morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-04-17
From: Waynesboro

To: Elkton
Miles today: 40.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The 100 mile segment through SNP promised to be a luxurious example of accessibility, since Skyline Drive intersects the trail 29 times. There was talk of kiosks for re supply and expectations of signage that only a park usually maintains. In the previous 100 miles the Blue Ridge Parkway (same road) had occasionally intersected the trail as well. This winding road was prone to fogging and could not be depended on for access, even on normally clear days. We had relocated our hotel to somewhere outside Elkin, which was a bit less than halfway through the park. I estimated two 20 mile hiking days would put me close to the Elkin entrance and that we could stay there for my entire in park segment. That almost worked. The hiking grades were easier than last weeks but still had plenty ups and down, playing regularly above 3000 ft. The terrain started out rocky but turned into really nice trail most of the time. It made for pleasant hiking. The rain came after two days but was well predicted by the local news. There were two rain days during our week stay and we rode out both heavy afternoon and evening storms safely inside. While I dashed off the miles between the drops my wife explored the local attractions. She has her own blog to recount her travels. Each day she would meet me on time at our appointed spot and wish me back to the motel for a meal and some inane minimal tv. One hiker coined a name for what I was doing: "hotel hiking". Life was good.
Date: 2015-04-21
From: Luray

To: thornton gap
Miles today: 40.0
Weather: clear sky

The SNP continued to live up to expectations. The trail was surprising sparse of hikers even on the weekend and even though the parking lots and overlooks had lots of cars. Horse trails criss crossed the trail and several campsites and cabins supplemented the shelters, which are called hits in the SNP. There was one store along the way but no other sign of kiosks to buy snacks or supplies. No matter. My pack was kept well supplied with at least a days food in case I needed to spend a night on the mountain. I would typically go thru my trail snacks (snickers, kit Kay's, peanut bars, fruit snacks, beef jerky, and Mary Janes) along wit a couple of liters of water and a bottle of Gatorade.   I replenished these resources each night. The fourth hiking day in the park took me to Thornton Gap, a hike that ended up going over the Pinnacle up at 3600 ft. The climb was very rocky and I felt sorry for one family I found up there who had not quite reached the top, looking for Mary's Rock, and had not considered the difficulty in descending without sticks. I wouldn't have felt safe and they had a kid and a dog. On our last night in Elkin we met Faith, who had lost her knees and had somehow hobbled out of the park 4 miles to the motel. With rain in the forecast for the next day we decided to zero and take Faith to Harpers Ferry with us to a hostel there. It was our first chance to return some trail magic and it felt good and right to do. It did end up raining and storming late that afternoon, which helped justify the zero, but it did require an additional long commute the next day back to Thornton Gap which was still well inside the SNP.
Date: 2015-04-24
From: thornton gap

To: I66 Tucker Lane
Miles today: 37.0

The next two days I spent walking out of SNP. Since we had moved our hotel to Charles Town that required some 1.5 hour commutes back inside SNP early in the morning. My wife decided to spend one of those days in Luray at the caverns, and the other day in Front Royal at some museums. The hiking was done in cool weather with easy terrain and grades. I saw white tail deer, turkey, and an owl, all early in the mornings. Hotel hiking has its pros and cons. The pros outnumber the cons unless you love camping or dislike taking showers. Last year I tried to do HH without a car and didn't do too bad. When I reached a town I would try to stay multiple nights and hike into town fro both south and north, using shuttles to move me around. This was costly but the shuttle drivers all seemed to be good old boys that had great personalities. They had found an easy way to make extra bucks while being much appreciated by the hikers. With my wife and a car HH has become much easier. In two weeks on the trail I have only stayed on the mountain once. There are new logistics of course. I now try to walk between parking lots, or at least between points on the trail that have known GPS coordinates. The trail guide tells us those. We also have to agree on default pickup times since there is no guarantee there will be cell coverage on either end of our link. I do try to text changes to my ETA but always want to be there before she is to keep her from waiting alone in remote parking lots.And then there is fog. Fog on the mountain can foil the best of plans, making pickup impossible. I carry a full pack every day, just in case I need to stay in a shelter or camp. I have enough food for several days but it might not be enough to fill me up, especially since I am becoming used to a hot dinner every night. We have been getting weekly rates for motels and moving our act to halve the commutes. So far we have spent a week in Waynesboro, Elkin and now Charles Town. Our next stop is Carlisle PA.
Date: 2015-04-25
From: I66 Tucker Lane

To: none
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Here is what happened the first two weeks. We had planned on getting through the SNP even though that was less than the hoped for 110 miles/wk. as you can see we made it. 4/11 20 miles. Cornelius Cove shelter to James river. 4/12 22 miles. James river to Bueno Vista US60.4/13 18 miles. Last leg before SNP (skipped ahead because rain is coming). 4/14 zero day due to thunderstorms. Found next hotel in Elkton. 4/15 20 miles. US60 to Priest shelter (Stayed on mountain while wife moved to Elkton). 4/16 20 miles. Priest to gap on BRP where I skipped ahead on Monday. 4/17 20 miles. SNP entrance to halfway to Elkton entrance. 4/18 18 miles to Elkton entrance.4/19 zero due to expected rain. Found next hotel in Charles Town. 4/20 21 miles Elkton entrance to Thornton gap4/21 20 miles. Thornton gap to Roach gap. 4/22 zero day used to move to Charles Town. Rain was expected and a brief severe storm did develop around noon. 4/23 20 miles. Roach gap almost to Compton gap. . 4/24 18 miles. Out of SNP to I66 Tucker Lane.
Date: 2015-04-26
From: none

To: none
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Eating establishments in Charles Town had a high bar to overcome. Waynesboro had several good local places, the best of which was Weazies Kitchen. So finding the Mountain View Diner just a few blocks from the motel was a godsend. Huge servings, great taste and reasonable prices even got me to buy their tee shirt. That was the good. The bad was not really a place but rather an opportunity lost. We had been planning a celebration for passing 1000 miles and had picked out a steak joint (Johns) along hwy 340 that we would pass every day. We didn't get to try it because my wife got sick. That night I ended getting takeout from a Long John Silver that was ineptly managed. They were conjoined with an A&W but didn't have many of their menu options in stock, including root beer.The ugly concerned a place I should have known better about. Spoiler Alert! There is rant coming. For some reason my wife wanted to go to Applebee's on our last day in Charles Town. Applebee's already is on my shit list for halting their all you can eat soup and salad a few years ago before removing it from the menu. They just refused to serve it one day. Anyway, they did still have a great spinach salad on their current lunch menu. Unfortunately we got their 10 minutes after the lunch special ended. I asked the just hired waitress if their was some way for me to order that salad spa carte. After consulting with the manager she came back with the only option. I could order a $12 Thai salad and they could remove the shrimp but still charge me full price for a salad that cost about $4 during lunch. I declined the offer and later asked to speak with the manager whom had come up with that solution. By this time the poor waitress was fearing for her job (it was her second day). When the manager finally came out she lied about her decision and inflamed the waitress for poorly communicating my request. During our talk she admitted the spinach salad was a favorite item but that there was no way to order it after lunch hours. What kind of management is that? We have now crossed Applebee's off our dining list.
Date: 2015-04-27
From: Tuckers Lane

To: harpers ferry
Miles today: 46.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The journey into HF divided into three day hikes of 12, 14, and 20 miles. Because of potential rain on Sunday I decided to tackle the 14 mile middle segment first, from Ashby gap to Snickers gap, then backtrack the 12 miles from Ashby to Tucker Lane on the day where PM rain was forecast. That cleared Monday for a celebratory trek into historic Harpers Ferry. This all worked as expected. The middle section contained the bulk of a feature known as the roller coaster. This is a series of eight 450-500 ft steep hills in succession. Note that the highest hill in Austin is about 350 ft. Boy was that fun!While backtracking the short section I met several other hikers that I would continue to run into later. Red Feather is a friendly Canadian gal who has since past me because she does large miles. Toto and Tweet, Hiking Vikings, Twisted, and Lucky were others. Hiking Vikings are a couple who were engaged on Macaffee Bluff and seem inseparable. Twisted turns out to be from Sheboygan but I didn't know that the several times we met. I hope to meet him again. Lucky evidently is hiking with a hernia and supporting belt, which he sometimes loses. Even so he is churning out big miles. There is one southbound hiker I met just before I descended down into HF. Without a trail name he had just started his trek to Georgia and was sitting on a rock 3 miles out of HF asking about the next available water source. He was a heavy guy and looked in over his head as he approached the beginning of the roller coaster. I hope he has the patience to develop his trail legs and trail awareness without giving up. This is no picnic for anyone at the start. My wife was waiting in HF as I crossed the 340 bridge. She did not like the town much because the people she met, including those at the ATC, were not friendly. In fact she didn't much like West Virginia because the drivers honk for any and all reasons. This makes her very nervous. I expected the trait would continue as we move north but Pennsylvania does appear better. Time will tell.
Date: 2015-05-08
From: Startlesville PA

To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Here are the statistics for week 3 and 4:4/25 14 miles. From Ashby gap to Snickers gap (most of the roller coaster).4/26 12 miles. Backwards from Ashby gap to Tucker Lane. 4/27 20 miles. Snickers gap into Harpers Ferry. 4/28 20 miles. Backwards into Harpers Ferry from Maryland. 4/29 19 miles. Forward to Pen Mar park. 4/30 15 miles. Pen Mar park to Rocky Mountain Shelter (misty sick). 5/1 22 miles. Shelter to Furnace Gap (AT museum). 5/2 16 miles. Furnace gap to Boiling Springs. 5/3 13 miles. PA 850 backwards to Boiling Springs. 5/4 16 miles. PA 850 to past Duncannon. 5/5 9 miles. Forward to Cross Creek. 5/6 16 miles. Cross Creek to Lickdale. 5/7 13 miles. Lickdale to Pine Grove (501). 5/8 24 miles. 501 to Port Clinton.
Date: 2015-05-09
From: Port Clinton

To: Palmerton
Miles today: 20.0

Pennsylvania is known as "the rock pile" to AT hikers. It is sometimes well deserved. I suspect the most tedious and possibly dangerous example is quickly coming upon me. The Superfund of Palmerton. This feature is a 1000 ft almost vertical climb amongst bare rocks. Evidently a zinc mine destroyed all the vegetation in the area, exposing the cliff to the elements. I have recently descended the near vertical drop into Port Clinton under dry conditions and it required extreme caution. One slip in the leaves could have been a disaster. At least the Superfund will be a climb, requiring caution and strength but hopefully not as instantly perilous. I have been considering this climb for weeks, ever since seeing it on the trail guide. I had also seen remarks that there was a detour path for the feint of heart. But now, as the climb is just days away, I see my mistake. The detour is not around the climb. It is around a stretch of tricky boulders after the climb. This could make next Monday a bitch of a day. Another hiker told me he left someone half up that climb frozen with fear, unable to move or even talk. Wish me luck.
Date: 2015-05-10
From: port clinton

To: Asheville road
Miles today: 30.0
Weather: light rain

The two days before tackling the Palmerton climb were relatively uneventful; The Superfund climb was on my mind. The first day was spent walking 14 miles back into Port Clinton. This let me see all the thru hikers that have been on my heels for weeks: Red Feather, Yoyo, Tweet, Lucky, and Temper. No sign of Twisted. The second day took me to a com tower on Asheville road, 5 miles from Lehigh gap and the Superfund. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. I fell amongst the rocks and evidently lost my unopened Gatorade. Hopefully someone enjoyed it. A lady gave me a cold water up on Bake Oven Knob so I guess things sometimes even out. I am getting excited about climbing the cliffs tomorrow.
Date: 2015-05-15
From: wind gap

To: unionville
Miles today: 75.0
Weather: haze

For four days we have been staying in the Poconos, a prestige vacation spot for Easterners. Our fancy hotel was a Days Inn in Delaware Water Gap. The Delaware river is the main feature here with camps and businesses suited to weekenders looking for a country retreat from the city. Traffic increased on the weekend. During this period I have hiked from Wind Gap to Unionville, a beautiful stretch of forest that at time included lakes, overlooks and of course the ever present rocks. We have left Pennsylvania for New Jersey but the rocks have barely abated. The drivers have changed though, mostly for the worse. They are always in hurry and punish those who are slow to make decisions. My wife is a nervous wreck while driving here. There is one roundabout that she particularly dreads.While here I developed a schedule for completing the trip. Since I am writing this a few days into that schedule I can tell you it isn't working out. New York has thrown us for a loop. More on that later; it definitely deserves its own ranting.
Date: 2015-05-16
From: port clinton

To: sunrise mountain overlook
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

5/9/15 14 miles. Backwards into Port Clinton. 5/10/15 20 miles. Forwards to Asheville road. This is the foreplay day. 5/11/15 10 miles. Climb Palmerton rocks. This is the climax day. 5/12/15 16 miles. Little gap to Wind gap. This is the afterglow day. 5/13/15 19 miles. Wind gap to Delaware Water Gap. 5/14/15 17 miles. Backwards from Blue Mtn road to Delaware Water gap. 5/15/15 16 miles. Blue Mtn road to Sunrise Mtn overlook.
Date: 2015-05-17
From: Unionville

To: Hudson River
Miles today: 57.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The exit strategy seemed necessary to help hotel planning. Our four night stay in the Poconos was not perfectly placed from a shuttle standpoint; the drives forward quickly grew to vet an hour one way. As week five drew to a close I was a long days hike from Unionville but could conceive of an aggressive seven day plan to finish at the end of week six. Four 20 mile days and three 16 mile days would do it. This was important because we might avoid the memorial weekend crunch; a hotel price and availability problem. Given the plan my wife was able to get a three day hotel in Harriman NY, just long enough to get me to the Hudson River. The hotel was also ideally situated to split shuttle times before and after the hotel. All seemed good. But New York terrain has not cooperated. I made the first 21 mile hike OK into Unionville but used a lot of energy on the next day's 16 mile segment up the "stairway to heaven". This was still New Jersey but the profile of very steep rocky cliffs was showing up. They would come out of nowhere. The third segment, which actually entered New York did me in. Twenty one miles of jutting rocks and cliffs dropped my hiking rate to under two miles per hour. It was my longest day of the trip, ending with a ridiculously steep drop to Arden Valley road and the safety of the car. On this day I lost the trail twice, both times at the base of cliffs that had been well blazed until the cliff. In NY there are paths everywhere, a myriad of possibilities. On both of these occasions I picked a difficult climb that turned out to not be the AT. It is always difficult to accept going back down. You keep thinking the blaze is just ahead, especially if you're on a worn trail. That hike was Monday 5/18. With rain coming on Tuesday I could not recover for another 20+ day of rocks down to the Hudson. That was what the schedule called for. Instead we extended our stay a night and did a modest five mile backward hike to the same parking lot, cutting down the Wednesday hike to 14 miles. I hope that works out. So as of now our exit plan consists of four more hiking days. One day down to the Hudson followed by three days to Connecticut. I now have maybe too much respect for the NY portion of the trail so the schedule still seems aggressive, even with a near zero day today.
Date: 2015-05-18
From: Hudson River

To: Hudson river
Miles today: 0.0

Everything in NY is illegal; people just choose to ignore whatever laws they want to. Hitch hiking and camping are illegal but there are tents all over. Campfires are illegal but fire pits abound. Cars in NY might be equipped with turn signals but the drivers have learned not to use them; it gives other drivers too much info. At our hotel there is a entrance road with a corner gas station right on the corner. It is evidently completely acceptable to partially pull out of the gas station and block the road while waiting for the light to change. No one seems to mind or consider trusting other drivers to let you in. This is a mercenary place to live. I feel sorry for the thru hikers. They just stay in Shelters which are about 14 miles apart. The water in the streams is ugly; filled with scum and flowing over blackened or yellowed rocks. The trails are well blazed but there are too many side trails and every curve has multiple shortcuts, ruining the character of the path. I guess this is the result of too many people using a resource without regard to maintaining its form. Just do whatever you want whenever you can get away with it. I am not sure why the trails in NY do not get more lip service from other hikers. Pennsylvania is famous as the rock pile but the rock cliffs here are worse. I could average 2.5 mph in Penn but can't do better than 2 mph here so far. This makes for long and energy sapping days. The NY AT deserves more respect.
Date: 2015-05-20
From: Arden Valley Road

To: Hudson River
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today I had the privilege of hiking most of the morning with Lucky, an extraordinary 72 year old thru hiker. I first met him north of SNP and have been going at the same pace for over a month. Since my pace is over 110 miles/wk that is a fairly fast pace. He has since passed me and is now well into Connecticut, almost certainly destined to make Katahdin in mid July. He is a dedicated hiker, showing all the quality traits that make for successful thru hike. We discussed delayed gratification and commiserated about attributes of the trail that we liked or disliked. I would have liked to have this man as a friend and hiking companion.A few days from now I will find a water filter and bag on the trail. It will turn out to have been dropped by Lucky who was only an hour or so ahead of me at the time. I will not catch up to him because my hike will end at the NY state line. Such is life.
Date: 2015-05-22
From: Hudson river

To: depot road
Miles today: 110.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Week six was originally scheduled to get us to the Connecticut border. It fell one hike short. 5/16/15 21 miles. From Sunrise overlook to Unionville. 5/17/15 16 miles. Unionville Waikill River to somewhere past the Stairway to Heaven. 5/18/15 21 miles. Bitch of a day thru rock scrambles and a ladder. This hike affected my mental outlook for the worse. 5/19/15 5 miles back from Arden Valley road to the interstate. Needed to break up the planned 20 mile hike to the Hudson because I was beat up from the previous day. 5/20/15 14 miles. Arden Valley Road to Hudson River. 5/21/15 16 miles. Hudson River to Dennytown road. 5/22/15 21 miles. Dennytown road to Depot Road. Week 7: 5/23/15 17 miles. Depot road to Hoyt road, which is also the Connecticut border.
Date: 2015-05-23
From: depot road

To: hoyt road
Miles today: 16.5

the moment had come, after six weeks of hiking, almost four weeks since the last zero day. We are smack into Memorial weekend but it's a beautiful clear summer like day. The profile is not bad and there are some novel features: nuclear lake and an actual train station. The actual terrain turned out even better than the profile suggested. There were swamps with walkways and meadows ( I love walking through meadows). The best part of the day though turned out to be the people. I met several hikers going south that gave me final status on Lucky, Temper, Vikings, and Twisted. I wish them continual success I also met an energetic young hiker who had taken the train from NY to hike into Connecticut. She did not have a trail name but knew mine meant a card game. Turns out she comes from Madison and knows Sheepshead. We walked together for two hours, to within a mile of my final pickup. She tried on a few card game related trail names for size and ended up picking a great one: Queen of Spades. Perfect since it means nothing to anyone not familia with Sheepshead. I left her at the Wiley Shelter with Crockman, who is hiking wearing guess what kind of shoes. He says they wear phenomenally well. Reaching the border was a bit bittersweet, peering north down the trail where all my thru hiker friends had gone just hours before. I was ready to stop hiking and happy to know the final and probably hardest third would still be here for us in future years. It has been an event packed six plus weeks and will take a bit more time to fully readjust my frame of mind from being a hiker back to just a walker. I may have addition logs during the return trip home but fully expect to pick the blog up again when we return next year. Thanks for reading this and waiting for the next phase of my AT trek.
Date: 2016-04-29
From: Austin TX

To: Hartford CT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Juices are flowing as I await my Early May trip back east to start my final leg of the trail. I have a shuttle scheduled to get from the Hartford airport to Salisburg, followed by a shuttle the next morning back to Hoyt Rd on the CT border, where I ended last year's adventure. This year should be exciting because of the Whites and Maine. More later.
Date: 2016-05-12
From: Salisbury CT

To: Hoyt Rd
Miles today: 0.3
Weather: few clouds

Plane trip from Austin to Hartford went smoothly. I am a bit miffed at AA for not having a bag to put my pack in.   It got thru OK though, as did Vanessa my shuttler. I puddled around Salisburg and walked a few tents of a mile on the AT between the two roads into town. Just to get a feel for being back here. It was a beautiful day. Not so much tomorrow. Getting shuttled early to the NY/CT border to pick up where I left off last year. Going to be rain. I am hoping to make 45 miles in two days to end up back here on Saturday night. We'll see. There seems to be drama this year in several areas. Or maybe it's just Vanessa and the Salibury folk. Too vague to discuss right now. Maybe later after I am long gone.