morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-05-09
From: The Place- Damascus

To: sobo - road bed past Wise Shelter
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: scattered clouds

We took an earlyish morning shuttle from MRO north to Fox Creek Gap. Holysmoke brought us some breakfast sandwiches from the gas station- they were awesome.We are aiming to do ten miles a day to get back on wednesday night, when the Trail Days Campground opens. But you know, if for some reason we got there thursday, it would not matter a bit. Hiking south was kinda cool, we got to run into people a couple days ahead, as well as a lot of section hikers as this is a great section and there are also more people out on the trail because of Trail Days next weekend.         We met a group of 2001 hikers out on a reunion hike! Grampie, Texas Jack, and Shepard. I hadn't met any of them in 2001, except after awhile Shep and I figured out we had actually met very briefly. After I summited Sept 20, my mom met me and we drove around New England being tourists, including driving up Mt. Washington, where there was a group of thru-hikers hanging out. We had given a ride to one of them and I remembered her name, thus we were able to deduce he had been in that group! I think we took a group shot, I'll have to dig that one out.        Texas Jack gave Didge some odd looks for carrying a birdbath base, plus tried to give him some advice on his pack weight. Our packs with the front packs make it seem like we are carrying heavy loads, plus the main pack bag is wider than most- it hugs your back and doesn't stick out as far- so we are carrying about the same avg 30 lb load (with 4-5 days food and water) as most other thru-hikers, but we are carrying it a lot more efficently, closer to the back and distributed over our torso, none of that leaning forward against shoulder straps pulling the load back. But the pack does seem larger at first glance. TJ had told Didge he needed to get his weight under 40 lbs. Didge told him he'd been 35 lbs back at Amicalola with full on winter gear, some of which we have dropped. I was at 33 then, even with the summer quilt in addition to the winter sleeping bag. I dropped the quilt back in Asheville.         We crossed some open spots with views, but the real apex of the Mt Rogers scenery is tomorrow. We are camped just south of Wise shelter on an old road bed. Holysmoke made a fire and we hung out for a long time. We took a long break by a privy near the Scales trailhead. It was pretty cold and windy, but sunny. I saw one spot just covered in hairy fiddlehead ferns.
Date: 2010-05-10
From: sobo - road bed past Wise Shelter

To: Elk Garden
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: scattered clouds

I regretted blasting through Mt Rogers at 17 miles a day in 2001, and we are definately taking it slower this time! Gorgeous day, tho still windy and cold. Rocky trail, with wide open views, scrubby vegetation. It reminds me of being out west a lot. We spotted some ponies down off the trail aways and we went down and hung out with them and took pics. There were two foals that were fuzzy and cute. We took so many pictures!         The coolest moment of the day and perhaps of the whole trail thus far: while taking a break at Thomas Knob Shelter, we hear a deafening roar suddenly approaching. Two fighter jets swoop in and both do an acrobatic barrell roll maybe a couple hundred feet over the shelter. that was so freaking awesome! it happened so fast and came from out of the blue, no one had time to get out cameras, everyone just stood there with their jaws on the ground.         We were leap frogging with Holysmoke and a group of section hikers all day. We took a really long break at Deep Gap, the spot where Jasper decided he was ready to propose to me in 2007. (tho he actually proposed 3 months later on the PCT in Northern California). Some section hikers said Holysmoke said he was going to camp at Elk Garden, so we pushed to there a little before dark. He had gone past, I felt bad, but I didn't feel like going any further and some section hikers had a fire going, so we camped there. While there, Jasper showed them what ramps looked like, we had run into a bag someone picked and left at a shelter back in the Roan Highlands, and then recognized them everywhere at higher elevations. We dug a bunch and added them to our dinner. They are a wild leek- oniony and garlic at the same time. When I eat them, my body just just has that- "yeah! gimme some more of that! reaction". Doesn't get any fresher! I don't imagine they make your breath or sweat smell very pleasant tho. Good thing, we both like them.
Date: 2010-05-11
From: Elk Garden

To: VA Creeper Trail
Miles today: 10.0

The weather turned nasty overnight and this makes me glad we hiked this section sobo. Had we hiked north out of Damascus, we'd be up in Mt Rogers/Grayson Highlands today instead of yesterday. The trail climbed up to Buzzard Rock on Whitetop Mtn, the wind was HOWLING, we did not linger. The rest of the day was below treeline in the woods, a wet day, but not really raining. Once we dropped down lower in elevation, it was just overcast. I have used all my cold weather gear the last couple nights, gloves, hat, fleece pants. Funny to think I'm be sending some of that home in a few days.         I spotted a cluster of three lady slipper flowers and stopped to take a picture, then I realized there were more of the flowers around. I stopped counting at about 60! These flowers are fairly rare , to see so many in one spot is really amazing! Jasper has missed seeing them, they are somewhat easy to overlook, I wish he had been with me so I could point them out, but he hiked past them without seeing them.        We reached the Creeper Trail turnoff, or so we thought, ended up walking down a gravel road for a bit in the wrong direction and had to back track.We ended up walking til about 830pm before finding a spot along the stream along the Creeper Trail (which is an alternate route to the AT back to Damascus. )
Date: 2010-05-12
From: VA Creeper Trail

To: Damascus Trail Days
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Well fortunately 40 miles of AT is actually about 3 miles less if you take the Creeper Trail. I'd heard the Creeper Trail is a nice walk, rushing streams, trestle bridges. All is true, except the monotonous grade gets old after a few miles. We both found it rather pounding on our feet, I wish I had a bicycle, which is what the trail is designed for. Well rather it was designed for a railroad, it's a rails to trails bike trail, folks get shuttled up to the top and coast all the way back to Damascus. I think I've heard people say they only had to peddle once in 15 miles. I've wanted to do the bike ride for years, but never have. Maybe next year, its so easy to get busy doing other things during Trail Days. We even brought our bikes in 2007 and 2009.         We were back in town by 3 pm, tho it had started to rain during our walk back. The campground was unoffcially open. The campground is totally different than before, the center is all torn up, there are bulldozers moving earth around. The camping is all crammed up against the creek and spread out in a maze of poison ivy. We weren't really sure where the hell to camp as we weren't sure where the hardcore party zones were going to be. We know we don't want to be near Riff Raff or the drum circle. We wandered around not unlike lost puppies, ruling out a few spots. We made our way across a shallow tributary stream and heard "OY!!" Holysmoke summoned us over to a camp. Cotton had two giant tarps strung up. We have our spot.
Date: 2010-05-17
From: Trail Days

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: light rain

We did a respectable day. It rained off and on all day- never really pouring, just wet and dripping. A walk in the lush green woods. We saw some blooming rhodendedrons after taking a break at the new Hurricane Mountain shelter. We are staying in the shelter tonight at Trimpi Shelter. Its nice to have a shelter when its raining. There is only one other hiker here, a section hiker. Trimpi is one of the split style shelters- glad its not crowded, as it really only comfortably holds 6.
Date: 2010-05-18
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: past Brushy Mtn
Miles today: 12.4

Another relatively easy day terrain wise, plus we had some nice views. We stopped for dinner at the infamous Partnership Shelter, which due to being .1mi from the Mount Rogers Visitor Center with a phone and a road, it is possible to order pizza. We opted for mac and cheese, and after finishing that, someone had some leftover pizza and we ach had a couple pieces. THEN someone else showed up with a bucket of fried chicken. THEN, someone realized there was a cooler sitting there. I had seen it and assumed it was trash someone had left, shelters close to roads often are party sites, there was a sign on the shelter saying no alcohol, and I had heard the week after Trail Days Partnership shelter is often the site of check ins by law enforcement. But someone checked out the cooler and there were little singles of partially melted Ben and Jerry's ice cream ,so we had some of that and then waddled off up the trail, totally stuffed, to find a place to camp. We went another 1.5 miles or so, walking in the late evening sunlight, which I love. We eventually found a spot to pitch the tent and camp.
Date: 2010-05-19
From: past Brushy Mtn

To: Rambunny's Atkins
Miles today: 9.8

We called the other day and made a reservation at Rambunny's new hiker hostel. I had debated on staying there or a hotel. I had sent our drop to the hotel right at the road crossing, but another hiker told me the hotel had gone way downhill and he had a bad experience with them, whoever was on the phone didn't speak english very well... There are other hotels down the interstate at the next exit, but we'd have to hitch and I had bad luck trying to hitch here in 2001.         Plus I needed internet access to take care of some things, which Rambunny had. Rambunny's place is all inclusive AYCE dinner and breakfast- 40 bucks a person. It seems steep, but if you add up what you would spend eating out, it evens out. However, I only wanted to stay there if I knew we had a private room, which we did. We called her when we got to the convience store past the hotel where I picked up our drop and paid a 5 bucks nonguest holding fee. Rambunny was a 2000, 2001 and 2002 hiker who I had heard of but never officially met, she was instrumental in Dirty Bird and Numskull's love affair back in 2004. They met at the Cabin in Maine when he was hiking and she was helping out at the Cabin. They spent a couple days together there and then he walked on after a brief kiss from DB, but they hadn't exchanged contact info. Rambunny was at the Cabin before starting a sobo section hike from Katahdin, so she took a note from DB to Numskull that he got when he reached Katahdin. They wrote each other for a year and then hooked up at Trail Days 2005 and have been together ever since. I told Rambunny about the effect her note had and she was pleased.         We got cleaned up there, as expected of any Cabin in Maine alum, she had clothes for us to wear while our were being washed. Didge ended up looking like a pediatrican wearing a scrubs top and Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms. There was a joke on a chalkboard at the hostel- AYCE oatmeal and ramen! Not funny! The spread was amazing actually- Chicken and corn and salad and potatoes, pickle spears, rolls. I was able to use the internet, tho I was dissappointed she seemed to have a lot of restrictions on when it could be used. I can understand wanting personal space in her home, perhaps she should have a terminal up in the hiker common room upstairs. This home was owned by Warren Doyle, the house used to be on the trail actually but then the trail was rerouted. He offered the house up for sale, no interest, for someone who wanted to help hikers, so that's what she's doing.
Date: 2010-05-20
From: Rambunny's Atkins

To: stealth camp
Miles today: 9.9

We were forced into an earlier start than we would have liked. After having to get up early for breakfast, we had only an hour or so before the shuttle back to the trail left. I was bent out of shape. I do not like being on someone else's schedule. Now I wished we'd gone with the hotel instead. If I'm paying 40 bucks a head, I want some chill time. We hung out at the convience store for awhile and met Rest Stop and Orbit, before heading out. It seems like the going was slow today. We also met Florida Duane back at the store- he was a character, doing 30 miles a day or so, talking on the phone as he hiked- he'd have to get off the phone when he hit a downhill, cause he had to run down them. Hike your own hike!         Yesterday we passed more blooming rhodies and azealas as well as some blooming mountain laurel. I saw some more of that today as well as a few lady slipper flowers. The trail crossed Interstate 81 back at Atkins by the convience store. I-81 runs along what is known as the Great Valley of the Appalachians, a major break in the mountain chain running parallel with the overall NE trend of the mountains (and the AT). The trail crosses the great valley (and I-81) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Appalachian_Valleyseveral times, here, a couple hundred miles north at Daleville (near Roanoke), and in central PA. There is a lot of farmland in the valley, so for awhile on either side of the crossing, the trail is located on a narrow corridor of land along the edges of fields mostly. In 2002, I worked for the ATC as a boundary survey technician- I went out and repainted the survey markings on these corridor tracts mostly. I worked a bunch in this area around Atkins actually. A few miles north of Atkins, you pass signs saying you are crossing private land and no camping allowed. In those areas, the trail still is only on an easement across private land.        In this area, the trail crosses many stiles over fences and we met a woman who was out maintaing a section of trail, in this case, maintaining trail was mowing a path across a field. I like these sections across farmland alot, the views are different- a brief break from the green tunnel. We ended up doing true stealth camping (camping at a spot that has no signs of anyone ever camped there and trying to leave as little trace as possible). I think we were past the no camping on private land part, but I'm not totally sure, so we may have camped illegally. Oh well. We were up on a ridge, lots of green vegetation, green green world.
Date: 2010-05-21
From: stealth camp

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: light rain

One thing about camping somewhere you're not totally sure is legal, it does motivate you to get up earlier! Our goal for the day was Chestnut Knob, another of my favorite spots on the trail. It overlooks Burkes Garden aka God's Thumbprint, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke%27s_Garden,_Virginia an oval shaped valley about 4 miles wide and 8 miles long formed by collapse of limestone caverns, completely surrounded by Garden Mountain. It kinda seems like Crater Lake, only instead of a lake there is farmland and there are a lot of trees on the mountain. There are only two roads (only one paved), crossing Garden Mountain into the valley. However, no great view of Burke's Garden from Chestnut Knob was to be had today, it was socked in, and doing the sorta raining, sort of just totally wet from being in a moisture laden cloud thing, all the trees were dripping. However, most of the day wasn't wet, just sort of overcast. We hit a trail magic cooler that was a nice surprise, we had a soda. As we climbed up to Chestnut Knob, we stopped to load up on water at a spring beside a pond as there is no water at the shelter. This shelter is an enclosed cabin, very nice to have today in the crappy weather. There were several others with us at the shelter, but not so many that is was crowded.
Date: 2010-05-22
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: moderate rain

It was a little clearer this morning and we sort of had a view over Burkes Garden. It was still kinda of overcast and hazy, but drier. I forgot how awful the trail was past Chestnut Knob, it runs along the top of Garden Mountain, which is rocky as crap, brutal actually. So we made slow time. How did I do a 22 mile day here in 2001? It will take us 2 days, but there is a big advertised (signs up at Trail Days) Trail Magic we will hit tomorrow morning , so that will be worth taking it a little slower. We both took a lot of pictures of flowers and fungus. It was a cooler day but warmed up later. We ran into a cool stump remnant along the trail, it was taller than our heads and had a hole in it, we took turns posing behind it and making funny faces. There is a alot of tenting space at this shelter, we are pitched a ways from the shelter. There are quite a few people here and everyone knows about the trail magic 5 miles away tomorrow.
Date: 2010-05-23
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Bland VA
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: scattered clouds

A group of boisterous young male thruhikers came in to the shelter very very early this morning after night hiking to make the trail magic today. They caught up with some friends and they had a very noisy reunion. I was not happy and got up and told them to shut up. I still had my earplugs in so I didn't hear their rebuttal and I didn't really want to have an exchange, just wanted to make them aware they were disturbing somone. They said some rude crap apparently- like what do you have get up and work or something? inconsiderate ding dongs. Luckily the trail magic was big enough that we could all partake without having to really interact with that group. Some of them apologized later- rather I think it was the friend of whoever had made the stupid comments who apologized. The people doing the trail magic were a couple section hikers who had finished a few years earlier and their family. They had photo books to share, including pics of a trail type shelter one of them had built in their backyard- awesome! We have talked about doing something like this with an overhang we have on back of one of our outbuildings. One of the guys also had a cool AT tattoo on his arm, I have thought about getting something for years- for a bit in 2001-Wood Nymph and I wanted to find a place to get the AT symbol tattooed on our big toes, but we never did. I'd like to somehow intersect the years 2001 and 2010 and the AT symbol.         We pigged out for a couple hours, Didge played didgeridoo for the group, and we walked on about 1:30. It was a beautiful afternoon and we reached the road into Bland about 5. I messed up and we hitched the wrong way for awhile, finally figured it out and were hitching without any luck for quite some time. Then it started to rain. Our hitching luck has not been great this trip. I guess this is only the second time we have hitched on this hike , the first being back in March at Unicoi Gap, during which it started to pour, it did the same thing today. It POURED!!! We gave up hitching and started to walk the 3 miles to town. Soon we were totally soaked. We still stuck out our thumbs hoping someone might stop, but kept walking. Rain while hitching is a hard call- on one hand someone might take pity on you cause its raining, but on the other hand no one wants a soaking wet hiker in their dry car. After about a mile, someone took pity on us and stopped but couldn't let us in- apologizing profusely, offered the back of the truck, which we were more than happy with as we are already totally soaked. So we are at the Big Walker Motel now- warm and dry. I have a yeast infection again. We ran into Troll who I have met online, he is hiking with Hopper, who is scattering her husband's ashes along the trail. He is a former thruhiker who died of cancer and requested his ashes be scattered all along the trail- basically making Hopper hike it all.
Date: 2010-05-24
From: Bland VA

To: Bland
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

As much as I hate the idea of paying for 2 nights of hotel, I can't hike today. I have Diflucan pills to treat the yeast infection and I got a ride to a drugstore to get the topical treatment. There is a local hiker ministry here giving hikers rides and feeding them breakfast certain days of the week. I got a ride to the store from a guy in the ministry and they are picking us up for breakfast tomorrow before we get back on the trail. We spent the day watching a Mythbusters marathon on TV which was pretty cool.
Date: 2010-05-25
From: Bland VA

To: Jenny Knob
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: overcast clouds

the breakfast this morning was very cool. ATOM (Apppalchian Trail Outreach Ministry) has been feeding hikers every monday morning all season. And they do it every day for a week or two during the peak of hiker season (which is now). During that period, they have some people come from a church in Arkansas to help out. One of the people from Arkansas ha a daughter that lives in Ozark where we live! Didgeridude played didgeridoo for them after breakfast, and they took us all back to the trail.           My yeast infection is mostly better. We camped near a shelter tonight. it seems like the post trail days crowd has caught up to us, and it seems like the hikers around us are mostly of the young male idiot persuasion, so we haven't really made any connections with people. I find most of them really annoying. I miss the mid-march starters. We have been seeing more and more millipedes. The spot where we took our lunch break must have been a nest or something, they were everywhere, all over our stuff. One must be careful putting ones shoes on after a break!
Date: 2010-05-26
From: Jenny Knob

To: Dismal Falls
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: overcast clouds

We did a short day today and are camped at a place I wish I had been able to camp at in 2001. There is a 0.2 blue blaze to Dismal Falls, its totally worth it. It is not even remotely Dismal. The creek is Dismal Creek and I think as far as farm land goes its not that great, hence the name, but the Falls are pretty cool. We made camp earlyish and chilled out, built a fire. Didge reglued his Keen shoes again, the outer tread separates really easily, it started happening in the first 100 miles and he has been regluing them periodically the whole time we've been out here. He talked to Keen about replacement, but he has to email pictures. So before he re-glued them, after he cleaned them, he took pics to send. Sending the pics in is one of the many things we hope to get done while we are home for the wedding.         We took a long break at Trent's Grocery- had a pizza, took a shower. That place is a convience store, restaurant, gas station, hardware store, hunting store, campground all rolled into one. The cashier was totally overworked and it took awhile to get our pizza. We should have ordered it before we took showers. We just did a couple miles after that to the falls to camp.