morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-05-09
From: Hot Springs Public Library

To: ?
Miles today: 0.0

erin says:okay, so today will be (yet) another late start for us. we slept in, got our groceries, chatted with hikers, got fuel for the stove, and now sit at the library catching up on the computers. we plan to hike out of here once we are done writing. we also have to get something to eat.first off, thanks dad for scanning in photos! we have put titles and captions on them all, and have put appropriate photos with journal entries. craig also finished up journals for 4/28, 4/29, and 4/30. we've added new entries and have LOVED reading the guestbook.Congratulations, Steve and Ang on your engagement. Craig and I are very excited for you! We are so happy for you both. I knew it would come, but I am surprised it happened this quick. Steve, I want details! Send me an email! Also, congratulations to Sarah and Matt on your engagement. Congrats to Matt and Ang on the birth of Ryan Nils! Wow, so much is going on back at home. Thank you to Craig's Mom for our maps and garbage bags and a wonderful letter. We are so psyched to have new bags to line our packs. The old ones were pretty much destroyed.Kayce, I miss you so much!!!! I hope all is well in the land of Milford. I think about you and wonder what you are doing during the day. Flounder, we'd love to see you - where is Rock Fish Gap? Where are you exactly-Richmond area, no? We'll work on figuring out details as we get a tad closer... we only have close-by maps right now.Thank you to everyone who signs our guestbook and reads our entries. It is really fun to read what people write. It is also really rewarding to know that there are folks out there who are interested in what we are up to. OH! By the way, Craig and I have trailnames... finally! Erin = Skunk and Craig = Onion. It basically came about as we were having conversations with other hikers about body odor. We figured Skunk and Onion pretty much sums it up. You are what you smell like. It has been fun to have other hikers call us by these names! However, The Fat Man also likes to call Craig, "Uncle Craig" for some reason in addition to Onion. We smell pretty bad right now as I write to you from the library computer. And we both showered not too long ago! So Skunk and Onion are off to find a place to camp in the hills north of Hot Springs. Our next stop is Erwin, TN in about 5-6 days. Many hikers are planning to hitchhike from Erwin to Trail Days in Damascus, VA. Trail Days is a big hiker festival/celebration that thru-hikers and the hiker community attend every year from May 12-18. Craig and I have not decided yet if we are going to try to hitchhike there. Justin and Heidi - can you give us a better idea if Trail Days is worth going to? Is it just one big drunken party? Would we be sorry if we missed it? We'd love feedback from anyone who has been.We miss everyone and look forward to finding a computer in Erwin!-Skunk and Onion/Onion and Skunk
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

(Craig says..) Left Hot Springs at around 1:00PM in blistering heat. I overheard someone say it was 88 at the outfitters before leaving. Tooooo hot for our northern blood. The great thing about towns are obvious. The tough thing about towns is you have to climb back out of them. At first the trail out of hot springs was flat and followed the swollen banks of the French Broad River. Rafts floated by enjoying the unusually quick current from the rescent quasi-apocolyptic flood we had down here. The water was muddy but we were tempted to jump in. I dipped my hat in the river and Erin her bandana. Then it was up, up, up, out of the shade and into the sun....We were slooooowww. All our clean, fresh smelling clothes were drenched and smelled. Little lizards crawled all over.Met up with a dude called 'Bear Magnet' at Tanyard Gap. He looked really flustered and dirty. His legs were red and covered with cuts. He told us that five hours earlier he had tried bushwacking from the shelter to fish a stream that supposedly had a lot of good trout but he'd lost his way and ended up here. We walked to the shelter with him and I asked him how he'd gotten the name Bear Magnet; He enertained it was from meeting up with a large bear in the Smokies a week ago. Then, after a thirty minute standoff in the fading light where the bear stood in the trail and continued to inch closer to him undeterred by screams or arm waving, an adrenaline fueled two mile back- track in the dark to a fire tower, and a sleepless night without water, he saw another bear at 6:00AM circling around the fire tower as he descended. He spent a few more hours there, wide eyed, staring out the window, watching the bear until it finally rumbled down the hill and out of site. It's funny because when I think back to it I remember seeing a huge pile of bear scat on the trail right by that area and Erin and I are pretty sure we heard a bear the night we stayed at the campsite he had attempted to go to originally.By the time we reached the shelter it was getting dark. John, Chick Flick, Detour, and of course Bear Magnet was there. We made wraps with tuna, cheese, pepperoni, and garlic sesame snacks for dinner. I managed to forget the bear rope in hot springs so we had to share one with john. I hauled up two 22oz honey brown ales and we put them in the spring to cool. Drank them later. Good Night.Skunk and Onion Onion and Skunk or just SOOS
Date: 2003-05-12
From: Jerry Cabin Shelter

To: Hogback Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: few clouds

Erin says:Today it was so chilly and windy when we woke up! We slept in after our 15.3 mile day. It felt nice not to wake til 11am. Plus, great hiking weather with the cooler temps and wind. We hiked up Big Butt (hah!) and passed through a gorgeous field along the way. It looked like prarie land with tall grass, scattered blooming trees, and the trail cutting through the middle. Right after Big Butt was Bassett Memorial, a great clearing with a stone to remember a thru-hiker who had later died and apparently loved that section of the A.T. We also saw more views of Greenville down below. At some point after that, we passed the 300 mile mark! And the reason we knew was because some hiker had made a 300 on the ground out of stones. It was really exciting. We snapped a photo and trekked on.Craig and I took another midday break at the next shelter. We feasted on a meal of Thai rice noodles spiced with curry and lemongrass. We added chicken and peanuts. We hiked on to a road crossing surrounded by farmland. We had to cross over a barbed-wire fence - thankfully they'd made a little wooden ladder for us to climb over. I was mentally prepared for the huge climb awaiting us up Frozen Knob. Craig gave me a head start and I started winding my way slowly up, up, up. Along the way I passed a makeshift shelter the hikers are using... an old, abandoned house. I thought it sounded creepy. I also passed other run-down remains of cabin-like structures and a few old gravestones. I was sort of creeped out by the scene and the dark forest. I was much happier to get up higher and see the sun peer out over the mountain. Strange too to be climbing and following a barbed-wire fence for much of the time. Craig and I couldn't figure out what purpose the fence served. Craig caught up to me and we got to the top of Frozen Knob - once again no spectacular view for such a hard climb. I was psyched though, I did a great job climbing. I think this cool weather helps. Craig mentioned that he'd heard a donkey at one point??? Who knows? We kept on - one more climb to get to the next shelter. We were on Hogback Ridge and the shelter took forever to get to us. It was getting dark and thankfully the moon helped us out once again. I was the one singing this time to keep the critters away. The trail was very narrow and I didn't like the thought of the tall grass and bushes brushing up against me in the dark. Finally we saw the shelter sign, and had to walk on a side trail to get to it. Good thing we were paying attention in the dark, or we would have missed the tiny sign! We are in the tent now, very tired from a hard day of climbing. It is so windy out, very cold! We have our spandex on. The trees are swaying and creaking and making lots of noise. It sounds like people talking or a baby wailing. A small branch just fell on our tent and scared the crap out of both of us! My feet are sore from us upping the mileage. And sadly, no beer for us tonight. It's tough, I know.
Date: 2003-05-14
From: Spivey Gap

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Erin says:Let it be known that I woke up this morning feeling GREAT!!! My spry body jumped out of the tent at 9am, took down our bear bags, and I made the coffee for once so Craig could sleep a tad longer! We feasted on our blueberry and yogurt poptarts and prepared for our few last climbs before our descent into Erwin, TN. Only 11 miles to go. (Only 11 miles, see what is happening to us?) As we were prepping to leave our campsite, some of the other hikers we've been seeing repeatedly along this stretch passed us. They tend to call us "late risers" and it tends to irk me. We vowed to beat them down the mountain, and we did. We were the first ones off the mountain and into Erwin! We stepped off the trail at 2:40 pm - we had left at 10:20 am, so we were impressed with doing 11 miles in 4 hours and 20 minutes! We stopped at the hostel right off the trail to resupply on white gas for our stove. Then we started walking toward town. We got a hitch to the post office from a nice guy in a pick-up truck with his young daugther. He took on the interstate for an exit or two - yikes - flying along in the bed of a pickup at top speeds! We got our bounce box and 2 care packages from my mom at the post office and then walked to McDonald's for a "snack". We couldn't wait til our motel to open the packages, so we had a little party inside the McDonald's. Thank you sooooooo much Mom for all the wonderful goodies! Craig and I are so psyched about the M&Ms, Kashi bars, nips of Scotch, apples, dehydrated veggies, news clippings, etc. Yeah! And travel-size deoderant! Yes! We walked to the Super 8 with all our goodies, checked in, and then we each took very, very long showers. I swear I was in the shower for at least an hour just trying to scrub all the dirt off my body. Especially my feet - somehow I manage to get my feet way dirtier than Craig does. I also tend to lose a lot of hair from my head in the shower, Craig was particularly impressed when I showed him the huge mound of hair afterwards. We lounged on the bed reveling in our new-found cleanliness. We channel-flipped, but before long we were starving again. So we decided to walk 1.5 miles to KFC to satisfy our craving for honey BBQ boneless chicken wings. So good, and so worth the 3-mile roundtrip. On the way back we stopped by CVS to get some Spenco blister pads. We also stopped at the grocery store to buy grapes and carrots and orange juice and grape soda. We crave grape soda and its artificially sweet goodness.Back at the motel now, I am so exhausted. My feet and knees are sore from the climb down today. We are very happy to be in Erwin and to have had such great high mileage hiking days!Erwin, by the way, is such a train town! There are so many sets of tracks to cross to get to Main Street and huge, long trains pass by every 15 minutes or so. The sound of the train horn is very loud to us! The trains are here I guess because of the lumber, fiber glass, and nuclear fuel industries here. (As I type this entry, a train is passing by right outside the library window!)
Date: 2003-05-15
From: Erwin, TN

To: comfy bed.
Miles today: 0.0

Erin says:Craig and I are updating our journals, sending email, and rejuvenating in Erwin. It is thundering outside. So many loud noises - thunder, tractor trailers passing, trains... wow. I popped 2 blisters this morning, and my feet instantaneously felt better. It is also nice to drink coffee that someone else made. Ahhhhh.Thanks to all for signing the guestbook as usual. Craig and I have decided not to go to Trail Days. We think we'll visit on a non-thru-hiking year so that we can soak it up and not have to worry about where to stay, hitching, getting back on track, etc. The hostels in town are full of hikers right now, everyone is waiting here to get rides to Damascus for Trail Days. We think we may end up being the only hikers on the A.T. for the next few days!So, we are off to do the usual town tasks of laundry, food resupply, etc. We passed a burrito place on the way to the library. Looks tasty! Perhaps we'll mosey on over there when we leave. The trains keep passing by. I suppose if you live here it becomes no big deal to hear them all the time. Later, I plan to shower and use the new travel shampoo/conditioner/hot oil my mom sent. Woooo-Hooooo! Thanks, Mom! Hi to all at home. We miss you! Virginia is just around the corner - 116 miles away. I still can't believe we've come this far! We should be in Damascus in about 2 weeks if you want to send us a care package or note. If and only if you want to send us something but don't know what, we crave and super appreciate the following wishful items: ziplock bags in any size, KoolAid packets with the sugar already added (they make them - they're the bigger ones), Gatorage packets, cookies, sesame stick pieces, beef jerky, Kashi bars, Power bars, Cliff bars, fruit, travel toothpaste, Starbucks ground coffee (uh, for Craig of course), liquor - of the scotch/whiskey/bourbon/brandy variety, strong painkillers... Craig Bibeau & Erin HarrisGeneral DeliveryDamascus, VA 24236*please hold for A.T. thru-hikers.
Date: 2003-05-20
From: Newland, NC

To: Same
Miles today: 0.0

(Craig Says) yes, we took another zero day. We weren't planning on it, but if we left today we would most likely arrive in Demascus on Sunday which would be just fine but Monday is Memorial Day so would be stuck twiddling our thumbs for two days waiting for the post office to open. So we took advantage of the day and went grocery shopping, finished drying the rain fly, washed our town clothes, caught up on our journals and e-mail, and a few other things. We head out tomorrow.
Date: 2003-05-21
From: Elk Park/Roan Mountain - U.S. 19

To: near Walnut Mountain Road
Miles today: 11.5

Erin says:Craig and I had a leisurely morning in Newland, NC. We had a fabulous (and cheap!) breakfast at the Bear Trail Cafe - pancakes and croissant/egg sandwiches and lots of hot coffee. We mailed our bounce box off at the post office and browsed a thrift store where Craig found a good paperback read for a mere 25 cents. Then we got shuttled back to the trail by the Shady Lawn Motel owner. The ascent out of the Elk Park area was not as painful as usual. Craig and I both commented that it felt easier to us this time to slip back into the rhythm of hiking. Right now we are not exactly sure where we are camping. Why you ask? Well, the A.T. has been rerouted along this entire section. The relocation started at U.S. 19 and goes until Dennis Cove Road. However, noone we encounter along the trail seems to know the exact mileage of the reroute - how much extra it adds on. So we don't really know how many miles we hiked today. And none of the roads or landmarks are marked to give us an idea of where we are by using our map. It is weird!Hiking today was fun. We passed through grassy fields and came upon a horse hanging out in the field with her foal. Neat! We also hiked along a river for a while which was nice because we don't often hike low enough in elevation to see major water. It would appear that most of the hikers on the trail are camping because noone is sure when and where the next shelter is. We are camping tonight where two streams meet. I had the opportunity to wash my legs in the water because they were COVERED with mud! Rain from the past two days has created a really muddy trail. Hiking is more difficult because you have to be careful with each step. Both Craig and I took some crazy slides that could have resulted in disastrous "diggers". Mud is squishy and flies everywhere!
Date: 2003-05-22
From: near Walnut Mountain Road

To: Kincora Hostel - Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 11.6

Erin says:We got rained on last night, so this morning was tough - knowing that the rainfly/tent and foodbags would be wet and heavier. However, we have vanilla flavored coffee to get excited about. It was great to wake up and brew some in our mugs. Yum!As we were doing our morning chores, Spoon (the English fellow) passed by our tent! We hadn't seen him since Hot Springs. He said Trail Days was fun but that he took too much time off and had a hard time getting back into hiking. It was great to see him. He told us he was planning on heading to the Kincora Hostel for the night.... that planted the seed for Craig and I. Plus, Justin had told us about the hostel on our guestbook.We are glad to be spending the night at the Kincora Hostel! It is great here and Bob and Pat Peoples are very nice and accomodating. Craig and I have definitely lucked out because we are staying in a private room - the "executive suite" instead of in the bunks. We get to sleep on a real bed! (all of this for a suggested nightly donation of $4!) We arrived here around 6pm, early enough to set up the tent outside to dry and hang the rainfly from the clothesline. Spoon and friends are already here. It has been fun to get to chat with new hiker people. Craig and I took showers that were amazing - this place has HOT water and great shower pressure. The hostel has a full kitchen with a stove and oven and spices and little extras to cook with. I made us a gourmet dinner of shells and cheese - using a real stove and a real pot. I added some pepperoni into the mix and some onion that I found and sauteed with some minced garlic. Threw in a few other spices and tahdah - a great meal. One hiker had a microwaved baked potato with real butter and bacon bits! There's loads of potatos in the cabinets. There's kale here too. Craig tried some (raw!) and liked it. My mom would get a kick out of that! Some of the other hikers went to town to eat dinner. They came back with soda and donuts. Craig and I hung out in the living room area of the hostel for most of the night reading our books and looking through the extensive collection of magazines at the hostel. The big chairs were cozy and the whole environment was really relaxing.It is late now and we are off to bed since I am sure the other hikers will be up early - our room is right next to the living room and kitchen. As for the hiking part today - we were pretty frustrated with the whole reroute. It is hard to hike when you don't know your mileage or where you are. Sometimes it felt like we were going in circles! We only did 11.6 miles but it felt much longer somehow because of the reroute.
Date: 2003-05-24
From: Vandeventer Shelter

To: Double Springs Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Erin says:I discovered earplugs. Those kids were the last to get to bed and the first ones up. Earplugs went in at 6:30am and I actually was able to sleep for a few hours longer. I'm glad we slept too, because it gave the tent and rainfly a chance to dry off from the rain last night. At least the troop is headed south.   Bless Craig - the water at the Vandeventer shelter is a good .5 miles off the trail down a very steep blue blaze. He went to get water this morning while I got the stove and mugmates ready to go. I also started to break down the tent. We were so careful not to spill any water while filtering because it would have sucked to make a second trip. During our hike today we passed the Nick Grindstaff monument - basically a tombstone on the remains of a chimney where Uncle Nick used to live. I guess he was known as a mountain hermit. His tombstone read "Nick Grindstaff lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone." How depressing! Craig and I stopped at a spring/campsite just before Tenn. 91 to eat a meal of Garlic Parmesan rice with chicken and veggies. It was really good. We would have rested there longer, but the flies were out to get us. Even with our showers at Kincora recently, we smell really bad. My shirt stinks... it reeks so bad of an ammonia/cat box odor that it makes me nasseous if I breathe it in. We hiked on to Double Springs Shelter and arrived a little after 7pm. It has been so nice to get to shelters early enough lately to unwind before dark! We decided to tent just north of the shelter in a grassy area. We were greeted almost immediately by Shadow, a beautiful and friendly weimaraner. Two guys from TN are tenting near us and Shadow belongs to one of them. Craig and I love seeing dogs on the trail! Shadow reminds me so much of Dax, the dalmatian we had for 14 years. Shadow is such a clown - as soon as Craig put the tent up, he walked right on it and plopped down. I love the way Shadow comes bumbling right up to you and nuzzles his head into your legs. There is also another hiking couple tenting nearby with a dog. Dogs=no bears. One of the TN guys started a campfire and it felt so nice to chill out and warm up. He told us stories of section hiking all along the trail in TN. He also told us that the hike from here into Damascus is really nice - not too difficult. After he went to bed, Craig and I brought out our hiking shirts, hoping to infuse them with the smell of campfire to cover up the cat box odors.
Date: 2003-05-25
From: Double Springs Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: broken clouds

Erin says:We are in Virginia! We are here! Yeah!We woke up early again today. It was so funny - we could hear Shadow roaming around outside our tent. Craig called him over and unzipped part of his side of the tent. Shadow came right on in and plopped down on top of us and our sleeping bag. I want that dog!We left camp by 9am ready to do our second biggest mileage day. The TN guys gave us some coffee candy that they had - basically little coffee/caffeine mints. We were psyched to have a little caffeine push waiting for us for later in the day. Everyone who told us about the trail being easy was right. The hike was great -long flat and rolling sections with ups and downs that were short and not steep. We were hiking fast without even realizing it. We were almost surprised when we came upon the Mt. Rogers Recreational Area sign - this marks the border between Tennessee and Virginia. After that the trail winds fairly quickly out of the mountains and into Damascus. We were deposited in some hopefully hiker-friendly person's backyard. The trail goes right through town and we followed it to Laurel Ave. - the main drag. We got to Damascus at 4:10pm! Pretty sweet. Craig and I headed to MRO, the local outfitter, to pick up packages we had waiting for us. Then we set about the task of trying to figure out where to stay in town. Turns out Damascus has either hiker hostels or bed and breakfasts only. We really wanted to stay in a motel with bed, TV, etc. One of the owners of MRO suggested we stay in Abingdon, VA - a larger town 14 miles away with motels, restaurants, etc. We decided to do that and he offered to drive us there when he got off work at 6pm since he lives there. So, Craig and I are now in Abingdon, VA staying at the Super 8. We've got better options here too - there's many places to eat, library with internet, motel with coffee around the clock, cable TV, and even a movie theater nearby! Woo-hoo! We just got back from a stroll down the historic main street part of town. Abingdon is really beautiful - very southern with a big brick courthouse, large victorian homes, etc. We ate a very satisfying meal at Shoney's and picked up some Bass Ale at Kroger's. Now we are going to kick back and revel in our having made it to Virginia. 450 miles!