morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-04-07
From: Damascus, VA

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

We left The Place at 7:30. The weatherman forecasted rain today. It was cold and damp all morning and afternoon but it didn't rain. We got to the shelter at 3:00 and by 5:00 the sky had cleared. Four Cheese, a twenty-something year old guy that has been to the Olympic tryouts for swimming, arrived around 4:00.
Date: 2005-04-08
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: moderate rain

Another day of forecasted rain. It held up all morning as we climbed Mt. Rogers, the last 5000 foot peak until the White Mountains in New Hampshire. All the veteran hikers warned us not to send our winter gear home until after Mt. Roger. They were right. It is cold. It didn't rain until the afternoon. Then it poured. My least favorite hiking conditions are rain and cold. Both were present. It made for a miserable hike. We crossed through the Grayson Highlands during this rainstorm. The book says that the Grayson Highlands are "likened to the grasslands of Montana by some, speckled with magnificent rock outcroppings and blessed with plenty of sky." I didn't really get to see much of the grasslands because I was too busy making sure I didn't slip and fall off of the rocky outcroppings. I would like to go back and see the Highlands in better weather.We arrived at Wise Shelter at about 4:00. The only thing that kept me going that day was the thought of getting in that shelter and being dry. However, that was not to be. A large group of section hikers from New York were already there and we had to pitch our tent. Fortunately it stopped raining for the 30 minutes it took to pitch the tent, get water, chuck everything in the tent, cook dinner, and dive back into the tent as it started to pour once again. The rain lessened as the evening went on and it was a pleasant night. As I was treating our last liter of water for the day I discovered that our Aqua-Mira drops had run out. Not good.
Date: 2005-04-09
From: Wise Shelter

To: Troutdale, VA
Miles today: 16.1

We got up at 4:15, packed the tent, and were on the trail by 5:00. We walked in the pre-dawn through the rest of the Grayson Highlands. It turned out to be a pleasant day. Sunny and rainless. We planned to head into Troutdale to find some kind of water treatment. Later in the day we ran into Senor Nobes and the Newlyweds (who had names now, Blazing Ivy and Wanderlust). They told that many people coming out of Damascus were getting vioently ill, themselves included. They had been taking it easy the past few days, which is why we caught them. When Senor Nobes heard about our water predicament he generously offered us enough iodine tablets for a day of water. We hitched a ride into Troutdale and discovered it wasn't much. There was a restaurant/grocery/gas station, a church with a hostel, and a few houses. We ate at the restaurant and as we were eating Senor Nobe, Blazing Ivy, and Wanderlust arrived. They were getting a ride to a nearby motel. We picked up a few items for dinner and walked to the hostel. The hostel wasn't bad. For a donation you got a heated bunkhouse (I guess it wasn't a bunkhouse since it didn't have bunks but I couldn't think of what else to call it) and laundry. We did some laundry and ate hot dogs and baked beans for dinner. I wasn't looking forward to spending the night in the same room as Whazoo.
Date: 2005-04-10
From: Troutdale, VA

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

We got a ride back to the trail and were hiking by 8:00. It was an east hike and we made it to Partnership Shelter by 2:00. Then we walked another .2 miles to the rode and tried to hitch a ride into Marion to resupply and find water treatment. We stood by the rode for nearly 45 minutes before a man with a trailer stopped for us. We got on the trailer and cruised down the hill into town. After being in the woods for any length of time and walking 2-3 miles an hour it seems like 50-60 mph is light speed. We were dropped off at a Wal-Mart and got food and water treatment. A local guy named Danny drove us back to the trail for $10. When we got back to the shelter the Newlyweds, Senor Nobes, Paladin, Four Cheese, and two section hikers were there. Partnership Shelter is probably the best shelter on the trail. It has two floors, a sink, a shower, and if you walk .1 mile down the trail you get to a ranger station that you can order pizza from. Needless to say we had pizza that night.
Date: 2005-04-11
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 25.5
Weather: broken clouds

Last night we heard rumors about a Dairy Queen right on the trail at the nearby town of Atkins, VA. The rumors were true and at 11:00, after hiking 11.5 miles, I was eating an oreo blizzard and Whazoo was drinking a milkshake. We had planned to camp somewhere that night and by mile 18 or 19 we were looking for a place. Then we ran into a sign that said we had had to stay on the trail and couldn't camp for the next mile because we were going through private property. So we decided we would camp in a mile. A mile later we hit another sign that said we couldn't camp for the next half mile. And after that there was antoher one, this time saying 2 1/2 miles. By the time we made it through this we were only a couple miles from the next shelter so we just went there.
Date: 2005-04-12
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

A cold and rainy day. We hiked in cold rain all day and froze when we got to the shelter. I quickly stripped off the wet clothes and got into dry warm clothes and put my down jacket on. Two more hikers arrived that night, Alex and Max. Nothing dried that night.
Date: 2005-04-13
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Bland, Va
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: light rain

Cold and rainy. I put wet clothes on this morning and hiked in the cold and damp. That morning we came to a split in the trail. To the left we had the High Water Route, to be used after heavy rain, and to the right we had the normal trail which crossed the "Little" Wolf Creek 14 times in 2 miles. We went right. Autho's Note: This next paragraph may have been slightly embellished. Since we had only gotten 14 inches of rain last night we figured it would be safe to cross the creeks. The first few crossings weren't bad, only a couple feet deep. The fifth crossing was a slight challenge. It was 10 feet deep. After much debate we decided the best course of action would be to take a deep breath and walk across on the bottom. Our packs weighed us down so it worked nicely (don't try this at home). The next few crossings were similar. On the ninth crossing we were underwater halfway across when I saw a large mass moving toward us. I remembered from the Discovery Channel that the Little Wolf Creek is the only place in the U.S with piranhas. Whazoo and I turned to face them and fought them with our hiking sticks, but we were running out of air. Whazoo held them off while I unstrapped my pack and surfaced to get a breath, then I fought them off while he did the same. After 3 hours of this they finally backed off and we were able to cross. The rest of the crossing weren't very interesting, just a few crocodiles, a hippopotamus, and several anacondas. Author's Note: End of slight embellishment.After the crossings it was a cold miserable hike to the road. We hitched for a few minutes and a guy in a car picked us up and drove us to the restaurant. After we ate we went back outside and froze. Our plan was to resupply and leave town without staying the night, but our plans changed when we realized we were shaking. We resupplied at the Dollar General and got a motel room.
Date: 2005-04-14
From: Bland, Va

To: Trent's Grocery
Miles today: 18.6

It was a cold morning when we left Bland but warmed up quickly. We met Pine Tree today. He's in his sixties and has a son who hiked in 2002. He hiked with us all day. At 5:30 we got to Trent's Grocery, a small store located .4 away from the trail. For $5 you get a tentsite, shower, and laundry.
Date: 2005-04-15
From: Trent's Grocery

To: Doc's Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: clear sky

Our tent got frost on it last night and we had to wait until it melted to pack it up. We got on the trail at 9:00, Pine Tree hiking with us again. Easy terrain the first half then a large climb with good views. The shelter was full of thru-hikers that night.
Date: 2005-04-16
From: Doc's Knob Shelter

To: Pearisburg, Va
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: clear sky

We left the shelter at 5:00 this morning and did an easy hike into Pearisburg today. Whazoo's feet were killing him yesterday but are doing better now. We'll stay here a night and be out tomorrow morning (if everything goes according to plan).
Date: 2005-05-01
From: Hogback Camp Gap

To: Off the Trail
Miles today: 0.0

Sadly enough, it's over. Whazoo's feet are suffering from nerve damage and every step he takes send a torrent of pain from his toe back to his heel. We agreed at the start, if one of us gets off the trail, the other is off as well. But, like Macarthur, I shall return.
Date: 2005-06-23
To: Haven't left yet
Miles today: 0.0

This is just to kick off my journal entries. There's one week left until I leave. I'm planning to start off with a couple of friends of mine from camp. One of them is being a little difficult in his timing of leaving with us. It'll all work out ok. They won't be able to do very much with me though because they have to go to school next year. Thankfully I'm taking a year off in between highschool and college in order to do this trip, which is the reason I'm going North to South, gotta follow the nice weather. Anyway I'm starting to get everything together finally to leave on the 30th and start hiking on July 1st. The only thing i really don't have prepared is a trail name so i guess i should start working on that.
Date: 2005-06-25
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I guess I should say a little bit about how this all got started. I got interested in hiking through my camp, Camp Treetops in Lake Placid, New York. It's in the middle of the Adirondack Mountains and so I'd done a lot of hiking, canoeing, etc... there. Two years ago, while deciding what to do during the summer in between Junior and Senior years of highschool, a friend of mine brought up the AT. I had heard a little bit about it from my counselors during the summer and so I knew a little bit about it. After telling my friend how long the trail actually was, he decided against the idea. But the seeds were planted in my head and so I decided after a little more research that that's what I wanted to do. I approached a friend of mine from camp with this idea and he took to it almost as strongly as I did. This was around January of 2004. We started to plan things out, equipment, food, etc... After a while though we realized that we would start needing money soon so we had to approach our parents. Mine had no problem, they were pretty enthusiastic. My friend's parents on the other hand were quite the opposite. Despite countless letters from me trying to convince them otherwise, they wouldn't let him go. I decided that I would go anyway until something a little more full-proof came up. So that summer I went with another friend of mine, the one who brought up the AT in the first place, to Alaska to work at a fish processing plant. Anyway my final year of highschool went by and the whole time at the back of my mind was the AT. The thing that kept me going through my final tests in fact was the prospect that once i was done I'd be on the trail free from petty worries such as how to find the mass of saturn from the radius of the orbits of its moons. The only thing that would bother me would be the weight of my pack. My plan was to leave the day after my graduation, June 9th with the person I was originally planning to leave with. There was ANOTHER set back though. At a karate fighting class that I go to, I got kicked extremely hard on my leg. My knee cap got knocked out of its socket. Even though it popped back in i was still left with a bone contusion and couldn't walk. The doctors said I wouldn't be better until July. Well so much for leaving after graduation. Fortunately though I had a speedy recovery and lots of rehab. On June 14th the Orthopedist informed me that I was good to go. So now i'm spending this time to get stronger and get packed. A couple friends are starting off with me on the first of July. Both of them are from camp and one is the kid who was going to originally go with me. Unfortunately he has to go to college next year so he'll only be with me for a little over a month and my other friend even less. Good thing I decided to take a year off before college. Now I have all the time in the world.
Date: 2005-06-29
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I'm one foot out the door here. I need one more journal entry so that I can get an official site (trailjournals.com/Bucko). So here it is. Basically everything is good to go, for the most part, and tomorrow i'm going up to Maine. A nice 8 hour car ride followed by 4-5 months of hiking. Pretty standard trip. Anyway, wish me luck and keep in touch.
Date: 2005-07-01
To: Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Friday, July 1. Yesterday I was in the car from 11:15 am - 10:30 pm and I drove the whole way. Tiring but fun.This morning my mom dropped me and Chelsea off at Katahdin Stream Campground where I took the only possesions that I would need over the next 5 months and said goodbye as my mom drove off down the dirt road. Tomorrow is when it all starts. The climb up Mt. Katahdin with Greg and Chelsea and the beginning of the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2005-07-02
To: Mt. Katahdin/Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: few clouds

This was my first day of hiking on the A.T. Up and down Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine - 5 miles each way with an elevation gain (and then loss) of 5,000 ft. Not a bad climb for someone who just recovered from a dislocated knee cap. Chelsea and I started at 11:30 AM, and we didn't get back until 10:20 PM, thoroughly exhausted (Yes, we hiked in the dark). Most of the time was practically spent rock climbing up many, many large rocks (hands and feet needed) and wind so strong that I couldn't walk straight because I was being blown over so much. All the same, we made good time up to the top, took the "before" picture at the Terminus sign, and headed back down with still no sign of Greg who had to come up from New York late and was going to meet us on the way up. On our way back down we could see someone hiking towards us. We couldn't be sure who it was for a while until he stopped mid-stride and raised his hands in the air. Greg had remarkably made it up Katahdin in 2.5 hours after traveling all day. We all dropped our packs and accompanied Greg back to the peak.Going back down was much the same as going up - just as long, tiring, tedious, windy, and even a bit rainy. As I write this now at 12 midnight I can barely feel my legs. Tomorrow should be fun.
Date: 2005-07-03
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Abol Bridge
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: clear sky

Day 2- We were quite exhausted from the hike up Katahdin yesterday. So we started at 11, which we later realized was a tad too late, especially with the half-hour and hour breaks we were taking (although the swimming and sun-bathing were nice). There were horse flies constantly flying around my head as well as mosquitoes that kept biting me in the same place on my left arm. The bottoms of my feet are sore as well as my shoulders because of the pack. Thankfully, my knees are still staying strong (with a little help from some Ibuprofen of course). When we got to Abol Bridge Campground, saw all the food we could buy there, and thought about having to hike 4 more miles, we decided to cut our day shortat the campground. We also thought it would be a good idea to shorten our upcoming days through the 100 mile wilderness as well to let our bodies adjust. So we bought food at the store (at Abol Bridge) and fixed ourselves a wonderful dinner of ravioli, chicken, cheese, and peas (marshmallows for dessert). MMMMMM, life on the trail makes anything taste good.
Date: 2005-07-04
From: Abol Bridge

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-to 
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 3- Today I could feel myself finally starting to warm up. It was on top of Rainbow Ledges where team Fatty Gruck Gruck, which is what we decided to name our team: a mixture of Chelseas nickname, Fatty Nar Nar (don't ask), and mine and Greg's names, took a very long break. We were feeling very low on energy and decided to split our only packet of Gu (a sports goo or jelly that gives you lots of energy) and after that moment I felt like a new hiker. We even pushed 3 miles ahead of schedule passed the campsite we were going to stay at (this was partly because of all the mosquitos at the campsite that we pushed on). We finally started to meet some people today too. One guy, Puck, attempted a thru-hike in 2000 and got a kidney stone, so he had to quit. In 2003 he attempted another thru-hike and met a "pretty red-head." They got married (awww!) Now they've split up (ohhhhh!) This year he started a northbound hike, but in Tennessee decided it was too crowded, so he came up North and started a southbound hike. And here we find him at Abol Bridge. He did more that day than we did in 2, including the climb up Katahdin, for a total of 25 miles ina day!   We also met someone who was going to be a junior in college and his dad who were doing the Trail together. They went from Georgia to Virginia, then Mass. to Katahdin, then Mass. to Virginia. This method of hiking is one way to thru-hike other than northbound or southbound called "flip-flopping." Oh and happy 4th of July by the way.
Date: 2005-07-05
From: Rainbow Stream Lean-to 

To: Whitehouse Landing
Miles today: 15.0

Day 4- Wow! I'm in Heaven. i just ate a 1 lb.cheeseburger with tomato, lettuce and onions, three root beers, half of a 14 in. pepperoni, mushroom and green pepper pizza pie, and half a pint of Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I gained 3 lbs. in an hour. Now I'm sitting in a bunkhouse with beds and doors to keep out the bugs. I'm at Whitehouse Landing, a haven in the middle of the 100 Mile Wilderness. Who would've thought such a place existed in the world? To get to it you have to hike a 1 mile side trail and get to a lake where you sound an air horn. A motorboat comes to pick you up and takes you across the lake to Whitehouse Landing.   It's nice to be in civilization again. Well, semi-civilization. We knew about this place from the last time we hiked the hundred mile wilderness with camp 3 years ago. We had stopped in at a shelter a couple miles away from the side trail and met a guy who had just come from it. It was pouring rain outside, and when we heard about the burgers, all we wanted to do was go to that lake. Unfortunately, we were with camp and the counselors had other priorities and a schedule to keep. So this was an event that we'd been waiting for 3 years to experience ever since we'd heard of that airhorn hanging on the tree. And now to get some sleep... in a bed.
Date: 2005-07-06
From: Whitehouse Landing

To: Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 5- After an all-you-can-eat breakfast of eggs, English muffins, bacon and blueberry pancakes, we found out that checkout was after breakfast. This ruined our plan to hang around as long as possible and then hike a short seven miles to Antlers Campsite, which we remembered quite vividly as a beautiful, bug-free campsite next to a lake. So after a short 4 hr. we were done for the day and had plenty of time to relax (and finish digesting). We did have to share the site with a camp group, but I'm sure we bothered them more than they did us.
Date: 2005-07-07
From: Antlers Campsite

To: East Branch Lean-to
Miles today: 15.0

Day 6-   We met some interesting folks during lunch today. Stopped at a lean-to that had a nice swimming hole (we were too lazy to swim though, all the getting wet and drying off involved). There were a lot of people there already. We knew one guy because we'd been keeping pace with him recently, but he was having trouble with his feet so he had to stop. I heard Chelsea speaking to one of the guys about what mountains we had ahead of us, and as I came up I saw a bong in his hand. Besides the bong they were carrying a whole bunch of equipment including an axe and saw for firewood. They had a regular party going on at this lean-to, but unfortunately there was no parties. We had miles to cover and mountains to climb.
Date: 2005-07-08
From: East Branch Lean-to

To: Carl Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 7- We summitted 4 mountains today. The only troublesome ascent was Whitecap which was 5 miles up first thing in the morning. We met a northbound (also known as a Nobo for short) thru-hiker, who was only a few days from finishing. His name was "Mountain Dewd." Tomorrow we're thinking of pushing on ahead of schedule a little so we can get to Monson a day early. We've been feeling our hiking feet coming in, which means our bodies are starting to get used to the daily pounding we put them through. Well it's 8:20, just about bed time.
Date: 2005-07-09
From: Carl Newhall Lean-to

To: Cloud Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: moderate rain

Day 8-   Weather report for today: tropical storm! Yay! And just in time for our biggest day of hiking yet.   It rained consistently the entire day. When it wasn't raining hard, the huge puddles and over-hanging branches made sure we couldn't dry off. After our first 5 miles we even had to ford a river (walking straight through it due to a lack of a bridge or rocks to hop across on). We had lunch after 10 miles at a lean-to where we sat shivering in our wet clothes. It was hard to get going again with 7 miles and 4 mountains still to look forward to. But we managed. Once you're moving in the rain, it's always a bad idea to stop because you cool off and don't want to start moving in your wet clothes again. Once we had left the lean-to after lunch we didn't take a break for three hours for this exact reason because we just didn't want to stop.   When we made it to our lean-to we met some very interesting characters. One guy, "Jaybird," has thru-hiked three times. He just finished his third two weeks ago and he's already starting again, turning around and going south this time. That's called "yo-yoing." There's another guy, "Icebound," who started his thru-hike in October. He wanted to do a thru-hike in the snow, but he got 2nd level hypothermia, which understandably put an end to his thru-hike temporarily. So he stopped and he's finishing now. There's a third guy, "Chino," who's also less than 100mi. from finishing his hike. He's retired from the Air Force. He had a whole bunch of secrets about North Korea to tell us, like how they had a bomb that could reach the US and were very close to having nuclear capability. That wasn't the worse news we heard though.  When Icebound got in today, he told us that we had 4 rivers to ford across tomorrow with water at least up to our waists because of all the rain, and if the storm didn't settle down, the rivers may turn out to be impassable. Happy trails!