morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-26
From: Stealth Camp,mIle 583

To: Helvey's Mill Shelter
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: broken clouds

Every year at Trail Days, one of the favorite events is the parade. This is NOT your ordinary parade. Oh no. This parade has an ulterior motive for both hikers and parade watchers. Both of these groups have a not so hidden agenda to soak each other with concealed water cannons, hidden under shirts and jackets. I passed a little girl and her even littler brother. Each was cradling a water cannon that was almost as big as they were. They both had panicked looks on their faces. I surmised that the problem was that they desperately wanted to unload their water cannons on the people who were marching by them. The problem was that all of those people were adults, and they feared they would get into trouble for soaking an adult. I felt it was time to take matters into my own hands. I got the kids attention, then stuck out my tongue at them, stuck my thumbs into my ears and waved my other fingers at them while making funny noises. That did the trick. The children began to giggle and repaid my act of kindness by emptying their water cannons on yours truly. The kids did not stop until they ran out of ammo. (I was wearing a raincoat, having been warned about the parade's hidden agenda) so I really didn't care. I guess that in little kid think an old man with white hair and a white beard who acts like a fool forfeits his diplomatic immunity and right to be treated as a wise elder deserving of respect. Who knew?
Date: 2016-05-27
From: Helvey's Mill Shelter

To: Stealth Camp, Mile 603
Miles today: 10.7

If you are reading this today, you might be smelling a rat, as I am writing tomorrow's report today, from a computer in the public library in the city of Bland, Va. Barring a thermonuclear war tonight, I will be camping at mile 603 tomorrow night. While I cannot know today what is going to happen to me tomorrow, that is not important, as most of my postings concern events that occurred on days other than the one that I am making my journal entry for. Besides, some of my readers "get the jonses" if they have not heard from me for a few days, so if you are of those folks, I am giving you your "fix" in advance. As I sit in the library, I am getting a VERY powerful sense of deja vu. When I was in college, I worked part time in the city public library. One of our most reliable patrons was a nice old man who suffered from mental problems that I suspect were biological in nature, and certainly not his fault. He was a harmless fellow who seldom bathed, and he had a very pronounced odor. Many of the other library patrons gave this man a wide berth. I had planned to "zero" (take a day off) in this town, but the only hotel in town is completely full, so I did not get a shower, and here I am sitting in the city public library, smelling so bad I can hardly stand myself, and I can only wonder if the other patrons are wondering if I am off my meds. (if I play this right, NOBODY is going to ask me to get off the computer, as they want to use it.) Anyway, a few days ago, I passed a sign informing me that I had completed one fourth of the AT. This gave me a tremendous feeling of pride and accomplishment, that very quickly faded when I realized that I still have to hike THREE TIMES as far as I've come so far to complete the hike. YIKES! Is the glass one quarter full or is it (Heaven forbid) three quarters empty? That means I have to hike another 550 miles just to have the glass either half full, or half empty.
Date: 2016-05-28
From: Stealth Camp, Mile 603

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: clear sky

My supper always involves boiling water and cooking a Knorrs package of noodles or rice. When I first remove my cooked meal from my camp stove, I have to allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before I can eat it. During this 10 minute interval, I usually do various camp chores. One night, I was too lethargic to do camp chores, and just sat next to my food, waiting for it to cool, which turned out to be a lucky accident for me. Dogs are allowed on the AT, and a golden retriever (his owners were 200 yards behind on the trail) came bounding into my camp. He smelled my food, gave me some dog eyes that could melt the coldest heart, wagged his tail vigorously to let me know that I was his closest friend on the entire planet, and made a beeline for my supper. I snatched my cooking pot out of his reach in just the nick of time. Dogs and humans suffer the same fate on the AT: near famine conditions. A dog travels the same distance as its owner, and a dog has to eat as well. Most dogs are fitted with 2 small saddlebags, one for each side of his rib cage. Each saddlebag is filled with dog food, but the owner must also carry a portion of the dog's food in his/her backpack. As hikers do not want to have heavy packs, the dog gets just enough food to get by. As hikers do not want to have heavy packs, the human gets just enough food to get by. Golden retrievers are my favorite breed of dog. Having said that, I had walked many miles of rocky mountainous trail with a heavy pack, and my reward was a 280 calorie meal, and I was damned if I was going to share that meal with a hungry dog. A few minutes later, the dog's owners (a couple) strolled into my camp, apologized profusely for the fact that their dog had acted like a dog, and informed me that the dog's name was Dexter. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. You see, my last name is Detzner, which means the dog and I are practically family. Hell, had I known the dog's name was Dexter, OF COURSE I would have shared my supper with him (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Date: 2016-05-29
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I did 3 years time in the army to get the GI bill, and free college. (Have you seen people with signs that read "will work for food?" My sign said "will wear army greens for free college.") When I was stationed on an army base, twice a day, in the morning when the flag was raised, and in the evening when the flag was lowered, reville was played, and wherever you were on the base, you were required to come to a stop, and salute until reville finished playing. Every evening here on the AT, to keep my food from being eaten by animals, I put my food into a food bag, and tie a rope to a small bag containing a rock and throw that rock over a tree branch, and hoist my food bag high into a tree. Well, old habits die hard. Every morning, as I lower my food bag to the ground to cook my breakfast, I swear I hear reville playing inside my head! No, I do not salute my food bag, but I will confess that on a few mornings, when feeling especially famished, I have dropped to my knees, and touched my forehead and the palms of my hand to the ground in reverent respect to my food bag. They say that the most savage beast in the Appalachian mountains is a mother bear who feels her bear cubs are in danger. Yep, I know just how she feels. Any animal, domestic or wild that gets between me and my food bag,I'll make mama bear defending her cubs look like a cuddly kitten. Dexter, are you listening to me???
Date: 2016-05-30
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Pearisburg, Va
Miles today: 11.1
Weather: mist

My favorite holiday is the fourth of July, because of the fireworks. To me, each explosion of fire works seems more spectacular than the preceeding one. There is always an incredible finale, with many fireworks being fired at once. In a previous post, I said I was dazzled by nature's display of spring wildflowers. Again, each suceeding spring flower seemed more spectacular than the one that preceeded it. And just as in a fourth of July fireworks display, nature has saved the most spectacular flowers for last. The last blooming flowers are the mountain laurel and the rhododendron. They are unbelievably beautiful. Rhododendron are great for another reason. They form very dense thickets that are so dense that sunlight barely penetrates them. When hiking through a rhododendron thicket, there is almost no sunlight filtering through, and it is twilight, even in the middle of the day.
Date: 2016-05-31
From: Pearisburg, Va

To: Campsite at mile 643.1
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: overcast clouds

A man whose trail name is nimble will nomad hiked the at trail and wrote a book about his hike. Here is a quote from his book. Sometimes on the at hike things get really BAd and THEN you have to be very patient and stoic and know that eventually things will improve I had such a day when I visited woods hole hostel. Yep, I did a face plant there. Fortunately for me, my face plant was on a massage table. The hostel has two licensed massage therapists. I am privileged to know two of the kindest people on the planet, my sister Anne and her partner Debra and they were kind enough to send me some money. I was faced with a stark choice when I received this windfall. I could be practical and use the cash to buy ramen noodles, or I could be decadent and blow the loot on an hour long massage for sixty dollars. I felt absolutely no guilt at blowing my relatives hard earned money on this luxury. Yep, so there I lay on the table, with an attractive woman giving me a massage, while soothing music played, and she rubbed wonderful scented oils into my aching body. Yeah, life can really be tough at times on the at trail. When my massage was finished, I walked past a pretty young lady who told me I smelled wonderful. I thanked her, and silently told myself that she was lucky she had not encountere me a day earlier. I smelled so bad that even pigs and skunks were giving me a wide berth. The other great thing that happened to me during my brutal stay at that hosel was that it was the memorial day holiday, so the hostel people took me to a picnic. There was a five piece blue grass band playing music, and a long table filled with the most delicious food and desserts imaginable. Yep, sometimes life on the at hike can really be brutal.
Date: 2016-06-01
From: Campsite at mile 643.1

To: The captains hostel
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Before.I tell my creepy but true tale, let me say that the at is a very safe place, and the following incident is fortunately extremely rare. There is an infamous hikers shelter along the at trail in Virginia called the wapiti shelter.over thirty years ago, a madman shot and killed two female hikers in this shelter. He went to jail for many years. Unfortunately, when he was released from prison, he had not reformed. He returned to the same shelter and shot two men who were staying at the shelter. The two men were wounded. But not killed, and they escaped into the woods at night and hiked into a town and alerted the authorities who killed the madman. So when I hiked to this shelter, I of course thought it would be an interesting experience to stay at the shelter. There were fourteen of us staying at the shelter that night. Thirteen of us decided to hedge our bets and sleep in our tents, not the shelter. One brave soul not me spent the night in the shelter. I thought the shelter might be a gloomy or eerie place, but the people staying there were so interesting and cordial that it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had on this hike.
Date: 2016-06-02
From: The captains hostel

To: War spur shelter
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: broken clouds

The captain is one of many famous characters of the at trail. Every year around memorial day he throws a two day party on his property, which is right next to the at trail. This year about one hundred fifty people showed up for this drunken party. I was not one of those preople. To get to the captains property, you have to cross a river. You do this by using a zip line to get yourself, your pack, and your hiking poles across the river. It is an interesting river crossing. Once you are on the captains property, you are welcome to help yourself to a free can of soda on his back porch, and to camp for free on his property. The captain has two dogs. One of the dogs, buddy sunk his teeth into my hiking pants and began to growl menacingly and shake his head from side to side. I was very freaked out by this. The captain, who observed this event, was vastly amused. Pet the dog, he shouted. Buddy is letting you know that he wants you to pet him. Petting a snarling dog did not seem like a good idea to me but nothing else was working, so I pet the dog.The change in buddy was amazing and instantaneous. He released my pants from his mouth,leaned his entire body against me, and looked at me with the most loving dog eyes I have ever seen. If he had been able to turn himself into a puddle of happiness and joy he would have done so. At that moment, I was buddy's best friend.in my mind, this is extortion pure and simple. Pet me, or face the consequences.
Date: 2016-06-03
From: War spur shelter

To: Stealth camp mile six hundred seventy seven
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Today, i had to hitchhike eight mules into town to buy food. I was lucky enough to meet another hiker who was being picked up by his girlfriend to celebrate his 26th birthday. Since he was going through the town I was hitching to, he offered me a lift. As we had time to kill while we waited for his girlfriend we began to brag about what animals we had seen that day. He said that he had only seen a deer that day. When his girlfriend picked him up, he enthusiastically told his very attractive girlfriend that he had seen a rattlesnake that day, right on the hiking trail. As he did not want other hikers to be bitten by the snake, he very bravely used a stick to coax the rattlesnake off the trail. Bragging is a sport among guys. You want to be more impressive than any other guy there. So as I listened to his story I wondered why he had said norhing to me about this rattlesnake. I began to suspect that his story was bogus, and he was just trying to impress his girlfriend. I said nothing, and after I got my groceries and hitchhiked back to the trail, I began to muse on whether or not his story was true. I rounded a blind corner, and there, stretched across the trail, I was face to face with a three foot longi snake. I stared at the snake, it stared back at me. The snake seemed to think that since he was there first, he had the right of way. So I went through the underbrush to avoid the snake. The snake who was as wary of me as I was of him, watched me very carefully until he was satisfied that I meant him no harm. Then he slithered off. Don't worry. Mr. snake. Any animal that finds on mice and rats is a friend of mine. Those of you who know me best are probably suspicious about this story and wondering if I had no story for today, and thus made this entire story up. My answer is that while I can neither prove or disprove the rattlesnake story I have a picture to prove my snake is real.
Date: 2016-06-04
From: Stealth camp mile six hundred seventy seven

To: Audie Murphy memorial
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

Audie Murphy was the most decorated US soldier of world war two. He won 24 decorations, including the Medal of Honor, the Legion of Merit, the distinguished Service Cross, and three Purple Hearts. In May 1971, his plane crashed near the spot of his memorial on the AT trail.It was very touching to see how many servicemen and women had left mulitary momentos at his memorial shrine I camped near that site with a friend. Just after we turned in for the night, a tremendous thunderstorm blew in, which was the remnants of hurricane Bonnie. It stormed all night ling. A storm like that will tell you how waterproof your tent is. I was astonished at how dry the inside of my tent was the next morning.
Date: 2016-06-05
From: Audie Murphy memorial

To: Four pines hostel
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I and a British hiking companion whose trail name is Marmalade treated ourselves to a rare night in a hotel when we arrived in the small town of Pearisburg. To be honest, it was a very seedy hotel but the total bill incuding taxes was 50dollars, and to us, it seemed like we were living in the lap of luxury. We had a flush toilet, a hot shower, a refrigerator a tv and a real bed. We went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet, and made totally, disgusting pigs of ourselves. Well, Marmalade made a pig of himself. I was, as usual, a perfect gentleman, picking daintily at my food. If you believe that last sentence, I have a bridge to sell you. All too soon.11 AM and checkout the next morning arrived. The hotel manager needed a crowbar to pry our desperate fingers off the hotel door at checkout time.. What a heartless man he was
Date: 2016-06-06
From: Four pines hostel

To: Four Pines Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

Yesterday I reached the 700 mile mark. I also reached one of the more harrowing points of the AT, the Dragons Tooth. The decent from the Dragons Tooth was extremely steep and rocky. I have a fear of heights, and to be honest, it was the only day so far on the AT where I was scared, and I was VERY scared. I made it down in one piece. but it was really scary. Some of the climbs in Virginia have been the steepest. rockiest and most challenging climbs of the AT so far. Plus it is now getting hot, and climbing a long, steep, Rocky mountain with a heavy backpack leaves me drenched in sweat. And to sweeten the treat, there are now gnats swirling in front of my face as I hike.4
Date: 2016-06-07
From: Four Pines Hostel

To: Randal Johnson's house
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: clear sky

Almost all AT hikers use a guidebook called the AT guide. It tells you both the distance and the altitude gain between landmarks on the AT. One thing the guidebook can not tell me is what the terrain will be like. On rare occasions, the AT will be a smooth path. I make really good time on these rare and short stretches. A good portion of the AT is littered with both loose and imbedded rocks and or tree roots. This slows me down, as the ground surface is not level, so my feet twist and turn with every step i take. This is harder hiking, but still very doable.If the rocks have sharp edges,these sharp edges bruise the bottoms of my feet.My worst hiking nightmare is to encounter a boulder field of one or more miles in length. A boulder field is a jumbled pile of huge boulders that I have to hike across. Some of these huge boulders are unstable, and move and shift as i step on them. If i am not careful, i can sprain or even break an ankle. The worst thing of all about these boulder fields is that i have no idea how long they are. Are they one mile long, or several miles long. The fact that i do not know the length of the boulder field never fails to suck the morale right out of me. I was in a boulder field yesterday, and the sun was roasting me, and i began to have very unkind thoughts about the person who routed the AT throufh this hell hole. I actually began to wonder if the pqarents of this trail router were married at the rime of his or her birth. However, not even bad things last fotever, amd the last mile and a half of the trail was a gentle downhill on a very smooth path through a shady, pleasant temperature forest, which was very quiet and peaceful and i knew i was going to have a pleasant visit with my bicycling friend, Randal Johnson and his wife Ruth, and their very playful puppy, Leroy, and my foul mood dissolved and i became very contented again.
Date: 2016-06-08
From: Randal Johnson's house

To: Campbell shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: broken clouds

For some reason, this journal entry did not post. This journal entry should have been posted for the day before I reached Randal Johnson's house. A layover day is a day when no hiking is done. This day is spent catching up on chores such as laundry. buying food, posting trail journal entries, telephoning my wife (VERY important) etc. Nimblewill Nomad in his book about hiking the AT had two things to say about layover days. 1)Life on the trail, so good. Life off the trail (a layover day ) Ah, superb) 2) The first day after a layover day is always the toughest. The first day back after a layover day is tough for two reasons1)you are fondly reminiscing about all the good foodyou ate, flush toilets, a real bed, visiting with friends and NOT hiking and 2) Your pack is much heavier due to the fact that you have resupplied with three or more days food. On my first day back on the trail I passed the most famous landmark on the AT, McAfee Knob. It is a mountaintop with a stone lip that juts out over the top of the mountain. It is very safe to go to the very edge of this lip and stand there with lots and lots of empty space underneath your feet and there are great views for miles of the valley and surrounding mountains. I was lucky enough to visit on a crystal clear day. I was unlucky in that it was a very windy day. So there I was on the mountaintop, posing for a picture with a smile on my face and terror in my heart on that windy day, digging my hiking poles as deeply into the solid rock as they would go to steady myself. I want to emphasize that I was in no actual danger. My fear was fueled solely by my fear of heights
Date: 2016-06-09
From: Campbell shelter

To: Randal Johnson's house
Miles today: 0.0

Randal Johnson was one of 250 people I spent a year with bicycling around the world. Most of these cyclists were hard core, and Randal was one of the best of the best. Randals other passion is boating and Randal and his wife Ruth have spent many years boating in Southeast Asia and the Mediteranean. Randal and his wife Ruth have two of the biggest hearts of anybody I know. For years at his own expense Randal has funded trips for his employees to various tourist spots in various parts of the US. While in China, Randal and Ruth befriended a poor Chinese girl and they funded her education. She will shortly be starting her doctoral program. I am very proud to know people like Randal and Ruth, and their dog, Leroy is no slouch either.
Date: 2016-06-10
From: Randal Johnson's house

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

There are several animals on the AT that can seriously harm a hiker. A bear can attack and even kill a hiker. However bears don't worry me much. There are three different kinds of poisonous snakes on the AT, rattlesnakes copperheads, and cottonmouths but I don't worry about them either. Finally, there are two kinds of poisonous spiders, the black widow and the brown recluse but they don't scare me either The animal I fear the most on the AT is the deer tick because it can give a person a bad disease. One morning a few weeks ago I found a tick and that got me very concerned. The best protection against ticks is a chemical spray called Permethrin that you apply directly to your clothea. I went to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of long pants. I wanted a pair of those long pants that look like pajamas, because they do not chafe when I hike in them.On The clearance rack I found a pair. The problem was they were extra extra large. This was not a problem because the pants had a built in draw string, so I cinched them up tightly.The problem was that those pants made me look so weird that even other hikers who are the most casually clothed group you will ever meet, thought they were weird. Before my friend Randal picked me up when I visited him, I ducked into a gas station rest room and changed into my formal, dress hiking attire, a swimming suit. My fear was that if Randal saw me in my pajama pants, he might pretend he never saw me and keep on driving without picking me up. While at Randals house, I visited an outdoors outfitter and I bought a brand new pair of fancy outdoor hiking long pants. This catapulted me from the worst dressed hiker trash to the elite, top of the line best dressed yuppie scum. Those blog readers who were on my year long bicycle trip may find it hard to wrap their heads around the idea of me being in the best dressed category of ANY group of people, but from the waist down,I have come into my own.