morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-04-23
From: Dennis Cove

To: Wataiga Lake Shelter 
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 47Got a late start today, but if you are only going to hike 11 miles you can start whenever you want and still arrive before dark. So Moonshine and I had a nice breakfast at Louise's rstuarant, a must eat at place in Linville Fails. Then we went back to his house where I took a leasurely 2 hours to repack my bag. He and his girlfriend Crystal went out of there way to make me feel at Home.So I got started hiking early afternoon and moonshine hiked with me for a while. Laurel Fork Falls were very nice as was the river walking beside it. Then came the climb straight up out of the gorge that kicked my butt. Perhaps it was being tired from the 24 miles the previous day or that I was wearing the pack again, but I felt like a whipped dog while climbing that hill. I probably looked like on too. I didn't see any hikers that I knew today. Everyone is new to me. I know I will catch up to the others either before or at Damascus in 2 days. I am lucky enough to have 2 20 mile slackpack days arranged for me.I got a call from JB, another friend from TrailTalk, while I was laboring up that hill. And labor is the correct word because I sound like a roomfull of truckers taking a Lamaze class when I climb over steep hills. I have almost no lung capacity so I have to breathe shallow and fast. Anyhoo, JB wanted to know when I would be arriving at hey 421 and Watauga lake because he would meet me there to take me into town for dinner. I'm surprised he still wanted to take me to dinner after all that heavy breathing I was doing in his ear (remember the hill I was climbing? I don't stop walking just because the phone rings). So after topping the hill it was 3 more miles down to the lake. I kept seeing thee tantalizing views of its cool watery goodness. So when I finally got there I barely shook JBs hand before I started stripping down to my sexy black underaurmor underwear (courtesy of a gift from my neighbor Cathy). The water was cold but wonderful. The only problem was that the pizza place afterwards had their AC running full blast. Holy Popsicles, Batman, but I nearly froze the family jewels off. But now I am nice and cozy in my sleeping bag in the Watauga lake shelter. Tomorrow I will hike less than 2 miles to a road crossing where JB will meet me to take my pack. Then I will slackpack the next 18 miles to hey 91. If possible I'll do it again the next day and that will put me into Damascus. There I will zero and hunt down all my missing thruhiking friends.Speaking of friends, TrailTalk has come through for me again. CreekDancer is planning to hike with me for a few days before Traildaze and then will shuttle me back to Damascus for traildaze. If anyone wants to join us she has the details on my thruhiking thread on WWW.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Family Jewel Stealing Lake Swimming Dream.
Date: 2010-04-24
From: Wataiga Lake Shelter 

To: Us 91
Miles today: 19.0

Day 48 watauga lake to us91Today was supposed to be rainy with severe thunderstorms, but I managed to get my 19 miles in without getting wet. I met JB at a road crossing 2 1/2 miles from the shelter and he had a mountain dew and a big ol honeybun waiting for me. I ate those, dropped off my pack and started slackpacking up the mountain. This is my kind of hiking. When I reached the ridgelune I called home and talked to my wife for nearly an hour. That was really nice. I'm sorry they are having such a hard time but she is handilng it well. Its really hard to talk to her about how wonderful it is out here at times when she rarely has any free time at all, but I think we are communicsting OK.The rest of the day was ridge walking with a nice view of the lake all day. The only problem was that the first waterhole was a mosquito infested mudhole and the next one was 0.3 miles down a very steep downhill.   I went 9 miles on 1.2 liters of water and a handfull of jolly ranchers.At the last shelter before the road where JB would be picking me up I met 2 guys out for a weekend from my hometown. That was pretty cool. I hung around for 45 minutes chatting with them but I had to get moving if I wanted to beat the rain. It had already dropped 10 degrees while I was there. I did the last 4.6 miles in less than 1 1/2 hours, running a few hundred yards every 10 minutes. About a tenth of a mile before the road the rain started. I sprinted the rest of the way. Sure enough JB was there with his daughters and they drove me into Damascus where I checked into The Place. It was a great surprise to find Fredo here. I played rummy wiith him and Dormouse and Dirteater. I recognized dormouse's name even though I never met her because a few weeks back she wrote in a shelter register that she had just learned that she had been misspelling her trail name. I thought that was pretty funny.Later we went out for a beer at Dots and had a good time. Dormouse and dirteater are a fun couple. They've been stuck in Damascus for 3 days due to an illness. BTW, Dots charged us for 1 more pitcher of beer than we actually ordered and refused to take it off our bill. I would steer clear of that place unless you pay as you go.Oh, I am sure you are wondering who won the rummy game. It wasn't me.   I think I came in second. Well enough of this. Its 12:30 and JB will be here a 8 to take me back to the trail. I still have 21 miles to go before I am officially in Damascus. Good night and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Almost in Damascus Dream
Date: 2010-04-26
From: Damascus, Va

To: Damascus, Va
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Zero day. It seems soon, but I have hiked 84 miles since my last zero day and this is Damascus. I have to zero here. Its trail law. I did very little today that could be considered productive other than do my laundry. I discovered that the laundrymat has commercial size front loading washers so I planned to wash my down sleeping bag, but i never went back over there today. I'll have to wash it though since it smells like 20 wet dogs that have spent the day on a manure pile. It is getting to warm for that 20 degree bag. I rarely zip it up anymore and still I sweat in it quite a bit. Today I bought the Lafuma 45 degree bag and will send home the other bag after I wash it tomorrow (which looks like it will be a zero day as well).Tintin is in town. Te crazy fool did the 40 mile challenge with Pixie and Megaladon. Many people i have been hiking with are trickling into town. Thats what makes town days so great. So now Fredo and Tintin are all here at the same time. We had breakfast together this morning at Mojoes where i met Fredo's girlfriend, Amanda. I feel like I already know her. She's very sweet and I am positive that she can do better than Fredo.The day passed slowly, but I had a dinner engagement with the Fredo's (Fredo and his girlfriend have a very nice rental in town with a kitchen) at 6pm. My first appointment in over 6 weeks lol. So early in the afternoon I went to the pizza place and had a few beers and played some pool. Next thing I knew it was almost 6 and it was time for dinner. Dinner was very nice. Amanda is a great girl and blushes quite prettily. We gave her many opportunities to do it lol. After dinner we discovered it was raining, but since we had some wine we wouldn't let her so we walked the block or so. short entry today. zero days are full of stuff but most of it is too boring to print.Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Dinner Engagement Dream
Date: 2010-04-28
From: Damascus, va

To: Damascus, Va
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 53Zero day number 10 - Still trapped in Damascus. I'm even starting to think this is disgraceful. But Tintin and Fredo aren't leaving till tomorrow so one more day isn't too much to pay for the opportunity to continuously call Tintin snooty and ruthlessly tease Fredo about things. The simple joys in life are to be treasured. But I wasn't just a big waste of oxygen today. I rejoined the working class if only for an afternoon. Yes, I took on itinerant work as a carpenter helping a local construct an addition onto his home. I must have worked out OK because he bought me lunch, gave me a couple beers and paid me $40. That paid off my bar tab from last night. Just kidding. I used it to go to a picture show at the cinemall in Abingdin.   We had to hitch the 12 miles there, but called for a cab back to the unlikeliness that anyone sane would pick up 6 people hitching on a dark highway. The movie was called Kick Ass and it was pretty awesome. Just don't take the kiddies to this one. Its definitely violent.So that's about it for the day. Tomorrow I will slackpack 23 miles back to this hostel and once again sleep in Damascus. I should apply for residency. After that its hiking big miles to Pearisburg and hopefully arriving there on the 8th. Oh, good news on the home front. The funding for Jadon we were hoping for came through and several big boxes of diapers arrived today. That may not sound like a big deal but we have been buying diapers for almost all of the last 16 years. I don't even want to try to figure out how much that has cost us. I also got to see some pics of the cosplay outfits Savannah and Brianna made for Animazement (an anime convention held in Raleigh in May). They looked great and the girls looked very happy. Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Itinerant Worker Hitching to the Cinemall Dream.
Date: 2010-04-30
From: Va 600 / Elk Garden

To: Wise Shelter 
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 55It was a spectacular day to hike the Grayson Highlands. This area has always been one of my favorite hiking destinations so I am very happy the weather has cooperated. I am at Wise Shelter which is the first shelter Savannah ever slept in. We had planned to go 6 miles further but we got a later start out of Damascus and hanging around with the ponies takes a long time. Yes, there are wild ponies here and little tiny foals. The ponies will lick any part of your body that is exposed to get the salt from your sweat. Other cool features today was this cool outcropping I call Sunset Rock at Rhododendron Gap just a few feet before the Pine Mountain Trail. It doesn't look like much from ythe trail, but don't bypass it if you are coming behind me. The other side is a cliff face and the view of the valley s splendid. The next.cool feature was Fatman Squeeze. Some silly soul made a walk around that looks like the actual trail so you may miss the Squeeze if you aren't watching for it. Its really just two large rocks leaning against each other but the entry feels like entering a cave. Of course you can see the other side since its only like 50' long but its still a bit of fun. When we arrived at the Woe shelter it was past 7pm and we all agreed to stay here. A 9 mile day. But we had a lot of Fontana on the hike and stopped for lots of posed picture. There is a bit of a swimming hole right under the bridge just north of the shelter, but the water is biting cold. There wasn't enough sun left for me to go in so I just soaked my feet until I could no longer feel them. I got my drinking and cooking water from here because the spring by the shelter was barely flowing and was surrounded by horse dung.Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Pony Petting Fatman Squeezing Dream.
Date: 2010-05-01
From: Wise Shelter 

To: Comers Creek Rd
Miles today: 17.0

Happy Anniversary to my wife, Trish. Apparently, the sleeping bag I sent home arrived on this day and she was thrilled with the stench of it. Not really . I did wash it in a commercial grade washing machine before I sent it home but it would seem that thruhiker stench is a permanent thing. Hopefully she'll hang it up outside in the sun for a while. I never got a phone signal all day so as the day was coming to an end I decided to head into the nearest town in search of a signal or a working phone. The heavens broke open for the last mile and it poured down harder than at any other time on the trail so far. I was thoroughly soaked as I stood next to the road hitchhiking in the downpour. I know you are thinking it sounds like a fools errand, but someone did pick me up and drove me into town. There is a church hostel here and a trading post/restaurant. I got myself set-up in the hostel then came down here (restaurant) for a meal. 4 other thrus and 2 dogs were here trying to figure out where the hostel is. I gave them directions then ordered some food. There was a pay phone but i was unable to get connected to Trish so our anniversary went by without us talking. My gift to her will be to attend church services today which is something I rarely do. I hope she likes that better than the stinky sleeping bag.Today's hike was hard on me. The uphill wasn't really that bad but the group I'm with hiked it close to 3 mph and that wore me out. I stayed close most of the day, but at the second shelter stop when we still had 9 miles to go in a 20 mile day I told them all farewell because I wasn't going to make it to the shelter. I'll miss TinTin, Kashmir, Fredo and Tornado, but I doubt that this will be the last time i see them. There is still Trail days and who knows how things will work out 1000 miles from here.So now I am currently hiking by myself again. Most people I know are 30 miles behind or pulling away at a steady rate. I never figured that I would hike with the same people all the way to maine, but I this saying goodbye every few weeks is harder than I thought it would be. I am sure more people will come along but they'll either be faster or slower than my current hiking speed and I will have to adjust again if I want to hike with people. Such is life on the trail. I am also very concerned by the amount of money I am spending. The odds that running out of cash will drive me off the trail are increasing every day. It is currently neck and neck with homesickness for the most likely reason that I will fail this thruhike. Difficulty of hiking has fallen way back in the odds, but wearing this pack again after a week of slackpacking and zeroing has given it new legs. Its still not a contender, but its nagging at me.Well, I think I will head back to the hostel and take a nap before services 1 1/2 hour from now. It wouldn't be good to snore in church.Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Rain Drenched Wedding Anniversary Dream.
Date: 2010-05-02
From: Comers Creek Rd

To: Partnership shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 57Ordering a pizza and having it delivered to an AT shelter is spendelicious.   I am at Partnership shelter which is the most posh shelter on the AT so far. Its a professionally built log structure with a roomy loft, hot shower, large outdoor sink roomy overhang, a four wall solid structure for a privy and next to the mount Rogers recreational area headquarters. There is a free phone on the outside where a hiker can order take out food from a decent size town nearby. I ordered a large pepperoni pizza, breadsticks with maranara sauce and a 2 liter mountain dew. Dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. This would be a nice shelter to zero in. There are a few thrus doing that today. There is a 50 cent shuttle that will carry you into town. When I got here some guys had just finished eating the fish they had caught in the nearby lake. They later went frogging and came back with 12 legs. People eat good at Partnership shelter.I got an email from someone who thought my May 1st entry sounded like I was struggling and considering leaving the trail. I didn't intend it to sound that way. I was just trying to make light of the alarming decline of funds in my hiking account. I was no closer to leaving the trail on that day than on any other day. This morning opened to a beautiful day. I walked down to the trading store for breakfast and discovered they have wifi and a free computer for hiker use. I hung around internetting and having breakfast with other thrus until it was time to head back to pack my gear before church. At the church service an older gentleman offered me a ride to the trail. Friendly town. And for anyone coming behind me the church will be having a "feed the hungry hiker" event at the hostel the Friday after trail day - May 21. It was almost 1pm when I got to the trail. I wanted to make it here so I took off pretty quick. My only long stop was at 4:45 to talk to the family. I arrived around 7:30 and made a beeline to the pizza phone. This is a nice place to end a day and rain is fast on the way. It will be nice to be inside. Goodnight and sweetdreams to all of you out there not living the Posh Digs and Take-Out Dream.
Date: 2010-05-07
From: Bland 

To: Bland
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 62The Big Walker Motel has 4 premium movie channels. We stayed up till 4:30 am watching movies. Well Kashmir and Grolar did, I fell asleep during the last one. Today is a zero day so it didn't natter that they slept till noon. I woke up a little earlier and made arrangements with CreekDancer and Nemster (Brian) to pick me up at the motel tomorrow at 11. We will leave a car here at the motel and her son will drive us to Blacksburg where he lives. Then on Sunday we will start hiking southbound from 13 miles north f Pearisburg back to Bland where I git off the trail. Good plan. It will give my ankle another day of rest.After the dead finally arose we walked the 3/4 of a mile down to the town for some Subway, post office and computer time at the library.   I used all my time watching "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" on YouTube. That sillinss always makes me laugh plus I really do like the music in it. After that Kashmir and I left Grolar there and walked to the IGA. I only bought some mshooms and a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk which I drank sitting on a bench outside the store. It was a giugeous day and it felt good to sit in the sun. IOn the way back to the motel I stopped at the Dollar General to resupply for the next 5 hiking days. I also picked up some insoles for my shoes and a compression sleeve for my ankle. It was protesting my little town trip. It was after 4 pm when I git back to the motel. The day sure does fly by when you are doing nothing. I wish hiking days went by that fast. So after chatting with other thrus for awhile, nobody and creepy had arrived and lobsterman was back from his 20 mile slack. I called home and had a nice chat with Brianna and a shorter one with Savanaah before her mother woke up (she was sick as was Jason ) and told her to get off the phone and put Jason to bed. The line went dead. Savannah didn't even tell her I was on the phone. I called back to see if Trish wanted to talk but she had had a had day and wasn't in the mood to talk. So with no other choice I decided to update my journal fir my no good horrible hiking day. Part of me still thinks I should quit this and go home to help ease Trish burden, but most of me is still convinced that this is something I need to complete. I updated the journal online and felt better about that. That had been the longest I've gone without updating my journal and I really don't want to get behind. After a Burger and blizzard at the dairy queen we came back to the room to watch movies again. A very easy zero day even if we didn't make it to the Blytheville community center pool like we had considered.Goodnight and sweetdreams to all of you out there not living the Blizzard Eating Movie Watching Dream.
Date: 2010-05-08
From: Bland

To: Blacksburg, va
Miles today: 0.0

Day 63 Kashmir and I stayed up till 3:30am watching movies again. Curse you, Premium Movie Channels.   At least I wasn't hiking today. Kashmir is though. I hope he has a fun time. None of us woke up until after 9. Kashmir and Grolar packed up their and too a shuttle back to the trail around 10:30. I really like the Big Walker Motel. Not much there, but what I'd is great. Free shuttles back and forth to the trail, accepting attitude toward weird thruhiker behavior like stringing clotheslined, and a great view in front f the hotel. Plus its near a dairy queen, convenience store, subway and Dollar General. Ben, creekdancers son, showed up a few minutes before she did. Soon after We had all our packs in his car and was off for Blacksburg, VA, home of Virginia Tech university. I had a nice tour of the campus, including the memorial for the 32 students and faculty who were killed in the shooting a few years ago. It was very moving. Afterwards Ben drove us out to see two of the few remaining covered bridges in Virginia. They were pretty cool. We also drove up to Mountain Lake where part of Dirty Dancing was filmed. Then we rode back to blacksburg to sample its beer and food selections. Blacksburg is a fun town. Plenty of places to go and lots of young college kids out for fun. Ben's friend Johnny joined us as well as a very nice girl named Katy who wants to thruhike and was happy to come out and talk about It. After sampling a few places we went back to Ben's "Man Cave" as creek dancer calls it and turned in for the night. All in all a very fine day.Good night and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Blacksburg Dream.
Date: 2010-05-13
From: Damascus, Va

To: Damascus, Va Trail Days
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 68Last night I got the best sleep I've had since I've been out here. Must have been the sound of bongos and the shouts of "Riff Raff" that were so soothing to me. Riff Raff is the name of one of the hiking groups camping together. They are the hardest working and hardest partiers out here. I awoke to find JB talking to Troy, now named Pug, who had arrived in the early morning. I sat around and talked to them as other Trail Talkers came in one by one. Pretty soon our little camping area was filling up with tents. JB cooked me up a nice breakfast but I had to eat it on the run because a bunch of thru friends were heading into town to get tickoets for as home cooked meal at a local church. The festival schedule says dinner at 6 but they only had tickets for the 8pm sitting remaining. I got a ticket but I never made it to that dinner.Walking back toward the Mount Rodgers Outfitters with Kashmir I here a familiar voice shout out "Hyway!" This time its not one of the many thrus I have met so far. Its Wildbill, my hiking buddy from back home. He's heading to a different town to pick up supplies you can't get in Damascus. I yell for Kashmir and weboth jump in the back of his truck. So our quick run into town has turned into a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour.Back at camp we break out our recently acquired supplies and begin getting into TrailDaze mode. JB begins cooking up some potatoes and hamburgers and Wendygirl cooks up some quesadeas. We shared what was left with passing thrus and just generally passed the time shooting the breeze. You may remember that I said JB had roped out our area wih caution tape. Well too much time on my hands make Hyway a silly guy. Our camp fronts the main road, walking path through the camping area. I took the caution tape from the back of our camp and ran it across the road, around some trees and then back to our camp. I started telling people that the area was closed to campers unless they left a beer or limboed under the tape. Most people had a good time with it, but they chose to limbo rather than leave a beer.   I even had the Damascus Police limboing under the tape. My Trailtalk friends will appreciate the sign I made. I called it a Troll Road. So I hung out with my TrailTalk homies for the rest of the night chilling by the fire or walking through the woods checking out all the awesome campsites people had carved out for themselves. Trail days doesn't really get cranked up until tomorrow but it was jumping pretty good tonight. Another cool thing today is that my picture is at the top of the official Trail Days 2010 website. I was hammering a directional sign up to the MASH style signpost using a ratchet as a hammer. You can see it at http://www.traildays.us/ So that was pre trail days. The real mayhem starts today.Goodnight and sweet dreams to all of you out there not living the Front Page Photogenic Dream