morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-05-07
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pineswamp Branch Shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: clear sky

As we started on the trail this morning we met a Forest Service Ranger. He asked us where we had stayed last night. He showed us a picture of a missing persons flier for a man named Randall Lee Smith. We had seen it before at Trent's Grocery where the employees there told us that he had killed 2 hikers on the AT a long time ago and had been realeased. The poster mentioned nothing about being wanted just that he had been missing since March and may be on the AT. I looked him up on the interent while we were in Pearisburg and found that he had murdered a coupl hiking the AT in 1981 and buried their bodies at Wapiti Shelter and was released in 1996. The officer just wanted to let us know that they had found him near Trent's Grocery last night and they had him in custody for other charges but he couldn't tell us what. Very strange.The shelter we are camped at has no roof. A tree fell on it last year and they still haven't replaced it. There are 2 men section hiking south that our sleeping in there anyway. Hope they stay dry tonight. Also camped here are Hopper, Pyro, and Pusher.
Date: 2008-05-08
From: Pineswamp Branch Shelter

To: War Spur Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Met a park ranger at a road crossing today. She was getting everyone's names coming off the trail. We found out from her that the missing man had actually shot two fishermen. The rangers had blocked off the trail and looked at all the shelter registers and were getting everyone's names to make sure everyone was accounted for. Turns out he befriended the two fishermen who cooked him dinner before he shot them Then he stole there car and wrecked it while being persued. I'm glad he's in custody.It's been nearly 2 months and Jon and I do not have trail names. We're starting to get strange looks from other hikers, even the park ranger who was taking our names. So Jon and I talked about it today but he wants to sleep on it.Saw Grasshopper, Mule, Freestyle, Hopper, Pyro, and Pusher, and a section hiker Kimo.
Date: 2008-05-09
From: War Spur Shelter

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light intensity drizzle

This morning we got some trail magic, orange sodas! It really hit the spot. We came across the Keffer Oak, a 300 year old oak tree right on the AT. It's circumfrence is 18 ft and I was able to to sit on one of its branches nearly 20 ft away from the tree.Oh yeah, we decided on our trail names. They are Duck and Buttercup. Jon is Duck because sometimes while we are hiking I hear this noise and he claims there are ducks following us quacking. Buttercup comes from a Europe trip I took several years ago... think Princess Bride.
Date: 2008-05-10
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we passed by the Audie Murphy Monument. He was a well decorated war hero from WWII who's plane crashed on the mountain.We got to the shelter turn off but it was nearly a half mile to the shelter. There was a big open field near the trail so we set our tent up there. It was such a nice sunny day so we layed our sleeping pads out and got some sun and cooked dinner. Out of no where we hear a cow, but never saw it, which is weird because we had a good little climb up to the campsite so we don't know where it came from. We only saw Sassafras roll into the shelter tonight.
Date: 2008-05-11
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Pigfarm Campsite
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: light rain

Our first big site this morning was Dragons Tooth. It's a large triangular rock jutting out of the mountain. It had been raining so we decided to skip the blue blazed trail to the actual tooth. On the way down the trail were huge slabs of rock that were very slick from the rain. All of a sudden I froze and couldn't breathe. My fear of heights was fully realized and I started bawling. Jon took my pack down and then hugged me and told me he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Then he slowly helped me down the mountain. It took us 5 hours to hike 6.5 miles. We came to a road crossing and walked to a gas station to get coffee and lunch. I was feeling better all ready. It rained on and off all afternoon and held off till we got to Mcafee knob.We took some pics and then the rain started up again. We set up our tent in the rain and decided to skip dinner.We ran into a trail maintainer that gave us the latest news on the shootings and Randall Lee Smith. The two men he shot are ok and out of the hospital, but apparently he sustained serious injuries when the truck he stole flipped. They released him from the hospital into custody and he died last night. Sounds suspicious. It's been all the buzz on the trail but apparently hasn't made any national news.
Date: 2008-05-12
From: Pigfarm Campsite

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

Today seemed to drag on forever. I guess because I can't wait to get to town and get a shower. This has been our longest stretch without a town stop, six days. Things are getting pretty funky. We started the morning following the trail along Tinker Cliffs. At least we had good views today. The trail followed the edge of the cliffs and the wind was blowing very hard. Duck and I made it to Daleville by 3 and checked into the Howard Johnson. Before we got off the trail we noticed a bag of Hardee's biscuits in the middle of the trail. What great timing... I was starving but we desperately needed to shower and do laundry before going near a restaurant. It's strange what you will eat out here. If I found a bag of fast food on the middle of a sidewalk I certainly wouldn't eat it, but in the middle of the woods? Sure, why not!We went across the street from the hotel to the mexican restaurant. That hit the spot. Tomorrow we are taking a zero day in town so we can run our errands then.
Date: 2008-05-13
From: Daleville, VA

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

After enjoying the continental breakfast, we walked the half mile to Kroger and the outfitters where I bought new boots. I got the Montrail Namches, the same boots as Jon. I had a similar model but they were goretex. Well, nothing is ever 100% water proof so I decided to go with the Namches which are more breathable for summer. The clerk resized my feet. He said I was still a 9 but that my foot width was a C (really wide). I tried the 9 1/2 but I felt like my toes were crammed so I ended up with a size 10. Wow.We resupplied at Kroger, but we only needed one day of food before we get off the trail for Trail Days. We bought snacks, beer, and stuff to make chili dogs while we are at the hotel.The rest of the day was pretty lazy. Today was sunny and warm so we aired out all our gear. Of course it is always a beautiful day when we are not hiking.Later in the day we saw Sailboat, Sage, Chef, Hangman, Alf, and Bronco checking into the rooms next to us. Always good to see familiar faces!
Date: 2008-05-14
From: Daleville, VA

To: Bear Wallow Gap
Miles today: 21.6

After another great continental breakfast we headed for the trail. For some reason when we zero or sleep anywhere other than the tent I get up at 6 am. On the trail however, Jon can not seem to get me out of the sleeping bag. Today was the first day we started crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway. At one crossing there was a bag with 2 oranges left in it. They were great! Trail magic always comes right when you need it. We had originally planned on staying at Bobblets Gap Shelter but we got there by 3 and decided to go an extra 3 miles and find a camping spot near the road crossing. We were planning on meeting Jon's dad in the morning so we wanted to shave off as many miles from tomorrow as possible. When we got to the gap we did not see any suitable tentsites so we started to walk the five miles to Peaks of Otter where Jon's dad was staying. We had tried to call him but never got an answer. After walking about a mile we saw him driving towards us so we assumed he got our message. Nope, his phone didn't work at the lodge, he was just coming to find us! What a pleasant surprise. Tom and Lucy got us a hotel room and treated us to a wonderful dinner. Lucy had also made us some goodie bags of soap, shampoo, lotion... all the things we desperately needed! Hopefully we won't get to comfortable this weekend. Tomorrow, Damascus!
Date: 2008-05-15
From: Bear Wallow Gap

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning we had a wonderful breakfast at the lodge. I think Tom and Lucy are amazed at the amount of food we can eat now. There are never any leftovers, one of us will take care of it. We took our time heading to Damascus, because we couldn't check into the bed and breakfast until 5. We stopped for lunch and Jon got a haircut.The B&B was beautiful. It was an old brick farm house built in the 1830s. What a treat; we were expecting a cheap hotel... that's luxury for us!For dinner we ate at the Old Mill, which was good but for a hiker town, their portions were too small!
Date: 2008-05-16
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Jon and I headed downtown to sign up for Hard Core trail maintenance. It is put together by Bob Peoples who owns Kincora Hostel in Hampton, TN. We will be doing trail maintenance on Sunday and Monday and they provide free stay at one of two hostels and dinner both nights. Jon and I are looking forward to giving back to the trail.The rest of the morning we looked around at all the vendors and saw a presentation for backpacking light. A little too extreme for our tastes. Go heavy! We haven't seen too many people we know yet. Dirty Harry and Knuckles decided not to come back for Trail Days. We did see Grasshopper, Aqua Maria, and Tailgate and a few others we have met briefly. We also ran into Model T! He let me know that everyone back home had been thinking of us so he would report back on our progress. We also ran into Fall and Hercules who had the trail magic dinner at their house in NC. And we saw trail angel, Queen Diva, who has been following our progress. Jon bought a new pair of boots. He got the Namches again. After 700 miles they just need replacing. While at Mt Rogers Outfittes, I met Ben, who has been following my trail journal. It's odd being recognized... I'm like a celebrity... J/K!
Date: 2008-05-17
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

This morning we were dropped off at The Place to set up our tent. We said our goodbyes to Tom and Lucy. Thanks for everything, it was more than we could ever have expected, but very much appreciated!The other option to tent was tent city which was about a 20 minute walk from the downtown area and all the action. Plus it seemed to be the party area and we wanted sleep.As soon as we had settled in a past hiker walked up and said she was selling some of her gear, some of which had hardly been used. She said she had a SteriPen for $20(quite a steal!) A steripen is a UV light that you dip into your water and it kills the bacteria. We started with a water pump that filtered our water but it was very slow and would clog up too easily so we sent it home in Hot Springs, NC. We have not been treating our water, just being very careful to plan on getting our water from a spring. If it is coming directly out of the ground we don't treat it. A few times we have had to get our water from a creek so we have boiled it to kill anything. I'm glad to have the Steripen for those type of emergencies.We went to the Dollar General for our resupply and then we went to Dott's Inn for lunch and to kill time before the hiker parade. All thru hikers, past and present, walk through town, dressed ridiculously and armed with water balloons and water guns and the whole town comes out to watch. Lucy had brought a wig and dress for Jon to wear, so it took a couple of pitchers of beer at Dott's before he was game, but after that he was gung-ho about the parade. The parade was a blast and everybody loved Jon's costume. He wasn't the only guy in a dress either.After the parade we thought it would be a good idea to go back to Dot's for another pitcher of beer. There we met Maple Leaf ('08) and he bought our beer for us. It was great talking with him. Then we decided we would get some more beer and head to tent city. We met Mango who recognized us from trail journals and hung out with him for the rest of the night. We managed to get back to our tent at a reasonable hour, someone took pity on us and gave us a ride.
Date: 2008-05-18
From: Damascus, VA

To: TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Ugh, maybe all that beer yesterday was not a good idea before doing trail maintenance. We met at the Post Office at 9 and got a ride from The Bag Lady along with Slow Barbara and Yougogirl. All those windy roads... we all had serious car sickness. We are just not used to being in cars anyway.We worked on a 2,000 ft reroute of trail on Little Bald Knob in the rain. It was hard work and we were all covered in mud head to toe. Later we had a BBQ dinner complete with strawberry shortcake for dessert and then headed to Braemar Castle Hostel in Hampton, TN.
Date: 2008-05-19
From: Hampton, TN

To: Hampton, TN
Miles today: 0.0

Today we drove to Carvers Gap to work on putting in 1800 ft of new trail on the other side of Jane's Bald. The weather was much more cooperative today, but at such high elevations, 70 degrees in town did not equal shorts and tshirt on this windy bald. BRR! The 3 mile hike to the work site warmed us up. Jon helped move boulders and build a rock footpath over a spring they uncovered. I helped by watching in awe!Tonight we had dinner at Kincora. We had an awesome spaghetti dinner made by Baltimore Jack. Then it was off to Braemar to do laundry and get some sleep.
Date: 2008-05-20
From: Bearwallow Gap

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: light rain

After being off the trail for a week, we are heading back to the trail. Trail Days was great and we got to see a lot of people we knew as well as meet a lot of new people. Sunday and yesterday we did trail maintenance with Bob Peoples Hardcore Crew. That was a truly rewarding experience. I recommend it to future hikers. We will definitely do it again. We made almost 4000 ft of new trail. I even got to paint a white blaze. We stayed at Braemar Castle with Yougogirl and Slow Barbara and the Bag Lady (07). Bag Lady is giving us a ride back to the trail as I type. Thanks bag lady, it was great meeting you! On Saturday we will rent a car and head to Charleston, SC for Tara's wedding. More updates to come.
Date: 2008-05-21
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Marble Spring
Miles today: 17.2

Last night we met a lot of new thru hikers. We met Raggedy Andy and Pickle, two friends from Israel, and a man from Germany and his dog. We also saw Wooly Mammoth who we hadn't seen since Fontana. Tonight we are at a nice campsite all alone. We met a trail maintainer who told us that there used to be a shelter here but they air lifted it and that it is now Cove Mtn Shelter.
Date: 2008-05-22
From: Marble Spring

To: Punch Bowl Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: broken clouds

Another camper showed up last night, Bear Trap. We thought there were more hikers there, but he said deer were all around his tent all night and that's what we had heard walking around.We took an hour long lunch at Johns Hollow shelter and almost lost motivation to go on for the rest of the day. We pushed on, but the heat made it difficult. We took a lot of breaks and made gatorade several times. Even after all our breaks we made it to camp at a decent time. There was a section hiker there when we arrived. After we ate dinner, Circumstance showed up. We haven't seen him since Erwin, TN. He slept in the shelter all by himself, which is supposedly haunted.
Date: 2008-05-23
From: Punch Bowl Shelter

To: Brown Mtn Creek Shelter
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: clear sky

Today was such a relaxing day! It was nice knowing that we had less than 10 miles to hike so we could sleep in and take as many long breaks as we liked. The reason why we are doing such a short day is so that tomorrow we only have 2 miles to the road crossing where we will get our rental car to go to Tara's wedding.The area around this shelter is beautiful and we set our tent up by the creek. We had all afternoon to soak our feet and read. What a treat!
Date: 2008-05-24
From: Brown Mtn Creek Shelter

To: US 60, Lexington, VA
Miles today: 1.8

Before we got to the road crossing there was a cooler with fruit punch and oranges. Hooray for Trail Magic! We snacked on those while we waited for the rental car company to pick us up. Enterprise, they really will pick you up... anywhere!After getting the car our first order of business was an all you can eat (AYCE) breakfast buffet and then a 7 hour drive to Charleston, SC for Tara's wedding. Tonight will be a girls night on the town. I hope I can hang!
Date: 2008-05-25
From: Charleston, SC

To: Charleston, SC
Miles today: 0.0

Last night was fun and I even stayed up past midnight(real midnight, not hiker midnight)!Jon and I wandered around downtown at the farmers market where they were having an art festival. We even got to watch a buddhist monk creating a sand mandala.The rest of the day we were lazy and while everyone went on carriage rides and haunted tours, Jon and I stayed in the room and watched the HBO presentation of Recount. What a great movie!
Date: 2008-05-27
From: US 60, Lexington, VA

To: Cow Camp Gap Shelter
Miles today: 3.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Wedding reception open bar + 4 miles of hiking = blah!After driving all day and being a little hungover, those 4 miles uphill to the first shelter were not fun. I couldn't even eat when we got there. Tomorrow we will have our special dinner we picked up for our resupply.
Date: 2008-05-28
From: Cow Camp Gap Shelter

To: VA 56, Tye River
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a little easier, but still some hard climbs. Also we crossed the 800 mile mark!We were planning on going to The Priest shelter, but we got there around 4 and decided to push on. The most exciting thing was we saw that Troutbum and Steelman had signed in at the shelter today!We got to the river and found many places to set up our tent. The river was more of a big trout stream, just right for soaking my feet. While in Charleston, we picked up a few special things for dinner that we normally wouldn't carry because of the weight. We found a small, half liter box of cabernet. Bertolli now makes these pouches of sauce so we didn't have to worry about packing out a jar. We also bought a loaf of french bread and ended up having the best meal on the trail by far.I hope we catch Troutbum tomorrow...
Date: 2008-05-29
From: VA 56, Tye River

To: Dripping Rock 
Miles today: 15.3

We caught Troutbum today! He was so surprised to see us, he thought we were way ahead of him by now. He has been hiking with Steel Man and his nephew, Seth/Flashlight who is hiking with him for a week. We hiked with them on and off through out the day taking lots of breaks. We decided to stop short of our daily goal when we found a perfectly good campsite. My right shin had started bothering me and we had some hard climbs today. We camped with TB, SM, and Flashlight. Tomorrow we will get to Waynesboro, where Jon's mom, Mary, will pick us up. We have been looking forward to seeing her all week.
Date: 2008-05-30
From: Dripping Rock 

To: Rockfish Gap
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: clear sky

Woke up before 6 am (!!!) and started hiking by 7 am. We were worried about getting to Rockfish Gap on time, we had told Jon's mom that we would be there between noon and one. My right shin was really bothering me and although the terrain was fairly easy, I was slowed down a bit. We made it to the road crossing by 1:15. When we saw Mary she offered us the opportunity to stay at her house in Newport News, a 3 hour drive, instead of paying for a hotel. What a great idea, plus we were really excited to see Jon's family.
Date: 2008-06-03
From: Rockfish Gap

To: Calf Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Mary drove us back towards Waynesboro and we were on the trail by one with full bellies and a full food bag. Thanks Mary for taking us in. It was great visiting with everyone.A few miles before the shelter I heard a noise on the side of the trail. I thought it might be a squirrel or a bird, but it was a fawn that may have been less than a week old. It was about a foot in length and could hardly stand up. Before Jon could get the camera out it ran away. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Things like that are why we are out here hiking. No one else gets to see a fawn from two feet away. We made it to the shelter before it started to storm. We met Catfish who shared homemade brownies from his mom. We shared pringles. Everyone is trying to get rid of weight or bulky items from their food bag. After the storm died down we headed to our tent early.
Date: 2008-06-04
From: Calf Mtn Shelter

To: Black Rock Hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night there were ten thru hikers sleeping in the shelter. It's been awhile since we've been around this many other thru hikers. Mostly we've been running into section hikers. We were wondering who we would meet since we've taken so much time off lately. It seems that most of the hikers around us now started anywhere from 5-10 days after we did, so we are not that far behind considering we've taken about 2 weeks off just in Virginia. It is definitely getting hotter and we've been going through a lot of Gatorade. Today we officially entered the Shenandoahs. I can't wait to get a blackberry milkshake at one of the waysides!There was another powerful thunderstorm tonight around 6:30. It was fascinating being inside the tent and listening to the thunder all around us. Probably not the safest place to be, but interesting.