morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-07-06
From: Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

7/6 Harper's Ferry, WV to Ed Garvey Shelter - 7 milesAfter an overpriced brunch buffet (with no fresh fruit) at the Hilltop House, Ed and I were off on the trail. For the first few miles we walked along the C&O Towpath. It was nice and flat as it followed along the Potomac River. Ed spotted tons of turtles in the creek. He also got his first taste of trail magic. A guy named Ed who hiked the AT twice stopped and gave us cold apples and also offered me some loot. Some people are so generous. A while later we asked a couple about a local convenient store that was supposed to be close by. They didn't think that anything was in the area and gave us a bottle of really cold water. Trail magic experience #2 for Ed.After the Towpath the trail started to go uphill and that is where Ed had problems. He got very tired and overheated. We stopped at Weaverton Cliffs for a view of the river and railroad. Then e headed to the shelter.We ended up at the Ed Garvey Shelter which is a beautirul 2 story structure, complete with porch and the secod story has windows. It was an awesome shelter. We decided to get water even though it was .4 miles downhill. On our way down it started to thunder and as we made it back to the shelter (we were actually faster going uphill) we knew we were going to be in a big thunderstorm.At the shelter there are only 2 other people staying in the upstairs so Ed and I put up our tent in the bottom section of the shelter. That way we avoided both the rain and the bugs. We ended up getting two rounds of heavy rain, thunder and lightening. It was a pretty intense storm. The forecast is the same everyday this week - highs in the 90's and scattered thunderstorms - wo-hoo!I hope both the heat and the scary storms don't scare Ed off the AT.
Date: 2003-07-07
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Dahlgren Back Pack Campground
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: scattered clouds

7/7 Ed Garvey Shelter to Dahlgren Back Pack Campground - 10.9 milesThe Maryland section of the AT has a lot of history, especially Civil War history. The first stop was Gathland State Park. Again, lots of Civil War history, but at the moment I was more concerned about getting a soda. We ate lunch there and met Chaco - another thru hiker who was getting back on after taking 5 days off. He gave Ed and I an orange. That hit the spot.Ed experienced the wonderful afternoon monsoons. It truely felt like we were in a rainforest with the heat, humidity and rain. Luckily it didn't last too long, but it was long enough to get our shoes soaked. A while later we passed another site on the Civil War auto tour. Lots to read and learn, but I find that I don't always have the attention span to read the signs.We ended up at a great free campground tonight. There is running water, flush toilets and hot showers. What a great treat. Tonight we are camped here along with Chaco, Beach, and the 2 grandmas - Grandma Bear and Grandma Turtle.
Date: 2003-07-08
From: Dahlgren Back Pack Campground

To: Pogo Memorial Campsite
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

7/8 Dahlgren Back Pack Campground to Pogo Memorial Campsite - 9 milesLesson for today - fried food, beer, heat and uphills do not mix.This morning Ed and I headed out of camp after a light downpour. Our first stop was to the Washington Memorial, the one in Maryland not DC. Apparently it was the first memorial built to honor George Washington. History fact - he served 12 years as president. While we were at the park we saw 2 deer and a fawn. I finally got to see a fawn up close.Then we hiked with Aunt Mabel (a section hiker) to the I-70 footbridge. She headed on while we took a detour that we later regretted.Ed and I took a side trail and did some road walking to get to the Dogpatch Tavern. I was warned that it was a biker bar, and it totally was. It had bikers, Easyrider posters, beer posters with chicks on bikes, crude foul songs playing from the jukebox and even the local drunkard that got kicked out. It was a little bit of a culture shock, especially the music for me. We thought we sat out the afternoon heat in the bar, but no. When we left it felt hotter than when we had arrived. We walked a short distance to the next shelter (which had a resident cat) and took a short break. Then we started up the rough uphill in the heat while still digesting cheeseburgers and fries and mozzarella sticks. blah. We both were feeling aweful and I got a headache.We are staying at a campsite tonight that even has a privy and a nice cold water source. It felt really good to stop and drink some kool-aid. I'm starting to feel normal again.We also stopped at Annapolis Rocks where they have put in designated campsites and have a resident caretaker. The caretaker there this week has hiked the AT and she was the second person to comment to me about getting to Maine and limiting zero days. I appreciate the concern and information, but it starts to get me worried and nervous. I want to enjoy this trip and not worry about not making it. I don't have a time limit so I will get as far as I can before Katahdin becomes imppossible to climb.
Date: 2013-03-16
From: Locust Cove Gap

To: Cable Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: haze

Sorry for the delay in updating my journal. The days have been cold and the signals have not been good. I am still having the time of my life hiking every day. It is very exciting each day to meet the challenges the trail offers and to end each day with new friends at camp. Today we climbed some vey steep "ups" As we have begun to refer to the inclines of the trail. "Jacobs Ladder was a significant up with 500ft in less than half a mile. Each day we go up and down on average 10 climbs. And the going up is really easier than going down sometimes. We did have some excitement at camp today. As the fire was dying out and we were gathering up our stuff, the boys saw a mouse run near the shelter. As if by instinct, Leprechaun pounced on the small creature proclaiming "welcome to earth" ( a line from a Will Smith movie?) and then he picked it up with his bare hand. The poor little mouse was then fast pitched into the darkness of the trees. In the end, it really is survival, and the mice are probably our biggest threat out here, even though we all talk about bears way too much.
Date: 2003-07-09
From: Pogo Memorial Campsite

To: Ensign Cowall Shelter
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: clear sky

7/9 Pogo Memorial Campsite to Ensign Cowall Shelter - 4.8 milesWoke up to a light drizzle this morning, but things cleared up quickly. The trail began to get realy rocky and it seemed like we were rock hopping forever. Later we found out that Mickey and Minnie saw a few rattle snakes up there both on the rocks and inbetween them. I'm sure glad I didn't see any. Ignorance is bliss!We were taking a long lunch at the Ensign Cowell Shelter. Ed also took a long nap. As we were getting ready to leave Mickey and Minnie came back and said they heard thunder. The four of us talked for a long time. They are from Jackson, Wy and have some pretty cool jobs that we quizzed them about.A while later James and John (or Yim Yim and Nickname) came in. They are two pretty cool kids. 16, from PA, hiking a 10 day section to Harper's Ferry. The six of us all talked about everything from snakes to skiing to rafting to snakes to snowboarding to snakes. See a theme here.Well, it ended up raining off and on and before you knew it it was 5pm. So we decided to stay the night since this is a big spacious shelter and the next one only holds 4. It was a good decision as it is now 8:45 and still raining pretty hard.Ed ended up dishing out some trail magic and bought pizza and soda for all of us. There was a phone number for a local pizza place in the shelter and they actually deliver to the side of the road. It was a great treat, much better than Ramen. The 6 of us are staying here tonight and Foxie made it in time to get the last slice of pizza and some soda.As I was talking to Minnie I learned that there are a lot of people behind us still, and they hike a normal pace. So I am not at the tail end and have plenty of time to make it to the big K. Foxy recently figured out if we did consistant 13 mile days we'd make it by Oct. 1. Good thing other people are doing the math because I don't want to think that hard. I almost wish (almost is a key word) that I created some kind of algorithim in excel where I could calculate where I would be depending on my weekly average. I also wish I took it a step further and kept track in excel my progress so I could have detailed info on averages and such - like what they have in the stats section of Trail Journals, but for some reason I can't keep that mileage accurate. I know this makes me sound like a dork, but I just think it would be interesting to keep up to date information on my past and future progress.Enough thinking for the night, I'm going to bed hoping the gigantic spider doesn't join me in my sleeping bag. This thing was huge, probably the size of the palm of your hand. And it had a big fat body. Between the spider and all our snake talk I'm sure I'll be dreaming about some pretty scary stuff tonight.
Date: 2013-03-17
From: Cable Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam Shelter 
Miles today: 6.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was short mileage day to reach Fontana Dam for a Nero day (low mileage), so I took my time and enjoyed the short hike. When I got to the shelter everyone else had gone to town to get some supplies. I didn't need vey much so I got a shuttle into the village nearby to do some laundry. This is an interesting situation because basically all of my clothes are in need of washing, so what you do is put on your rain gear, pants and jacket and then wash everything in one load. While my clothes were washing I walke down to a gas station quick shop called the Pit Stop and bought some snacks and had a pizza and a beer. I had an I chat with the locals and then back up to get my clothes dried. I decided to walk bam to be shelter just because I had some time to kill. A few minutes into my walk a truck stops and asks if I'm a hiker and if my name is Moxie. Turns out she had just given my friends a ride to town and was just dropping them of at the shelter. She was a past hiker and was doing trail magic. On top of all this good luck, when I met back up with the Stiver Ceek boys they tell me that we have Beer and Pizza to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Their was a rumer that pizza was delivere to this shelter but it turned out to be just that. But the boys came true with dijournos. Somehow the figured out how to cook it over the fire with some tin foil. It was great! Yea! That night there were so many hikers at the shelter we all gathered for some pictures. This is a special shelter with the nickname of he Fontana Hilton! Lol.
Date: 2003-07-10
From: Ensign Cowall Shelter

To: Deer Lick Shelters
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

7/10 Ensign Cowall Shelter to Deer Lick Shelters - 14.1 milesToday was a glorious day. I am in PA!!!! A few bad things did happen but all in all I feel great knowing I am in my home state. I thought I was happy to reach Harper's Ferry, but I am really happy to be in PA.Ed tried to get me up before 6am. I just layed there in the shelter looking at him like - you've got to be kidding me, this body does not get up before 6am. He was worried because we had about 4 miles to make up that we didn't do yesterday, and he wanted to get moving. I did get up around 6:10 and eventually we were on our way. But we had to have a little downpour before we left, just to make things more fun. I felt like crawling back into my sleeping bag.We didn't even go a mile yet and I got stung by something. It hurt so bad I was yelling and almost ready to cry. I've been bitten by all different kinds of bugs lately, but this hurt so much more. Ed looked at the bite on the back of my upper right leg. He thought I may have run into a stinging nettel plant. I wanted to see this plant so I wouldn't run into it again. We walked backwards and few feet and I had bees swarming around my head. That is when we decided I got stung by a bee. I have a giant red and puffy spot on my leg. I sure am glad I'm not allergic to bees. I have no idea what I did to make a bee mad enough to sting me but he did.We stopped for lunch at the Pen-Mar Park. The 2 grandmas were there eating spaghetti dinners from the place we got pizza at the night before. Turns out they deliver to the park too. So Ed, Micky, Minnie and I all ordered a hot lunch. It was sooooo yummy.Soon after we left the park I crossed the Mason Dixon Line. Woo-Hoo, I'm not in the South anymore. No more grits and sweet tea :( But I hope it does mean that I will find fresh fruit in the breakfast buffets up north. Seems like they don't believe in fresh fruit down south.Right after the Mason-Dixon Line there was a Welcome to PA sign. How sweet! I did a little dance and we celebrated by eating blackberries. They were growing everywhere and were ready for pickin' and eating. After Ed's longest day of hiking, we made it to the "shelters". There are several spots in PA that have 2 shelters at one site. There was one spot that marked the shelters Snoring and Non-snoring. Now that is a cool idea. We ended up tenting tonight because a whole lot of people showed up here and one of the shleters had hornets nests on it - yuck.
Date: 2013-03-18
From: Fontana Dam Shelter 

To: Mollies Ridge Shelter 
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light snow

Today we enter into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We crossed the Fontana Dam and immediately start to climb. We have been talking about this for over a week with intimidation. We have heard so much about how the weather can turn on dime. The day started off okay, but soon the skies began to darken with clouds. With we greater by a park ranger a few miles into our hike. He gave us some information about using he shelters and bear issues. In the park you must sleep in the shelter unless they are absolutely full. The shelter here are made of stone but still only have three walls. They do have a fireplace inside which can be nice. The rangers have covered the fourth side with a tarp to help keep some warmth in, but it doesn't really help. It was about 3:00 when I started to get close to the shelter and the thunder began to pound in the sky. As I reach to shelter it was slightly drizzling and I was glad to be out of he weather. After about 15-20 minutes a large crack was heard and the hail began to come down. They were about pea size. I was really glad I had made it to the shelter. Unfortunately not everyone was as luckily. Roswell, a hiker from Florida came in about an hour later soaked to the bone. This guy was only wearing a t-shirt! This night was very cold. The problem with a cold night is not necessarily keeping warm, my sleeping bag and liner are doing a good job. The real problem for me is making sure everything else doesn't freeze overnight. So anything that I don't want to freeze goes in the sleeping bag with me, to include my camelback, fuel canister, clothes, camera, etc.
Date: 2003-07-11
From: Deer Lick Shelters

To: Caledonia State Park
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: light rain

7/11 Deer Lick Shelters to Caledonia State Park - 13.2 milesToday is Ed's last day of vacation. I'm not sure if hiking the AT with 30lbs on your back, sleeping on hard shelters and ground, and eating velveeta for dinner qualifies as vacation or punishment. Either way I have really enjoyed his company.Ed kicked butt this morning. We made great timing and hiked 8.5 miles before eating lunch. The terrain after lunch got hilly and rocky and we ended up moving a lot slower.We saw a lot of wildlife today - a snapping turtle, a baby light brown colored snake, an orange spotted salamander, and a huge turkey vulture just perched on a rock. Ed decided he wanted to play with the dangerous wildlife and ended up getting the snapping turtle and snake a little ticked off. I was amazed by the turkey vulture. I had never seen one that upclose before. Its claws and legs were huge. I did take a picture but I'm not sure how well it will turn out.Right before we hit Rt. 30 and the end of the trip, Ed got his last dose of trail magic. There was a cooler with fruit punch in it and bags of granola bars. Apparently a group from Indiana was set up in Caledonia State Park for a week and were giving out a whole lot of trail magic - free tenting, dinner, breakfast, snacks, resupply stuff, slackpacking, etc etc. Unfortunatly Ed and I didn't go to check out these trail angels. I don't know why we didn't.Anyway, we got Ed's car and I was able to convince him to stay one last night with me. We got a campsite in the park, did laundry and ate dinner - complete with wings, mozzarella sticks and chili dogs.We were so full and tired that we didn't go visit the trail angels that night. We did stop by the next morning and heard about all the great stuff we missed :( I felt kind of bad too because Ed's favorite part of the AT was the social aspect. He liked hanging out with people. That would have been a fun last night for him since there were a lot of hikers there.
Date: 2003-07-12
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Birch Run Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: few clouds

7/12 Caledonia State Park to Birch Run Shelter - 10 milesRight now I am taking a break on the porch of another awesome shelter-Quarry Gap. This one has an Innkeeper. There are solar powered lights, lights on the path to the privy, an immaculate privy with only 1 fly, a park bench and even some potted plants. It would be awesome if all shelters were like this. I guess you learn to appreciate both the good and the bad shelters, especially in bad weather.I'm already missing Ed. We had a fun week together. I'm hoping to catch some friends ahead of me and I'm hoping my friends behind me catch up soon.I had to hike through a gigantic Craft Show today at the park. I got a lot of looks and some people even stopped to ask me questions. Started to feel like a celebrity again and was already for some picture taking, but no one wanted my picture this time.The weather has been so strange lately. I started off in beautiful sunshine and blue skies. Then some thunder and rain came in. Then I was hiking in the sun and rain. But no rainbows. Tonight I am staying at the Birch Run Shelter which is only 2 weeks old. It is really nice. No other thru-hikers are here, but I am sharing the shelter with Aunt Mabel, Slow Motion and another section hiker.Tomorrow I hope to make it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park (the halfway point) for lunch.
Date: 2013-03-20
From: Derick Knob Shelter

To: Mt. Collins Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

The Stover Creek boys and fly pushed in to Gatlinburg today. I decided to stay at the shelter as it was getting late and the weather was very cold and starting to snow. Roswell,Joe the hiker, Cricket and Trish were there. The trail leading to the shelter was literally a down hill ice rink. It was slow progress getting down to the shelter. Each step was pretty scary. I think I fell at least 6 times. Luckily I landed on my backside and using my hiking poles keeps you from usin you arms. I'm sure I'll have a few bruises from this day. Roswell had arrived earlier that day and decide to was his clothes in the creek. This was a ba decision because all of his clothes froze solid. His shirt could stand up by itself. We were able to he a fire going. The shelters in the Smokies have fire places in side which is nice if you can find dry wood. We had a small fire going an were able to pile some wood around it to dry out. In the middle if the night I awoke to see the whole fireplace blazing, it was nice and warm that night. We did wake up to a winter land.
Date: 2003-07-13
From: Birch Run Shelter

To: Tagg Run Shelter
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: clear sky

7/13 Birch Run Shelter to Tagg Run Shelter - 17.2 miles Woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold. Not sure how cold it got but I had to zip up my sleeping bag, and put on my fleece hat and top. brrrrr I so didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but everyone else was up before 6 and they knew I wanted to get up early too. I finally braved the cold at 6:32am. Once I was up and moving it wasn't so bad.I started hiking at 7:15 and by 11:30 I was at Pine Grove Furnace State Park eating my ice cream. They have a half gallon ice cream challenge. Honestly, had I been smart about it I think I could have done it. But instead of buying the half gallon off the bat I bought a pint - chocolate. After I finished it I realized that it wasn't too hard and maybe I should continue. I went back in to buy pint #2 and that is when things went downhill. There was a group of biker babes in line ordering hot food. It took a good 20 minutes to pay for my second pint. As I was waiting the first pint settled. That is when I realized my wrong doings. I finished my second pint and decided I needed other food in my tummy and went for a hot dog. All that ice cream did hit the spot. Although I didn't get my special wooden spoon, I am still proud of celebrating the half way point by eating half of a half gallon. As Starbuck said in the register, I can celebrate reaching Katahdin by eating the other half.After a nice 2.5 hr break I had to leave the store and the very tempting hostel where Slow Motion and Aunt Mabel were staying the night. I'm meeting my friend Lynne near Carlisle tomorrow and there is no way I would make it if I stayed.My next challenge was to get a picture of myself at the halfway point marker. No one was around and it didn't feel like anyone would be anytime soon. So it took me a half an hour to figure out how to use the timer function on my camera and rig up a tripod. I think I got two decent pictures.The rest of the hike was rather uneventful, but the terrain was nice.I am here at the Tagg Run Shelter----ALONE!?!?!? It is one of those things that I never really wanted to happen, but I knew it would sooner or later. I got here around 6:30 and had a good 2 hours of daylight to contemplate my decision. There were other options- campground, tent, night hike to the next shelter- but I decided to stay put. I hope it was the right decision, but I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep.It is a full moon out so I wonder what creatures are lurking.
Date: 2013-03-21
From: Mt. Collins Shelter

To: Newfound Gap/ Gatlinburg, TN 
Miles today: 4.5

Just a Short hike to Newfound Gap and then hopes of hitching a ride down to town. The only problem today is with the storm and the below freezing temps the park service has closed the road and the walk to town is 15 miles. Trish, Cricket and I were in the ladies room escaping the bitter wind. Cricket is going on to retrieve their dog from the kennel. No dogs are allowed in the smokies, but Trish's leg is really hurting so they decide to split up so rocket can move faster. Trish stays with me to try and ge to town. Well, I guess I have a trail angel watching over me because as I go out to the abandoned parking lot a snow plow arrives. He says he can take us, but he only has one passenger seat. Trish would have to sit on my lap. (She's little). We are good with this, but just then a park ranger drives up and offers to take us down. But then as he is driving us down he gets a call on the radio about a female hiker who is unconscious on he trail. He will have to get to the station fast and just drop us off there. He steps on the gas and heads down the icy road. Because he know he road is closed he doesn't even stay in the lanes. It was a pretty exciting ride down. Once down we had a pleasant 2 mile walk down a historic trail along side a beautiful creek. We saw some local people walking along. When you are off the trail it feels a little strang to have such a big pack on. Bu this isn't unusual in this neck of the woods. It didn't take us long to find the outfitter's where I had told Tony to meet us. Tony had driven over 8 hours to come and see me but was a special day. So after all this excitement we all went back to the hotel Nd later out to eat at a local brewery. Wheh! This was a crazy day!