morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-18
From: VA 632, mi 663.6

To: Roan Oak, VA
Miles today: 0.0

After a sound night's rest on a king-size memory foam mattress, I had breakfast with Marcy, and began to organize gear and food. Marcy offered to loan me her car for picking up supplies in a town about 10 miles from her residence, and later, Britta, who was scheduled to fly into Roan Oak Airport in the late evening. My feet, which I finally got a good look at the night I arrived, were red and raw from bacterial infection. I attributed this to the perpetually wet and muddy trail conditions. Up until now, I had been wearing the Solomon river shoes, which were designed to be saturated, however, I believed the mud, imbedded in my wool socks, simulated a fine sandpaper, that removed my skin, leaving it vulnerable to bacterial infection. I washed my swollen feet thoroughly with soap, then allowed them to ventilate while wearing my sandals. After a load of laundry, I followed Marcy (who drove her son's old car) through a maze of country roads, to a main boulevard with strip malls, where she turned the opposite direction to the gym. The first time, I drove well past my turn-off, realizing that I was in the middle of nowhere. I backtracked about 5 miles, and found the large supermarket she had mentioned. In addition to hiking food, I purchased fresh fresh berries, vegetables, and sausage, for a scrambled egg breakfast I would make for Marcy and Britta the next morning. I made it back to Marcy's home by about 3pm. Later in the evening, Marcy had planned to cook a roast for dinner, along with a baked potato. It was so delicious! I joined Marcy in watching a movie after dinner, while waiting anxiously to make the drive to Roan Oak before midnight to pick up Britta. I had learned earlier that Britta had missed her first flight, so she would be arriving at the Roan Oak Airport I believe on the last flight in. Marcy had given me a simpler, yet longer way to drive to the Airport. I choose the more sinuous, hillier route of Burnt Chimney Rd. This road climbed over a small ridge blanketed in dense fog this evening, not to mention the blackness of the night. I arrived at the airport shortly after 11pm, found the gate Britta would be arriving at an waited with excitement. Her flight arrived around 11:30 pm and after what seemed to be an infinite string of people, Britta, wearing a bright yellow jacket, had finally arrived. We squeezed each other for a long moment, before making the adventurous journey back to Marcy's. It was about 1:30 am by the time we had crept into bed, careful of not making a peep to wake Marcy on the bottom floor.
Date: 2013-05-19
From: Roan Oak, VA

To: Laurel Creek Shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: light rain

After a sound night's rest with Britta, I began preparing scrambled eggs, mixed with spinach, bell peppers, onions, and sausage. I served it with a bowl of fresh berries. We enjoyed breakfast together, before going though the additional gear and food Britta had brought from California. Suddenly I realized, after looking at the pile of food I had just purchased the previous day, that I would need to separate the food into several food caches, which could be sent via mail ahead of me. While I divided the food, Britta and Marcy looked at several large topography maps that Marcy had spread on the dining table. Marcy was attempting to project the most ideal locations for resupply to the north, but nothing was certain since Britta was just warming up to the idea of hiking. There was rugged, hilly terrain ahead, including Dragon's Tooth, and McAfee Knob. Britta would leave for home on May 29, 2013, which gave her ample time to acclimate to the trail. Given this time, Britta worked with Marcy into the late morning on figuring out the best exit strategy for getting to Charlottesville, VA where she'd fly home in the afternoon of the 29th. It was close to noon by the time I had finished dividing the food caches and assisting Britta with her gear. Britta brought my two person Double Rainbow Tarp Tent from home. I left my Six Moons Design Lunar Solo with Marcy, who would deliver the tent at a rendezvous somewhere to the north, yet to be determined. On our drive back to the AT on VA632, where I first met Marcy two days ago, we stopped for a subway sandwich then a auto parts store for some alcohol stove fuel. It was about 3 pm by the time we arrived to the trailhead. Marcy took our photo with packs on in front of the AT trail sign. Britta and I hiked over the first ridge to Laurel Creek Shelter by dusk. I attempted to hang a line in the tree behind the shelter for hanging food. The rock that I tied to the end of the chord was not heavy enough to drop. Whipping the chord back and forth achieved nothing! Pulling harder only got it more stuck! After attempting to pull it from all angles, standing on the picnic table in front of the shelter at one point, I realized that my only last resort was to fell a 40-ft tree with my Swiss Army knife! I improvised with my 3-inch blade by making a 0.5-in deep cut around the perimeter of the trunk first. After cutting half way through, I began to whip the tree back and forth by tugging the chord. After at least 45 minutes of greatly reducing the structural integrity of the tree, it would not give. I did manage to reorient the tree enough however, for a better angle to whip slack in the chord. Miraculously, the rock began to lower. I had my chord back at the expense of a tree. I prepared a large pot of pasta with tuna with hot chocolate, before we turned in for the evening.
Date: 2013-05-21
From: Niday Shelter

To:  Catawba Grocery, VA624-Newport Rd, VA
Miles today: 16.8

At VA 621, next to Craig Creek, Britta and I stopped for breakfast, a little more than a mile north of Niday Shelter. We made the long ascent up Brush Mountain, enjoying tunes, which we had both traded, my Nano for Britta's shuffle. The new tunes were invigorating and got me moving at a steady pace up the ridge. We visited the Audie Murphy Monument (highly decorated WWII soldier who died near this site). Hikers had placed hundreds of rocks around the monument. Britta and I each added one to the piles. By early noon, we reached the footbridge of Trout Creek, where we stopped to filter water and eat some lunch. During out hot ascent towards the Pickle Branch Shelter, I shouted back to Britta that I would call her "Heart Rock" from here on, after her habitual recognition and photographing of many heart-shaped rocks along the AT. On our traverse of the narrow rocky ridge towards Dragons Tooth, Half and Half and Haykuna Matada, the Austrian brother and sister through hikers whom I first met in Damascus, caught up to us. Heart Rock was thrilled to meet some trail friends. They both rushed ahead of us into the late afternoon, with plans to catch the Catawba Grocery before it closed. Heart Rock and I planned to make it there before closing time at 11pm. We made it to Dragons Tooth by 7:30pm, the skies transforming into hues of dark purple. We dawned our headlamps and scrambled down rock ledges towards VA 624. In places, there were rebar rungs doweled into the rock. We climbed down cautiously. At 10:30 pm, we arrived at the Catawba Grocery. The store had closed 30 min early. We decided to pitch the tent on the grass behind the store and celebrate Heart Rock's birthday early the next morning. At about 11pm, I had cooked dinner for both of us and a special pre-birthday surprise dessert, called raspberry crumble. I sang happy birthday, and rejoiced an amazing day with Britta.
Date: 2013-05-23
From: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville, VA

To: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville,VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

I Spent a zero day in Daleville, sleeping in late (which was 8 am!), enjoying a leisure breakfast at a coffee shop in the shopping center just down the street from the Howard Johnson. On the way to the coffee shop, passing through the parking lot, we could not help but notice a large white plumbing truck with the logo ¢Turd Busters¢ on the side. Given how P.C. California is, the likelihood of driving around such a truck in my home state, would likely lead to a public stoning or burning at the stake. We took a photo and got a good chuckle. Later in the afternoon, Britta rented a Jeep from the Roan Oak Airport with the help of trail angel Marcy Campbell. Britta had done some preliminary planning with Marcy on the morning of May 19, at Marcy¢s home, south of Roan Oak, VA. She had planned to follow me north via the winding highways and connecting back roads, meeting me at strategic trail and road crossings. I had marked plausible locations in Britta¢s copy of AWOL¢s 2013 Appalachian Trail Guide, that I thought I could reach in a day. Marcy and Lucky Strike joined us later in the day. We bunched into the rental Jeep and headed under the I-81 to a small pizza parlor named Bella. The four of us shared stories over pasta, salads, and beverages. Lucky Strike was particularly quiet, and from the way he devoured food off his plate of veal and spaghetti, famished. Part of our conversation was centered around Lucky Strikes experience with lightning. We had also discussed some preliminary plans for where Britta could meet me along the trail. After returning from dinner, as I was fading out quickly in the warm room supine on the comfortable bed while Marcy worked on planning with Britta past mid night (and I mean normal midnight, not ¢hikers midnight¢) on which roads to take to intersect the locations I had planned to be each day. The labyrinth of back roads, which I witnessed first hand when Marcy had picked me up at VA633 in the early evening of May 17 on the long drive to her place. Even though Marcy drove these back roads with confidence of not getting lost, she still had to study Virginia trail maps and Google satellite imagery which she devoted her time to share with Britta into the late hours of the night. It was approaching 1am when Marcy decide to finally call it quits and drive the 1.5 hours south of Roan Oak to her home. I had already long faded out on the bed for the night.
Date: 2013-05-24
From: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville,VA

To: Jennings Creek, VA 614
Miles today: 28.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke before Britta and headed down the hill from our room on the upper terrace of the Howard Johnson to enjoy the continental breakfast served in the main lobby at the front of the hotel. I made a waffle, and was preparing to sit at the table, when Heart Rock walked in to join me and hug me goodbye for the day. I handed her my waffle and insisted she sit down and join me. I dripped another ladle of batter into the clever pivoting waffle iron, and consumed some cold cereal while I waited for the waffle. It was a beautiful morning, in comparison to the past couple days of inclement weather on the trail. I had planned to hike about 28 miles today and meet Britta at Jennings Creek, where we would camp together. The AT crosses the multi-lane Roan Oak Rd. across from the Howard Johnson, heading east-northeast, parallel to the I-81 through grass choked trail and rolling topography, before crossing under the I-81 at Valley Rd and climbing the long north-east trending ridge parallel to and above the famous Blue Ridge Pkwy which runs into GA I believe and becomes Skyline in the Shenandoah National Park to the north. Paralleling this well know scenic ridge line road for the first time (which the AT crosses multiple times) seemed to pull me further north by virtue of knowing this road was the spine of the SNP. After passing over Bear Wallow Gap (mi 745) where Britta and I had met in the afternoon, I intercepted the familiar red, iron-oxide stained sandstone, though coarser grained. I concluded that this unit was part of the ubiquitous white quartz sandstone that I had followed now for several hundred miles. Pre-mesozoic beaches were abundant, before they became lithified and then compressed like a car in a junk yard into the taffy-like synclinal and anticlinal plunging folds that eroded into the sinuous ridges and valleys the AT followed. In the late afternoon, I dropped down the ridge to VA614 and Jennings Ck, where the familiar white Jeep that Heart Rock had rented was parked. She was waiting with a delicious cheese burger and beer that she had purchased down the road. After I inhaled that appetizer like a wild animal, I searched for a private tent spot away from the road, next to the creek. I set up the Double Rainbow Tarp Tent that Britta had brought from my pantry storage back home, and made a second meal of pasta and tuna for both of us to enjoy.
Date: 2013-05-28
From: VA 56- Tye River, VA

To: US 250/Blue Ridge Pkwy, VA
Miles today: 30.0
Weather: few clouds

When I left Heart Rock the previous day back at the trailhead on US 60 east of Buena Vista, I did not anticipate seeing her until I finished the AT and returned home. I enjoyed her friendship and sharing this journey with her so much that it was difficult letting her go. Heart Rock had spoiled me with things like beer, milk shakes, and hamburgers, at the end of a long hiking day, but most of all, her friendship and shared passion for the wilderness. I realized that I would be back to hiking solo for another two months! I would miss being spoiled. Camp on the north side of the footbridge at Tye River, VA 56, was the first night alone after a wonderful week with Heart Rock. I knew that Heart Rock would be in Waynesboro, VA for a couple days, organizing my food caches to be sent to Harper's Ferry. I did not plan or anticipate meeting up with her until my journey was over. I woke early, packed up, ate a quick breakfast and began my long, steep ascent of Three Ridges Mountian (El 3,984). The ascent of this mountain, which reminded me of La Cumbre Peak bounding Santa Barbara to the north, was broken by ridges, marked by very steep, near vertical steps in between. In between each prominent ridge, the AT flattened, with vistas off of open monolithic benches of sandstone. By 9:30am, I had reached the summit of Three Ridges, marked by a rather insignificant weathered sign with name and elevation, took a deep breath, and continued north along rocky, but relatively flat topography. I stopped at the Blue Ridge Pkwy crossing (mi 838.7) by early noon and sat in the shade for a bite to eat and to rest my feet. By late afternoon, under the dark shade of the forest canopy and in front of a historical cabin ruins and standing chimney, I texted Heart Rock to let her know that I was pushing for Waynesboro by about 7pm. She returned my message saying she'd meet me at the trailhead and spend one last final night with me in Waynesboro at the Quality Inn. Half and Half and Hakuna Matada, whom I passed earlier in the day, said they would likely camp near the US 250 and hitch into Waynesboro early the next morning. I sat on the stone wall over the US250 as dusk settled in. About 30 minutes later, Heart Rock arrived in her white Jeep rental, with a hamburger and milkshake...an appetizer for me. We navigated our way back into Waynesboro, searching for a pizza place to enjoy a second feeding. We ordered, then drove back to the Quality Inn, where they delivered it shortly after.My focus
Date: 2013-05-30
From: Blackrock Hut, mi 878.0

To: Former South River Shelter Site
Miles today: 27.4
Weather: broken clouds

I hiked up the hill from Blackrock Hut in the early morning with Pool Cats. Are immediate goal, which the young ladies with the 45lb food bag should have also targeted, was the Loft Mountain Campground Store about 7 miles north. We made it to the store about mid morning, purchased our standard rations of junk food which included ice cream, chocolate, cookies, and sweet beverages. We sat in the shaded breezeway between the store and attached camp laundry and shower rooms. We spent a good hour eating and resting while we talked to an older man from Texas who had hiked sections of the AT years ago. We marched on from the market in the heat of the early afternoon, passing the Loft Mountain Wayside and crossing Skyline about a half dozen times. We pushed over Hightop Mountain in the late afternoon, dropping slowly down the steep rocky terrain of the north side.   We made it to the former South River Shelter Site by dusk, hiking the wide grassy jeep road in to the shelter. We noticed that there were recent tire impressions in the mud. This shelter was technically off limits to camping and designated as a maintenance storage facility for park personnel. The shelter, much to Lucky Strike's surprise, was still standing. The front of it was obstructed by a large wood panel and cross bar with padlock. Outside the shelter were two picnic benches, a fire ring, and a large stack of freshly split firewood. We set up tents in the long grass in a flat area along the road coming in, filtered water from the barely flowing boxed spring upslope of the road and half way back to the AT, and prepared supper.
Date: 2013-05-31
From: Former South River Shelter Site

To: Crescent Rock Overlook, mi 925.1, VA
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: broken clouds

Lucky Strike and I took off early from the former South River Shelter Site, making our first goal the Lewis Mountain Campground, where another small store existed about 6 miles north. I quickly passed Lucky Strike, who was dragging his feet today due to soreness. I made it to Lewis Mountain Campground by mid morning, hiking through the paved campground loops to the market. The store was tiny, but well stocked with ice cream, breakfast sandwiches ( which a young hiker named "I don't know" was eating, and light supplies for dinner. I was expecting a food cache at Big Meadows Lodge about 9 miles north.
Date: 2013-06-05
From: Town's Inn, Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Town's Inn, Harper's Ferry, WV
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I slept into mid morning, did a bit of catching up on my blog, then headed up the hill to downtown Harper's Ferry and the famous (at least to hikers) Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) with the well photographed exterior brick wall which thousands of through hikers have been photographed in front of. I wandered a bit through the ATC's interior, exploring the walls of goodies, then the back room, where the photo albums of past photos were stored. The ATC takes a photo of each hiker passing through, with one of those polaroid insta-matic cameras, which the through hiker then labels with a format predesignated by the ATC. This information includes the hikers real name, trail name, date started, direction of hike, and extraneous information such as blog sites. The ATC then assigns a chronological number to your photo. My number is 324, meaning that 323 hikers arrived to the ATC before me. Many would argue that this number is a big deal. I would argue that it is random and insignificant. For example, many of the hikers who sign the register and get there photos taken are section hikers, while some have hitched ahead just to zero in Harpers. The only significant numbers in my mind is your start date and finish date, but even these are misleading since many hikers enjoy vast numbers of zero days, while others take scant amounts. This being said, I was one of a handful that began in mid April. The vast majority ahead had started in February and March this year. After being officially logged into the ATC, I opened the large box of food that Heart Rock sent. The box contained 4 smaller boxes and an extra collapsed box. I spent the greater part of the day, into the early afternoon, trying to figure out the best places to forward each of these caches to, in addition to re-distributing food by estimating the number of hiking days to each location. For anyone even considering sending food caches on the AT, budget lot of time and extra money! It turns out to be mostly unnecessary due to the frequency of towns, however, it is merited in a few locations where significant sized towns and/or markets are more than 5 days apart. Another justification is sending yourself food and other specialized supplies that ordinarily could not be obtained in any of the towns. Heart Rock had added many specialized foods from Trader Joe's in addition to home dried fruits and veggies. After getting my caches mailed, I wandered down to the Outfitter just down the hill from Town's Inn and next to the train station. I traded in my Salomon Amphibian shoes for a pair of GoLites, which looked very similar to the FiveTen climbing approach shoes I've worn for years. I was hoping these shoes would give my feet more protection from the rock terrain, which is said to increase in intensity through Pennsylvania, and of course in the Whites of New Hampshire and into southern Maine. I wore them around town the remainder of the afternoon.
Date: 2013-06-06
From: Town's Inn, Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Free State Hostel, MD
Miles today: 30.9
Weather: light rain

I began my departure from Harper's Ferry ambling past the remaining historic site before crossing the Potomac River into Maryland. The AT follows a historic tow path along the Potomac for about 3 miles beneath a corridor of tall trees draped with poison ivy and other vines. This is probably the flattest and smoothest terrain of the AT yet. After crossing the RR tracks, the trail crosses numerous roads and through historic state parks. The rain began to fall in the late morning and continued through the day. When I reached Wolfsville Rd. near at dusk, I hiked down the steep narrow, windy road towards Smithsburg, passing the driveway to the Free State Hostel some quarter mile back. I kind resident who was probably use to hikers walking past his house, knew where I was headed and redirected me up the hill to a white mailbox with small white sign. It was poorly marked, but I found it. I hiked up the steep driveway and followed the signs leading around the back side of the house. The hostel was the most atypical on the trail yet, constructed as a modern, dry-walled extension of the house, with a kitchen, large-stocked fridge, laundry, bathroom, and bunk room, illuminated by can lights. Several hikers agreed to order dinner. We called the Italian restaurant in town and ordered large pizzas and sodas. It was here, that I recall a couple interesting characters. One was a man named "Professor" who apparently moved to California and has a PhD in construction or some field related. He obtained this doctorate, perhaps though the mail...I'm guessing, somewhere back in the eastern states, perhaps GA. The other, was a young man who arrived to the hostel around 10pm, lit like a christmas tree. He proceeded in telling everyone that he grew and distributed pot. It was quite apparent that he tested his own product too. His lack of respect for the owner of the hostel was apparent by even considering to bring weed into the hostel. He also shared with fellow hikers the deteriorated state of Detroit MI, where he was from. It definitely deterred me from ever considering travel to Detroit, or let alone MI, even though my relatives and parents are from this state.