morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-05-29
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Roan High Knob Shelter
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: light rain

Today was damp again and we faced a tough 2,900 feet of stiff uphill climbing on bad trail to the top of Roan Mountain where the highest shelter on the AT, at 6,285 feet, is located. Being so high, this shelter location is in an area where the mountain creates its own micro-climate of wind, rain, fog and cold temperatures. Because of this, the shelter is a log cabin with four sides, small windows and a door rather than the usual three-sided affair. With an attic area it can sleep 15.PoliPoli and Plowboy were there when I arrived and we cooked dinner outside in the damp. Later four other guys arrived and by 9:00 (hiker midnight) we were all in bed.About real midnight, midst the rain and wind, there was a crash which awoke all of us! At first I thought it was a branch landing on the roof, but a few seconds later there were flashlights trying to see into the shelter through the glazed window glass.The crash turned out to be someone trying to kick in the door which was latched from the inside to protect us from bears and whatnot.I went to the door to let whoever it was inside from the bad weather, but that's not how it turned out.When I opened the door, a man asked in a very loud voice if "Rob" was inside. I asked him if he knew what time it was. He said he had no idea. I asked if he wanted me to wake everyone up and ask what their real names were. He then asked how many there were in the shelter. I said 7. He asked if there was room for 3 more. I said of course they could come in, if they were quiet. He said they would rather set up their tent and departed into the rainy soup! Very odd behavior!PhotosVery tough trail going up Roan mountainRoan High Knob Shelter, the highest shelter on the AT, has four walls and a door!
Date: 2009-05-30
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 6.5
Weather: clear sky

It was a nice hike down off Roan Mountain this morning, starting in the fog and gradually emerging into a warm spring day about 700 feet lower.From there, there was a series of three "balds," mountain tops with no trees, and, being the weekend, there were all kinds of day hikers, Boy Scouts, and weekend backpackers on the trail. Since it was not a long hike to the shelter, I ended up spending a fair amount of time talking with folks I met and posing for photos. It is amazing how many questions folks have when they learn that we thru-hikers are headed to Maine. One fellow I ran into had a pack at least three times as large as mine and he was only out for three days. His son had a full pack too and strapped to the back of his pack was also a full day pack!Overmountain Shelter is an old red barn that has been "converted" to a shelter. It may have been a tobacco drying barn because there are spaces between all the boards makingup the exterior walls. This makes for a fairly drafty environment, especially when it rains as it did during the night. Nevertheless it is a very interesting place to spend the night with a great view of the nearby mountains and valley. I was there with PoliPoli, Plowman, a section hiker, Steve, and his 7 year old son, Charlie, and two groups of Boy Scouts. Another interesting aspect of this shelter is the outhouse ... it consists of three walls, each about 3 feet high and no roof! The only real prvacy is that it is located about 200 feet into the woods from the shelter.Boy ScoutsThe men folk of an extended family out for their annual hikeYikes! I was too busy looking at the camera to notice what this day hiker was doing beside me when she asked to be in the picture!Overmountain shelterPrivy at Overmountain Shelter
Date: 2009-05-31
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: US19E, Mountain Harbour Hostel
Miles today: 9.2

There was about 1,500 feet of up and 3,000 feet of down to contend with today. The down was harder than the up since a good portion of the trail was more of a scramble over rocks than a hike.When I finally got to the road crossing, it was a short hike to Mountain Harbour, a hostel and B&B that is, by far, the nicest place I have stayed since starting out. There is a large home on a hill overlooking the place. Down below is a creek, a horse and goat barn, and a parking/camping area. The hostel is above the barn and sleeps 6. There is also an RV where PoliPoli and Plowboy stayed. The hostel is all custom constructions within the frame of the barn. It has an immaculate bathroom and shower, a kitchenette, a sleeping loft, a deck, and many other amenities available, many of them on the honor system.After signing in and showering, one fills up a laundry basket with dirty clothes and takes them up to the main house to be washed. Once those details were taken care of, we were shuttled to a steak house for dinner, them picked up and shuttled into town for resupply and beer, and finally brought back to the hostel where we sat on the deck to consume the beer before going to bed.PhotosSome folks camped and got pretty wet in a passing stormA Black SnakeMountain Harbour HostelShuttle to town for dinner and resupply Plowboy and Route 66 enjoying some ale
Date: 2009-06-01
From: US19E, Mountain Harbour Hostel

To: Mountaineer Shelter
Miles today: 8.8
Weather: clear sky

Breakfast, served promptly at 7:30 at Mountain Harbour, is worth the price of the entire stay. Mary, our hostess, gets up at 5:00 every morning to prepare it, with a varying number of B&B and hostel guests to contend each morning. It is buffet style and consisted of 3-4 kinds of breads and rolls, bacon, two kinds of sausage, a cheese omlette, hash browns, various fruits, a banana cream pie, french toast with walnuts and syrup, juice, coffee and I'm sure other things I missed or forgot. The table setting would fit right in at an English country estate.Given that kind of start, it is not a surprise that we did not get out of there until nearly 11:00 ... who would want to leave?We are hopeful that we are entering a stretch of the trail with fewer mountains than so far. Today had its share of ups and downs, but nothing extreme. I was able to keep up with PoliPoli and Plowboy's pace after they caught up with me (I left before they did). One stretch of the hike was a 500 foot/one mile walk up an overgrown country lane through a meadow and then along an old country lane. In many ways it seemed we were hiking in the 1800's.We came to a cemetary and looked around, taking some plastic roses from a discard pile of some sort to brighten up our packs. Later we came to the church associated with the cemetary as best we could figure out. The church has a faucet where hikers can get water, which we did, and then we ate lunch on the back porch! Moving on, we took a .1 mile side trip to Jones Falls, a really great waterfall coming down a mountain.Mountaineer Shelter is quite new and has several great features that make it better than many of the older shelters so far, icluding three levels, a "wash pit" in the nearby stream just downstream from the place where one gets spring water to drink, and a cooking area design that creates a nice conversation pit. Steve, Charlie, Plowboy and PoliPoli were in residence along with a fellow whose trail name I did not get. Plowboy is a former professional photographer and he took my camera and taught me several things that will improve my photos. PhotosAn incredible breakfast at the Mountain Harbour B&BSteve and son Charlie from Georgia who we hiked with for several daysLunchJones FallsMountaineer ShelterUnusual shelter graffiti
Date: 2009-06-02
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Moreland Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: clear sky

Today PoliPoli, Plowboy and I crossed the 400 mile line. We had made up a sign the night before and when we got to the place where we figured the 400 mile point is (it changes each year since the trail is constantly changing because of relocations), we waited for section hikers Steve and Charlie to come along a take our picture. We then left the sign in the trail, held down by sticks, for others coming along behind us.It is not a big thing, but we passed, and sat on, the first park bench we have encountered today in over 400 miles. It sure beat sitting on rocks and logs!When we got to the shelter, a fellow named Dave was there and we five made a total of six, the design limit for the shelter. About 8:30, i.e. at dusk, a man in his late 30's and his teenage son showed up and pretty much insisted we make room for them. We pointed out that the shelter was full and suggested they tent. The man said his pack already weighs 24 pounds without a tent and therefore he never carries one since he hikes very high mileage every day. I asked what he does when shelters are really full and he has no tent. He explained that in those cases, folks (i.e. complete strangers) either move out of the shelter and put up their tents so he can stay in the shelter, or loan him their tents! This pretty much put a damper on any further conversation. PoliPoli got everyone to move over a bit to accommodate the young man and his father took over the picnic table to sleep on, but not before cooking dinner while we tried to sleep and using every available hook in the shelter to hang their gear!PhotosThis was directly above my head when I woke up in the morningMountaineer Shelter400 mile celebration ... 66, PoliPoli, Plowboy and CharlieWe left the sign nailed to the trail for othersThe only park bench I've enountered on the AT. Steve and CharlieMoreland Gap Shelter
Date: 2009-06-03
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Dennis Cove Rd.
Miles today: 6.0

It was a fairly easy 6-mile, mostly downhill hike today to Dennis Cove. Along the way I passed an old home or barn (see photo) at the edge of a cleared field. Life must have really been tough back then. I cannot imagine the work involved in clearing the forest of trees, stumps and roots to make a field to farm.When I got to Dennis Cove Road, I had a .2 mile off-trail walk ahead of me to Kincora Hostel, but I put out my thumb and got a ride from the first vehicle going by. Surprisingly, it contained the man and boy who gave us so much trouble last night. They were being shuttled to town for supplies and their driver took me to Kincora (his competitor) saving me quite a bit of uphill road walking.Kincora (a word from an Irish poem or story meaning something like Shangri La, I¢m told, or to quote Wikipedia, "the palace of Brian Boru, situated on the summit of the hill in Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland") is the home of a trail legend, Bob Peoples. It has an attached hostel that sleeps about 20 folks, complete with a kitchen, showers, laundry, library, and other amenities that make hikers happy. Payment is on the honor system. Bob himself happened to be off hiking in Spain so the place was being run for the moment by a trail gal named Bear Paw, assisted by another hiker, Moose.I lucked out and found a private room with a queen-sized bed no one was using so I was able to spread out my gear better than had I been in the main hostel sleeping area itself. After settling in, Moose took several of us on a resupply run into Elizabethton. PoliPoli, Plowboy and I decided to treat the other hikers to some surprises and bought enough food to give almost everyone a hamburger for dinner ... and more ... see tomorrow's entry. We also bought a six-pack of beer, but since the hostel was dry, we had to quickly guzzle what we could in the grocery store parking lot before heading back to the hostel. The evening ended with a spirited game of Trivial Pursuit with some of the other hikers.PhotosKincora HostelResupply shuttlePoliPoli cooks burgers for the hostel guests
Date: 2009-06-04
From: Dennis Cove Rd.

To: Dennis Cove Rd.
Miles today: 0.0

This morning PoliPoli and Plowboy, with a little help from me, made breakfast for eleven hungry hikers ¢¦ scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, milk and coffee. It was fun to surprise everyone.After breakfast, I went along with the morning shuttle to Elizabethton and stayed there until I was picked up by the afternoon shuttle. Since I was there too early for the library, I spent time in a coffee shop, visited the local war memorial, went to the bank to get some cash, and walked around a dying downtown area.At the library, I read some national newspapers and then worked on my trail journal. It was a bit of a mess since they would not let me have more than an hour on a computer, despite always having unused computers available for the public, but then they relented, step by step, giving me another half hour more, time after time, but only with repeated negotiations using up about 10 minutes each half hour. I then did a bit more resupply, made some phone calls (no cell service at Kincora), and was shuttled back into the woods.When I got back, I met a nice guy named Herb, Patches and Flail, both from San Francisco, and also found Kermitt who I have known since we met in Franklin, NC, a few weeks ago (though it seems like ages ago). This was the first time Kermitt and I had really had a chance to chat.While Kincora is a trail "must," it is also dirty. The first night I slept on top of the bedspread and used my sleeping bag as a quilt, but, even so, I felt itchy all day, so tonight I slept in my silk sleeping bag liner, covered that with my sleeping bag/quilt, and covered the pillow with a freshly washed towel. During the night we had a good mountain rain storm.PhotosCooking breakfast for 11 hungry hikersSal, an extremely strong hikerWar memorial in Elizabethton, Tennessee ...... another dying townHerb and Kermitt
Date: 2009-06-06
From: Watauga Lake Shelter

To: Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: clear sky

In the morning I waited in the shelter for PoliPoli and Plowboy and/or Kermitt to get there, but none of them showed up by 1:30 so I hiked on, but not before having other visitors: Patches and Flail who stopped in hoping the shelter was nearer the lake so they could go swimming, and then section hikers Mule (69) and Gray Rabbit (76) who stopped for a few minutes. Gray Rabbit hiked the entire AT in the early 1990s and both of them can still out-hike me.I walked across the Watauga Dam (this is a TVA project built in the late 1940s) and started up a very steep mountain. Just as I got to the tough hiking part, I ran into a fellow I had met at Neels Gap, on 4/12, way back on the fourth day of my hike. He was showing his girlfriend some work he had just participated in a couple of weeks ago. Bob Peoples, the Kincora owner, had organized 70 hikers to build .5 mile of trail in 5 hours, and the group had converted the very tough uphill section to a gentler graded trail with several switchbacks. The new trail was also tough but nothing like the one it replaced. This is why Bob Peoples is a trail legend. He does something like this every year.A bit further on, a pleasant local man overtook me and gave me a lot of information about the dam, the lake, the trail, an old moonshine still he used to visit as a child, etc. After walking together for about half an hour, he then turned the conversation to religion and asked me to accept Jesus. I was a bit surprised, but not completely so since this is a very religious area and there are religious things left for hikers to read at almost every shelter along the way.About 1.7 miles before the shelter, there was a tiny spring coming out of the mountain. I had been warned that the water at the upcoming shelter was very difficult to reach so I filled up at the tiny spring and marched on. Others were not so lucky and arrived at the shelter with no water and had to move on to the next spring four miles ahead.When I finally got to the shelter, I found Gray Rabbit and Mule. We thought we would have the shelter to ourselves, but about dark three hard-charging young guys showed up, filling the shelter to its maximum of six.PhotosWatauga Lake ShelterView from Watauga damWatauga DamTrail evangelistVandeventer Shelter
Date: 2009-06-07
From: Vandeventer Shelter

To: Double Spring Shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, the hiking is getting a bit easier. This is due to several things ... losing 27 pounds since starting out, getting stronger, and flatter (but rarely flat) terrain.I left the shelter this morning at 9:20 and got to the tonight's shelter at 7:20. This is about 1.5 miles per hour (including about 1.5 hours of breaks, etc.) as usual, but my second highest mileage day.I stopped for water at one point and while checking the map I realized I was exactly at the 20% point of the AT! And today is the end of my second month since starting out on 4/8.Later I stopped at a shelter for a break and found a fellow there named Rock Hound. He is a section hiker from this area who is very good with rocks. He was fixing up the fire pit while I was there, digging up rocks, arranging them efficiently to make the fire pit clean, useful and quite professional looking. It was fascinating to watch him work.Later in the afternoon I came to a special .5 mile section of the AT that is designed for wheelchair access. It winds through an old farm with beautiful fields and old buildings that has been purchased by the AT organization. While very pretty and everything, it is very unlike any of the AT I have hiked on to date so it is not at all representative of the true trail ... I wonder how much this all cost and if the funds might have been put to better use updating shelters, or building outhouses ... many shelters have only a shovel hikers can take into the woods.When I finally reached the shelter for the night, I found PoliPoli and Plowboy already there. Though we had not seen each other for two days, the trail info network is fairly efficient in that they learned of my whereabouts from other hikers who had passed me by while they were moving along ahead of me, and I had kept abreast of their progress from entries they had left in shelter registers.PhotosDouble Spring Shelter
Date: 2009-06-08
From: Double Spring Shelter

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: broken clouds

We hiked about 4 miles in two hours this morning and then took a break at a road crossing. While there, a family with six children showed up for a day hike. We hiked along with them for about .5 mile and learned of their life. Their children are about 1 to 14 years old and their mother homeschools them. About a mile before we came to our shelter for thenight we came across a very old shelter that is now dubbed an "emergency shelter." Not sure how much use it gets since it is not even listed in the AT guidebooks and is so close to a more modern shelter.After we arrived and got set up for the night, a delightful young couple, Dorain and Virginie, from France rolled in. Their packs had been lost on their flight over from France so they had bought all new stuff upon arrival. They have the latest, greatest and lightest of everything and their "base" weights (everything except food and water) are an astoundingly light seven pounds each ... mine is 14 pounds. We spent a good part of the evening comparing and chatting about gear ... a never ending topic, along with the weather, here on the trail.PhotosA day-hiking family with six childrenPoliPoli, Plowboy, 66A "retired" shelter still available for emergency useThese two fellows, Mule (69) and Gray Rabbit (76), out-hiked me three days in a row.The Frenchies, Dorian and Virginie, with their 7 pound packs
Date: 2009-06-09
From: Abingdon Gap Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: overcast clouds

PoliPoli, Plowboy and I got up at 6:00 and left the shelter at 7:00. They wanted to get to town early so they could take care of town chores before being picked up the next day by a friend for a night off the trail. We covered the 10.2 miles in only 4.5 hours, arriving about 11:30. First stop was a restaurant where we had huge lunches, then on to "The Place" where we are staying .. a $4/night honor system, 30-bed hostel, complete with showers, kitchen, and other amenities hikers need, run by the local Methodist Church. I was lucky again and found an empty room for myself so I can spread out all my stuff. It even has a large table I can use for my gear and as a desk. Naturally, as soon as we got there, we set about showering, doing laundry down the street, and things like that. I also bought new hiking pants and socks at the local outfitter. It was interesting to meet many hikers again who had passed me by in the past few days and were now taking several days off in town.We also met a nice couple from Palm Springs who are originally from Poland. Their trail name is "The Hiking Poles." Later, Kemitt rolled in and I offered to buy her a beer at the only bar in town ... about .4 mile down the main street. While she got cleaned up, a really viiolent thunderstorm came through, evntually knocking out all the electric power in town. By the time Kermitt was cleaned up, the weather had calmed down a bit so we set off in a light drizzle. On the way to the bar, we came across PoliPoli and Plowboy sitting in the dark in the laundromat waiting for the power to come back on and finish their wash cycle. We convinced them that no one was going to steal their dirty hiker clothes so we all proceeded down to the bar. There was a "Closed" sign on the door, but when we tried the door, it opened and found it was not closed at all. Soon after we got some beer, the power came back on and we started thinking about having dinner there. But then, there came a phone call to the owner informing her of a family emergency and the bar was immediately closed! So there we were on the street. We found a Subway sandwich restaurant across the street and the four of us went there to get sandwiches. We then headed back towards the laundromat, stopping in at a gas station to get a bottle of wine, and proceeded to have an elegant dinner of sandwiches and wine in the now operating laundromat. By the time we and the laundry were done, the sun was out and we had a lovely sunset to view from the laundromat window. When we got back to the hostel, we had "dessert" ... Oreo cookies someone had come up with. All in all an interesting day and evening.PhotosFinally leaving Tennessee for VirginiaDamascus is a key trail town on the ATThe first order of business when coming to town is food!Damascus is also on a well-traveled cross-country bicycling routeWe stayed at this hostel run by the local Methodist churchThese are The Hiking Poles, originally from PolandWe met these folks in the laundromat. They were touring around on a motorcyle.Dinner in the laundromat after a power outage