morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-06-11
From: Bailey Gap Shelter

To: Laurel Creek Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: broken clouds

Another thunderstorm came through in the middle of the night and I had to get up to make some adjustments to the tarp so that rain would stop splashing in my face. I managed to fall back asleep, and in the morning I considered the night quite successful because I was not only well-rested, but dry! Small victories! Still, the experience gave me another bout of "tent-envy"...Sometimes having a tarp is stressful...I discovered my phone got wet in the rain yesterday...It started freaking out doing all sorts of crazy things, so I took it apart, wiped it off, and put it in the bag that I keep my toilet paper in and this morning, when I got it out, it worked! What a relief!After an interrupted night, I slept in and had a relaxing morning in camp, reading and journaling, which was so nice. It was 11:45 by the time I got on the trail. Mercifully, it didn't rain during the day, but the trail was still muddy and the rocks were quite slippery--and plentiful--so I suppose it was inevitable that I had my second fall of the trip that day. When I slipped, my arm extended awkwardly back behind me, and at first I thought I really did something bad to it because it hurt a lot, but after a quick self-assessment I realized nothing seriously had happened, so I just kept hiking. Even if I had broken it, I told myself, I would have still kept hiking since I only really need legs to hike!The trail in this section was surrounded by beautiful blooming mountain laurel. It also had TRAIL MAGIC! Oranges, pop, and oatmeal cream pies (which for some reason I really love to eat on the trail!)...Yum. When I got into the shelter I saw SIS again! Ketchup, a guy I hadn't seen since Kincora Hostel, was also there, so it was a fun reunion. I also met a section hiker about my same age named Jaybird who is an architect from New Orleans, who seemed interesting and smart and funny...a refreshing change from some of the people I had met on the trail that week. Jaybird, SIS, and I stayed in the shelter together...just feeling too lazy or tired to put up the tarp again.
Date: 2013-06-12
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: haze

Today was not my best day. I didn't sleep well in the shelter at Laurel Creek because the no-see-ums were biting us. Still, I intended to hike 22.5 miles and started off feeling good. Got some TRAIL MAGIC--cold lemonade!--and took some photos under the Kieffer Oak tree, the largest tree on the AT in the south, which is over 18 feet around and at least 300 years old. After that it was like I had no energy left. I felt a headache come on, probably from dehydration and the heat, and so around 2pm I decided to take an extended break, drink some water, relax and read. It felt good. After that I decided to just go to the Niday shelter which would make it a 12 mile day...kinda seems lazy but I'm okay with that...and I'm glad I did because Piper showed up that night! Hadn't really seen her since Hot Springs. Jaybird and SIS also stopped there. I think it was a hard day for all of us...the terrain was flat but it was still challenging since we had some difficult rocks to work our way across.
Date: 2013-06-13
From: Niday Shelter

To: Four Pines Hostel, Catawba
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: moderate rain

I had a lovely morning hike. As I slowly made my way up a mountain, I daydreamed and imagined what I would do if I opened a B&B/Hostel/Retreat Center, taking into consideration what I liked about all the hostels I had visited so far. It was fun and kept me from being bored. Coming down was nice, with a cool breeze.Piper and I hiked up to Dragon's Backbone in the afternoon, talking a lot about the last few weeks and also about how we would represent the AT in a tattoo, having a great time, and just as we arrived at the ridge, a storm came through, nothing super crazy. Then a second storm blew in--literally--with (I was later told) 70 mph winds. Tree branches started snapping off, rain was coming down sideways...and I'll admit I was scared. I was drenched, I couldn't see out of my glasses and I could barely stand up straight. It felt like a tornado was coming through. I remembered the sermon on Sunday and started yelling, or praying, "God! Stop!" But it didn't stop. I walked a little bit further up the trail and ran into SIS, who was just standing there on the trail. Piper caught up to us and then she took off ahead since she was cold, but SIS and I waited, not wanting to get up into an exposed area while lightning was all around us. Then we went ahead and waited some more. Finally, a third storm came through, with more thunder and lightning and neither of us wanted to risk getting hit by lightning, so we waited it out while sitting our our backpacks just down the slope of the mountain. Once it finally seemed to have passed us, we started hiking again. At the northern edge of the ridgeline is Dragon's Tooth, a piece of granite sticking straight up that doesn't look at all like a tooth but supposedly makes the mountain look like a dragon from a distance. Whatever. I didn't really care since I was cold and wet and had discovered my camera had died in the storm anyway. I just wanted to get down the mountain! But that was not easy--a huge understatement, really--since it was like going down a sheer granite face. It was exhausting. I waited up for SIS at one really bad section and helped her down...The whole time I kept thinking, "How on earth is Harry going to do this??!" We hiked down, went to the hostel which was just a 3 bay garage with some cots in it, and then Joe, the owner, gave SIS and me a ride to the Homeplace (yes, again!). SIS treated me, so nice of her! That meal was just what we needed.
Date: 2013-06-14
From: Four Pines Hostel, Catawba

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 25.7

SIS, Jaybird, Ketchup, and I decided to slack-pack into Daleville since we could do it really cheaply. I had reluctantly agreed to do it the night before, but as I thought about it, I realized I didn't really want to hike 25 miles, pack or no pack. I wanted to back out, but for some reason I didn't, and sure enough, I regretted it. It was a much harder section than any of us expected. It's through these experiences that I am learning to trust my intuition--or regret not doing so!!It was a *beautiful* sunny day, quite the contrast from the day before. The highlight of the section was taking pictures at McAfee Knob, the most photographed place on the AT, a point where a granite slab juts out off of a cliff and you can see the valley stretching on for miles down below. I hiked most of the day with Wonder Boy, a young former soccer player who kept me at a 3 mph pace despite carrying a full pack. In the afternoon the trail was frequently blocked by fallen trees and huge branches, evidence of the storms that passed. Some were pretty huge! It really made me realize how fortunate we were to have made it through the storm safely. The five of us got into Daleville after 8, tired, with aching knees, most of us vowing to never slack-pack again! We decided to split a hotel room and then went to the Mexican restaurant for dinner and margaritas...then we crashed.
Date: 2013-06-15
From: Daleville, VA

To: Fullhardt Knob Shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: broken clouds

After breakfast at the motel, we went out for coffee, checked out the outfitter, and resupplied. Saw Beamer (now Snakebite--he got bit by a black snake while swimming in the Nolichucky River in Erwin! I told him he was crazy!) and I saw Harry who was getting a lift to the outfitter! He wanted to buy me a beer, but I told him I was heading out of town...He is a few days behind.I got a haircut, packed up, and then around 5pm, Beamer/Snakebite and I headed out of Daleville. Everyone else stayed back to recover from the slack-pack, but I wanted to get a few miles in and get out of town...trying to be save money...and while I was definitely stiff and achy also, the pain decreased as I walked. I also got to see my first bear that night! It was a big black bear running down the valley below us! Yes!!!The shelter was empty when we got there, so I decided just to stay there rather than tent since I was *super* tired...Had goat cheese and crackers for dinner and went to bed.
Date: 2013-06-16
From: Fullhardt Knob Shelter

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

I did the math--discovered we had reached the 1/3 point of the trail at the Fullhardt Knob shelter, 728.5 miles in exactly 60 days.Woke up to a beautiful morning. Spent some time journaling in the morning, catching up from the past few days that were so exhausting, I didn't journal at all. Nice day for hiking...not too hot, easier terrain, relaxed pace...It was nice to have a friend to talk to. After lunch we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway, a new phase of the journey. As I was relaxing at one of the overlooks, waiting for Snakebite to catch up, I met Regina Ridgerunner, one of the many ridgerunners whose job it is to talk to people hiking the trail. Pretty cool job. Finally Snakebite came by and dropped a pile of TRAIL MAGIC on the ground that he had gotten from someone at the previous overlook...cookies, fruit and pop. I swear I have never had so much pop in my adult life as on this hike! Got to the shelter and had a nice group--met some new folks and was happy when Jaybird, Ketchup, and Piper showed up. It was a nice, shorter, relaxed day for a change. Pretty awesome. I decided I had to do this more :-)
Date: 2013-06-17
From: Bobblets Gap Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

Another short day--though that wasn't exactly the plan, despite what I wrote previously about doing shorter miles. It was a very humid, sunny, warm day. I picked my first blueberries today. Jaybird and I hiked together a lot. We were looking forward to a milkshake at Middle Creek Campground, just a mile off the trail. Snakebite, Jaybird, and two hikers we had met a week or two before, Chopper and Sticks, all decided to go. I ordered a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate peanut butter milkshake. It was awesome.It was really hot and humid in the middle of the day, so we hung out there for a few hours and then after a swim in a river, we headed up to the first shelter. It was a beautiful, huge timber-framed two-level shelter, the kind that you hate to pass by, but that was my intention, as I wanted to get some more miles in. But just after I arrived, I heard thunder, so I decided to stay. Great choice, as it rained quite a bit that evening. Got in early enough to hang out on the porch, read, and listen to Thumper play his mandolin all evening...
Date: 2013-06-18
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Shenandoah Manor B&B/Lexington
Miles today: 4.9

Rain was still falling when I woke up. It kept falling, gently, all morning as I hiked the first 5 miles to the first shelter, where I found 15 people crammed inside. Just after I arrived, it started raining really hard. Talk about good timing--again. It seems like I've been blessed, over and over and over again, not with good weather necessarily, but good timing with bad weather! Anyway, it seemed like it would be a bad day for hiking, so I connected with some people from my church back home, Jan and Nancy, who recently opened a B&B in Lexington, to see if I (and Chopper and Jaybird) could stay with them that night rather than Thursday as originally planned. We got the go-ahead and, after securing a ride, enjoyed a nice (dry!) stay in the B&B, which featured many beautiful quilts. It was nice to see Jan and Nancy again! Thanks for your hospitality--and spontaneity!
Date: 2013-06-19
From: Shenandoah Manor B&B, Lexington VA

To: Bear Haven, Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: few clouds

I stayed up way too late talking on the phone, so when I woke up as I usually do (believe me, not intentionally!) at 6am, I was pretty tired! After a nice breakfast and some time on the computer, we headed back to the trail. It started raining just after we got to the first shelter and just a few minutes later some random guy--definitely not a hiker, maybe a bird watcher?--showed up and said he was going to set up right there in the shelter. Confused, we asked what he meant, and he said he was a trail angel (named "Angle") and he was going to fix us breakfast--sausage, eggs, pancakes and orange juice! (See what I mean about good timing?!) We feasted and he kept it coming, more than we could eat. Just then we saw Ketchup, cold and wet, walking past the shelter and we called him over. He was slackpacking with the help of his girlfriend, who was waiting at the car a mile away, but he stopped to eat and warm up. Then he invited us to come spend the night at his girlfriend Annie's parents' cabin outside Waynesboro. After much hemming and hawing, we decided to go, as long as we could be back early the next morning. We didn't want to lose much more time on the trail. By the time we got to the cabin, it was almost 9pm, and I was regretting my decision as I was tired from a short night's sleep the night before. But when we arrived at the cabin, affectionately called Bear Haven for the many bears that wander by, Ketchup handed me a blackberry Blue Moon, and somehow my opinion changed :-) Annie's parents were so friendly and hospitable. Her dad is a retired judge who *loves* pie :-) Nice folks!!! We ate pizza, took showers, and then enjoyed pie (hot out of the oven!) and ice cream. It was a treat. The whole night, I mean!
Date: 2013-06-20
From: Thunder Ridge Overlook/Waynesboro

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: clear sky

After the previous couple of days in relative luxury, Chopper, Jaybird, and I were ready to be in the woods for a while. That may seem strange to y'all but that's what we often feel. The woods are normal, peaceful and comforting to us, or at least that's how I feel.Jaybird and I took off, hoping to have a long day...I told him I wanted to stumble into camp at night, ravaged and tired. And after a beautiful, steamy, long, hot day with many, many feet of elevation gain/loss, that's what I did. It was after 8 pm, so I set up my tarp, ate, and went to bed.
Date: 2013-06-21
From: Punchbowl Shelter

To: Hog Camp Gap
Miles today: 17.6

Beautiful day! Hiked with Jaybird all morning. Nice conversation. Nice trail. We took a catnap and ate lunch at the shelter that marked the 800 mile point, at Brown Mountain Creek, which was a settlement from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. We met up with DQ, a hiker who wears a kilt, and hiked with him in the afternoon. It was the first day of summer, which on the AT is traditionally "Naked hiking day" but we didn't see a single naked hiker. I was relieved, but kinda disappointed at the same time. I wanted to know if anyone actually had the guts to do that. Apparently not. Probably for the best. We ended up at a grassy field next to a Forest Service Road for the night. A bunch of boy scouts were there but they and their leaders were pretty chill and actually gave us some trail food. They said it was supposed to be the night when the moon was closest to the earth in the last 700 years. It was a big full moon, but not that much bigger than normal. Since the forecast showed no chance of rain til Monday (and I felt lazy), I cowboy camped under a tree (to minimize dew on my quilt). Nice night.
Date: 2013-06-22
From: Hog Camp Gap

To: Harpers Creek Shelter
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: clear sky

Jaybird and I woke up to a beautiful morning, grateful that it did not rain, and took off at a brisk pace. We stopped once for some trail magic (is 9:30 too early for a Coke? I think not) and again at Spy Rock to enjoy the 360-degree view while enjoying lunch. Because Jaybird and I both have had problems with our knees, we were not looking forward the descent down from the Priest, a mountain which drops over 3,000 feet if you're heading north. After 2,000 feet we stopped to pop some Vit-I (Ibuprofen) and get water and then pushed on down to the bottom. Then we had to climb up the first of the Three Ridges to get to the shelter. But we got into a conversation about religion/theology, faith/doubt...a good, hard conversation...which took my mind off the pain and fatigue I was feeling.At the shelter we found Piper and then DQ showed up. Then, as has become the norm, it got dark and hiker mid-night came (9pm) and we went to bed.
Date: 2013-06-23
From: Harpers Creek Shelter

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: scattered clouds

During the night my sleeping pad deflated. I blew it up and tried to sleep on it twice yet it deflated again pretty quickly...Thankfully I was tired enough that I did get some sleep.It was a pretty long trudge up Three Ridges Mountain and the day was humid and hot. We were in the clouds, basically. DQ and Jaybird caught up to me at the top and we hiked to the first shelter, where we read in the log book about a brew-pub near the next road crossing. Suddenly motivated, we took off, but it rained on the way. When we got to the road, we found TRAIL MAGIC (cold pop and snacks) on both sides of the road! After enjoying some candy and pop, we stood on the side of the road waiting for a hitch. We must have looks pretty miserable, not unlike drowned rats, because almost as soon as we stuck our thumbs out a guy in a pickup truck came by and let us hop into the bed of the truck. The brew pub was pretty nice and gave us a ride back to the trail, which was great.It was nice to get lunch but it took a long time, so it was late afternoon by the time we got started hiking again and we still had 14 miles to go. But we hiked fast and managed to get in not too much after dark. It was the first night-hiking I've done and it was sort of fun. But my feet were hurting a lot by the end. When we got to the shelter, Ketchup and Piper were waiting for us. We all tented, ate a very late (10 pm) dinner and went to bed. I slept on the hard-packed dirt. Thanks to many years doing that at HoneyRock, I still managed to sleep well...It didn't hurt that I was really, really tired. I could've slept anywhere.
Date: 2013-06-24
From: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter

To: Rockfish Gap/Charlottesville, VA
Miles today: 5.2

I've had a hard time keeping up with the journaling this week. I feel so tired at night that I can't fathom journaling OR I'm staying with friends and I feel like I need to update this, my trail journal, instead. Time management and conflicting priorities are a problem even on the AT it seems!I stayed with my friends Jennifer and Daniel in Charlottesville on Monday. Jen and her daughters Nora (3) and Hazel (3 mos) met me in Rockfish Gap. We had a picnic lunch on the Blue Ridge Parkway and then went on what was supposed to be a short (15 min) hike but ended up being a 2.6 mile hike! It was great to stay with these friends whom I met in Grand Teton National Park in 2004. We caught up on our lives and I learned a lot about urban planning, since Daniel is a city planner. Jen made me a lasagna, the food I'd been craving for a month, and rhubarb cake! Jen is from ND so she loves rhubarb and knew I would too. I decided to stay another night and take a zero the next day.
Date: 2013-06-25
From: Charlottesville, VA

To: Charlottesville, VA
Miles today: 0.0

...lovely day off ...fixed my air mattress! ...went to Whole Foods! (Man, walking through the produce and bakery section was dangerous.) ...met Jen and Daniel's small group! After that rainstorm when my cell phone got wet, my phone had been working--amazingly--like normal, but today it went crazy. First the screen turned blue and then everything on the screen flipped upside down and reversed, so I had to flip it over and look at it in the mirror to use it. I was not sure what to do about it. I did not really want to get a smartphone but my camera was also dead so that was a way to solve both problems...rather expensively...I didn't want to buy a new phone...If only someone had an old phone laying around that they weren't using, I prayed. And just like that, Jen offered me Daniel's old phone, which is actually a newer model of my dead phone. Amazing answer to prayer. I took it to Verizon, conveniently just a mile away, and got it switched over. So awesome how things just work out on the trail. Thanks, Jen and Daniel for the phone!
Date: 2013-06-26
From: Charlottesville, VA

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: light rain

Jen and Daniel took me to the "mall", an outdoor closed-off street development full of shops and restaurants, for breakfast in the morning...Best pancakes I've ever had! Awesome. Grabbed a muffin from Mudhouse Coffee, a cool place Jaybird told me to go, and then Jen drove me back to the trail. Thank you sooo much, Jen and Daniel, for breakfast, the phone, meals, hospitality, and friendship. So glad I got to see you again!Had a nice hike into Shenandoah National Park, though I was moving slowly and had to set up my tarp once when it started raining. The park didn't look any different from the Blue Ridge Parkway, which surprised me. I made it to the shelter at dusk...no camping spots so I stayed in the shelter. Around 10pm Jaybird and Ketchup showed up.
Date: 2013-06-27
From: Blackrock Hut

To: Harrisonburg, VA
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: light rain

First thing on the trail in the morning, I saw a doe and fawn and followed them up the green tunnel...They acted like they had never seen a human before. I was supposed to hike 24 miles to Swift Run Gap where my friend Kate, whom I know from my Mennonite church back home, was going to pick me up at 5pm, but when I heard about blackberry milkshakes at the Loft Mountain Wayside, I knew I had to stop. Jaybird, Stitch, and I hiked to the wayside and found G-Ma, a 71 year old grandma, there also. The four of us ate together and when it started raining we decided to stay there and wait it out a bit. (There's this saying on the trail, "never start out in the rain"). I was behind schedule and it wasn't worth pushing myself to make it to Swift Run Gap, so I decided to hike as far as I could and then hitch the rest of the way. Jaybird needed to go to town also, so we hiked together. A nice Pakistani family picked us up and we got to the gate just before Kate arrived. Perfect timing. Kate drove us to a specialty beer store where we got some local craft beer to have with dinner. Kate invited Jaybird to stay at her house, so the three of us and Kate's husband, Ben, had a really nice meal out on their deck/patio :-). They told us that everything in the meal, which included pot roast, bread, and salad, was local! So cool! They really made us feel welcome and relaxed. After dinner I updated my journal while listening to Sun Kil Moon and Fleet Foxes...I miss music so much on the trail so I try to get a little in while I can. Besides, I've had the song "I would walk 500 miles" by the Proclaimers stuck in my head since the 500 mile point and "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros stuck in my head since someone played it in a shelter two weeks ago, so I'm hoping to get a different song on my mental "playlist."
Date: 2013-06-28
From: Harrisonburg, VA

To: Bearfence Mountain Hut
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: light rain

In the morning we had baked oatmeal for breakfast and then stopped at Ben's work, a cafe, to pick up sandwich wraps for lunch. Driving around Harrisonburg, I realized just how Mennonite it is! Mennonite organizations, churches, retirement homes, schools and stores all over. On the way back to the trail we stopped in nearby Elkton to pick up my new umbrella. Last week I asked GoLite if I could get my broken umbrella repaired, since I didn't know how it broke and thought it might have been my fault, but they said they would just send me a new one!The hike went really well. It was a sunny, gorgeous day. We hiked 18 miles, stopping at Lewis Mountain campstore near the end of the day for a snack. I wanted some ice cream, but I decided to just cook dinner there first on the porch. Then we hiked to the shelter which was less than a mile away. Had a nice quiet night in the shelter.