morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-04-24
From: Sugar Run Rd/Woods Hole Hostel

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

It was chilly last night in the barn/hostel but Q-Tip's dog hooked me up. Allow me to explain. My cold weather sleeping bag has synthetic insulation. If you stretch or pull it to hard, you can separate the insulation inside the bag. This causes a cold spot in the sleeping bag. I have one right where my butt is if I lay on my right side. This guys dog, Charlie an Australian Shepherd, must have felt all the heat escaping from the side of my bag and laid against me in the exact spot. It worked out well for both of us since he got warmth and so did I. So anyways, I had signed up for breakfast this morning at the hostel at 8. Eggs with fresh organic veggies from their farm and strawberry crisp with a yogurt sauce. It was really really good. Headed out afterwards to get into Pearisburg so I could pick up my smaller lighter pack (ULA CDT pack) and my lighter weight sleeping quilt (Jacks R Better quilt). It was an easy 10 miles down into town and I stopped at Hardees since it was the first thing I ran into. After that I was walking down the road and heard someone yell at me from a motel. It was Whitewater, Dexter and Trotter all telling me I could get in on their motel room for cheap. I said "OK!" Then I went down to the Post Office and got my package. I actually stopped to wonder if everything was in the box since it was so light. It was, Ma pulled through big time. Thanks BTW. So I went back, got my new rig setup, went to the Mexican restaurant with the guys from the room, called my mom, called Sarah (girlfriend) and got food resupply. I even had time to drink some beers. It was a good day.
Date: 2012-04-25
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pine Branch Swamp Shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: overcast clouds

I ended up sleeping on the floor of our motel room because Trotter was flailing around the bed so much that I was getting concerned he and I may become far more acquainted than I wanted. I had a lazy morning and then set out for the Post Office to send my larger pack and sleeping bag back home. On my way I ran into Whoop and Resource who had apparently gotten into town at 230 in the morning. Got my pack shipped out and then figured it was time to leave town with one stop first, Hardees. I had to get one more burger before leaving. So I sat down, ate a burger, charged my iPod and updated my Trailjournals since I had decent cell service. After all that it was almost 2pm and I still hadn't left town. I wanted to get 20 miles done today to catch back up with Dexter. After doing some calculations, I figured I could get that far before dark so I set off. The first mile was on a road bridge beside a 4 lane highway. Traffic is LOUD after becoming accustomed to the quiet of the woods. Had to climb up a bit to get out of town which was a nice easy climb. Then it flattened out for about 12 miles and I was just walking a ridge looking down onto farmland. The last 3 miles was all downhill and I pretty much jogged down it. Got into the shelter with plenty of light to setup my tent, get everything situated and make diner. Just after dark, two jet fighters came roaring directly overhead and seemed only a few hundred feet above the treeline. It was really cool since they were going so fast and it was so loud. That's the second time I've seen jets playing out here (the other time was in the Grayson Highlands). Rumor has it that it will rain tonight.
Date: 2012-04-26
From: Pine Branch Swamp Shelter

To: Pine Branch Swamp Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Shameful zero dayIt really, really rained last night. I stayed dry and warm in my tent, which I'm thankful for. Woke up at 7 and it was still raining. Screw it I'll sleep some more. Woke up at 9 and it was still raining. Got my gear packed up inside my tent and ran my pack over to the shelter. Then I brought my tent into the shelter so I could take down and keep the inside dry hehehe. Now I was packed, I had eaten breakfast and was "ready" to hike. So I stood there trying to muster up the desire to hike out in the downpour and I tried and I tried but the desire to stay dry was easily winning. When the rain didn't stop all morning and I was still sitting in the shelter, I gave up. The allure of the fireplace (this is one of the few shelters that has a fireplace inside) was too great on this cold rainy day. Later in the day Whitewater showed up and I was glad to see him again. Around dark Whoop and Resource rolled in and crashed on the shelter floor.I'm not proud about this zero day and despite my bitchin' mustache, I feel less manly but damn it feels good to be writing this dry and warm right now. I'll make up for it tomorrow.
Date: 2012-04-27
From: Pine Branch Swamp Shelter

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 24.9
Weather: clear sky

Woke up at a reasonable time and headed out to make up for lost time. About a mile down the trail I came to The Captain's Place. All I knew is that there is a zip line going from the trail over the creek to his house and there was always cold sodas for hikers. Sounded like a necessary detour. The zip line was cool but had a high possibility of wet feet since the creek was so high from all the rain. Got over to his house to meet back up with Whoop and Resource who had gotten there shortly before me. The Captain let's people tent in his yard for free and I wish I had gone that route at some point but oh well. Chugged a generic cola and headed back to the zip line. Since it sloped slightly down to the house you had to pull yourself back up with a rope. As I was tugging myself back over, I got a little bit of a bounce going on the line and sunk my right foot ankle deep in the creek. Damn damn damn. Got back on the trail and immediately started going up to Bailey Gap Shelter and then kept climbing to the top. Since he wakes up so early, I knew Whitewater was ahead of me and I finally caught up to him at Wind Rock. He was sitting in a folding chair that someone left up at the overlook and it really was the best seat in the house. I was contemplating doing a 30 mile day today so I told him he should come along and he said no thanks. It was an easy hike up Kelly Knob but I was growing tired. I went through a bunch of pastures and spent most the time mooing back at the cattle in the other field. I stopped for water by VA 630 and while doing so slipped and dunked my left foot all the way into the creek. Good thing these shoes dry so fast. I came to the Keiffer Oak which is a 300 year old oak tree that has a 18' circumfrence. I wanted to take a picture but both my cell phone and camera battery were dead so that didn't happen. About half way up the final climb of the day a southbound dayhiker named Mike stopped me and asked me to take some food to an old man with an injured foot at the next shelter. I said sure and carried the bag of food for the next 3 miles. Came down to the shelter and delivered the much appreciated food. I had done 25 miles and I was tired. I figured I could make up the difference tomorrow. So I got my place at the shelter setup and then got my still soggy tent out to dry it out over night. "No-Hear-Um" was the older gent at the sheltwr and he got his name due to the fact he is pretty much deaf even with both his hearing aides. He was a really nice guy and still in great shape for 70 years old. I spent the rest of the night yelling in his face so we could have a normal conversation.
Date: 2012-04-28
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: VA 624/Four Pines Hostel
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: thunderstorm with light rain

Last night a couple of southbound section hikers showed up real late. They did half the trail in one southbound section last year and now they are doing the second section now. I wish I could remember their names but I don't. They did bring their cat, Meow, along for the trip. Meow just sits on top of their pack as they hike and then at the end of the day runs around the shelter catching mice. Hilarious.So it was raining pretty heavily again this morning so I hung out waiting since the storm was moving really fast. I got off on my way around 12:30. Kind of a late start but a couple times in the past I did 20 miles in the afternoon so today would have to be one of those days. The first 7 miles were a breeze and even the hefty climb up Brush Mtn wasn't all that bad. At the top there was a park bench so I felt obligated to sit for a minute before moving on. A mile farther was a monument to Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of WWII. Again my camera was dead so I couldn't get a picture. I wanted to stop in at Pickle Branch Shelter because I think Whitewater might have been there for the night (I had seen he was ahead of me since he didn't wait out the rain) but it would have added over a half mile to my day and the sun was already making its way down out of the sky pretty quick. I kept going with the intention of getting to the Dragon's Tooth before dark. It sounded like a cool stone out cropping on top of Cove Mtn that would be worth checking out. I didn't get there with any daylight so I skipped it. On my way across the ridge to get there, I did get treated to an incredible sunset out across the far off mountain range. Damn dead batteries. It was 2.5 miles from the top of Cove Mtn to the road where the hostel is and all downhill. I figured it would be easy and I'd be there in about 40 minuted. I had no idea what that climb down entailed before hand but holy shit it was crazy. I had my head lamp on since it was pitch black and the moon was on the other side of the mountain so that may have added some difficulty to coming down that first mile but without a doubt, even during the daytime, that was the most tricky and technical descent I've made this trip. (Wasn't that a long run on sentance) It really was intense, steep, tedious and slow going but I played it safe and made it down. There's no way for me to effectively describe the climb down but it was sketchy as hell, I promise you. Got down to the road crossing and headed straight to the store where I got 1 days food to get to Troutville and a 12" pizza for the night. The girl behind the counter called Joe from the Four Pines Hostel and he said he was actually on the way to the store with hikers making a beer run. The hostel was his huge 3 car garage that he had sofas and cots and easy chairs everywhere. The place was full so I grabbed some nice clean floor space and went to sleep since it was almost 11pm now.
Date: 2012-04-29
From: VA 624/Four Pines Hostel

To: Lambert Meadow Shelter
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: clear sky

Four Pines was a really cool hostel. It might just be the mechanic in me but hanging out in a garage/dirtbike shop was perfect. I wanted to get my hands dirty and bust my knuckles. I slept really well despite some serious snoring taking place throughout the place.Today was one of the best days of hiking thus far. It was sunny, 70 and a light breeze. The hike out from four Pines was nice and easy and I was really looking forward to McAfees Knob...Little side story, which those who know me know these can, at times, get lengthy. I'll try to save you from too much. All of us out here hiking generally use 1 of 2 guide books to reference where we are, distance, up-coming cool stuff and so forth. I use David Miller (AWOL) AT Thru Hikers Guide because it has a linear graph to represent elevation changes. Its pretty slick. Now back to my story...So the linear graph going up to McAfee looked horrendous and we were all kind of dreading it. Well something must have changed or got screwed up because that was a really easy and quick climb. At the top there was a stone outcropping that everyone takes an obligitory touristy photo out on the edge of the world. I made sure to get mine (and some day I'll go through and upload photos when I get home). It was a great place to hang out, talk with other hikers, eat lunch and stare off into the distance and think of how far I've come. After about an hour up there I moved on because I had been made aware that the up coming Tinker Cliffs was equally cool. It was a long mellow ridge walk to get there. McAfee Knob was basically a mountaintop with rock outcroppings around it. Tinker Cliffs was an entire ridgeline of rock tables sticking out into the air. I took so many pictures and hung out some more trying to piss of some crows that didn't like me standing close to their nest. Headed down from the cliffs and came to Lambert Meadow Shelter. I was planning on going another 8-9 miles to get just outside of Daleville for the night but the shelter was too nice and I was tired so I stayed. There was a nice creek and we were down in a little cove. Seemed like something out of a movie. It was a nice place to spend the night.
Date: 2012-04-30
From: Lambert Meadow Shelter

To: Troutville, VA
Miles today: 10.9

Troutville is cool. I woke up at 630 and got on my way to town around 730. It took about 3 hours and during the course of that 3 hours I must have walked through 1000 spider webs. I'm going to assume I was the first person through that stretch this morning. It was very foggy/cloudy so I didn't see any views along the way. I resisted the urge to go straight into Daleville and walked the 1.5 miles extra to Troutville even though I knew I had to come back to Daleville for their large grocery store. Got to Tville, as I will now call it, and went to the post office to get my box from Sarah. It had everything I asked for and additionally I found a bar of my favorite chocolate, Mike and Ikes and a cute picture of our dogs. Thanks babe! I headed off down the road to Daleville which was 2 miles by road but a flatter and faster walk. As I was just about there I saw a bunch of cattle across the road and was watching them eat grass when all of a sudden one cow started to lick the other cows ass. Yes I am serious. Of course I figured this would be a great photo op so I shuffled across the street while trying to grab my camera from my pack's hipbelt. Needless to say I fumbled and the camera fell onto the road and yes it did break. So now I have no camera for the time being but I can say that I've seen a cow lick another cow's ass. Fair trade I guess. Got to Daleville and stopped at the outfitter to see if they could shuttle me to Roanoke where the nearest Best Buy is. They could so we went. I had to leave my camera there but I should have it back in about 2 weeks. Oh well I guess the warranty was worth something. So now I've used up almost all of the daytime so I got back and got groceries. Then I got a ride with a guy that worked at the outfitter back to the Tville Fire Station. This is why Tville is awesome. You can go to the fire house and take a shower and do laundry for free. They let you chill in nothing but a towel while all your clothes wash and dry. Then, if you'd like, you can order a pizza and sit with the firemen and shoot the shit until it gets delivered, check out the firetrucks and then walk directly across the street to the town park and tent for free (or setup up camp under one of the pavilions with lights, running water and electric such as I did). This place seems pretty hiker friendly. Thumbs up from me.
Date: 2012-05-01
From: Troutville, VA

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Third of the Way Day!I didn't sleep well last night. Two things were causing me issues. Three times a freight train came through behind the park and scared me shitless with its reallllly LOUD horn. Also around 4am, a brief but intense thunderstorm came through and flooded the floor of the pavilion. I solved that problem by moving everything, including myself, on top of the picnic tables. I knew I should have slept up there from the start. I slept in until about 10am after being up so late. I went and grabbed some microwave burritos from a small grocery and headed out. I was sleepy so I was planning on stopping at Fulhardt Knob Shelter to celebrate being a 1/3 of the way complete. Fulhardt is at mile 727.5 which is pretty damn exactly third of the way done. When I got there I met Beowolf and Kittens. They were two guys (yes Kittens is a guy) of a group of thru-hikers that started 8 days after me and were moving along pretty well. They apparently had picked me as one of the people to catch up with and had been stalking me through the shelter log books. They convinced me to go another shelter farther and since the water source wasn't that great where I was, I went. It was an easy hike to Wilson Creek Shelter where Whitewater and two others from the March 18th group were. The other two hikers are Porksteak and Somersault. I feel so honored to have been stalked.
Date: 2012-05-02
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Three miles after starting today I ran across the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a scenic highway that runs from somewhere in North Carolina all the way through Virginia where it then turns into Skyline Drive, while going through Shenandoah National Park. From this point on, I'm going to cross over this road hundreds of times. I actually had no idea this road turned into Skyline Drive before and also that we would be crossing it so much. It looks like it would be a good ride on a motorcycle.The first part of today was pretty easy as it was just a walk along a ridgeline. There was lots of good views through the trees and many overlooks that I'm now photographing with my phone. About 13 miles into the day I stopped at Cove Mtn Shelter and ate lunch. There was a 2 foot black snake living in the shelter and eating all the mice. Very well fed snake I'm sure. One by one everyone from the shelter last night showed up and we planned to stop in 3 miles at Jennings Creek since there is a swimming hole there. We got down there and hopped in. It was ice cold and I could barely speak as I swam around because it was taking the breath out of me but it felt good since it was about 85 degrees at the time. Kittens then decided to ask some people getting dropped off to day hike if we could get a ride 5 miles down the road to get some beer. They said sure. Beowolf, Kittens and I all hopped in the back of the truck, went to the store and were quickly back to the swimming hole with an 18 pack and some soda. We hung out for a total of about 3.5 hours at the creek before heading the remaining 4 miles to the shelter. Bryant Ridge Shelter was a huge 20 person shelter that was really nice but there really didn't seem like there was a necessity for it to be that big. It really was huge and we all slept upstairs for the night since there was a nice breeze.
Date: 2012-05-03
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Matts Creek Shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: clear sky

Night bugs! I tried sleeping in the shelter but I was getting eaten alive so around 11pm I gathered all my stuff and went downstairs and setup my tent on the porch. I slept good after that. It was funny to see Somersault and Porksteak's big lumpy mosquito bitten legs and backs today. I think I made a good choice last night.Today was a whole lot of climbing. We went up, then we went up, down a little and then up, up some more and then, yeah, up some more. It was tiring and the heat of the day did not help matters. Its was almost 90 today and to think 4 days ago I was shivering if I stopped hiking... At the highest point today, Apple Orchard Mtn, there was a huge FAA tower/apparatus. I have no idea what it was but it looked like an enormous soccer ball. It would have been fun to snoop around but the whole facility was smartly fenced off and probably under video surveillance. Shortly afterwards was The Guillotine, which is a rock crevice that the trail goes through with a single big rock that was wedged overhead and you walked under it. It was a cool little oddity. So we finally went down a little and then we went back up this time over High Cock Knob haha. It was uhhh a long and hard climb... Then we went downhill for the rest of the day. A lot of people don't like downhill because it hurts their knees. It doesn't hurt my knees but long down hills start to bother me because time just drags along and I always think I've gone farther than I have. Anyways, I jumped ahead of the posse coming downhill and got to the shelter, kicked my shoes off and hung out in the creek for awhile. Towards dusk the final part of the March 18th group, a guy named Peepshow, caught up from a few days back. Tomorrow Whitewater is zeroing since his wife is coming to visit so I'll hike out with this new group. I think they will be a good group to do consistent 20+ mile days with.
Date: 2012-05-04
From: Matts Creek Shelter

To: Buena Vista, VA
Miles today: 24.0

A mile from the shelter was the James River and to cross it you go across the James River Foot Bridge. It is the longest bridge designated entirely to foot travel that the AT goes over. You can jump off the bridge into the river. I have jumped off of higher cliffs into rivers but it was warm when I did that in the past. So I didn't jump off the bridge but Kittens did. It was a success and he made it back to the river bank pretty easy since the current wasn't too strong. After the bridge, Whitewater went into town to meet his wife in Glasgow. Kittens, Beowolf and I started up the big climb to Big Rocky Row. It was another hefty climb first thing in the morning. I wish we would plan our days better. The rest of the morning was pretty easy and then the climb up Bluff Mtn turned out to be not so bad. We ate lunch on top of Bluff Mtn and discussed the merits of going all the way into Buena Vista tonight since there is supposed to be a bluegrass festival and free camping at the campground. It seemed worth it and we had alot of daytime to get there. The rest of the day was more or less downhill, past a resevoir and along a creek. We came up to the US 60 road crossing and got a ride into Buena Vista. The campground was filling up with RVs and car campers as we set up our tents by the river. we met Beans and Jelly with their newly adopted trail dog, Aldo at the camp ground. Then Beowolf, Kittens, Porksteak, Somersault, Peepshow and I headed out for some food. Ate a a place called Kenney's and then ate some more at an Italian restaurant. Came back to the campground and there were little bluegrass jams taking place all throughout the RV lot. We wandered around, found some apple pie moonshine and met some new friends. It was a very good night.