morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-11-17
From: Niday shelter

To: War spur shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: clear sky

Today felt a lot better since the pack weight is finally normal range. It was still exhausting but I was in a much better mood and my feet weren't as sore. We slept in a bit which felt fantastic.  I'm sleeping so nice with the quilts. I did wake up once last night to see a,cute little racoon couple scurrying about in the moonlight. We had a bunch of ridgeline views in the morning and then we ran into tealeaf and buckshot under the 2nd biggest oak tree on the trail. The keffer oak, over 300 years old. I liked this one better than the biggest because it's not infested with wasps so you could actually hug it. We had lunch with them and found we've been taking each other's food ideas. Buckshot was nice enough to give me some mayo for my black bean burger, plus some Irish candy bars that were quite good. A lion and a drifter I believe. We all were planning on heading to this shelter which was nice. I went out ahead trying to beat the last light but didn't quite make it and had to night hike a bit. The last 6 miles were tough too. It was a decently steep 1000 up followed by close to 2000 down. That downhill was rough too. All loose rocks and invisible rocks covered by slippery leaves. I even lost the trail for a bit and had to backtrack to find the shelter. We were all exhausted but had a fun dinner and crashed. Stars are out again tonight.
Date: 2016-11-18
From: War spur shelter

To: Near Dickenson gap
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: clear sky

I was last to leave the shelter this morning and not having seen anyone leave the correct way, I got lost. Not terribly, but it took me a few tries to actually find the trail out. I was having a nice time dilly dallying and wrote the beginnings of a song. It was one of the few times I've thought of the lyrics first.  Later on in the morning I got lost again bringing up the rear. I'd caught up to tealeaf and buckshot but then hung back to go check out a view. The next road I came to I ended up on some fire road for probably a good half a mile before turning back. Then about 7 miles in once the trail turned rocky I ran out if water, and it was toasty out. We had a good climb to start off the morning, so I only got just what I needed to make it to one of the many Springs on the ridge. That was a mistake because all I saw was one muddy spot. I caught up to tealeaf and buckshot again which helped me not go overboard with the grump, then not long after we caught slope turtle chilling at the shelter. We all had a lovely dry lunch, but then I booked it out of there to the next spring since I'd been fantasizing about guzzling Gatorade and Ramen. Thankfully this one was gushing. Tealeaf had seen mentioned that there was a zip line to some guys house in a few miles, so we met up there a few miles later to check it out. I had seen that too but totally assumed it was just like a hand rail to ford the creek and then camp on his lawn if you wanted.  Thankfully she read it correctly because it was awesome! This guy captain installed an actual zip line swing over this big creek onto his yard where he's got trash cans, two really friendly dogs, picnic tables, charging station, and best of all, free pop. We all had some Dr. Thunders and played with his dogs. I was then ready to basically call it a day but in hindsight, luckily the rest if the crew wanted to press on. I'm glad we did because we got the big climb out of the way and now have just 15 or so miles to pearisburg.
Date: 2016-11-19
From: Near Dickenson gap

To: Pearisburg va
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

The whole team got up early! It was impressive. We all struggle with it but done did it. Coffee before dawn. It was a little unnerving this morning too because the air had a faint but real smell of smoke. With extremely dry conditions and much of the southern portion of the trail currently engulfed in flames, the thought crossed my mind we might need to make a run for it. It subsided though and no sign of fire. The morning went by quickly and we ended up a bit ahead of tealeaf and buckshot. We were being followed by a young buck that was way too friendly and is probably dead now. We had to scare him away a couple times but he kept racing back near us. All the while with rifle fire in the background. We caught up to him again later with his two doe harem and had to scare him again. Then they all ran off in the direction of the gunshots.   we were deer magnets today. While getting water from a pathetic muddy pool another doe came up and circled us impatiently. She was thirsty too  and eventually went down a few yards from us to drink while we filtered.  It was threatening rain and the cold winds were picking up on the ridge so we tried to high tail it ourselves to the shelter a mile and a half away for lunch. We were so close to being lucky, but alas, no luck. Right when the cold rain hit we hit an open ridge that followed a power line for a while and then an open field. I was cold from sitting to filter water so just made a run for it to warm up. The trail was actually really nice dirt and grass so it was pleasant jaunt. My new osprey pack cover actually keeps the water out too! Unlike my previous one I've had the whole trip. I passed slope turtle running and she said I looked like the dude from Braveheart. So I got that music stuck in my head which was fun. I got to the shelter just in time for the rain to stop. It was still nice to get wind shelter though. Tealeaf and buckshot caught up and we all had lunch with 8 miles down around 11am. It was an exciting novelty for us all. It was super cold and windy after that and we hiked together into town. Not exactly a great AT snapshot. We passed a stinky landfill, then a creek of nasty running out of the landfill into the new River, then a super smelly chemical plant also right on the river followed by a giant highway. Welcome to pearisburg. This was where cricket was supposed to settle so if you're out there man hit us up! We never got his real name or contact so if anyone knows it please send. The people here are super nice. We went to AYCE Chinese with tealeaf and vuckshor and our friend Jen got to town to visit. She came bearing cincy beer and homemade cookies (so awesome) and we all hung out in our motel chilling.
Date: 2016-11-20
From: Pearisburg va

To: Woods hole hostel
Miles today: 11.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was the coldest hiking day of the trip. It was below freezing with winds whipping strong. Not ideal for Jens gentle introduction to AT hiking, but she was a trooper. We kind of threw her into the deep end (sorry jen !) and started the day off with a 2000+ foot climb out of pearisburg. After that huffer though it flattened out and we got some good views at angels rest rock and other cliffs. We kind of underestimated the whole shebang and realized there was a chance of night hiking too. In hindsight, we should've been a bit more conservative since the hike was basically a half marathon on a rocky ridge with elevation, plus brutal wind. The whole slack packing thing really threw us off too. Breaking with the routine just allows for mayhem. Kate forgot to get water. I didn't bring my wind breaker or pack cover. I was taking a piss at one point. Leaned my poles on a tree. Put my snickers on the poles then when leaving grabbed the snickers and left the poles walking merrily down the trail for 20 minutes and attributing any sort of notion something was missing to oh yeah, I'm just slacking. Took me a good bit to find them too. Then when it became a possibility there might be night hiking we were short a headlamp. So I went on ahead to get Jens car and at least shorten the side trail ending. When I got to the hostel and asked if tealeaf and buckshot wanted to grab their beer out of the car I found out it was a dry hostel . So we took all took a ride to the trailhead and had a little dirt road happy hour. Kate and Jen soon joined us well ahead of any night hiking and we continued the happy hour. The hostel folks cooked us a banging dinner from their own garden and we talked a lot with Neville about meditation practices she does and tealeaf does too coincidentally. Also coincidentally, we're all taking a few day break from the trail tomorrow. My folks were gonna come down a rent a place for thanksgiving but couldn't really find one. With Jen going back to cincy tomorrow anywayand my grandma not doing so well, we decided to just go back with her, do thxgiving there and visit my gma. Also we decided that'd be better and in lieu of coming back for Christmas since by then we'd be farther away and only have a week or so left on the trip anyway.  I hate leaving the trail for this long. Feels like getting behind but I know that's illusion. ..
Date: 2016-11-24
From: Cincinnati

To: Cincinnati
Miles today: 0.0

Turkey day! Got to see most of the owens side. Plus my folks gave me this sweet banjo ukelele signed by bela fleck and Abigail Washburn that my mom won in a raffle. I didn't realize that it's just a regular uke on a banjo body so I'm excited about it. It's got the re-entrant strings so I'm excited to learn how to play it right. It and the 5 string banjo are the only instruments I know of like that. Thanks mom and dad!
Date: 2016-11-26
From: Angels rest hostel pearisburg va

To: Wapiti shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Back in the woods after a long stretch away. We drove down last night with my sister and the folks at angels rest in pearisburg were super nice. Super nice. Especially compared to the dude at woods hole where we'd left off. And macro man was waiting up for us when we got in. Hadn't seem him since Hanover. Pippa from the hostel had texted me few hours earlier to let me know he was there and making a frickin huge dinner too. (Pippa btw in one of those people you can instantly be friends with and makes you feel right at home. Highly recommend angels rest hostel if you're in pearisburg. )  I didn't get it until I got there so we'd already eaten, but we all sat around and had some drinks catching up and eating his delicious guacamole. This morning we got a great breakfast from friends and family diner which was super cute. Set up like a cracker barrel. Then we drove out to meet the shuttle at trents grocery. Turns out we've been there before! When driving back from Cincinnati to Raleigh one time we did a random day hike to dismal falls and back and had stopped at trents. At the time that place had seemed like another world with its dead bear registry, taxodermied everything and grill/supplies, but now it seems so normal. The w shuttle back was with Pippa and the natural, who wed actually met in Maine and last seen in Andover with his friend hash brown and cute dog, maple bacon pie. Super nice guy. He'd been the one who'd convinced Pippa to convert her trailer to a hostel this year. Apparently he'd also convinced someone else to start a hostel this year too. Anyway we finally got to the trailhead around 11 and Katie was super excited and nervous. It was fun having her. She's the first person to come stay the night on the trail with us. It was cold but sunny and she got a good sampling of terrain. Couple cliff views, a little scramble then rhododendron green tunnels on the downhill. She was worried how she'd do with the pack but did great and we were at the shelter by 3. We all bundled up and drank pbrs wed packed out while reading the whole log book. That was fun and slope turtle and I had never really done that before. Going all the way back for the deep cuts. Our friend jess and her girlfriend had actually been here two nights before and left us a note which was cool. We thought we'd run into them but alas they must've been faster than they thought.  A lot of entries referred to this place as the murder shack. One said wapiti meant murder in Cherokee. Others mentioned murdered hikers who now haunt the place. So that's nice. Wonder what's true. And We got to chat with an annoyed owl which was fun. Once we all got settled in for bed around 8pm people started night hiking into the shelter which freaked Katie out. It's been kinda funny. There were a couple of those and then anytime Kate or I rolled over or got up to piss she wakes up and asks if it's us. She's sawing logs right now though so hopefully getting some good sleep.
Date: 2016-11-27
From: Wapiti shelter

To: Trents grocery
Miles today: 8.0

It turned out to be tealeaf and buckshot that hiked in after dark last night. They hadn't recognized our set up because of the tarps and extra tent for Katie, so tealeaf was pretty surprised to see me at the picnic table in the morning. We all had a super leisurely breakfast and I was glad Katie got to meet them. Apparently Katie had woken up with a blood curdling scream last night and saw someone's face in her dream/haunting and I totally slept through it. It had woken up tealeaf and buckshot across the way even. We later looked it up by the way and there really was murder at that shelter in 1981. A guy from pearisburg killed two thru hikers, a couple. And the description of the face Katie saw matches what the guy victim looked like. So there's that. Aside from the haunting we had another lovely day hiking. We mostly hiked together and macroman caught up to us toward the end to make a nice literal southbound bubble. We all took side trail to dismal falls and chilled for a while eating lunch at the spot where Kate and I had hiked to on our road trip a while back. I wanted to hang more with Katie so since we had her car we went into Wytheville and got a hotel. They even had a hottub and although the water was nasty and smelled like wet dog, the jets were amazing and totally worth it. We got some balling Chinese food then hit up walmart to resupply. It was some fun family time.
Date: 2016-11-28
From: Trents grocery

To: Past VA 611
Miles today: 9.8

We all hit up the tasty continental breakfast and researched trail murders. Pretty rare thankfully but man that was weird about wapiti. Apparently the guy served 15 years for th he double murder them got out! Later he tried to kill two more fisherman near the trail and they survived the shots and nearly killed him.  He died in prison a few days later. Despite a lot of bold talk about getting up super early, we weren't headed out to the trail until 10 or so. Luckily I remembered to check my quilt order, payed the fees then they sent it out while I still had service. That would've been awful. We stopped in the bland library to get Internet while Kate snuggled the local cats. Katie then dropped us off at a cool suspension bridge and headed home. She camped with us on literally the coldest night of the trip and the most haunted. That was the only night my water partially froze while serving as a tarp weight. It was still a lot of fun. Kate and I didn't see a soul on the rest of the hike. We had lunch at Jenny knob shelter and had to camel up at some pools since water looks to be scarce the next 15 or 20 miles. It's supposed to rain a bunch tonight tomorrow morning so we're hunkering down. Really hope it does too since some of the smokies are now on fire and the whole southern trail desperately needs rain. There's some Virginia creeper in the photo
Date: 2016-11-29
From: Past VA 611

To: Jenkins shelter
Miles today: 19.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Well it finally rained, poured and gusted all night and morning. Really hoping that helps with the fires and dryness. The wind was whipping hard too and I got a wee bit of dampness creeping in the hammock but stayed dry myself. We had breakfast under Kate's tarp which finally kept her dry and decided to nap a bit to wait for the rain to let up. It ended up working out well and we only had to night hike a couple hours on an easy plateau with just a tiny bit of wet hiking in the morning. Everything was pretty heavy with water weight but we got some great sunshine to dry everything out in a yard sale for lunch. We passed a few garbage cans with really cute signs saying please don't leave deer carcasses there since the trash is maintained by a 70 and 78 year old couple. Who leaves a deer carcass for someone to tske out with the trash? Later when we got to the shelter tealeaf and buckshot were already there and said there actually was a deer carcass there that we somehow missed. The hike itself was pretty and sparsely marked. Never saw anyone else. The morning when the rain and fog were lifting was especially cool. One side of the ridgeline was clear and sunny while the other was all cloud and fog burning off through the pines. A lot of the trail was steep hill hugging descending into rhododendron tunnels. We got to see a really great sunset too. It's supposed to rain again tonight and then all day tomorrow so I'm taking advantage of still having an air mattress and sleeping inside the shelter with tealeaf and buckshot
Date: 2016-11-30
From: Jenkins shelter

To: Chestnut knob shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Well it rained all night and thank the lawd. These fires need gotten out and these springs need run. There was a mystical window of 7am to 10am of no rain that tealeaf was trying to take advantage of so they were up early. Luckily we all were a bit sluggish because we were still in the shelter at 8 when it opened up. Not that it mattered much because eventually it would open up several times and it was a solid soaking wet hiking day. I dawdled behind early to get some alone guitar time and actually had a pretty dry start. It felt like fern gully with really cool and surprising boulders all in a thick mist with green moss ground cover.  It was a sustained climb so I ended up in shorts and a t-shirt but then a freezing rain and wind came without warning. I don't think we've seen this kind of dumping since Maine. When I heard it I went to get my rain jacket out of my pack and in the time it took me to take off my pack cover, open the zipper and put it all on again, I, my pack and guitar were soaked. It was buckets of rain. It lightened up a bit later but was a consistent rain the rest of the day. I caught up to slope turtle right before chestnut knob shelter. We got there early but it's a 4 walled old fire cabin and once inside and in dry clothes we decided the day was over. We were planning on going another 10 to the next shelter but once we had the wet clothes off, the wind and rain was outside, and knowing tealeaf and buckshot were planning on staying here too, that wasn't happening. The cabin had a picnic table inside and we had a good time hanging out not getting wet. We couldn't see anything with the rain but apparently the view outside is of god's thumbprint and where the Vanderbilt family was originally going to put the Biltmore estate.   The roof was leaking a bit but I found a dry spot to sleep and Kate strung up her hammock from the posts over the table.
Date: 2016-12-01
From: Chestnut knob shelter

To: Davis path campsite
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: broken clouds

This morning was rough. At first it was lovely (and we owe tealeaf and buckshot a solid for giving us water) and we all had hot mochas and coffee for breakfast. But nothing had dried hardly at all and it was freezing. I had left my guitar out to dry too and in the cold a string had snapped overnight. Bummer but I've got a set in the bounce box in Marion at least. The sun rose which provided a last ditch attempt to get some drying action but really to no avail. Putting on wet socks in wet shoes and damp pants in the freezing cold was tough. And the privy was 3 walled with black ice covered stairs which made for some unpleasant and treacherous morning business in the howling wind. So I started off with zero water and feet that quickly became numb stumps for the first mile. Luckily by the time we reached the spring about 2 miles in I'd heated up fairly well and was still damp but at least not cold and the body heat was starting to dry things out. We'd gotten out ahead of tealeaf and buckshot and they never caught up but must've been close all day. Had lunch at the knot maul branch shelter. We got to the pre-planned spot that we'd talked about all camping at by a nice brook in this rhododendron cluster. It was already night and I was ready to call it but slope turtle was really pushing to go further and she convinced me. We got a nice adrenaline boost too because the hillsides and ridges beyond that were crawling with deer and several times I'd look up or to the side of the trail and see two glowing eyes or more staring back at me in my headlamp light. In the darkness it's pretty tough to tell bear eyes from deer eyes too but after yelling and screaming at them we caught glimpses of the white tail as they finally scampered away. We made it to the Davis path campsite which used to be a shelter and has a picnic table, privy, and stairs leading to nowhere. You can see what happened since there's a giant tree remains where the shelter used to be. It's funny too because initially I wasn't convinced by the amenities to push on to here, but had it been an all out shelter I think I would've been. But even with shelters all I'd be excited about are the table and privy anyway. I guess the logbook and option of sleeping in them or getting out of the rain is nice too. Anyway I'm glad that slope turtle convinced me to push on because now we've only got a few miles to atkins and can get breakfast pretty soon after waking up and then get to marion at a decent hour too. It's also freezing cold again and some hot diner food sounds fantastic right now
Date: 2016-12-02
From: Davis path campsite

To: Marion va 
Miles today: 14.3

We woke up to frozen ground and dew and I was loving the thought of a quick hike to the barn in atkins for brunch.  When we got to the road walk we stumbled over a giant fancy purple dildo.  How that ends up on the side of the road leads to some interesting musings. The barn was a wonderful diner and tealeaf and buckshot showed up not long after wed ordered. It was so cheap and we all got peach cobbler with ice cream for breakfast dessert. We passed an alpaca farm right out of town and I took advantage of the new phone juice from the diner and listened to music the whole way. There was a settlers museum that was closed but an old school house they keep open. We just barely made it to the Mt rogers visitors center, where the road to marion is, before dark. We were having no luck getting a hitch and had zero signal so we were also getting worried. I saw someone cleaning in the visitors center so went over and she told me there was actually a free phone around back with taxi numbers listed so I called a cab. That ended up being a mistake because the lady said the cab would only be a few minutes and when I went back to the road, where we were freezing our burrs off, this hunter came back to his car and offered us a ride. We declined which was a big mistake because the cab took another half hour or so and cost 16 bucks. Oh well. We had him drop us off at yummy yummy, a Japanese restaurant. Tealeaf and buckshot had gotten an easy hitch and had been at the bar down the street for a while. We joined them after and closed the place down. It was a lot of fun and man were there some characters in there. For starters was Pedro, a 300 lb local Mexican who was piss drunk and kept wanting to touch and sniff tealeaf. And insisted that I should sniff her too. We were clearly the only non locals and getting out of there without too much of a skirmish was probably lucky. The hotel was a good mile and half away but the guy that'd given them a hitch had insisted that whenever they were done to please call him and he'd take them to the hotel. He insisted it wouldn't put him out, he was super bored and wanted to help. So at midnight they did, and he gave us all a ride over. He was a very nice dude. Skinny with a huge curly mustache and camo jacket and just seemed sincerely like a nice guy. For some reason even though it was midnight when we got back to the hotel I watched the entire viggo mortenson Russian mob movie in Spanish until 3, then fell asleep.