morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2022-10-13
From: Lone Pine Peak Campsite

To: Dickenson Gap near 1543
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Texas Pete¢s knee is still bothering him. The pain is worst in the morning and late in the day after 15 miles. He¢s been walking in it for about 400 miles (since the Cobblestone Motel in Waynesboro PA). We¢ve taken weight from his pack, cut our miles down, and slowed our pace. The physical therapy exercises have helped warm it up when it gets stiff. We had hoped that we¢d see it improve with time and, while it hasn¢t really gotten worse, it certainly hasn¢t improved.We¢ve decided to take several days off in Pearisburg and get Texas Pete¢s leg X-rayed to rule out stress- or avulsion fractures. We¢ve stopped for rest twice for 2 days each (Front Royal and Lexington). Neither of those breaks provided lasting relief in his leg.  We¢ll stop this time for a longer stretch - maybe as long as 5 days - to see if his body can mend the injury in a meaningful way  Over the course of the last week I¢ve developed a pain in the bottom of my left foot, certainly due to the added weight of the winter gear and my aging shoes. Several days of rest and a new pair should fix that issue speedily.We¢re camping tonight in a windy ridge that has reports on Far Out of a group of aggressive goats. There¢s no sign of them yet and, hopefully, we¢ll remain undetected. Pearisburg tomorrow!
Date: 2022-10-14
From: Dickenson Gap near 1543

To: Narrows Road
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: moderate rain

Today's hike was in great weather over east trail into some zero days in Pearisburg. Miles don¢t get much easier than that! We were walking just as the dawn was breaking.We met Mantis on the trail this morning. She and Goldie had been with us between Stratton and Monson and then pulled ahead in the 100-mile wilderness. They were planning a wraparound hike from Harper¢s Ferry. Goldie ran out of money but Mantis is still on trail. She started the southern part of the hike at Springer in late August.We passed a landfill, crossed the New River on a highway bridge, and arrived at the Pearis Cemetery about 2:15. A call to the hostel had a shuttle to meet us in less than 10 minutes. Dr Pippa ¢Doc¢ Chapman owns and runs the Angels Rest Hikers Haven on a rise of land on the north side of town. The view to the southwest is dominated by nearby Pearis Mountain while the ridge that we hiked over to the north can be traded from Rice Field in its southern end nearly to last night¢s campsite on the northern. The hostel is a cobbled-together group of house, mobile home, bathhouse, bunkhouse (old garage), various camper trailers and RVs, and a shed - ¢The Relax Shack¢ - that will be our home for at least tonight and tomorrow night. Fish and I walked to Food Lion and bought Body Armor drinks. Then we bought pints of Gelato, then bought drinks and snacks for the rest of the crew  Shortly after arriving Doc wrote us a prescript for an X-Ray at the nearby community hospital. Sharon drove Texas Pete and I there and brought us back to the hostel less than an hour later. We¢ll have to wait in a radiologist to read the scans and send a report. It¢s Friday evening so there¢s no telling how long that will take.We all showered and got into loaner clothes. We started a load of laundry and headed to La Barranca for dinner. We stopped by Food Lion on the walk back to the hostel and got some sausage, eggs, and sandwich fixings for tomorrow. The Two Turtles are here in the bunkhouse. ¢Did you guys lose some clothes on the trail?¢, Mr Turtle asked as soon as he saw me. We had, in fact, just started to miss Fish¢s zip off pant leg and his new merino wool beanie. I was sure that the beanie was long gone and that the pant leg was stuffed in a brothers pack. ¢Ms Turtle found a pant leg and a beanie in the trail. We¢ve got them in the laundry now.¢ Incredible. Apparently, each had fallen from Fish¢s pack onto the trail. The pant leg had been found yesterday and the beanie today. Fish was very relieved - the beanie is a favorite and a necessity.
Date: 2022-10-21
From: Brushy Mountain Outpost

To: VA 623, Burkes Garden
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: clear sky

Trail Crew8:53 amTwo deer race across the trail about ten yards ahead. They stop up in the woods about thirty yards up in the woods and turn around. One bends down and starts to eat. I¢m listening to an audiobook about rabbits and birds, and my imagination breaks as another woodland creature enters my mind. I reach down to pause my book and the deer speed away.About another mile ahead we stop next to a brook to eat lunch. I open my food bag and see what I have to eat when Ninjasquirrel retrieves a large loaf of banana nut bread. A chipmunk screams obnoxiously down at him. I look up just in time to see a acorn plop into the water next to me. I grab a nutty buddy and start on a bag of peanuts. A hiker named sparky past us during our hour and a half lunch, he¢s the only hiker we¢ve seen today. I finish my audiobook... we¢ll actual it was the last book in a series of four. We climb up the ridge surrounding Burkes garden, a geographical crater in Virginia,And start along the last mile to the road. We reach the road about 4:30 and eat burritos for dinner, me and texaspete play chess and ninjasquirrel starts a blazing fire.The view over burkes garden is amazing as the sun sets over the mythical land of Appalachia.Grayson SkogmanFish, 2022 thru hikerGuest columnistVan CrewWe had a nice old road for a campsite this morning. We woke up at 7:00 and began packing. We set up a table with the Coleman two-burner stove and, just like a hiker breakfast, made oatmeal in the packets. Jasper came up with his packet of Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal, grabbed the covered kettle, and promptly poured coffee into his packet. We had a pot of boiling water for the oatmeal in which you would dip a car camping mug on the other burner. Jasper thought the kettle had the water because you could pour easily from that like we used to before the JetBoil era. I took his packet and ate it. Delicious! It tasted like tiramisu. We said our goodbyes and they hiked away while dad packed up. After we had everything in the car, we drove down to Brushy Mountain Outpost, a trailside market (?) with on two sided shelf of food and iPad cases. Dad had to use the customers-only restroom so, I mean, we had to buy something. After treating ourselves to biscuits, we drove over to the south end of Burkes Garden, and then made our way up a curvy gravel road, VA route 623. We set up a table and chairs about noon and played two games of chess, with one win each. We then played I tiebreaker, and I took the win. We saw a lot of hikers, section and thru alike, but put a Mtn Dew or Dr Pepper in all of their hands. We talked to two fellow thru hikers, Lennon and Grazer, for about half an hour. Another half our after that, around 4:00, the Trail Crew arrived. We had a nice dinner of Hamburger Helper taco soup while Jasper started a small campfire. We all went to bed before dark, after looking out at a great view of Burkes Garden and listening to the surprisingly loud moos of cows a mile or two away.Baxter SkogmanTexas Pete, 2022 Van LiferGuest Columnist
Date: 2022-10-22
From: VA 623, Burkes Garden

To: VA 42, Bear Garden Hostel
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: clear sky

Van CrewBaxter SkogmanTexas Pete, 2022 Van LiferGuess I¢m a columnistWe were aroused by the alarm at 6:30. We were in our old Copper Spur 3 person. We packed up and had sausage and eggs for breakfast. The trail crew started hiking while me and dad drove down into Burke¢s Garden to see the Varmint of Burke¢s Garden, a piece of history from that area. The story was that there was this beast that was killing sheep in 1952. It was only killing them though, not eating them like a normal animal would. After around 410 sheep had been killed, the farmers got together and hired a professional hunter, who tracked and killed the beast. It turned out to be a larger-than-normal coyote. We pulled into the museum in Tazewell that held the animal, which had been stuffed. It was disappointingly small, but still interesting. It was on display with a plethora of other animals, most of which looked a little smaller than they should be. There was the hide of a massive black bear named Old Hitler, who had done much the same thing as the Varmint. After buying a few necessities at the Grant¢s grocery we toured Tazewell for a while. We drove around Burke¢s Garden to the south end to Bear Garden Hostel. It had a nice bunkhouse/lounge where dad planned our next week or so of camping while I drew and FaceTimed some of my friends. We were to stay a quarter mile down the road in an old house. After eating lunch and chilling in the lounge, the trail crew arrived (the trail passes very close to the hostel). We showered and did laundry and checked out the house. It was small, but had a kitchen, beds, and a living room. We prepared for bed and ate some chicken noodle soup. We all went to bed around the same time, about 8:00.
Date: 2022-10-24
From: Lindamood Schoolhouse

To: Slab Town Road, VA 627
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: clear sky

The AT passes right in front of the schoolhouse where we stayed last night. After a breakfast of sausage, eggs, and grits the hikers left about 7:40. The morning was very cold and, having camped in a grassy field under open skies, our tents were very wet inside and out. Baxter, LC, and I hung out for awhile to allow the tents to dry out a bit before packing them away in the van.LC is headed to Marion today. The Merry Inn is a new hostel there that he¢ll stay at tonight. We dropped him off, played a game of chess at the cafe next door, visited Verizon, ate at Subway, and filled the right rear tire with air. I couldn¢t spot the puncture but there must be one. I¢ve resolved to take the wheel off tomorrow to investigate. After finishing our business in Marion, we headed south towards a rendezvous with the trail crew.We chose a campground for our next two nights that is convenient to 2 days¢ trailheads. Slabtown Road is today¢s endpoint and Fox Creek will be tomorrow¢s. Raccoon Branch is a campground about 20 minutes from both if these trailheads. We¢ll only have to set up camp once for 2 nights.We met the hikers at VA 670, one mile before the day¢s end. Bulldog and Mango Mamba showed up just before Ninja Squirrel. We passed out beverages, took everyone¢s pack into the van, and drove around to meet them on Slabtown Road. Bulldog and MM continued to the shelter while we headed to Raccoon Branch. Grits and Hamburger Helper made dinner. We set up tents next to the creek and enjoyed the lantern light until 8:00. We¢ll sleep in tomorrow morning.
Date: 2022-10-27
From: Elk Garden, VA 600

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 22.9
Weather: clear sky

We woke to a dreary, windy, cold morning in the clouds. Our parking-lot campsite served us well last night. I do think that our spot here on the lee side of the mountain was a better choice that staying in Elk Garden last night. The wind was funneling through there yesterday afternoon and probably continued through the night.Our camping spot was 2.5 trail miles south of Elk Garden. North Star and Fish were content with skipping those miles and setting off south from the campsite. Ninja Squirrel wanted to do the miles. I agreed to pick him up at the bottom of the hill and deliver him back to our camp spot. He'd then be chasing NS and Fish who would have about an hour head start on him.We packed up the van and got a hot breakfast into everyone's tummies. The trail crew set off in their different directions as the clouds began to burn off above us. Baxter and I drove higher up the mountain to see the sunrise. We were not disappointed! The clouds were racing south, riding the wind coming through the gap at Elk Garden. As we watched, the earth dipped it's eastern horizon to reveal the glowing eye of the sun, at first only a slit of brilliant orange through a rent in the clouds. As we watched, the full sphere cleared the distant low ceiling and shed a warm glow over the cloud-sea below us. This happens every morning somewhere! I could become a sunrise chaser and live happily.We pulled into Elk Garden just as NS was walking into the gap. We delivered him back to the campsite and set him on his way south. "If you break your ankle," I counseled, "just lay there and enjoy the view. Someone will be along soon."Baxter and I left Elk Garden headed north back to Damascus. We spent the morning at the coffee shop playing chess. I adopted a "stop losing" strategy that seems to be working. We visited Damascus Outfitters, ate lunch at Pizza Plus, and spent some time at the public library using the internet.We headed out to meet the trail crew just after 2:00. Through some miscommunication, we ended up waiting on them about a quarter mile away from them. They had taken the Virginia Creeper Trail, a blue blaze, to a parking area. After we didn't show up (and knowing neither of us had cell service) North Star made a new plan. She knew we could spot their location on the Garmin. Since they had plenty of daylight left and the Creeper Trail leading to Damascus was an easy walk, she decided they'd walk the 4 miles into town. Ninja Squirrel elected to stick to the AT, a longer route with more elevation change. Everything worked out in the end and we were all back in the van around 5:30 headed into Abingdon for a zero day tomorrow.We ate dinner at a El Bigote (The Mustache) and checked into the Quality Inn for a killer night's sleep.
Date: 2022-10-30
From: Wilbur Dam Road

To: TN 91
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

The hiking was northbound today starting about 40 minutes south of Switchback Creek Campground. There is rain in the forecast tomorrow. We¢ve left a 7-mile gap between yesterdays hike and todays that the crew will do in the rain. Road crossings here are few and far between. Baxter and I toured Elizabethton after the drop off. There wasn¢t much going on in town early in Sunday morning. We drove back to Shady Valley and hung out at the Shady Valley General Store for a spell playing chess.
Date: 2022-11-02
From: Dennis Cove Road

To: Walnut Mountain Road
Miles today: 14.3

Saw Stoneage, Last Minute, and Jake at Bob¢s Dairyland for breakfast. Shuttled them to P.O., Dollar General, pharmacy, and back to Mountain Harbor. Checked out The Refuge hiker hostel. Decide to camp here for free tonight. pick up trail crew about 2:15. Bob¢s Dairyland for dinner. Returned to The Refuge and watched Shrek.
Date: 2022-11-03
From: Walnut Mountain Road

To: US 19
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

Alarms were ringing at 7:00 this morning. The sun is still well below the horizon at this time of day. When we were cranking out miles this past summer the color would hit the forest before 6:30. Now it¢s well after 7:30 before hiking without a headlamp is a sure bet. We packed up personal gear and went inside The Refuge for coffee and breakfast. There were many options in the freezer including waffles and breakfast sandwiches. After eating and packing up tents we rolled out about 8:00 and headed back up to Walnut Mountain Road for the morning drop off. Baxter and I set out on a scouting mission. We drove through Roan Mountain State Park and up to Carvers Gap, the next major road crossing after US 19 (today¢s pickup point). Our hometown chiropractor and family cheerleader Dr Todd is meeting us on Saturday afternoon. Baxter and I were looking for a good meet up spot and a place to camp that night. Unfortunately, Carvers Gap is a ¢no camping¢ area. We were able to find a roadside picnic spot that could work. We drove down to the State Park Campground to scout the possibilities there but all the camping was filled up for the weekend.We returned to Roan Mountain and settled into a booth at Bobs Dairyland again. We enjoyed coffee for about an hour while drawing maps of the AT states. We headed out to the trailhead about 1:00 in time to shuttle a northbound section hiker to Mountain Harbor. Grayson was walking to the road just as we returned. The whole crew was in the car and headed to Boone in short order. We¢ll zero in Boone tomorrow with our friends, the Salees.
Date: 2022-11-08
From: Indian Grave Gap, TN 395

To: Spivey Gap
Miles today: 19.5

We left Pigeonroost before 7:00 and had the trail crew on the trail by 7:45. Baxter and I cruised straight to Uncle Johnny¢s hostel where there was an Amazon package waiting for us. We got there before the store opened so we sat on the porch and played a game of chess. We got our package and headed into town about 9:00. We visited the leather & saddle store looking for a whetstone. Then we went to the gear store downtown where we talked with Chris about the prospects of camping at Spivey Gap.We returned to Uncle Johnnys at 11:00 with Pal¢s hamburgers and fries and ate lunch with the trail crew. It was a good hour break together. They headed back out for another 10 miles just after 1:00. Baxter and I sat around a little longer talking with the hikers there (Back Track, Chef Boyardee, owner Terry) and waited in Lennon and Grazer to show up. We didn¢t see the latter until we were driving out across the bridge. We stopped to say hello. They are planning on staying the night at Uncle Johnnys.  After lunch we headed to the town post office to meet its resident cat. Then to the library where there was another resident cat. We spent about an hour there. Baxter and I have been passing the time with some different hobbies. I¢ve taken to whittling while he reads on his Kindle. We¢re studying for our Technician Class Amateur Radio license. We¢re perfecting our drawing of the AT States Map showing the trail and major trail towns. We set up at trailheads and pass out hot and cold drinks to hikers coming through. We tour the small towns. We bought a bullwhip at the leather store today. We hope to have some newfound skills to show for our time spent together in the van.We went by Uncle Johnnys one last time as we were leaving town to fill our gallon water jugs and then pointed the headlights towards Spivey Gap. We cooked dinner at the roadside parking in Spivey Gap. There was suitable camping there about 100 yards from the van. I¢m uneasy camping near the paved road with the van in plain sight. Catalytic converter thefts are a thing and, while none of the locals seem worried about it, I¢d rather not have to deal with that. So we loaded up the van and drove about a mile back into the woods towards Devils Fork Gap where the trail crew had been less than an hour before coming out of the woods. We parked the van on the side of the road and set up a tent on either side of the road. I¢d much rather sleep next to the van on a disused road like this than sleep 100 yards away while the van is parked on a paved lot. The sun sets before 5:30 nowadays. We stay up for awhile by headlamp light but are usually tucked away in our bags by 7:00. Tonight is no exception.
Date: 2022-11-10
From: Sams Gap, I-26

To: Devil Fork Gap
Miles today: 8.7

Today was a short day by necessity. Were the trail crew to pass Devils Fork Gap today, the next road crossing would make for a day over 20 miles. Also, the road crossing there is a long way from anywhere, accessing the ridge from the other side of the range. We kept it short today and picked the trail crew up at the gap before 1:00. We headed for my Aunt Nancy's house in Marshall, NC. First, a stop at Ingles Supermarket for lunch. Nancy lives in a small house in Marshall. We had never been and loved it immediately. "It reminds me of a hut in the White Mountains", Grayson said. The wood stove, walls of books, exterior Dutch doors, and cozy reading spots did indeed evoke memories of our hut visits in the Whites. We plan on zeroing here tomorrow. There is a significant rain event beginning tonight and continuing all day tomorrow. Saturday will be pretty "normal" before the temperatures plummet into the low 20s on Sunday morning. We decided we'd rather zero in the rain than in the cold.
Date: 2022-11-11
From: Right Here

To: Nowhere
Miles today: 0.0

Nancy put a movie on today: My Life as A Turkey. I giggled and made jokes about turkeys and Florida Man for the first 5 minutes but was quickly captivated by the videography and the story. Joe Hutto hatched 16 wild turkey eggs in an incubator and raised the chicks into adulthood. The movie documents the 18-month story drawing from his journal entries and an on-camera interview with him. I love to see people get really nerdy about the things they love. This guy out-nerds everyone except maybe Jane Goodall when it comes to wildlife biology. He made it personal about two-thirds of the way through the hour-long film. He looked at the interviewer and said:We do not have a privileged access to reality. So many of us live either in the past or in the future - and betray the moment. And in some sense we forget to live our lives - and the wild turkeys were always reminding me to live my life. I think as humans we have this peculiar predisposition to be always thinking ahead - living a little bit in the future - anticipating the next minute, the next hour, the next day - and we betray the moment. Wild turkeys don¢t do that. They are convinced that everything that they need, all their needs, will be met only in the present moment and in this space. The world is not better half mile through the woods, it¢s not better an hour from now, and it¢s not better tomorrow - that this is as good as it gets. So they constantly reminded me to do better, and to not live in this abstraction of the future, which by definition will never exist. And so we sort of betray our lives in the moment and the wild turkeys reminded me to be present, to be here.I was taken aback. Here was real wisdom about our own experience delivered by an unlikely source at nearly the perfect time. We. all five (except maybe Grayson - he's loving every minute), are living in this strange limbo of not wanting to finish the trail but wanting to be home. Some of us may put it into words differently than this but that characterization of our feeling isn't too far off the mark. We are, in a sense, betraying the moment. While Joe's insight here leaves a great deal to be said about hope, about future expectations for positive change, it touches me in a spot that needed a reminder. My world won't be appreciably better in an hour, in a day, or even in several months. This is pretty close to "as good as it gets". These last few weeks have put us all thinking about the future - an abstraction. There is a strong tendency, among most of the thru hikers we've met, to betray the moments so close to the end. The boys were only half paying attention and Joni was in a separate room. As we all six were sitting in Nancy's small common room that evening getting ready for lights out, I read this quote again to the group. This one will stick with me. Thank you Joe Hutto, Florida man.Back to the trail tomorrow. It's about to get cold.
Date: 2022-11-12
From: Devil's Fork Gap

To: Jones Meadow
Miles today: 13.9

Rained all day until nightfall. I cooked dinner under a tarp slung up over the opened tailgate of the van. We considered heading into town for accommodations but decided against because we are so far away from anywhere here. We are at the end of Viking Mountain Road. It's 8 graveled miles back to the highway and even then, we're halfway between Marshall, NC and Greenville, TN. That description even sounds like the middle of nowhere. So we hunkered down. We're camped at the edge of a large meadow with a strip of paved road running between a high point to the east and Camp Creek Bald to our west. The forecast says 21 degrees for the morning. We're at elevation so I won't be surprised if it turns our colder than forecast. I'm not worried about being cold tonight since we've all got the right gear but I'm thinking about the morning - getting out of the tent to ice and chill isn't ever the funnest part of the trip.