morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-05-27
From: chatfield shelter

To: Davis Path Shelter
Miles today: 7.2

Today I managed to get up a little bit after 7:00. I wanted to get into Atkins by 9:00 to get breakfast and to the post office and get out of town immediately. The diner in town had a service where they would send a guy who I can only guess washes the dishes to pick up hikers at the truck stop where the trail crosses the road and drive them to thier diner and then the post office and grocery store. It actually was a pretty good deal for us since I was going to the diner anyway. They fed us a nice big greasy breakfast and waited for the five of us to do our errands at the post office and grocery store then drove us back to the trail. Great service for a five dollar breakfast. After getting dropped off I walked straight into Dairy Queen for some ice cream. In addition to being professional walkers thru-hikers are also champion eaters. It was kind of a nice day so we decided to only walk the two and a half miles up to the first shelter and have a short day to celebrate our ability to get in and out of town in a matter of hours. A couple of us decided to pack out some six packs and a canned ham to live it up since we were only going a short distance. The only thing about this shelter is that there is no water there so we also had to carry enough to drink and cook with over the last mile uphill to the shelter. I carried four liters of water so I had 128 oz of water and 72 oz of beer. That is about 12 lbs of liquid. My pack was almost too heavy to handle. Luckily I survived and had a fun time at the shelter with a large fire, plenty to eat and drink and an interesting game of frisbee through the middle of a bunch of trees. Good times.
Date: 2003-05-28
From: Davis Path Shelter

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: broken clouds

Today I woke up fairly early, but it was one of those mornings where it takes several hours to get out of camp. It takes a long enough time to break down a tent, eat and pack everything you own. If you fool around and take twenty minutes in between each of these activities it can take forever. I got up, wandered around then ate breakfast. Sat there for awhile and made a cup of coffee. Wandered around and took the rainfly off my tent. Read and signed the journal. Packed up a bit. Used the privy. Ate some more. Took my stuff out of my tent. Sat around. Took down my tent. Etc, etc, etc. Wigglestick also waited around and a little after noon Bucky caught up as he had stayed in a hotel in Atkins to take care of some phone calls he needed to make. He laughed at us for being so lazy. We were about ready to go at this time and set out walking. The sun was out and it was nice out however the rain was to return tomorrow. The whole party crew from Partnership shelter was out slackpacking again and they passed us by. What a bunch of losers they were slackin for the fifth day in a row. Basically they slackpack between motel parties. (If I hadn't described it before slackin is when someone brings your pack ahead and you hike to it without the weight on your back) I don't really believe in slackpacking, but I don't have a problem when others do it. These guys however were calling people from over a hundred miles away to see if they could come and slackpack them. Oh well as the popular saying out here goes "hike your own hike". It was getting pretty cloudy when I pulled up to the shelter, I set up my tent, cooked dinner and went to sleep.
Date: 2003-05-29
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

"Woke last night to the sound of thunder...How far off I sat and wondered...started humming a song from 1962...aint it funny how the night moves" Nothing is funny about the way the rain moves. Nothing is fun about waking up to the sound of incessant rain hitting your tent. Nothing is harder on your motivation. Bucky, Wigglestick, No Pain and I were not going anywhere in this stuff today. I hadn't been in a very good mood lately and the rain was really taking it's toll on my psyche. I hung out in my tent for awhile and the shelter for awhile. A long while. The only entertainment for the day was watching everyone that passed by try and figure out where the trail went. It was pretty obvious to me that it hooked sharply to the right of the shelter, but most everyone that walked by missed it. Most of them walked straight on ahead which was the trail to the privy. Some went to the left which was the way down to the water. People went pretty much every way to go except the actual trail, and every one of them had to double back directly past us laughing at them and look to us and we would point to the trail. Other than eat this is pretty much all I did on the only zero day I ever took in the woods.
Date: 2003-05-30
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Jenkins shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today I did not wake to the sound of rain but the sky was very overcast. Oh well i had to walk today. As I walked the sky looked like it was trying to clear up. I saw a baby copperhead that was less than a foot long, but still my first poisonous snake sighting. Had a long hard climb up Chestnub Knob a nice bald with decent views. We ate lunch at a shelter on top that actually had four walls and a door. Fancy. The sun even poked through so I took the opportunity to spread my tent out to dry. There was a nice view to the valley beneath which was called Burke's garden and sometimes referred to as god's thumbprint since it was surrounded by a ridge on all sides. I didn't see that, but I did see the nice view. I took my time the rest of the day enjoying the nice weather until the dark overcast skies rolled in again that afternoon. I got to the shelter pretty late and almost had a trip ending injury getting water since the path down was so incredibly muddy. If it wasn't for a rhododendron I would have taken a really bad spill. I knew it was going to rain. Even though the shelter was empty and my tent was dry I set it up anyway so that I could sleep well...which I did.
Date: 2003-06-01
From: Helveys Mill Shelter

To: Trents grocery, VA 606
Miles today: 16.3

In the middle of the night I awoke with a strange feeling. One that I hadn't felt in quite some time. It couldn't be. I crawled out of my tent and discovered that it could be, I had to throw up. So I did. What else could go wrong. Oh yeah it rained all night. I woke up fairly late that next morning and the only people left in the shelter was a guy and girl I had met the night before named Wrongway and Ribbit. They told me that they were getting off the trail. She said her knees were bothering her and he said that the novelty had worn off. In the register I also read that a brother and sister I had met named Butters and Erica who were hiking until Pennsylvania had just gotten off in the town I just passed. For the first time I was having serious doubts about my ability to finish the trail. I had always been pretty confident, but things were starting to wear on me. I hungrily ate my cereal which would be the only food I had, since I had lost all the calories from my disgusting dinner in the middle of the night. I walked slowly and unhappily out of the shelter. I met some day hikers who gave me some peanut butter crackers without me even explaining that all the food in my pack left consisted of a twix bar. Then as I hit the trail there was Happy Feet who I thought was some days ahead. What the hell are you doing here I asked. He said the exact same thing to me. He sat down and gave me some food after I told him about last night. He and I walked along that morning. Amazingly it wasn't raining. It was nice to have someone to complain to and helped me reverse my mood a bit. I caught up with Wigglestick and Bucky at lunchtime and along with Happy Feet I ate a full lunch. I even had dinner offers if I couldn't make the store in time. We all set out to do the last seven miles to the store. Just before the road to the store we crossed a very nice suspension bridge over Kimberling Creek that was held up by cables. We hit the road and walked the .8 miles to the store which was fortunately open and sold PIZZA. We met up with Wolfman there who we had met a few days prior and he bought four pizza's for the four of us. The store offered tentsites out back for 3$ with a shower. Since the store also sold breakfast that decision was pretty easy.
Date: 2003-06-02
From: Trents grocery, VA 606

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

Today I awoke to a strange illumination in my tent. It couldn't be. I was hot in my sleeping bag. I crawled out of my tent and it was! The sun was out, it was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. I walked to the store and had a good pancakes and eggs breakfast. We walked back out to the tent area and sat down in the sun to just enjoy the day. We hadn't had a day like this in a while. It was hot and sunny after a freezing cold night. Residents told us that there was actually frost on car windshields it was so cold, but today was hot. We sat there just to soak up some sun and dry some of our stuff out. We had a good hour long frisbee game. No one was in any hurry to leave. We even stayed around to eat a sandwich for lunch at Trents. This place was real funny, it was a small grocery, restaurant, hunting supply and hardware store. They sold little Hunter Dan figures for 15$. You could get turkey hunter, bow hunter, bass angler, or deer hunter. They had tons of pictures above the register of hunters with thier kill. They had some animals like a fox, bobcat and snake stuffed for sale. This place was pretty funny, like nothing I would see around home. We packed up and headed out but not far since right across the street was a sawmill and Happy Feet had asked the owner at breakfast for a tour. I never expected to tour a sawmill on the AT. It was an interesting operation with boards flying everywhere and running through big saws. The guy said that they are in tough times since they only are in operation two days a week because it has been too wet to get logs out of the woods. He didn't have to tell us. It was an interesting place to look around, and especially interesting to see a guy crawling around in the machinery when a board got stuck. We finally hiked out and made it a whole two miles to Dismal Falls, a small, popular waterfall just off the trail. We stopped again, this time to cook dinner which were some hot dogs we had packed out. I built a little fire and we had a hot dog roast. We hung out for a while and hiked out.We had a nice flat easy walk the six miles to the next shelter. Happy Feet decided to stay, but Wigglestick, Bucky and I hiked on into the darkness for a night hike the eight miles to the next shelter. It was long and hard and I was very tired by the time we got to the shelter at 2AM. It was starting to sprinkle and there didn't seem to be any tentsites. We saw that there was only one person in the shelter so we tried to unpack as quietly as possible and move into the shelter. Obviously we woke up the person, who happened to be the Wolfman. A nice thank you for the pizza the previous night. He wasn't upset he just said that we were nuttier than he thought and rolled over. Sorry Wolfman.
Date: 2003-06-04
From: Pearisburg, VA

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

Today was a planned zero day in Pearisburg. I was hoping it would act as a mental break to help me get my head on straight again. Once again it was raining. Much of the morning was spent relating the possum story to the others at the hostel. I got Bubbles to bring me to the library, spent some time updating my journal (not nearly enough clearly) and looked up possums on the internet. I learned that it was allergic to the milk we tried to feed it, oops. We went to the Wal Mart supercenter and bought some cat food to try to feed it. When I was there I called my parents again and just as I was hanging up it was like deja vu, who should approach me but the very girl who had given me the possum in a sandwich bag the night before. I told her the possum was happy and alive being taken care of at the hiker hostel. I bought some food at the store so that I could cook up some chicken fajitas at the hostel for dinner and some bacon and eggs for breakfast the following morning. Its nice to have a place to cook. Bill came by the hostel again about three or four times that day. That guy is an experience in himself. He drives his truck right up on the lawn next to the door of the hostel and drives off over the lawn in a different direction every time. He comes in every time to ask how many people there were to which I replied the same as the last time you were here an hour ago. Then he proceeds to check the donation box that he just checked and complain about how it seems to be empty. The guy is a good guy he is just a little eccentric and has nothing better to do. One funny story from today was that one fellow hiker, IB Walkin, who had taken a zero day the previous day said that he had caught a ride into Blacksburg to go to the outfitter and he was asked if he knew Circus. Which is funny since that is a place I've never been and don't know anyone in. It turned out to be Michael Low, the son of one of my Aunt's friends from Yakima, Washington. Funny how it's a small world.
Date: 2003-06-05
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I really didn't want to take a zero day today, but at the same time I really did. It was a nice day. I got up and made some omelettes for breakfast. I really like having kitchen facilities. I was pleasantly surprised when my good buddies snotrocket and Laffy Taffy getting a ride up to the hostel. I hadn't seen either of them since around Damascus. They had both taken several days off to go to weddings. Going home is often a risky proposition out on the trail since often people get accustomed to the comforts of home and don't get around to returning to the trail. I've heard of this happening a few times. I was glad to see my friends had gotten back on and caught up. We hung around for a while and played a game of frisbee. My stuff wasn't even packed up at 2:00. I wasn't going anywhere today. Wigglestick and Bubbles headed out after busting our chops a bit about staying an extra day. Since we were only allowed to stay at the hostel for two nights and I wanted to move closer to the trail the S.R. Laffy, Bucky and I walked into town to split a motel room. As I was walking down into town the shoulder strap on my pack broke. Now I had a problem to deal with but I would wait until tomorrow since it was so late already. I wasted the rest of the day in typical zero day fashion.
Date: 2003-06-06
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Stayed up pretty late last night. It was really hard to get motivated to get out of bed. We woke up and went to breakfast. The checkout time at the motel wasn't until 1:00 so we had time to kill before getting kicked out and I had a few errands to run. I went to the post office to send a package home and stopped by what I thought was the Andrew Johnson house, as in the president. It turned out to be the Andrew Johnston house who was nothing really but a large land owner in Pearisburg. There really was nothing of interest in the house. What a bust. I tried to call EMS and found out that the very important Mark Milewski whom I was going to have arrange new shoulder straps for me wasn't in until 2:00. The shoulder strap on one side had busted off of the bolt that held it on and was still held on by one of the tightening adjustments, I think it would be usable so I wouldn't be stuck in town any further. I finally got a hold of him and worked out the arrangements. He offered to overnight it but there was no way I wanted to be stuck in this town any longer I wanted to leave immediately. I had him send it to a hostel about 70 miles down the line. When I went back across the street where my pack and friends were it was lunchtime so we ordered some sandwiches. Then they hit me with the news that they were going to stay in town that night. I was not happy with that idea but at the same time it was late and rain was starting to fall. I reluctantly agreed even though it made me very upset to do. I should have told Mark to overnight the shoulder strap. Here I was again stuck in a town for several days. Oh well. We moved right back into the same motel room that we had just moved out of a few hours earlier. The Pearisburg vortex was stronger than I had anticipated.
Date: 2003-06-07
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Just a baby possum update since I realize I had forgotten about it. Everyone strangely was in love with the adorable little rat and people played with it all the next day. We fed it and it appeared happy in its box home with the old t shirt and sock to burrow in. We did notice however that it had the ability to leave its box so when we went to sleep the last night at the hostel we left it covered up. When we woke up the next morning the cover was still on but no possum. We searched high and low but couldn't find it. I'd really like to think that it is froliking somewhere with the other baby possums, but maybe some hungry hiker came along and .................Woke up today, took a look outside and guess what I saw. You guessed it, rain. Not that it really mattered, I was leaving this town immediately. Well maybe after lunch at Hardees. Of course the motel still had the 1:00 check out so it was hard to get motivated to get out of the room and into the pouring rain by then. It did seem to let up a little around noon so the four of us made our move. It was still sprinkling as we left Hardees and finally took our leave of Pearisburg. I was still in a pretty foul mood from the last week or so as I slowly trudged uphill. I really needed to change my outlook if I am going to last out here. I was kind of making up my mind to stay at the first shelter seven miles up, when I arrived my friends had all made that same decision. This shelter was interesting in that the trail was passing through a cow field at the point where it cuts off and you walk a 100 yards climb a short ladder over some barbed wire and there the shelter sits looking out over the cows. A thick fog had settled and it was an interesting view of cows in the mist. I decided to do the hated and even sleep in the shelter since I didn't want to deal with a wet tent in the morning. There were an equal number of foriegners in this shelter as Americans;one israeli (there are a three or four hiking), two brits (there are are six or seven hiking), and one scot (also six or seven hiking). Its funny to move into the woods and meet people from countries you've never met anyone from, who says I don't get culture on the AT.
Date: 2003-06-08
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Woke up to the same foggy cow field that I had fallen asleep to. At least it wasn't raining yet. I took my time getting out this morning to watch the herd of cows stroll by. It was interesting to observe cows and their behavior. The baby cows chased each other around and were obviously playing. There was a large bull that was at the back of the herd loudly mooing which apparently meant move along since all the other cows stopped eating and proceeded forward. I guess cows have more personality than I thought. Shortly after leaving we ran into the men whose cows those must have been, they had large handguns strapped to thier belts. I was moving along pretty slowly today. Once again I was in a bad mood and I meditated all day on how I could change that, or if I wanted to change that. At least it didn't rain despite the dreariness all day.   I caught up to the crew at a shelter about four miles before the one I was planning on going to. A couple of them had been there for awhile and were starting to get comfortable. There was some talk of staying but I needed to get some miles behind me after all the zeros and time off so I quickly got up and left while they were thinking. I made the last four miles easily and was pleased to see everyone roll in shortly after me. Sometimes it takes some initiative to get people going. It started to thunder and there wasn't quite room for all in the shelter so I hurried to set up my tent just as the thunder was on top of us. It never did rain but we got a good lightning display.
Date: 2003-06-09
From: Bailey Gap Shelter

To: Sarver Hollow shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: clear sky

Woke up to a few patches of blue sky today. It was encouraging. Walked about four miles to a lookout with a nice view called wind rock. It was windy, but it was also sunny and there was visibility. Imagine that a view where I could see something. I was in a slightly better mood today. I hiked on slowly taking a lot of breaks despite the long day. I was psyched today to see a large oak tree named the Keffer Oak which was the second largest oak on the trail and supposedly a very large oak. I was a big fan of the giant poplar back in mid April so what wasn't to love about a massive oak. The day got later and later and there was one big climb before the shelter, plus it was where the oak was. It looked pretty gradual on the profile map so I didn't think it would be too bad. It was. I had no energy left for this climb that was a lot less gradual than I made it out to be. I slowly trudged upward with Bucky just ahead of me cursing the mountain. I cursed it too, but then took a slightly different approach, I taunted it. I remembered something that IB Walkin had said back in Georgia when every mountain was hurting us "you can't go on forever but I can". I started telling the mountain what a joke it was. I laughed at it and told it that I would be on top soon. I told it that the oak should be ashamed at being on such a worthless mountain. It turned out that it wasn't even there, I had passed it a mile back before the climb. It must not have been that spectacular of an oak if I walked right by it without even noticing it. I guess I wanted it to be the poplar, but how could it have been, the poplar was all knowing and all powerful. This was just the second largest oak on the trail, a big tree I'm sure but... At the top of the hill we saw a sunset from one of the many times that a huge powerline crosses the trail in Virginia so far. The shelter was a massive new one that was down an extremely steep side trail a quarter mile. It was full and had no tentsites, but it had a large covered porch that was more than adequate to sleep the rest of us who went to sleep after a nice large campfire.