morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-06-17
From: Punchbowl Mountain Crossing

To: US 60 (Lexington Turnpike)
Miles today: 15.9

Part 1:Starting Point - 769.4 (Crossing on Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 76.3) Ending Point - 774.4 (Petites Gap on Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 71.0) Part 2:Starting Point- 795.2 (Punchbowl Mountain Crossing on the Blue Ridge Parkway)Ending Point - 806.1 (US 60 Lexington Turnpike) This morning we started out by making the up the short section that we skipped yesterday. It was raining in the morning and very few hikers were out. It was still raining for the second section of the hike so Sherpa carried a rain poncho and headed into the woods for his hike. Porter went to a nice coffee shop in Lexington, Va for the afternoon. We saw a bear while driving in between the first and second sections of the hike. 4 days in a row of bear sightings!Sherpa met "wood elf", a ridge runner who works for the ATC and educates hikers on Leave no trace principals, at a shelter. He was heading back to the trailhead so Sherpa joined him and had a long chat about lots of things like geneologies, fairies and gnomes, pretty much anything but leave no trace. He was very nice. When we got to the top, he chatted with Porter for awhile and then gave us super awesome hiking stickers that are hard to get. The stickers commemorate 100 years of the national forest service, along with the 2016 AT thru hike. After finishing the hike, we went back to Lexington for the evening. The last three nights, we stayed in peaks of otter campground. Unfortunately, it did not have showers and we were ready for a hotel. We went to a park and cooked a picnic dinner, including homemade biscuits, grilled fish, saut©ed spinach, beans that started out dry (we rehydrated them in a Nalgene bottle all day), and rice. We eat well! We did not expect to see another thruhiker so far from the trail but ran into one named red bear. He was a red head. He got a good meal by stumbling upon us. Thru hikers always seem to show up at meal time, ourselves included.
Date: 2016-06-18
From: Reids Gap VA

To: VA 56 (Crabtree Falls Hwy)
Miles today: 10.7

Starting Point - 842.2 (Reids Gap on Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 13.1)Ending Point - 831.5 (VA 56, crabtree falls highway)Direction of Travel - SouthboundToday was a shorter hiking day. We spent some time in the morning at our hotel getting laundry done, updating the blog, and catching up on sleep. When we looked at the time, there was not enough time left to do the next sequential section (a 25 mile hike with no easy roads to break it up). Instead we hiked ahead with the intent of catching the 25 mile section on Monday. We did the next section up on the trail, which was about an hour drive. The end of the hike was only a few miles from Crabtree falls, the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. We hiked the falls together, a 3.5 mile roundtrip hike that was very steep. Porter's ankle held up reasonably well, but she is still sore from the sprain.Sherpa took the time to smell the roses on today's hike. Literally. There was a patch of wild roses and he decided to sniff them. Speaking of smelling things, you know that feeling you get when you are completely alone in the woods and you let one rip really loud, only to hear a girl laughing about 10 feet away? Well, she wasn't smelling roses, and she wasn't a thru-hiker, so we will never see her again...Tonight we stayed at the quality inn in Lexington, VA. There was a woman pacing up and down the hallways. She was quick to explain that her company gives her an incentive if her pedometer gets 7000 steps per day and she hadn't walked much today because of the travel. We invited her to hike the Appalachian Trail with us as a way to get lots of steps. She politely declined.
Date: 2016-06-19
From: VA 56 (Crabtree Falls Hwy)

To: Off Trail
Miles today: 0.0

Today we enjoyed our Sunday off going to a church in Lexington, va. The words of our campground friends from the week before, sadly, sum it up best. "Put hay in it, that's not a church, just a building." They had maybe a dozen members, no pastor and a building that could easily hold over 400. We have no idea what happened but the church was no more than a pretty building. We spent the afternoon at Natural Bridge. It was pretty to wander around the grounds. We rested plenty today because tomorrow is going to be 25 miles of fun!
Date: 2016-06-20
From: US 60

To: VA 56 - Crabtree Falls Highway
Miles today: 25.4
Weather: clear sky

Starting Point: 806.1 - US 60 (Lexington)Ending Point: 831.5 - VA 56 Crabtree Falls HighwayToday is the summer solstice which is the longest day of the year. This means a long day of hiking is in order. We car camped near the trailhead to get an early start on this 25 mile day which we thought had no road crossings. Boyscouts let us know that a certain dirt road was passable by car so we had lunch together after 6 miles, which we appreciated. During the first few miles, Sherpa met an eagle scout who couldn't make top ramen. Fellow scouts were ready to strip him of some merit badge no doubt.Meanwhile, Porter was chatting with a hiker while waiting for Sherpa to come back down the mountain. The hiker was 21 but looked older, like he had lived a hard life. He made it to trail days last year before getting arrested while partying. This year he is just along for the pot and skips a lot of sections. He seems to be just moral support for his friends. He brought up Noro virus and mentioned that he knows people get sick when they pass the pipe so he gets his lighter out and steralizes the end before taking a puff. Pretty creative for a druggy.Sherpa ran into bowfire early in his afternoon hike and the two walked together most of the rest of the day. He is a 21 year old bicyclist who hasn't quite settled down yet in life. He had two friends that quit recently and he is really bummed but has been able to improve his mileage solo hiking. In fact, the day they told him, he didn't know what to do so he walked 52 miles before sleeping! Sherpa walked with him most of the last 19 miles. They chatted about everything from medicinal marijuana, to the ark of the covenant, to the orthodox practice of praying to saints. Having someone to talk to really makes the time go by faster and more enjoyably. Sherpa is looking forward to having Porter join him back on the trail.For dinner we cooked a whole chicken over the fire! Porter likes to challenge Sherpa when she buys groceries. When she came home with a whole chicken, it was on! Delicious!
Date: 2016-06-21
From: Reid's Gap

To: Rockfish Gap
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Starting Point: 842.2 - Reid's GapEnding Point: 861.3 - Rockfish GapToday was an exceptional day for wildlife sightings! Early in the day, Sherpa crossed paths with a rare albino North American bipedal primate! Later Porter surprised Sherpa by meeting him on an unmarked trail that was not in the guidebook. She had just seen a bear and was really excited because it was the first one she had seen while hiking. Together as they retraced her steps they saw three more bears together. Later, he saw another bear. And driving to a camp site, the saw another bear in the road. It was a 6 bear day!Now, back to the White ape. Today is national pervert day. Also known as hike naked day. For some thruhikers it is a novelty to salute their shorts for a mile or two. The majority, however, do not participate. Opinions of the subject range from amusement to mild annoyance. The problem with this post Victorian paganism isn't the thru hikers. It is the creepy naturalists who come out of the woodworks to offer a different type of trail magic than we are used to. When Sherpa crossed paths with one of these animals, he was just leaving a road crossing where a family including a father, mother, young boy, and two teenage daughters were having lunch. After lunch their plan was to hike up the Appalachian Trail where they likely also had and unfortunate sighting. We sure hope that bear spray works on the trail apes as well!Back to the bears, we learned at a visitor center today that when the black bears get too friendly, the park rangers use pellet guns to untame the Bears. Poor things. Most bears that we run across don't seem to be too frightened by people, and most people don't seem to be too frightened by the bears. There is a simple solution that doesn't require pellet guns. What if the bears started carrying human spray? Just try to picture yogi the bear with a skunk in each arm. Can't you hear him approaching one of the naturalists... "Back off or I'll poke this skunk in his belly button!"
Date: 2016-06-22
From: Dundo Group Campground

To: Rockfish Gap
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: broken clouds

Starting Point: Rockfish Gap 861.3Ending Point: Dundo Campground - 884.9Today Sherpa began hiking on the skyline drive in Shenandoah national park. The trail crosses the road a lot. Today we saw each other 13 times! Almost every mile... The trail used to run where the road is now and was later relocated to kind of straddle it. Some hikers still just hike the road. They call it "retro blazing" when you hike where the trail used to be. Bowfire was planning a retro hike for instance.Sherpa met kite, a ridgerunner who hiked the Appalachian Trail back in 2010 with his wife. Even back then, when the trail was much less busy, he chose to do a flip-flop hike to avoid the crowds. A flip flop generally means starting somewhere other than Springer Mountain Georgia, hiking north ahead of the crowds, and coming back later in the season to do the southern part of the trail. If we had it to do over, we would strongly consider a modified hike. It is so much nicer now that most of the party crowd has dissipated.For about 2 miles of the trail today, Sherpa got hiccups. Now these were not your mild, gentle, "fruit of the Spirit" hiccups. These were violent, loud, and disruptive. It's always poor taste to laugh at someone to their face, but upon hearing one of his hiccups some random girl along the trail just started laughing at him. He tried running, to no avail. He tried holding his breath and avoided passing out successfully, but the hiccups remained. When he met Porter at a road crossing, she knew just the trick. People have off buttons for hiccuping. No need to drink water from a cup upside down, scare yourself, hold your breath, etc. Just try poking the afflicted person in the belly button! Oh it was aweful, he would rather still have hiccups. Sherpa's Kryptonite is getting poked in the belly button.
Date: 2016-06-24
From: Dundo Campground

To: Skyline Drive Mile 66.7
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: light rain

Starting Point- Skyline Drive MP 66.7 - 905.5Ending Point- Dundo Campground - 884.9This morning we enjoyed fellowship our Nepalese hosts and old roommate over some ginger, pepper, garlic, and cilantro scrambled eggs. We said our see you laters over a long morning, grabbed some groceries, and drove back from Charlottesville to the Shenandoah mountains, resuming our northbound hike at 1pm. Today's section is a 20 mile southbound section which will put us back at the campground where we started hiking from on Wednesday. Early in the hike, someone stopped for a picture of Sherpa's green shorts. Soon after, three more section hikers named Gangster lipstick and scout took Sherpas picture as part of a scavenger hunt. They were very excited to get a picture of a thruhiker without a shirt on (supposedly it was worth bonus points...)Near the top of a mountain, Sherpa found a small snapping turtle resting in the middle of the trail. This little guy was nowhere near a water source. Perhaps a hiker had relocated him from his natural habitat? In any case Sherpa carefully picked the critter up (they bite!) and brought him to Porter who slack packed him to an area with water. She drove him to a nearby stream and placed him well away from any trail crossings where he might accidentally catch a hitchhike to the middle of nowhere again. Some day hikers saw her and asked, what's in the shoe box (we had put him in one for safe transport)? Upon showing him, the lady exclaimed to herself audibly several times, "what an angel", referring to Porter.While at a road crossing enjoying snacks, we met a hiker named crockamole. After chatting with him for a few minutes about a copperhead we had seen near where he was standing, we asked if he was a southbounder, perceiving from his gear and smell that he was a thruhiker. He replied, "I hope not!" Followed by several expletives upon realization that he had walked about two miles in the wrong direction. Poor guy. The last four miles had a special bonus- cold pouring rain! Always fun to end the day drenched. Probably God's way of telling thruhikers that they need a shower. Tempted to move fast to get through it, Sherpa thought to himself, what's the worst thing that could happen? We had heard a story from a ranger about a girl who had shamefully ended her hike by stepping into a puddle that was too deep. The result was that she broke her ankle, causing her to go into shock, during which she lost control of her bladder muscles. That was the condition the ranger found her in. Worst that could happen? Embarrassing loss of containment and broken bones. No thanks. He took his time despite the inclement conditions and made it safely to the rendezvous.
Date: 2016-06-25
From: Skyline Drive Mile 66.7

To: Hawksbill Gap
Miles today: 23.1

Starting Point- MP 66.7 - 905.5Ending Point- Hawksbill Gap - 928.6 Sherpa chatted with a few day hikers this morning. The inevitable question hit, " you goin all the way" followed by instant celebrity status. But the highlight of the 1st half of the hike was eating homemade grilled cheese sandwiches in a picnic area near the trail. Nothing quite like having a picnic together in a national park. After lunch, we met at bear fence trailhead for a short blue blaze (side trail) that passed through a nice rock scramble up to a 360 degree view of the park. One couple we passed joked that their daughter was trying to cash in on their life insurance by bringing them up there. It was treacherous. They also comented on Porter's wardrobe choice for the day. She chose to wear her hiking skirt. The woman was impressed stating "Look at her in the skirt! She must be Wonder Woman to be climbing over these rocks in a skirt!"The evening brought a different type of experience. So aside from the occasional joke about smelly through hikers, we haven't really mentioned much in this blog about hygiene. The standards of cleanliness vary greatly among thru hikers. What we are about to describe is probably an extreme, and may cause nausea in pregnant women and small children so reader beware. We ran into a hiker today that we had last seen around 600 miles ago on the trail. He was instantly recognizable from behind by his familiar odor. It was quite fun to catch up with him, but his hygiene practices are disturbing. His last bath seems to have been at Fontana dam, which is before the smoky mountains near the border of Georgia. Coincidentally, this was also the last time he did laundry. Curious about his socks, he confessed, "yeah, I have pretty much never washed them. They're really stiff, but they seem to work still." Then came the bombshell, "I think I have pinworms, it itched so bad last night that I barely slept. I haven't looked yet. It's a difficult angle for me. I am considering take a picture¢¦". Sherpa tried to be helpful and offered up some comforting words "some hikers don't wear underwear, maybe that would help with itching?" The hiker was quick to jump in with the following "oh yeah I got rid of my underwear a long time ago too. But I think I got rid of them too late. I have a fungal infection I am fighting too." Sherpa chimed in again, "hygiene is really important. You really ought to consider bathing occasionally and rinsing your clothes from time to time". He asked, very sincerely, "do you think so? Maybe I will try that." Some hikers try to look the homeless or hippy part by not shaving or sporting dreadlocks, but he really embraces it!
Date: 2016-06-26
From: Off Trail

To: Off Trail
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Today was our 6th and last Sunday in a row that we were able to zero together while Porters ankle was recovering. Last night we splurged and enjoyed a nice night in the big meadows national park lodge. Today we were once again able to enjoy fellowship with believers. There was the welcoming church of Christ in Erwin 6 weeks ago, then the very much alive first baptist church in Damascus, the fire and brimstone country church near Bland, the church whose flame was flickering in Roanoke, the very dead church in Lexington, and today we enjoyed fellowship with christian ministry in the national park, an interdenominational ministry run mostly by college students which provides a Christian service to visitors of our national parks. They were a nice bunch. Probably the only time we will ever attend a church service where the worship team has just one instrument, a lonely ukulele. We had a very relaxed day, headed to a campsite early with the intent of just relaxing. If you have been following us for any length of time, you probably realize that we aren't very good at that. Despite our best efforts to the contrary, we still stumbled upon some excitement. The first site in the campground had a large contraption labeled "bear trap". We decided to choose a site as far away from it as possible. After getting our tent setup, we saw a bear in our neighbors campsite! It was an opportunistic cub, not more than a year old, minding his own business! After a few minutes, a few rangers drove by. We showed them a picture of the cute little guy. Their eyes lit up like a bunch of FBI agents getting a tip on some terrorists whereabouts. Soon more showed up with tranquilizers and they vanished into the woods behind the site, hot on the bear's tracks. Apparently they had been driving around looking for the little troublemaker for 8 hours! Luckily for the bear, it was almost 5pm and it would have been a lot of work to relocate the critter tonight. They claimed he was too skittish so Instead they just chased him away. We aren't convinced, they were easily within a few yards of him. They then wished us a goodnight and advised us to yell if we see him.
Date: 2016-06-27
From: Hawksbill Gap - 928.6

To: Little Hogback Overlook - 954
Miles today: 25.4
Weather: light rain

So we overheard a tourist asking a park ranger, "where can I hike where I won't see a bear?" He gave a one word answer, "home". This morning we met at a busy store along the trail on the skyline drive called a wayside. It is a popular place to go because they have world famous blackberry milkshakes. They had ran out, and the resupply truck was being unloaded as we arrived. Apparently the shakes are popular with the Bears too because just as a jubilant northbound emerged victorious with a shake, a big bear came out of the woods right across the parking lot. We saw a total of 6 bears today, all along the road. Our favorite was a cub and its mom. The nearby mom growled something in bear to her cub that translated pretty well into any language "get back here, there's humans nearby." It was supposed to rain in the afternoon but thankfully it missed us. The down side was that we didn't get cooled off or rinsed off... and unfortunately, our national park campground, Matthews arm, did not have showers. It worked out though, because we hiked southbound from it towards the big meadows campground, which does have showers, and took them at the end of the day. When we made it back to our campsite, we had a new neighbor. Her trail name was rapunzel because she had a long braid of hair. She had hiked a lot on the AT but never as a thru hiker. We chatted a bit about all the gnats and she very kindly gave Porter her headband, which was treated with permethrin to help keep bugs out of her eyes. What a nice lady.On the trail, Sherpa walked with Captain Planet for about an hour. Captain Planet was excited because he had heard of us but hadn't met us yet. With all the slack packing we have become quite familiar to lots of thru hikers. The conversation centered around the history of Shenandoah national park, trail life in general and how you grow as a result of walking it. Captain Planet said he had gained patience and humility, and Reflecting on how the park was built by FDR's CCC (government jobs to keep people employed during the depression era), he commented, "I would join if they still had it." Our friend who just graduated from the army told us that the bootcamp was the perfect place for people lacking direction. It would be nice if there was a public works program available to young people, but thankfully our country isn't desperate enough to have to have anything like that especially when you consider places like Israel where there is mandatory military service for everyone just so they can maintain their right to exist.
Date: 2016-06-28
From: Little Hogback Overlook - 954

To: VA 55 Manassas Gap - 977.3
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we started near mt Marshall, the last mountain above 3000 feet until Massachussettes. The Appalachian range really flattens out in the middle. Low elevations combined with summer heat, bugs, and infrequent bathing should make for a real treat. After hiking about 15 miles, the journey took us out of Shenandoah National Park where we continued for another 10. Our goal has been to reach Harper's ferry, the unofficial halfway point and headquarters for the ATC in June. While Sherpa was putting in the miles today, Porter saw a momma bear with her two cubs from the car. She stopped and watched them for awhile. No other cars came, it was like a special treat just for her. Eventually they wandered out of sight of the sky line drive. Thank God for the going away present from Shenandoah!We decided to camp in a rustic campground tonight. Instead of bath houses, they have a dumpy privy. Saw a friendly looking mouse guarding the toilet hole. While in the parking lot there was a car full of smoke. A bunch of young kids piled out of it shouting "my car is on fire!" Curious, Sherpa walked over only to discover that they had used an e-cigarette to fill the car with smoke. They called it a "hotbox vape" and told us that it is something that kids do these days. Apparently, they got so much smoke in the car, they could not even see each other. They encouraged us to try it. Needless to say, that will not be happening.