morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-05-27
From: Missouri

To: Woodshole Hostel
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: clear sky

So occasionaly I get to studying the map and see a spot where the trail seems to go way far out of its way to get somewhere, and there seems to be a much more direct route to get there, sometimes it even used to be the AT but was rerouted for some reason. So we decided to take this blue blaze trail, we shaved off a few miles actually. Overall, I have to say it was worth it as we didn't really miss anything, and the only drawback is the last half mile or so of said shortcut was rather steep and unmaintained. It came out near an old abandoned cabin that was kind of cool. The path itself was pretty cool too- much of it on an old roadbed- I love it when the trail is on an old roadbed, I really wish they wouldn't reroute a lot of those sections. So we rejoined the AT just as it was starting to rain, we waited out the worst of the downpour under an overhang literally right before the road to Woodshole, only we didn't realize how close we were until we saw a car drive by. So we headed down to the hostel where we have a maildrop and a reservation for a private room.        I didn't know about Woodshole in 2001, but heard wonderful things about it after the fact. Back then it was run by Tillie Woods, now it is run by her granddaughter Neville and her husband. They also built a large addition on to it and in addition to being a hostel, it is a B&B/yoga retreat. The bunkhouse is pretty primitive, solar heated shower only, no laundry, but we sprang for the inside room which had a great shower and laundry and a wonderously comfortable double bed and very well appointed room. Unfortunately, Neville and Micheal were away at a conference and they had another thruhiker named Mine Own running things- she made us a pizza and ice cream in lieu of their famous vegetarian spreads, which was fine with me. They also had many instruments, including didgeridoo and drums, but again- they were gone, so no one for Didge to play with.         Klarity is here! I thought she was way ahead- and she was, but she went home for a week and thus is just slightly north of here. She and a woman named Blue Sky slackpacked today. This place has tons of cool little things they have built that is very inspiring, makes me want to go home and work on the house.
Date: 2010-05-28
From: Missouri

To: Angel's Rest
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: broken clouds

We took it easy this morning, slept in in our plush bed and then hiked out. The hiking was up and down along a ridge. This ridge was open, parklike, where you the top of the ridge was broad, nearly flat, and we really had a sense of being way up there, we could see down off the ridge often and we ended up camping at Angel's Rest with a great view nearby. From there you could see down into the New River gorge and the town of Pearisburg below. Normally, Pburg is a required hiker stop, but we resupplied yesterday, so we may just go a short distance in to the store to buy a couple things and then hike on.
Date: 2010-05-29
From: 367 days cancer free and 33 days until the AT!!!

To: New River Gorge- Briarpatch's house
Miles today: 3.0

I woke up today and just felt like crapola. I had that swimming in tar feeling again. I realized I finished the month of antibiotics a few days ago and perhaps that is why- I feel like my body is fighting something again. We have a pickup scheduled in a few days with Briarpatch , just before Neely picks us up to go home for the wedding. I know that Briarpatch's plans for the weekend are to do trail magic near near his house by Catawba, about 90 trail miles north of here. Since I am feeling like crap, that sounds like a lot more fun than hiking. Cellphones are not a good thing to have sometimes. Bailing is too easy. But I talked myself into it with the argument that this was a "natural break"- a major landmark on the trail- if we are going to be finishing the trail here (after skipping up to PA after the wedding, hiking to Katahdin, then coming back and soboing to where ever we stop now), a real terrain landmark like the New River Gorge would be a better place to finish than some random road crossing. I can rationalize anything.        One phone call to Briarpatch is made, we hike another half mile to the New River Bridge, then walk back to the Dairy Queen, chill for awhile and then we are whizzed back to Briarpatch's house to start our extended trail break. We ate at the famous AYCE Homeplace restaurant. I was surprised at how much I was able to eat!
Date: 2010-05-30
From: Missouri

To: Briarpatch's Trail Magic
Miles today: 0.0

We helped Briarpatch with his trail magic- it was held at a spot just up the ridge from his house, near the Audie Murphy memorial. BP drove his tractor up the hill as well as his wife's car loaded with coolers and camping gear. We had hot dogs,beer, soda and pizza. We didn't get up there til later afternoon. Part of conducting a sucessful trail magic is figuring out what time of day hikers might show up. Most hikers often stay at shelters, so where you are at in relation to a shelter.         We had one hiker, Blue Sky (who we met a few days ago at Woodshole) show up and she said everyone was ahead of her. So we concocted a plan to head off a group of hikers she was hiking with at a road 6 miles up trail. Turns out there was another trail magic occuring there, but we lured them with beer to come back and camp with us. One of BP's friends, Magic, had hiked last year, he joined the gathering as well and he turned out to be a really good guitarist. Didge blew everyone's mind by making a xylophone out of green fire wood and playing it. And of course he played didge and harmonica as well. A good time was had by all. Blue Sky is planning to move to Fayetteville AR after the trail, not too far away from us, I hope we get to see her again. We played host to half a dozen other hikers, plus a few more that rolled in the next morning. BP and Magic have decided that next year they want to advertise the trail magic to attract more hikers and make it an all weekend affair. If the hikers know about it, they will plan their hiking around hitting trail magic. This same weekend, there is a hiker feed at the Captain's, a trail angel who lives 20 miles north of Pearisburg (maybe 35 miles south of here), that is probably holding up a good number of people.         We wrapped up that trail magic and chilled for another day before Neely picked us up and the three of us had a marathon all night drive to my mom's in St. Louis. Neely went on home and we borrowed my mom's car for a few days. We had a few days at home in a closed up house with the utilities off, a couple nights in a hotel in West Plains for Jasper's cousin Andrea's wedding, then a couple more nights in our house, and then back to St. Louis, where we hooked up with my friend Stephen (aka Mapmaker) to drive out to PA. MM hiked Springer to Harpers Ferry in 2004, then another 50 miles or so a couple years later. Now we will be hiking north from where he got off - a random road crossing in Southern PA.
Date: 2010-06-11
From: Missouri

To: stealth spot
Miles today: 5.7

We stayed at my friend Loose Goose's house last night and he got us out to the trail today. thanks Loose Goose! It feels bizzare to have skipped such a big chunk of trail. (441.4 miles) But we are walking in the woods, following white blazes again and that feels good. I saw a doctor while I was home and got another short course of antibiotics. I did get really sick while I was home too- after the wedding I got a cold, ugh. I really feel no closer to having any answers about what the crap on my legs is or why I feel so tired off and on. I am carrying a bunch of supplements and some topical stuff for my legs.         We hiked a few miles and then passed through Caledonia State Park. The snack bar didn't open for another couple days- bummer. And there is trail magic here this weekend. double bummer. We carried water from there and hiked a couple more miles to camp at a spot on a ridge.
Date: 2010-06-12
From: stealth spot

To: Birch Run Shelter
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

The mountain laurel is blooming everywhere- light pink and white blossoms all along the trail. We took our first break of the day at Quarry Gap shelter which is a double shelter that has a deck built around both with a roof over a breezeway between them. It even had a few hanging baskets of flowers. Super nice shelter.         We got some trail magic today! MM was hiking ahead of us and we had said, ok let's take a break around such and such time, but at a spot where the trail ran along a gravel road briefly, there were some guys set up with food and chairs. MM said- I hope this is okay for a break spot- its a little early! Uh yeah, I guess we can stop here in the shade and rest in this guy's lawn chairs while he feeds us!         We stopped for the night at Birch Run shelter. There was a group of boy scouts that was getting ready to move on , but Didge played for them first. About half an hour after we got there, a thunderstorm caught up with us and it just POURED! I felt bad for the boy scouts. We were also near a road and some day hikers/picnicing familes had walked by headed up to picnic, we saw them running back by later in the midst of the storm, a father and mother with a small child that the father was carrying on his back while they were looked like they were running for their lives. An especially loud clap of thunder startled a bat that was hanging out in the shelter, which startled all of us hanging out when a bat flew out over our heads into a nearby tree.        After the rain, we set up our tents on the damp ground down by the creek. Kutsa (who we met on another rainy day on Big Bald back in TN,came in with Tillerman). It was good to see her again. That is one thing that will be fun as we hike north, getting caught by many folks we met down south and never would have seen again otherwise. We couldn't wait to hit our first register today at Quarry Gap to see who had already passed us by. The biggest surprise was to see Stumblewolf only two days ahead of us. Apparently, he skipped a big section as well! I'm sure we'll see him before too long as he doesn't hike much faster than us and takes a lot of days off. We missed the Travelling Circus (ringleader, monkey, lightning) and a few other people who were cruising, but most of the people we really want to see are behind us.
Date: 2010-06-13
From: Birch Run Shelter

To: random campspot
Miles today: 11.5

a couple sobo section hikers we stayed with last night told us about a great new deal at a place in Boiling Springs called the Allenberry. Even cheaper than the Doyle, but supposedly a lot nicer! We are going to aim for that the day after tomorrow and perhaps take a zero there. We hiked through Pine Grove Furnace this afternoon, forgoing the half gallon challenge ourselves since we are nowhere near halfway having skipped 440 miles, but we met some new hikers there who partook: Shakes and Big Fork and Little Spoon. I dropped my bandana along the way somewhere and Shakes found it and brought it to me there.       The three of us ( MM is with us for another week or so) took a shower at the new bathhouse on the lake at Pine Grove. The halfway point we passed aways south of Pine Grove, it has been gradually moving south over the last few years with new relocations and addition of switchbacks on steep climbs that Bob People's Hardcore has been doing in the south. This year's Hardcore trail work project after trail days was adding switchbacks on the lower part of the Groan up Roan Mtn (VERY needed), as well as adding switchbacks on the climb up Pond Flats after Laurel Creek Falls.         We hiked a little past Pine Grove and found a campsite off the trail aways.
Date: 2010-06-14
From: random campspot

To: stream
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We saw lots of cool moss and fungus today, some cool crooked trees and a tree with unusual bark with a concentric cracked pattern. I am still feeling pretty slow, the terrain is pretty favorable, just some short ups and downs along the wooded ridge, nothing too challenging. We camped in another random spot, just after a couple road crossings, and a couple stream crossings.
Date: 2010-06-15
From: stream

To: Allenberry Boiling Springs
Miles today: 8.4

We did an shortish day and got into Boiling Springs fairly early. We've had some intermittent rains the last few days- nothing to really affect our hiking much. The main highlight of the morning was the trail being routed through a short boulder maze- kinda pointless, the trail could have easily gone around it, but it wasn't too long, so it was kinda cool- many white blazes on rocks through the maze and GA with an arrow one way, ME the other way. After that we passed through a clump of semi-ripe blackberries, which caused some brief delays, and then the trail popped out of the woods into a wipe open field. The trail followed a grassy strip between a green field of corn and a tan field of wheat. It drizzled on us a little as we followed that for a mile or so into the town of Boiling Springs. The trail comes alongside a very picturesque pond in a park with geese and ducks swimming around. The ATC office I worked out of in Spring of 2002 is at the edge of the park. They had a volunteer hanging out on the porch outside to deal with the hikertrash. I went inside and said Hi to Michelle and Karen who I had worked with 8 years ago. There the trail hangs a right along the road for half a mile or so and then the Allenberry is another half mile or so up the road.         The Allenberry is a resort kinda like the one in Dirty Dancing- it has a playhouse, a main building with a restaurant and dining room. There were several other buildings with lodging and various other functions scattered around well kept grounds. There were camp groups of teenagers there, they put all the hikers in one building that had a game room in the basement where we hung out for awhile waiting for our rooms to be ready. They also had a very nice pool with hot tub a little ways away from our building. We showered and ate AYCE dinner in the main building. The rooms are only 26 bucks! Crazy cheap. I think they make up the money on the dinner and breakfast buffets. There are a couple other places to eat in Boiling Springs, but its about a mile walk away and hikers are inately lazy when not hiking, and quantity is more important than quality...         Shakes, Big Fork and Little Spoon are staying here as well as some other hikers we haven't really met. I dropped my fuschia bandana again and again Shakes found it and brought it to me, he said next time he's keeping it.
Date: 2010-06-16
From: Allenberry Boiling Springs

To: Allenberry
Miles today: 0.0

lazy zero day in Boiling Springs. We walked into town and ate lunch at the restaurant in town. They had free drink refills, which the restaurant at the Allenberry last night did not much to our surprise as the waitress kept filling it up without telling us-major shock at 3 x 3 bucks a pop. I complained loudly, but paid it, but did not give the waitress a good tip. We stopped in at the fishing oriented outfitter and found some new line to replace the bear rope which has broken a few times and is getting ever shorter, so much so that is almost too short to do an effective hang. I almost never hung my food in 2001. I hung in it on the mouse trapeze in the shelter if I was in a shelter and I don't really remember, but I guess I must have slept with my food most of the time if I was tenting away from a shelter cause I don't really remember hanging too much.         But we've had a couple bear encounters along the way this year, so we are a lot more cautious. We swam in the pool at the Allenberry, I tried to use the hot tub to find the slow leak in my NeoAir. No luck. It's a minor issue, it deflates slowly over hours, when I get up to pee, I blow it back up. The rash on my legs seems to be improving- I got some colloidal silver gel when I was home that I have been using topically, as well as taking an impressive collection of vitamins everyday and using a Netipot to treat the lingering sinus infection I have had for months. Before we left MO I weighed most of a month's worth of vitamins- close to a pound! I did bounce half the Vitamin C ahead in a drop as those weighed the most. Everything else are in little tiny ziplocs. The weight does give me incentive to take them regularly which is something I struggle with at home. But the more I take them, the less my pack weighs... By the way, trying to save some weight and space, I switched from the Aarn Featherlite Freedom to my Osprey Aether 45 when we were home. After two days, I hated it, called Neely to go get my pack and mail it to Duncannon. I made the switch to save weight and now that its summer and resupplies are typically a little closer together, our packs have a lot of extra room. My Osprey weighs over a pound less. I really do miss the balance pockets convience a lot, but mainly, the Osprey shoulder straps are just digging into my shoulders and aggravating the hell out of my hypertrophic scar from where I had a port to receive chemo.
Date: 2010-06-17
From: Allenberry Boiling Springs

To: Darlington Shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: few clouds

When I checked out of the Allenberry this morning there was a mysterious 5 dollar charge on my bill- it was from the restaurant downstairs- WTH!!! I ended up just paying it, but wrote a long rant in the register there. Seems to me like the waitress gave herself a tip. We paid our bill at the time of eating but since we paid with a credit card, she had our name and looked us up and charged a fee to our room. The restaurant didn't open for several more hours, so in order to dispute it, I'd have to wait around- total BS. I was livid. I was talking to Big Fork and Little Spoon about it and they were like - so what - the room is really cheap. That's not the point!         Anyway, I suppose the anger gave me the fuel I needed to crank out a 14 mile day, which we pretty much had to do to get across the no camping Cumberland Valley section. So 14 miles it is. It's a flat 14 miles fwiw. We took a long break at the Scott Farm, where I used to live in 2002. I took a picture of the curve in the road where I rolled my truck off an embankment. My truck still bears the scars of that mishap. It felt rather bizzare to be hanging out there- and my memories of the place were just a little off- there is a different caretaker now and a really friendly cat. MM took a nap and then made a napmap in the register.         Didgeridude ending up hiking about 16 miles today- at one break midday I accidentally dropped my MP3 player and realized it shortly afterwards. About a mile later, I realized I must have dropped it when I was fishing something else out of my balance pocket. He dropped his pack and went back for it, finding it in some tall grass. My hero. I have been relying on the tunes a lot lately. PA is kind of boring.         The weather has turned kind of cold, but it's nice actually. At least for those of us who haven't sent our warm gear home. Some thruhikers get overzealous with the weight paring or just choose to freeze on those rare nights it gets cold in the summer. I would guess its in the 50's tonight and fairly windy up the ridge where we are camped.
Date: 2010-06-18
From: Missouri

To: Duncannon PA
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: scattered clouds

A few days ago when we heard about the Allenberry, I had somehow figured that taking a zero there would put us in Duncannon for Jasper's birthday. I had a brain fart then and we are here a day early. I kind of wish we hadn't zeroed in Boiling Springs, I don't think we could have made it to Port Clinton by tomorrow even if we had pushed ourselves, but that was the main reason for the zero- but also I just I know I need a zero once a week and it was a cheap place to stay. So we are celebrating Didgerdude's birthday the night before. I didn't stay at the Doyle in 2001, a travesty that I am remedying. We have a drop here and I have my Aarn pack back. we got a ride to the grocery store from someone at the Doyle and picked up a few extra things to supplement our food. Staying at the Doyle was a littel sketchy- as the woman at the bar said- we've graduated from a dump to a dive... But its a very hiker friendly dive with a smelly hiker alert decal on the front door.         The rocks started before we got here- I remembered them starting after Duncannon, but there was an incredibly rocky stretch on the ridge above Duncannon. At least you get a few pretty cool views of Duncannon from above, which is right at the junction of the incredibly wide and shallow Susquehanna River and the smaller Juniata River. The Sus. River Valley is a major transportation corridor, trains rumble through at surprisingly high speeds, a major highway crosses the river there, conviently for the AT crossing it as well. We had a good chunk of road walk to get into town and we have a little more going out of town tomorrow and crossing the river. There were a bunch of other hikers here, including another birthday boy- Fig- who had hiked before and one of his hiking friends was mailing a surprise cake for him via another hiker named Supermax.
Date: 2010-06-19
From: Duncannon PA

To: Clarks Ferry Shelter
Miles today: 4.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Didgeridude's 37th birthday! We slept in as much as one can at the Doyle, where there is no AC and lots of traffic noise. I didn't hear it much cause I sleep with earplugs, but there was a lot of noise last night as well, some hikers came in very late making a lot of ruckus and one of them passed out with his pants down in one of the bathrooms (no private b-rooms in the rooms). We headed out into a rapidly heating day- stopped for ice cream in a few blocks, then walked across the bridge, watched a large train of coal pass by before heading up the hill. It was shady then at least, but we were climbing a steep ass hill, so we were dripping with sweat.         At a view perhaps a mile up, there was a family with lawn chairs, kind of an anomaly. We weren't really sure how far we were going to go today, the heat really took it out of us. There were some great views from up on the ridge, and interspersed in the overgrown poison ivy there was a ton of blackberries that slowed me down substantially. We stopped in at the shelter and ended up staying. We met Likely there hanging out- he's hiking even slower than we are- he got his name as he is the least likely hiker- he's very overweight, he started in early April and skipped from the Smokies to Harper's Ferry. He was fun to talk to, a short while later the family with the lawn chairs came in and set up just below the shelter- a mom and dad with several kids- they had hammocks. They were bathing in the water source and all sorts of other atrocities that made us cringe. We all went back up the hill to camp by the trail away from them. AD, Rainbow Monkey, Red, and Sunshine came in a bit later and camped with us as well. Didgeridude had a misadventure hanging the bear bag. The branch was partially alive, partially dead and when he pulled the food bag up the dead part broke and hit him in the face. He has a really cool looking scrape and some bruising. Happy Birthday Didge!