morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-04-07
From: hot springs

To: little laurel shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: overcast clouds

left hot springs and did 19.6 miles to the shelter. My longest day yet and just .4 miles short of my first 20 mile day. Super hot day 80 degrees out and the last few miles i had ran out of water so by the time i got to the shelter i was completely drained. It was all uphill out of hot springs so im surprised i did so many miles.
Date: 2010-04-08
From: little laurel shelter

To: some shelter
Miles today: 21.5

Finally did a 20 mile day and then some. It started raining a few miles down the trail. i was on this really cool ridgeline of all rock completely exposed and i could see the rain off in the distance coming my way so i tried to get off the ridgeline as fast as i could in case there was lightning. Ten minutes later it started raining and didnt stop the whole day. by the time i got to the shelter it was full so i had to set up my tent and everything was soaked. it got down to thirty degrees and it was such a cold miserable night.
Date: 2010-04-09
From: hogback ridge shelter

To: no bussines knob shelter
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: scattered clouds

woke up absolutely freezing and couldnt make myself move for at least two hours cause i absolutely did not want to put on soaking wet clothes and boots. when i finally got the courage to pack up it was so cold and all the water on my tent made my hands go numb my feet were frozen as soon as i put them in the boots and i couldnt feel them. got moving as fast as i could to warm up. after about 9 miles we climbed big bald mountain. Super cool mountain a lot like max patch completely clear all across the top and you could see for miles in every direction. ended up crossing a road five miles from the shelter and i saw laughing bear who stayed with us the night before. He was finishing up a big section hike that day and made it to his car and drove into town and brought back a ton of sonic burgers for us to eat and take up to the shelter for others which was super nice of him and made my day for sure. When i got the shelter it was full but i saw quarter pounder who i hadnt seen since like the third day of my hike so that was cool. we had a fire and a good time sitting around it.
Date: 2010-04-10
From: no bussines knob shelter

To: shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

woke up early it was only a six mile hike into erwin, tennesee. did the six miles in less than two hours and made it into town. ate ten dollars worth of food at sonic burger, using the computer at the library, going to buy food at dollar general and then hike 5 miles out of town to the next shelter. Feels good to not be staying in town tonight and im saving a lot of money. Takin showers and doing laundry is pretty much pointless anymore cause as soon as you leave town your instantly just as dirty. Damascus, virginia is only 120 miles away and im really excited to get there. Virginia will be the first place where i really feel like ive finally accomplished something and if i can make it over 500 miles across the state than im golden. Todays my 30th day on trail and i can't believe ive been doing this for one month. It feels like i just started but at the same time i can't remember doing anything except hiking.
Date: 2010-04-12
From: curley maple gap shelter

To: campspot in field
Miles today: 17.3

woke up fairly early and started walking. its sunday and we know were going to be hiking past a lot of roads and a lot of places people come up to and hang out for the day so were definitely feeling like were going to run into some sweet magical food. me and j bird end up getting ahead of scout and fish so we stop by a stream and wait for them. after about an hour without seeing them we know somethings up cause their is no way we got that far ahead of them. we know instantly that they ran into someone with food so were pretty pissed we missed it by being ahead. right as were about to hike on though we hear a car coming down this gravel road that were by so we decide to wait cause you never know what could happen at a road. good choice! i wave at the couple in the car and they stop to talk. we ask them if they saw two other hikers up at the top of the hill and they say yeah they were talking to someone who was pulling out a grill. before they could pull off i instantly ask if their is any way me and j bird can get a ride back the mile up the hill and they say yes. so we get a ride back and see them hanging out with a grill and a cooler full of drinks talking to two guys. we popped out of the car and they laughed when they saw us. got the hookup on all kinds of food and drinks and it was definitely worth walking back a mile we had already done. the rest of the day was long and hard but we made it to this amazing field with plenty of tent room and set up and had a nice fire and a lot of other hikers showed up just before night. awesome day
Date: 2010-04-13
From: campspot in field

To: overmountain shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

woke up knowing that we had to climb roan mountain today. roan mountain is the last 6000 foot mountain we will climb until mount washington way way up the trail. Probably the hardest climb of the trip so far. two hours of intense steep uphill every step. absolutely exhausting. the worst part was that once we got to the top absoulutely no view to be found, complete bust. That said though it was great to get the last huge climb out of the way for a while. as hard as the first part of the day was everything after roan mountain was amazing! we crossed three balds with views of mountains 20+ miles away in every direction and the weather was perfect. we ended up at overmountain shelter which was the coolest shelter ive seen on the trail so far. its an old barn thats been converted into a shelter with a crazy awesom view right at your feet where you sleep. i tented and got to look off into the distance before i went to sleep. glad i didnt miss this shelter
Date: 2010-04-14
From: overmountain shelter

To: boggy swamp by the city of roan mountain
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

only did 9 miles today and i needed a short day so bad. legs and feet and everything have been hurting bad cause we havent a break in so long. we came to the road that leads to the town of roan mountain and tried to hitch the 3 miles into town. gave up on the hitch after about 15 minutes and walked just a quarter mile down the road to mountain harbour hostel where the lady gave us a ride into town for free, very nice of here. not really much of a towm, maybe three stores. we got to this pizza place that was basically just a house with a table to sit at and a pizza oven in the back. had an 18 topping pizza for only 7 dollars!!! best pizza ive had on the entire trail. went to the dollar general and got a ride back to the hostel where we stayed for a few hours and watched back to the future on this little tiny t.v but absolutely loved. we went back up to where the trail crossed the road and saw what looked like this lovely field to camp at right by a creek just 50 yards from the road. when we got down there though it was not at all what it had looked like. it was a dried up swamp that we had to walk through briar patches to get there. sleeping in my tent that night i had huge lumps of earth digging into my back all night and we were so close to the road we could hear loud cars driving by all night. me j bird and fish laughed at the fact we were so poor we wouldnt even spend the 8 dollars to stay at the hostel we would rather camp in a swamp and we made a good time about it.
Date: 2010-04-15
From: boggy swamp by the city of roan mountain

To: shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: few clouds

pretty nice day. came across a waterfall called jones falls and took my first shower since hot springs in it. water was so cold it was hard to breath but so very satisfying all the same. came down the mountain and came across this pretty river and decided it was time to swim again so i did that and then laid in the sun for an hour, never forgetting how lucky i am to just be able to lay around and not worry about anything. not a very hard day of hiking but it completely drained me, ready for a day off.
Date: 2010-04-16
From: shelter

To: watuaga dam campsite
Miles today: 17.8

came across another amazing waterfall called laurel falls. as soon as i saw it decided i was going in and swimming out no matter how cold it was. slipped on a rock on the way out and slice my finger open bad all the way to the finger nail. still made it out to the fall and big dipper got a pretty cool picture of it, i think i put it on here. wrapped my finger up with duct tape and hiked on. we passed a trail that went to the town of hampton so i went into town and bought some actual gauze and tap for my finger and got it patched up semi right.at the end of the day we came upon watuaga lake, i think its like a 16 mile long reservoir and it reminded me of lake monroe back home. i hiked a mile around the lake to the shelter but once i saw the shelter didnt have a view of the lake i decided to hike on camp by myself. ended up not being able to see the lake anyways. i camped down below the opposite side of the dam in a pretty neat spot all alone. sometime that night around 1 30 i heard something very very loud walking around and making alot of noise. i dont think i could have made this much noise moving around unless i tried to it was so loud. pretty sure it was a bear. i heard the tree i hung my bear bag from being shook pretty loudly so i started to yell in its direction as loud as i could and banged my trekking poles together. it disturbed me very much that whatever it was was completely undisturbed by my yelling. about 15 minutes later i heard it move away and i walked down and was happy to see my food still up in the tree. i found out the next day that others had spotted a bear that very night by the lake.
Date: 2010-04-18
From: iron mountain shelter

To: abington gap shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

easy easy day took my sweet time to do only 15 miles to the shelter.tommorow its 7 miles to the state of virginia and another 3 to the town of damascus, cant wait! the last week has been so much fun. every night at the shelter we've had a fire with a bunch of hikers and a great time staying up late around it laughing and talking.
Date: 2010-04-19
From: abington gap shelter

To: damascus, virginia
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

did the ten miles into town in well under three hours. crossed the state line with a big smile on my face. im staying the next two nights with fish and j bird with one of his friends who goes to school in the city of boone about 45 minutes drive from damascus. really nice college apartment and got to stay for free. got to walk around campus a little bit during the day and though appalachian state was really nice. we went out to a bar and got nice and drunk and played shuffle board, my first time doing so. on the way back to the apartment we hit up taco bell for about 40 dollars worth of food. awesome break from the trail.
Date: 2010-04-20
From: damascus, virginia

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

chilled out hard all day long. we sat on this couch watching t.v and movies and eating food like it was our job to do so. this guy john and his roomate carson that we were stayin with treated us so well. when i get home from this trip im going to have to look them up and send them a case of beer or something nice because of everything they did for us.
Date: 2010-04-21
From: damascus, virginia

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

got back into damascus, at the library right now its already four o clock i dont know if im going to have time to make it to the first shelter 10 miles in and its starting to rain. looks like its going to rain all this week so that sucks but my feet and legs are feeling so rested im so damn ready to hike again i cant wait.finally in virginia its such a huge milestone. when i make it across the state ill be all but just barely half way. theres so many things im excited about seeing in this state im so excited. no real burnout yet, im doing what i want to be doing
Date: 2010-04-22
To: lost mountain shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

I Hiked out of damascus the day before and felt terrible, every muscle hurt and my pack was so heavy i only made it 6 miles out of town. that night the cut on my finger started looking ugly so i decided to go back into damascus today and see a doctor to make sure it wasnt infected. hiking back into town absolutely sucked. i felt like i would never get out of damascus virginia. the doctor gave me some antibiotics and i still got out of town rather early and got a full day in to lost mountain shelter. glad to finally be on my way. tommorow we get to see the wild ponies of the grayson highlands so everyone is really excited.
Date: 2010-04-23
From: lost mountain shelter

To: campspot
Miles today: 17.6

it was a rainy morning and pretty cold but by the end of the day it was great out. when we got to thomas knob shelter we saw a ton of ponies and we got to play with them, there was so many. there was this little baby pony that was very playfull to, whats cuter than a baby pony? got tons of pictures of them to put on here. the entire grayson highlands area that we hiked today was incredible. it was a really open section of trail with huge rocks everywhere and views in every direction. great day
Date: 2010-04-24
From: campspot

To: trimpi shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: scattered clouds

ran into the greatest trail magic yet today after only seven miles. a group of guys were camped out by the trail with a complete setup. 3 coolers full of beer! they had an entire case of snickers bars, chips, cake, strawberrries and all kinds of other stuff all for hikers. they said they camped at that spot 3 years ago and were surprised to see all these people hiking past and they have came back every year since. they said they enjoyed have a revolving door of people coming through to party with. hanging out there turned into a 2 hour odyssey and no one wanted to leave, but we had miles to do. ended up going 13 more miles in record time and got to the shelter before the rain started.
Date: 2010-04-25
From: trimpi shelter

To: marion
Miles today: 22.2
Weather: clear sky

hiking with cowgirl this morning and found out that the two people who took her dog for here while she was in the smokies were coming to visit again today.(john and jane) they are very nice people and they have done nice things for me now 2 times. they took are packs up the trail so we could hike all day without packs which made things a lot easier and more relaxing and of course they had snacks to hand out to hikers. it was a beautiful day of hiking. virginia is a beautiful state so far. at the end of the day they gave us a ride to marion and me and cowgirl stayed in a hotel for the night. we got to do laundry and shop at wal mart and do all the things we needed to thanks to john and jane. very good day.
Date: 2010-04-26
From: marion

To: knot maul shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: light rain

woke up in the morning and it was raining and the weather channel showed rain all day long into the night and the next day. not the kind of thing you want to walk into. it was a short day only 14 miles but it was not a very fun day. i managed to make it to the shelter before any serious rain hit though so i felt pretty lucky. it was a very very cold night but i made it through dry and warm so no complaints.
Date: 2010-04-27
From: knot maul shelter

To: jenkins shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

rained all day today and even spit snowflakes for a few minutes 4500 feet up where i ate lunch. very cold day but im glad i still managed to get 19 miles in. tommorow is supposed to be really nice out so i cant wait to get through this rainy night.
Date: 2010-04-28
From: jenkins shelter

To: jenny knob shelter
Miles today: 23.8
Weather: scattered clouds

perfect 60 degree day with a breeze and sunny all day long. did almost 24 miles today which is my longest yet. legs are feeling very strong now and i think virginias going to go by very fast. 20 mile days are starting to feel pretty easy which blows my mind because 15 used to kill me not to long ago.
Date: 2010-04-29
From: jenny knob shelter

To: docs knob shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: broken clouds

after only six miles of hiking this morning we came to a little road that had a grocery store .5 miles down so we all went to that for an early lunch. it turned into an hour long thing. did not want to hike at all today. only a mile or so after we got back on trail we came to this awesome waterfall which turned into another hour long ordeal at least and once again i had no motivation to keep moving. i took a break like every two miles today and finally made it to a shelter by 4 having only done 14 miles. ate some food at the shelter but had to get more miles done even though i felt dead. right after the shelter was a 2000 foot climb straight up and then another 8 miles to the next shelter. never though i would make it but going up the climb got my blood moving and i hiked like a man possessed until 8 at night when i made it to the shelter. pearisburg virginia is only 7 miles away so have that to look forward to tommorwo.
Date: 2010-04-30
From: docs knob shelter

To: pearisburg
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: clear sky

woke up and booked it into town without eating anything. first thing in town ate a ton of food at dairy queen. going to have to go shopping for food and try and hike out of town but i want to hang out here for awhile. today is my 50th day on trail which seems significant somehow. got a lot of really cool things coming up in virginia and i know its going to go fast. i feel like im starting to finally move and miles are getting knocked out quick. i think the rest of this hike is going to fly by so i need to enjoy it while i can.
Date: 2010-05-10
From: pearisburg

To: Glascow
Miles today: 0.0

Okay so lots been going on. Decided not to do a day by day update for this one cause it's been so long. I'm in Lexington Virginia right Now with my parents who came to visit. A week ago in the middle of the day I came up limping, no twisted anything I just started hurting, but not to badly. I finished out the day going a little slower but not to painfull. That night at the shelter though oncei had sat down for a while things got bad. Everymovement of the knee was agonizingly painfull and I could not roll over in my sleep without stabbing pains. That's how the past week has gone, once I make a hundred yards of painfull steps in the morning I was able to loosen up the knee enough to get a half decent limp going to cover good miles but it was never fast walking and it has been the worst week of the trail. The two days before I got off to meet my parents it got worse and my last two days were 11 miles and 5. So I'm here in the hotel with them and they leave in two days and I'm doing everything I can to rest my knee because if it's still in this state when they leave for home I'll have to go with them which will be one of the worst days of my short life probably. But I'm hoping it will feel better it feels a little better this morning. So that's where I'm at but besides that the last weeks been great. I saw my first bear finally! Just when I thought I never would, he was foraging around the bottom of a hill and never saw me. The woods have become alive, everywhere I look I'm seeing snakes, lizards, deer, I stumbled into a turkey nest off the trail, only the second I've ever seen. Every little tiny creek has unique salamanders and little fish in them. It's insane how much and how diverse the life is in these mountains and I am hypnotized by it. Hopefully I can keep hiking because I feel like I was just starting to really move before I got hurt and I think the rest of this trail was going to fly by. Anyways I'm close to 800 miles hiked and hopefully that won't be all for this year. Wish me luck
Date: 2010-07-03
To: Monson, maine
Miles today: 114.0
Weather: light rain

Made it through the 100 mile wilderness!! I planned on climbing katahdin and heading south but once I saw it I knew I couldn't do it. It's always been the dream place to end my hike so summiting katahdin will be the last part of the trail I hike even if I can't do it this year or on the next five. Maine is the roughest stuff I've ever hiked. It takes all day to do 15 miles and it just destroys my body. That said Maine is enchanting, it is the most amazing place I've ever seen. I pass huge lakes every day with crystal clear water and no one in sight, no trash on the banks. Waterfalls and streams that I could camp by for weeks. I can't describe isolation you feel in the mountains. I'm very optimistic about my chances to finish my hike, I want this accomplishment more than anything I've ever wanted but if my legs can't carry the weight the distance than so be it. I'm happy on trail more so than anywhere else. I've thought about why that is for some time. I think it's because on trail it's the only time in life I'm sure about every step I take and I finally have a direction in my life even if it's just north or southbound. I appreciate all the support on my guest book I've gotten, it means more to me than I can say
Date: 2010-07-04
From: Monson, maine

To: Caratunk
Miles today: 35.0

Well, I rolled into caratunk Maine a few days ago. I ended up staying at northern outdoors rafting company for a night. I really enjoyed being here so much that I took a job working here. As far as my hiking it's on an undetermined timeout at the moment. Not sure what I'll do yet. Might work here a month or two make some money and head back on the trail southbound. Might stay here a year and hike on next year. But it's beautiful here and I'm happy here at the moment. I'm glad the trail brought me here. The trails been good to me and I'm excited about being able to hike up pleasant pond mountain and explore on my days off or go boating down the kennebec.
Date: 2010-05-24
To: Mt. Katadin, Maine
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Time to get this journal started. We have our bus tickets in our hands and gear all accounted for. The wait is the hardest part. As a public school teacher, I do not have time to make an entire through hike in 1 summer break, but we are going to do as much as possible while still enjoying the scenery.My husband (Tex-2007), started a through hike in early 2007 but had to get off the trail after only 300 miles due to a family emergency. He has always wanted to complete the entire trail but 'life' seems to keep getting in the way. Desire has beaten out 'life' this year and we will be hitting the trail in just 3 more weeks!We haven't settled on individual trail names yet but together we plan to go by "A-team". I have chosen "Variable" as my trail name. Since I teach junior high math it only seemed fitting. More than that, as an empty-nester, my role in life seems to be changing with the setting I'm found in. "Tex" was given that name since we are from Texas, but he wasn't very happy with that. Jokingly, he says that his name is. "runs faster than" and mine is, "bear bait".One more week of classes, one week of family time and a final week of last minute preparations and we are on the bus to Lee, Ma.
Date: 2010-05-25
To: Katadin
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Training & experience: We are not starting this adventure blindly. We have been taking training hikes since 2006 when "Tex" was preparing for his first through hike. He logged some serious miles while I was busy teaching school. I would join him on weekends at our local state park and long breaks from school would find us travelling to the Ouachita Mountains in neighboring Oklahoma & Arkasas. A move, job change & weather forced us to join a gym this winter. It worked great as long as the weather was bad but when the sun was shining we always end up outside working on our new homestead. A quick glance at the calendar this evening made us realize that we need to get our packs on and get back to training after a few weeks of 'slacking off'. So...off to the gym again!