop at Cornelius Creek Shelter had been found dead this afternoon. His name was Island Boy and we might have been the last to see him alive. So this officer found our entry in the shelter log and came looking for us on trail.        After we filled out statements and the officer had dismissed us as potential murderers, he assured us that Island Boy had probably died of natural causes and that no mad man was on the loose on trail. By the time the officer had left we had lost most of our day, so we are just staying at Matts Creek Shelter tonight. Strange couple of days. My condolences go out to Island Boy¢s family.Weather: Hot with rain showers in the evening.
Date: 2010-06-05
From: Matts Creek Shelter

To: James River, VA 501
Miles today: 2.2

I slept in a bit today since we only needed to hike 2 miles to VA 501 to catch a ride to Buena Vista. There, Funky Monkey and Gonzo¢s friend, Jack, was going to pick us up and take us down to Radford, VA for a BBQ and some R & R.        Once we got to the bridge at James River, we found some local guys jumping off of it. It was a 40 foot freefall into a large river. I opted not to take the chance of injuring myself, but Gonzo and Bear Blaze took the plunge. After about an hour, we were ready to go and where lucky enough to grab a ride from one of the local guys into Buena Vista. A big shout out goes to Dustin and friends for the ride. Thank you.        We met up with Jack in town and then all piled into his truck to make the hour drive south to Radford, VA. There, Jack treated us to a hotel room and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing, eating and doing laundry in the bathtub. It¢s nice to be clean again. Weather: Hot, Hot, Hot!
Date: 2010-06-06
From: James River, VA 501

To: John's Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 1.9
Weather: overcast clouds

The Motley Thru spent the day at a picnic at a park in Radford, VA today. It was nice to do something rather normal instead of hiking. It is definitely what I needed after the last few days.        Jack drove us back north in the evening and we got back on trail at about 6pm. Big, BIG, thank you goes out to jack for picking us up, putting us up in a motel, spoiling us in town, mailing packages for us, and then driving us back to the trail. I do not know how to repay you. So I will say ¢Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!¢        Once back on trail, we only made it to the first shelter due to lack of time and the fact that Funky Monkey was throwing up. We all ate too much at the picnic and I for one am ready for sleep.Weather: Hot, sunny turning to showers.