morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-05-21
From: Pogo Memorial Campsites 

To: Raven Rock Shelter 
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: broken clouds

AT - 5/21 Day 20 Flip Floppers We are starting to run into more and more flip flippers that started in Harpers Ferry. The other day I told you about 2 young girls that started separately but now seem to be hiking together. Last night we met a man that just started in HF. His trail name is Kibs. He just retired 20 days ago and figured it would be a good time to try this. He is a left arm amputee with a prosthetic that isn¢t liking the rain and humidity. He needs to go into town and borrow an Allen wrench and some lube to fix it. David has been teaching him how to use the GPS app we use to tell us where we are on the trail and how far all the next waypoints are. It is called Gut Hook. Kibs is very thankful to have David around.This morning we met a woman by the name Nic (Nicole) who just started in HF. Last night she camped with the other 2 girls, Gwen and Sariah. We got her to come up with a trail name so she chose ¢22¢. That is the number of veterans who commit suicide every day. Come to find out she is a Veteran who has PTSD and recently lost her boyfriend to suicide. It seems everyone out here has some serious story as to what they are here. 22 is camped where we are tonight. She also hammocks but she has an Eno hammock and isn¢t very proficient in setting it up, so David and I helped her figure it out.We met one more flip flipper that started in HF. His trail name is Tuck. He just got out of the Service about 8 days ago. I can¢t believe how little time some people take to get ready for a trip like the. We planned for a year and a half.A place of interest was the Pen-Mar State Park. It is on the MD side of the border. In my opinion it should be called Mar-Pen Park. Anyhow we were talking with the caretaker of the park and he told us it was an amusement park back in the early 1900s. People from all over the world would come there. It had a big bandstand and big bands and orchestras would hold concerts there. It didn¢t survive the depression. I think it would be interesting to see pictures of it back in those days. In the 1970s they got the park all fixed up again and still have bands play at the bandstand. It was a very nice park. The caretaker said Camp David and the underground Pentagon is near that park.Ascent 1,876 ftDescent 1,921 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-22
From: Raven Rock Shelter 

To: Tumbling Run Shelter 
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: light rain

AT - 5/22 Day 21 Milestones I really don¢t have much to say about today. We passed some milestones though:Completed Maryland. People say MD is easy. Only 40 miles and mostly flat. That is true but they do have hills to climb. Our ascent and descent for a 12 mile section looks just like when we were in Shenandoah. And the ups and downs were boulders you had to navigate. Not easy like you would think.Entered Pennsylvania. We completed about 8 miles so far. I say PA is better than MD right now. I know the PA rocks are still ahead. Someone told us the last 60 miles and we have over 200 miles in PA alone. We¢ll see how tomorrow goes 205 miles hiked. That is something, in my opinion. Considering the longest backpacking trip we took before this was 53 miles on the AZ Highline trail. Every morning we get up and our feet don¢t hurt like the night before. We don¢t have any strained muscles. We just figure we can walk another 12-13 miles and do it. You don¢t feel a cumulative tiredness and you only need to think about the trail you are on right now.As for traveling partners, we seem to have lost most of them. We are at the Tumbling Run Shelters tonight and only 1 person for last nights shelter is here. I don¢t even know his trail name. We do have a group of Outward Bound kids staying at the group sight here. They were out climbing today. There is only about 30 minutes before dark. I think they will quiet down quickly. We are camped by a creek and it will be a pleasure to fall asleep to the sound of the creek.Ascent 1,991 ftDescent 2,501 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-23
From: Tumbling Run Shelter 

To: Trail of Hope Hostel 
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: clear sky

AT - 5/23 Day 22We had some rain yesterday while hiking but it ended early afternoon. We are told we have 3 days of no rain. Hip hip hooray! The trails are better than they were with fewer and fewer muddy spots but there is a pretty good mosquito population starting up. We only hiked 9.6 miles today. We came up to PA Route 30 where there is a little dinner and a hostel located. We really need a shower and to do laundry, so we made it a shorter day. Finished up on the trail about 2:30.Just as we were about to leave the trail we heard someone calling us. It was 22 and Tuck. They are staying at the same hostel as us tonight. We were worried they got lost on the trail, as there were several times the trail took an unexpected turn. We are glad the new hikers are safe.Ascent 1,734 ftDescent 1,864 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-24
From: Trail of Hope Hostel 

To: Toms Run Shelter 
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: overcast clouds

AT - 5/24 Day 23 Dead Woman¢s Hollow RoadOkay, surely the name of the post got your attention. We crossed this road earlier today and what was spooky about it was where it was located. Two years ago they did a prescribed burn in this part of the forest and they are still working on restoring the area. David has probably already posted pictures of the still standing burned trees. Some of the trees actually have green leaves growing out of the tops. Just this last March they sprayed the area with an herbicide. Anyhow that is the most curious thing we saw today.Let¢s talk about the Trail of Hope Hostel last night. I don¢t think the house had air conditioning or fans for that matter. Everyone had their windows opened, which was fine. What wasn¢t fine was the road work that was going on right outside the hostel. It was located directly on State Route 30. They were resurfacing the road. After we were all in bed, sometime around 10 pm, heavy equipment was right outside the hostel grinding down a high spot in the road before they sealed over it. It made so much noise the house shook. David thinks it went on for an hour or two. They did move up the road, so in all, I guess it could have lasted that long. Somehow we got enough sleep to move on today.Let¢s talk about today. First, you should know we put in our longest day-16.1 Miles. It¢s hard to say why today was better than other days. The terrain was very good today. What Southern PA has are long ridges to hike. It takes some effort to get up there; but once you do you have some long flat ridges to walk. We had over 2,000 ft. ascent and descent today. Another thing we are trying to work on is our stamina. Ever since we left Harpers Ferry we have been reaching our destination by early afternoon. We want to be able to utilize some of those late afternoon hours and get more miles, but we have been too exhausted. So today we tried something different. We made good miles before lunch. Instead of eating our usual lunch, we made more of a dinner. We heated water and had a hot meal. I even had a cup of Lady Gray tea (caffeine was needed). While we ate lunch we were able to soak our feet in the creek. Before taking off we both took some ibuprofen, just to help keep inflammation down. Now here is what may have helped the most. Both of us listened to music for our entire afternoon segment. The time and miles passed quickly. I know we are supposed to be communing with nature and putting the technology away; but sometimes you have to do what works. Again, the trail really lent itself to longer hours of travel than other days.We have to get up extra early tomorrow to make it to the hostel we had a box sent to. They are closed between the hours of 9 am. and 5pm. We have 3.7 miles to hike to get there and we don¢t want to miss our opportunity by getting there after 9 am. David has the alarm set for 5 am. Good night.Ascent 2,354 ftDescent 2,015
Date: 2018-05-25
From: Toms Run Shelter 

To: James Fry Shelter 
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: moderate rain

AT - 5/25 Day 24. Minor Injury Report Today started off, as I said last night, early. We were worried that if we showed up to pick up our box after 9 am. we would not find anyone there. So we were up and on the trail by 6:00 this morning. We didn¢t have any coffee or tea because we figured we could have breakfast at the Pine Grove Furnace General Store. The AT Guide book says they have a grill and hiker foods. The store is right next to the Iron Masters Mansion Hostel where our package was. Well the hostel was very nice. We got there about 8:00. It really was a mansion owned by the family that ran the Iron smelting furnace that the community is named after.After picking up the box, we headed next door to the general store. On the steps down from the porch, David pulled a muscle in his calf. Nothing serious but it did slow us down. We only accomplished 11 miles today. We got to camp about 2:30 which is early but that is all we wanted to try today.Back at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park is an Appalachian Trail Museum. We went in there. Pretty neat historical information there. We never did get to eat breakfast there. The AT Guide Book said they were open at 8:00 but the sign on the door said 11:00. So we helped ourselves to some things in the hiker box and moved on.We are only planning a 10 mile day tomorrow to make sure David¢s calf heals up.Ascent 1,194 ftDescent 1,765 ft
Date: 2018-05-26
From: James Fry Shelter 

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter 
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: clear sky

AT - 5/26 Day 25 HotThe word for today was HOT. I think David said it hit 90 degrees. It is Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Summer is just around the corner. The weather has been dry lately. Thunderstorms in the forecast; but no storms have developed. I wouldn¢t want to ruin people¢s holiday weekend by hoping for rain. For the most part the trail is under the cover of a tree canopy; so, at least we don¢t have to deal with direct sunlight. The uphill climbs are pretty sweaty. It¢s good to sweat all the toxins out.We started the day with a short walk (1.5 miles) to the Green Mountain General Store and deli with hopes of getting breakfast. They did not disappoint. They were open and serving breakfast. I ate something I never order- biscuits and sausage gravy with fried potatoes. It just sounded like it would stick with me for awhile. And it did get me through the day with only snacks, until we stopped for the day at 3:00. The bad thing about it was it was hard to digest that much when you are starting out on a strenuous trail. My digestive system didn¢t like that very much. Hiking was hard today. We came to a big rock maze. It was climbing some pretty big boulders. David has pictures posted. We lost trail several times trying to get through it. The arrows on the rocks were not all that visible. We stopped a bit early on the trail today and plan to go into Boiling Springs tomorrow to get the grocery resupply for the box we just picked up yesterday. There is a hostel there that we sort of have arrangements with. With it being a holiday weekend we didn¢t think getting a hotel room anywhere would be easy. The town of Boiling Springs is very small with just a few places to stay or eat. The good thing is it is only 4 miles away, so a short hike there. We can relax in town, get some food and do our shopping before we get a ride out to the hostel.Tonight we are camped at a stealth campsite next to a creek near the Alex Kennedy Shelter. There isn¢t another shelter for 18.2 miles, unless you count the backpackers campsite in Boiling Springs. It is located right next to the train tracks. That is why we are taking our chances at the hostel. We will let you know how it all turns out.It¢s a good thing we stopped early today. We had enough time to eat and get everything cleaned up before the rain. It came down hard but we are safe and dry in our hammocks. Ascent 1,602 ftDescent 1,340 ft~Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-27
From: Alec Kennedy Shelter 

To: Carlisle PA Days Inn 
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: light rain

AT - 5/27 Day 26 Changes On The FlyIt¢s funny how quickly things can change when you¢re on the trail. I have been uncertain about what to do about getting grocery store resupply during this holiday weekend. The plan was going to be to go into Boiling Springs, have lunch, get grocery items, then stay at a hostel. There were some flaws with this plan that I won¢t go into. On our way to Boiling Springs, we passed a group of brothers with their sons hiking south. I stopped to talk to the boys and sooner or later we got around to asking about where they stayed the night before. They said the backpackers campsite next to the railroad track. So we decided to check that campsite out as we approached Boiling Springs. When we arrived at the campsite we saw a lady and her son that we saw a couple of days ago. They are from Oklahoma. The lady looks to be in her early 30s, the son about 13. We discussed a wide range of topics; then asked where they were headed tonight. She indicated they were hiking about 8 miles to Carlisle PA. I told her to check if Days Inn had rooms available on this Memorial Day weekend. Supposedly, this area has car shows every other weekend and hotels fill up fast. She called and they said they had plenty of rooms.  In my initial planning I wanted us to end up in Carlisle; but built in the Boiling Springs option because of the holiday. Well we quickly decided to finish hiking the day to Carlisle and took a room at the Days Inn.The part of the trail we were on today is called The Cumberland Valley. It is about 15 miles long and is flat, level land as a very narrow corridor through farmland. It was nice to have a change of scenery. We hiked through a pasture and past a family plot cemetery with dates in the 1800s. We even crossed the Pennsylvania Turnpike.We are planning a zero day tomorrow to go to the grocery and rest up a bit.Ascent 1,027 ftDescent 1,574 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-28
From: Carlisle PA Days Inn 

To: Zero in Carlisle 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

AT - 5/28 Day 27 Zero in Carlisle - Wally World and UberAt home, we shop at Walmart about twice a year, unless we are on vacation. Then we have been known to shop at Walmart as many times as 3 times in one day. We are beginning to feel more comfortable shopping at Walmart because the inventory is pretty consistent for what we need.Not only were we able to pick up our grocery resupply list in its entirety; but I also got a much needed haircut. With the high heat and humidity, I have been at odds with wearing what feels like a knit hat all day. I felt suffocated. Anyhow, thank goodness Walmart has a beauty salon within the store. It was even open on a national holiday (for good reasons or bad reasons).At breakfast this morning we saw the mother and her son. They came in late last night. I asked if they needed anything at Walmart and they said yes. We ended up sharing an Uber ride with them that made the trip more economical. That was our first Uber; probably not our last.~Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-29
From: Carlisle PA Days Inn 

To: Cove Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: overcast clouds

AT - 5/29. Day 28. It Could Have Been WorseBack on the trail today. Left Days Inn in Carlisle after eating a wonderful breakfast at the Middlesex Diner. That is the third time in as many days we ate there. We loaded up on liquids as this next section of trail doesn¢t have very good options for getting water. The very thought of loading up on liquids makes me want to pee. And pee is what I needed to do once we hit the trail, several times over. One time I didn¢t stick my hiking pole in the ground good enough and it fell over into some poison ivy. I was careful not to carry it by the handles or straps. We were hiking along a creek and when the opportunity came I was going to wash it off in the creek. This section of trail was mostly a clay soil. When it gets wet it¢s like walking on snot. Well I almost slid right into the creek. This wasn¢t a regular creek; it was the size of a river. The good news is I only came close. I washed off my hiking stick and never got poison ivy. I told you, it could have been worse.We made it 13.6 miles today. Even though the temperature was in the mid 80s. The humidity was 90% this morning. The last 3.7 miles were the hardest. The first mile of that was 760 feet of ascent, only to have the last 2.7 miles be very rocky. Not sure if these are the PA rocks that everyone talks about. We had a good friend, K Bar, just leave the trail right after this section because of his feet. I hope we get through the PA rocks and still want to be on the trail.When we finally got to the shelter, Nic 22 was there. It is fun running into people you haven¢t seen for a couple of days. This shelter is Cove Mountain Shelter. The shelter itself has been porcupine proofed. The steps were removed and there was sheet metal attached to any surface they could possibly climb up. Ascent 2,179 ftDescent 1,400 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-30
From: Cove Mountain Shelter 

To: Stealth site
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: clear sky

AT - 5/30 Day 29. Duncannon PA and Peter¢s Mountain Boulder ClimbWe left the shelter at our usual time, about 8:00. We just can¢t seem to get everything packed up much earlier than that. It was a 4 mile hike mostly downhill to Duncannon. The humidity was 98% this morning. I was glad to be going downhill. But again, lots of rocks and lots of rock steps. The mosquitoes were bad too. Today was the first day we both had to stop and put bug lotion on. Normally David isn¢t bothered by mosquitoes but today he was.We were going to meet some of the people from the shelter at The Doyle Hotel for a beer, but we got there a little after 10:00 and it doesn¢t open until 11:00. The Doyle is an iconic AT place to stop. The hotel is pretty run down, we hear; but the beer is cold. Well, we passed on the whole thing. The town is big enough to have 6 churches on one street. We had to walk through the whole town to get to the next mountain, Peter¢s Mountain.We knew we had a 1000 ft climb right away. The climb wasn¢t all that bad. They used switchbacks and the rocks we had on the last mountain were not on this one. However, when we got to the top we had to maneuver over and around big boulders for 3/4 of a mile all along the ridge line. Such a workout while wearing a backpack of about 35 pounds.We ended up stealth camping about 3 miles short of the next shelter. In the late afternoon, we hit some rocky trail again that slowed us down and wore us out.Possible rain tonight. Radar showed thunderstorms south of us in the VA area. I would prefer a nice gentle rain if it has to rain at all.Ascent 1,755 ftDescent 1,804 ft~Desert Rose
Date: 2018-05-31
From: Stealth site

To: Stealth site 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: mist

AT - 5/31 Day 30. HomesickWho would have thought we would make it 30 days out here. I¢m sure the success has everything to do with the fact we have each other. Still there is room to miss everyone else. I would like to go to Isabelle and Mia¢s graduation, I really want to see Pax Verum, wish I could spend some time with Linda and Sue. Then there¢s the immediate family in Arizona. I miss them all very much. The hiking was good today - 11.7 miles. We had to stop short of our original destination due to rain. David tells me we are at 298.8 total miles. If we had continued to the planned campsite, we would have hit our 300 mile mark. We finished the last mountain and moved on to another. The last mountain had an astonishing 14 mile ridge line. I think this mountain has about the same. It has just been in PA that they get you up on a ridge line and have you ride it the whole way. We stopped for lunch late in the day, about 3:00. There wasn¢t much water on that last mountain and we were saving what we had to drink instead of using it to make lunch. Anyhow when we finally got water after about 9 miles we did take a leisurely lunch. There were some campsites at that spring and I thought to myself we could just end the day here. But finishing out another 3.7 miles would ensure we are able to make it to Pine Grove for a hotel stay. I am looking forward to the conveniences of a shower and clean laundry. We decided to go for it. As we headed out, I said goodbye to a man we just met from Clayton OH. I got to thinking about the old neighborhood and started to feel a pep in my step. Heck yeah, let¢s do these miles. Then a name popped in my head - Terri¢s mom, Darlene. I thought, ¢Is that you Darlene, giving me the push I need ?¢ I got the feeling she answered me back with a yes. I am so glad I have had so many people in my life that wants me to complete this trip. Ascent 2,069 ftDescent 1,895 ft~ Desert Rose
Date: 2018-06-01
From: Stealth site 

To: Rausch Shelter 
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: overcast clouds

AT - 6/1 Day 31. Caffeine Can Make Your Day It was raining last night when we set up and it rained all night until dawn. It made getting up and packed an undesired activity. It took us until 9:00 to get on the trail. I really hate packing up wet stuff. Our clothes from last night were still damp; but we had to put them on anyhow. The hammock stuff was not wet but everything is still damp feeling. Anyhow we skipped making coffee or tea. A big mistake. The day was dragging. It seemed like the time would not pass and every time we looked at the app, we hadn¢t made any mileage. We found a really nice campsite to take a break and decided right then we needed caffeine. We made ourselves a double Carnation Instant Breakfast (chocolate) and put 2 Instant coffees in it. That was lunch and we made it all the way to the next shelter without any breaks. We really wanted to go further today but needed to do some light housekeeping. We ended up with nearly a 10 mile day, so not too bad for starting late and ending early. We are camped at the Rausch Gap Shelter. The spring is easily assessable right in front of the shelter. Some of the recent shelters had the spring .2 or .3 of a mile down a steep hill. The last one said 300 rock steps down. For those places we try to get our water before the shelter. Then we usually end up carrying more water than we need for miles. So hard to plan. I think we got here about 3:00 today. We had time to set up and get our tarps and bedding dried out. I don¢t think there is rain in the forecast for tonight but we don¢t have Internet service here to really check. Let¢s just say the air feels much drier.  It has been 4 days since we have done laundry, so our clothes are starting to smell sour. We made a washing ziplock bag and washed our shirts. We even had a private section of the campsites so we took mini showers. It¢s amazing how tolerable the wilderness can be when you are clean. Early to bed for us with hopes of getting up early on the trail. Maybe we can make up some of those lost miles. Tomorrow will start with some caffeine. I would still like to stay in a hotel in Pine Grove. If not tomorrow then we should get there early on Sunday. Just before we got to the shelter we saw the biggest displays of pink lady slippers we have seen thus far. Ascent 898 ftDescent 1,192~ Desert Rose