morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-05-15
From: Campsite -past Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: scattered clouds

(Willie)Everybody sing with me ¢I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 miles ¢¦¢ Yep, we are officially part of the 500 miles club! 5 centuries down and only 16 and some change to go. The road to the 500 mile mark took us up and over what many believe to be the most scenic part of the trail. I guess things actually started yesterday, but it continued today with the Fat Man¢s Squeeze (a semi tight rock tunnel), Grandview Peak, the Grayson Highlands, Stone Mountain, and the Scales. Let¢s see, where to start? The first 2 miles took us over/through some breath taking rock outcroppings and exposed fields at around 5400¢. Other than being a little windy, the weather was clear with blue skies, so we could see for miles in every direction. The Grayson Highlands would have been better had we seen any of the wild horses that supposedly live there. Well I know that they live there, because I saw them the last time. For some reason they just weren¢t responding to ¢Here horsey horsey horsey. I¢ve got peanuts for you¢ today. I even crinkled the wrapper a bit but definitely did not cause a stampede of horses in our location. Oh well, maybe next time :-).After our first break we headed up Stone Mountain, which again opened up to some fantastic views and some exposed ridge walking. There was even a lady at the top named Tinker Bell who sprinkled us with ¢Katahdin dust¢ to help us on our journey, hopefully it helps out, but for now I just have a lot of blue glitter on me. I didn¢t realize that Katahdin was blue. When we got down Stone we arrived at the Scales, which is an old livestock corral in the middle of the mountains. From there our 8 mile exposed walk came to an end and we settled in for an afternoon of rocky woods walking. Man do those rocks take a lot out of your feet. But we made it, and I¢m glad we did because it got us to the Hurricane Shelter, which is only a few years old and not over run by mice (yet). We had time for dinner and a quick rinse in the river before heading to bed.
Date: 2007-05-16
From: Hurricane Mountain Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: broken clouds

(Erin) Wow what a day!! I think it was the easiest stretch of the trail yet or I¢m just that good! We had a lot of miles to cover and we made it by 6:00, in time to order pizza from the shelter and have hot showers. The first 5.2 miles went by quickly. We passed a neat waterfall called Comers Creek where I had Will climb up on some rocks so I could get a good picture. Then we came to Dickey Gap for our first snack. I had a brownie and Will had a nutty bar, by the end of the trip I¢m sure we will have eaten a lot of little Debbie snacks. From there we still had 4 miles to the next shelter for lunch. I know I know our whole day revolves around hiking and eating. When we get tired of those two things we sleep. The next shelter was quite cute with a fire place and everything¢¦too bad we weren¢t staying. For lunch I had some cheese sticks, cashews, and a snickers. Will had some peanut butter in a tortilla. We couldn¢t just hike 10 miles, we had to keep going, and the pizza was calling our names. We did the first 6 miles pretty quickly with only one slight uphill. I think that the uphills are getting much easier, as long as they aren¢t too bad I don¢t lose much speed. So by the 6 mile mark we were still dry. I think the forecast had called for some rain today but we were hoping that we could get to the shelter in time. Within the first mile after our second break it was starting to rain. Then it started to pour and pour and pour. The trail filled with water and the trail was so flat none of the water was moving off the trail. We were just walking thru puddles of water. We didn¢t put our rain coats on right away, why I don¢t know. We just kept walking as fast as we could till we knew that we were going to start getting cold. By then we were soaked, we put our rain coats on and did the last hour in the rain. I wish that I could have enjoyed the flat trail more then I did, we were just trying to get to the shelter as fast as we could. When we finally made it to the shelter it was beginning to stop raining¢¦of course! We were able to take warm showers in the only shelter on the trail that has its own shower¢¦and then we ordered pizza from the Ranger station phone. So all and all it ended up being a good night. Even though I drank a liter of mountain dew and was up all night and got up twice to pee. Next time I¢m not sleeping on the second floor after drinking that much liquid.
Date: 2007-05-17
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Atkins, VA
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: clear sky

(Willie)Just a short 11.5 miles on tap for us today to get us in to Atkins, VA to re-supply and to spend a night in a hotel, which was nice after a long wet day yesterday. It was hard to pull ourselves out of our bags this morning because 1) we knew we had a short day and 2) it was butt cold outside. This is the middle of May in southern VA, should I really be able to see my breath in the morning? But we knew we had to get up eventually, so we pull our butts into the fridge air. We had our last breakfast with Sven and Uff-da (for now) and said our goodbyes as they headed back to Damascus for Trail Days. It will be kind of strange without them, since we¢ve been hiking with them since the fist day in the Smokies, hopefully we¢ll see them again later up the trail.We were one of the last ones to leave the shelter at 9:00. Besides rescuing a couple of snails from certain crushage by hiker boot and relocating them to the side of the trail the hiking wasn¢t very exciting. At the shelter everyone was complaining about having to put on wet socks, I just smiled and slid my dry bare feet in my sandals and said ¢suckers¢. No that would have been mean, but I couldn't help but smile inside. Sandals sure do have their advantages.A little before Atkins we stopped at a Settlers Museum and got a tour from a very excited 10 year old named Chloe. From there it was a couple of miles of poison ivy infested field walking to get to the hotel. I could just feel the oils jumping off the leaves and onto my legs. I guess I should prepare for the inevitable itch. We got to the hotel and met back up with John, Becky, and Darla (section hikers we¢ve been with the last couple of days) and we traded our shower for a ride into town and to the store. We had a great dinner with them at the Atkins Diner, which was much better than we could have done if we tried to walk from the hotel, so we really appreciated the ride.Life Lesson: Don¢t sleep on the second floor of a shelter after drinking 2 liters of Mountain Dew with dinner. Trust me, that just leads to a lot of trips up and down a dark ladder.
Date: 2007-05-18
From: Atkins, VA

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: overcast clouds

(Erin) We woke up at 7:00ish and started to do the last minute packing and took our last shower for a while. I think I had the best night's sleep that I¢ve had in a while in that motel room. Even if it was the grossest motel room I¢ve ever stayed in, I think I was just too tired to care. We left around 9:30 and started to find our way under I-81 to the other side to start hiking. Not too many people on the trail right now because of Trail Days in Damascus so we didn¢t see anyone but a few southbound section hikers. From the register at the first shelter we can see who is still out in the woods with us and it¢s not many. The weather played tricks on us all day long. We were cold for most of the morning so at break we put on our rain coats and of course the sun came out and we had a bit of uphill. This happened again later on in the day. While hiking we ran into the 3 section hikers that we had seen the last few days slack packing south to get in a few more miles before heading back to PA. One of them had carried some snickers bars for us so we ate them while walking. We reached the 2nd shelter out of town to find G-Force and August. We hadn¢t seen G-Force in a while and he was leaving just as we were getting to town. He had decided to slow down a little bit so he could meet his girlfriend in Pearisburg. August caught up to us by doing 20plus days since Tuesday. Funny how things happen when we see people that we haven¢t seen for a while. We plan to get to Pearisburg, VA by Wednesday and then Daleville by the end of the month. A college roommate of mine (Shelley) has offered to take us back to her place when we get to Daleville or Peaks of Otter (which ever is easier). So I¢m excited to get to see Shelley in a few weeks, maybe she can get Steph to come out as well¢¦hint hint. Anyway time for bed. We are in our tent for the night which we set up in the shelter. There wasn¢t much flat area near by and so we just pitched it up in the shelter. It is also supposed to get pretty cold tonight so we need the little bit of added heat from the combination. Milestone: Passed the quater way mark today (543.5). Only three more of those to go!
Date: 2007-05-19
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: broken clouds

(Willie)Today we had a little bit of a chilly start to an otherwise perfect hiking day. Ok a little chilly might not be right. G-Force said that it was 40 degrees inside the shelter this morning. Brrr, that was cold enough to even make these toes hurt as we started walking. Luckily it only took an hour or so to warm up, and by the time we finished getting water at Lick Creek, our jackets came off for good. From then on, it was a nice and sunny day. We even had a steady breeze to help keep us from over heating. Over heating would have been easy with the climb we had this morning. 4410¢ Chestnut Knob might not seem like much, but when you start the climb at 2200¢, that¢s a lot of uphill. We had a few moments of silence to remember the horrible day I had along this stretch (feel free to read April 24 of my last journal if you¢re interested in the unpleasant details) but then it was up the bald ridge to the shelter for lunch.We didn¢t really hurry through lunch because by the book it seemed like we had a nice easy afternoon stroll ahead of us. Boy that was not the case at all. That nice little stroll turned out to be a lot harder than it looked. The next 9 miles would have been a lovely ridge walk had it not been full of M.U.D¢s and lots of rocks. When all was said and done, we climbed up 5000¢ today and down 5200¢ today. If I remember correctly, I eventually got used to the rocks, but that sure as heck hasn¢t happened yet. We stopped for a late snack (6:00) on top of Garden Mtn before going the last 4 miles to the shelter. Dinner turned out to be pretty interesting. We tried some of the dehydrated peas, corn, and Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) that Skip gave us in Atkins, which turned out to be kind of like beef flavored tofu but it wasn¢t too bad. It turned out to be a nice addition to our Liptons, which we've found that we need to add to make dinner anyhow. We were also surrounded by deer while we ate. They showed no fear of humans. I tried to get close enough for a picture, but it was pretty dark so I¢m not sure how it will come out. We¢ll have to wait and see when my mom puts it up on the site (thanks again Mom).
Date: 2007-05-20
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: few clouds

(Erin) What a day!! When ever I start a journal like that you know that it was a tough day and big miles. Today just so happens to be our biggest miles yet, 23.6!! We started hiking by 8:00 and from our guide book we had 12 stream crossings after a small mountain. We got to where we should have gone down to start the stream crossings but the trail had been re-routed. All of the blue-blazes on the ¢high water¢ trail were changed to white-blazes. So we had a decently flat 2 miles that we weren¢t really expecting. Then we had to get back to the original trail and walk up a gravel road for a mile or so. When we re-joined the trail there was a cooler of drinks, trail magic! So we stood and guzzled down our Gatorades and then hiked for another hour. The next 6 miles to just 1.5 from the shelter were pretty easy and wandering back and forther around the ridge. We decided to eat dinner at the next shelter because we knew that we would be getting in late and didn't want to have to cook in the dark. While making dinner Sylvan showed up from town and chatted with us until we all left to hike the next 9.8 miles to the next shelter. The terain wasn't too bad, rolling hills. Too bad my feet are killing me and I have new blisters!! Why do I have new blisters after so many miles without blisters, the only reason I could think of was the trail was sort of slanted a lot the other day and I had to walk a little funny and I must have been rubbing my heels weird. So now I have blisters and I'm rubbing the back of my heels raw. I think I'm going to get new shoes the next chance I get, which may be a while. We got to camp around 8:45, just before dark and set up the tent. We ate what we would have had for lunch and then went to bed. We'll see how far we get tomorrow, we may do another 20plus miles, but lets see how my feet feel.
Date: 2007-05-21
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Doc's Knob Shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: clear sky

(Willie)A 23 mile day after a 19 mile day was bad enough right? We wouldn¢t be crazy enough to torture ourselves again would we? I guess we¢re really not that smart because somehow we decided to go 22.6 miles today. It¢s amazing what the idea of a Pizza Hut lunch buffet will make you do. Just ask Sylvan, she was only going to do 14 today, but that very idea convinced her to drag herself to the next shelter too. We¢re still alive to tell the tale, but trust me it wasn¢t pretty.This morning the trail seemed to be baiting us to push for a big day. I¢ve told everyone who¢s asked not to believe the rumors that VA is flat, but the type of trail we had to start off definitely didn¢t help my case. We did the first 6.5 miles to our first break in about two and a half hours and then we did the next 7.8 miles in about three hours. Not even Erin¢s blisters that started to pop up yesterday seemed to be able to slow us down. Other than some minor ups and downs and some roots here and there it was really good terrain for cruising right along. We stopped at Kimberling Creek to take a break with Sylvan, General Tso, and Stonewall and to get some water. If anyone else is looking for some water I wouldn¢t make that your top choice. It was a huge creek, but it really wasn¢t flowing that fast, so even filtered it tasted a little funny. Oh well, you need to drink so much that funny tasting water will have to do. After flying to the Wapiti shelter and passing the 600 mile mark, we decided to try the dinner in the middle of the day trick since it seemed to work yesterday. Umm, I¢ll never complain about having a big meal in the middle of the day.Up until that point things seemed to be going really well. We left the shelter at 4:30 with only 8.4 miles to go. That was about 1.5 miles less then we had to do the day before when leaving at the same time. Things should have been a breeze. Once again, things turned out to be a lot harder then expected. VA decided at that point to reintroduce us to steep climbs and a little while later it was time to throw some serious rocks at us. That combination pretty much sucked any energy we had left in a heartbeat. Erin said it right when she turned to me and said, ¢My everything hurts!¢ We ended up stumbling in to the shelter at about 9:00 just beating pitch black darkness. 65 miles in 3 days, but we are only 8.2 miles from a Pizza Hut lunch buffet! That buffet, better be worth it.Life Lesson: Rock hopping, on dark colored rocks, in the dark, when you¢re exhausted is not the very best of plans.
Date: 2007-05-22
From: Doc's Knob Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: broken clouds

(Erin) After a not so restful night in the shelter we were hiking by 8:00. I'm so glad that we had a short day to get to town and head right to the Pizza Hut buffet. Sylvan caught up with us and we talking about our real jobs and what we did in college, we even talked about 9/11 and where we were when the buildings were hit. Sylvan works in NYC and I didn't know if she was in the city that day...she wasn't working in the city at the time. But it was interesting to hear her story of how she found out and what she did that day. So we got to town by 12:00 and check into a motel. Seems clean and better than the one in Atkins, VA. There is no fly swatter in the room so that's a good sign. We caught a shuttle straight to the Pizza Hut to fill our stomachs. Its crazy how much I crave food and then sometimes I can't decide what to eat first when I get to town. Pizza Hut is cheap and easy... Now we are at the library updating all of the journal entries that we haven't been able to do for a few weeks so I hope that everyone enjoys our little stories. We will be in Pearisburg, VA for the night and then should be heading out tomorrow. I think we plan on 5 days to get to Daleville where I think Shelley will be picking us up. (still need to call her again). Thanks for all of the words of encouragement and just keeping us in your thoughts. We miss you guys!
Date: 2007-05-23
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: few clouds

(Willie)After 3 long days and running around all afternoon yesterday, we decided that it would be nice to have a little more of a relaxing day. Around 8:00 we decided it was time to get up and start the laundry. We were a little short on quarters, so I had to go across the street to the Ford dealer to try to get some more. I guess I should have known that the guy was going to bargin with me, but I stayed firm and walked out of there with 4 quarters instead of the 3 he wanted to give me. When we finished with the clothes and were about to start looking for a ride into town, Soulive pulled up to see if we needed a ride anywhere. Pearisburg is such a spread out city on a hill, so it was really helpful to have him around the last couple of days. He sure picked a good city to do some trail magic. First he drove us to the post office so we could mail home some pictures. After that he drove us to Walmart to resupply, and so that Erin could pick up some new shoes. Soulive is a shoe guy at an EMS in NJ and he said that she would be better off with some Walmart kickers then the ones she started with since they were pretty dead. We left Walmart full of food, a pair of $20 shoes, and some awful bright orange shoe laces. The final stop before heading back to the trail was Wendy¢s where we were finally able to pay Soulive back for all of his help. It took some arguing, but he accepted a 99 cent burger and a frosty. Managing to navigate the trails around Pearisburg proved to be much more difficult with out Soulive¢s help. Some decent trail markers would have been nice, but instead we were left searching for the tail at each road crossing. Sylvan actually got so lost that she had to stop a cop to ask for directions. It was so frustrating that it was almost a relief to hit the first hill and head out of town (almost). The skies were starting to rumble as we got to the Rice Field Shelter and we heard that a big group was heading for the campsite we were going to, so we decided to stop early. August kept us entertained by doing card readings until our 9:30 bed time.Life Lesson: Try to avoid walking behind someone with bright orange shoe laces. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on all the roots and rocks you have to walk around.
Date: 2007-05-24
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: scattered clouds

(Erin) We were the last ones to leave the shelter, but we didn¢t have too long of a day ahead of us. First we had 12 miles to the first shelter in which the trail did a good bit of wandering through the woods. The weather was nice with a cool breeze until we went up hill and we were both sweating like pigs. I sweat so much that the sweat dripping down my arms feels like bugs crawling on my arms. We took a lunch break by the start of the Allegany Trail and then had 2.5 more miles to the shelter, then from that shelter we had 3.9 to the next one. At that point the trail decided to do what we like to call vertical switchbacks. Will warned me of this earlier while hiking. Vertical switchbacks are when the trail could run right along nicely next to the creek but instead it goes up and down the mountain right next to the creek. We always seem to find ourselves back at the creek when we come back down. So tell me about some pain in the butt PUDS (pointless ups and downs). We also enjoyed our first river fording. There was a sign posted 2 miles before the fording notifying us that a bridge had been washed away in 2004 just so we would be ready to get our feet wet. When we reached the river Will tried to lay rocks across the river so that I could ¢rock hop¢ across and not have to change into my crocs. He gave up after slipping and falling into the river¢¦.(he also wasn¢t very happy) So I changed into my crocs and walked across the river and then on the other side I put my shoes back on. Next we had 1.1 up a very very steep mountain. We gained 1,000 feet elevation very quickly. It was a rough climb and of course we were both sweating again like crazy when we reached the top. The water for this shelter was .2 from the shelter so we went down to fill up out water bottles and to wash the salt off our faces before heading to camp. All and all not a bad day for a hike in the woods.Life Lesson: If the person in front of you is bugging you a little too much, try farting before a switch back. They really won't be expecting it when then turn the corner.
Date: 2007-05-25
From: Bailey Gap Shelter

To: Campsite past Keffer Oak Shelter
Miles today: 18.4

(Willie)After a night full of sliding around on a slanted tent site and listening to Erin break wind, I was more then ready to get up when the alarm went off this morning. We packed up and threw down some Pop-Tarts (new flavor, Mint Chocolate Chip = yum) and hit the trail. It was kind of overcast for most of the day, but that didn¢t stop the temp from rising and the sweat from flowing. The first couple of miles would have gone smoother had VA not thought it would be a good idea to get us ready for PA by taking us over as many rocks as possible. It was still a bit early for snack when we got to Wind Rock, so we took a quick peek at a view that showed us just how green VA really is, and it was back to walking. We had a long grueling climb to lunch that took us up and over more rocks and through a bunch or fallen trees, but we made it to VA 601 and were relieved to see a cooler full of sodas, compliments of Super Dave. The afternoon took us over Kelly¢s Knob, past a scary looking Blair Witch house (complete with handprints), through some pastures, and through stile heaven. 12 stiles in about 2 miles! Needless to say, this was not Erin¢s favorite stretch of trail. She really needs to learn to have more fun on those stiles. We set up camp a little past the Keffer Oak (one of the largest and oldest trees on the trail) right after another stile. It didn¢t take long to remember how much I didn¢t like the bugs the first time around. They even forced us to eat dinner inside the tent tonight. And now I¢m realizing just how slanted our tent site is again tonight. Time for another fun night of sliding around the tent, should be fun.Life Lesson: In the absence of a flat tent site you have the following options. 1) Pitch across the slant = Sleep on top of or under your tent partner. 2) Pitch with your head up the slant = Sleep with your knees under your chin and your feet against the bottom of the tent. 3) Pitch with your head down the slant = Sleep with your face pressed up against the tent door. Which is better? I¢ll let you decide.