morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-06-11
From: U.S. 60

To: James River
Miles today: 21.8

On the trail again... happy to be on the trail again... I think. What? Well, I am very happy to be on the trail again. However, the day did not go as I had anticipated and there were moments when I was not happy at all. Pre and the OSU boys had already slackpacked this section in the previous days so I was going solo. I had to cover almost 22 miles and the general consensus was that today would be "easy". Pre had even ran the 22 miles and covered the distance in only a few hours. With such rave critiques I failed to even look at my own book to see for myself -- I imagined nice rolling hills and flat terrain that sloped gently downward. I figured a few short steep climbs would be interspersed -- I should have looked for myself. The trail is all about perpective. A day's difficulty is dependent on so many factors other than terrain -- rest, vitamin intake, food, water, previous mileage, etc. A day that I portray as hard, slow, or frustrating could be viewed by another hiker in a completely different light, easy, fast, or even boring (crazy!). I should have looked for myself. My trail legs were a little shaky and the terrain was NOT easy as I had been led to believe. Not by my standards anyways. For whatever reason, I was certainly cursing a lot of people as I climbed what seemed like a never ending ascent. I also was only carrying a liter of water and no filter and after making my never ending ascent -- water was scarce. I did come across trail magic today -- and it was wonderful -- it was at the beginning of my hike though, when I still had asperations of an "easy" day and did not indulge in too many goodies (i.e. WATER). It was hard and long. BUT, when I did finally make it back to the James River I found Pre waiting for me (he was there for over an hour because I was so slow!) with food. All of a sudden I couldn't remember how hard the day had been... it was over! The story isn't over, either. Across the James River is a foot bridge that the locals jump off of -- and so did I. You know that saying "if they jumped off a bridge would you follow?" Well, mom, of course I would! I did not go to the really high part -- I left that to Pre. And, it did take me a few minutes to gather my wits. I had jumped from similar heights at during Plebe Swimming at West Point -- although at that time I feared the repercussions of not jumping were much worse than death as jumping was a prerequisite for graduation. And after looking down at the water below and wondering whether it was worth the gamble Pre decided to coax me off the bridge himself. "A guy wouldn't stand up there that long." And neither would I. I jumped. He is quite a jerk, I know. Too bad he has figured out how terribly competitive I am. Now you may find me jumping off more bridges. Well, it was really cool and really fun and I am glad I jumped. Done. Check. Moving on. More hiking in the morning...
Date: 2008-06-12
From: U.S. 60

To: Spy Rock
Miles today: 16.8

The post office. Never open when I need them to be. I always hike into town on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday when they are closed. I always want to leave early on the days they don't open until 8:30 or 9. Today was such a day. The OSU boys were leaving early to make their final drop off on the trail. The girlfriends were going home and had places to be. They would be leaving before the post office opened. Pre and I were both about 16 or so miles behind the OSU boys (on the trail) because they had slackpacked an additional day. Pre and I would be leaving together and attempting to meet up with the rest of the crew post Waynesboro, VA.   Pre and I had to wait until the post office opened to make our way back to the trail on our own. Thank goodness we were picked up by Michele -- a local French restaurant owner -- who not only took us to the post office but then offered to take us up to the trailhead. After that we started hiking. It was already early afternoon and so the miles came and went and the evening hours crept up on us pretty quickly. We pushed on after the last shelter as the sun set in order to still get in the miles. Spy Rock was the next place of interest in our books so we wanted to get close and then wake up early to maybe catch a sunrise. We found a campsite right near Spy Rock and then despite the darkness we decided to climb up to the top to check out the view. Amazing. The sky was clear and the area on top of the rock was so large that we climbed back down, grabbed our packs, and made camp on TOP of the rock itself. We cowboy camped without tents and took in the stars and the moon -- I only wished I wasn't so tired so I could have stayed up longer. Another surprisingly special moment along the AT -- how can I ever get tired of this?
Date: 2008-06-13
From: Spy Rock

To: Campsite
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: broken clouds

I guess today would be the day to tell you about how fun it is to hike without poles. In a twisted sort of way it is a lot of fun -- I like to push my body and feel my legs burning. In every other way it is not so much fun at all. Especially during the Three Ridges -- a 3000 foot climb that progressively got steeper the more tired you became. Humerous? I think not. There was another option -- the Mau Har Trail. It was a shorter blue blazed trail that was rumored to once be the official AT. A lot of other hikers took this route. I couldn't. I am still baffled at the purpose of the Three Ridges Climb as there are no views at the summit. It is quite anti-climatic. It is less enjoyable without poles. But, I am more satisified with the end result: completion. Even if I do get frustrated on some days by the difficulty of a climb -- or my inability to excel at a climb -- I am ALWAYS satisfied with the completion. You immediately forget about the huffing and the puffing, the sweat, and the aching calves. You feel good. At least I do. I feel good after a day like today. However, I am becoming very bad at judging my water intake. I didn't want to carry a lot of weight up to the top of this big climb so I had cut back to a liter of water, again. And, again, I ran out far too soon. This is a terrible habit I am indulging in. We stopped at Maupin Creek Shelter for water and dinner and then hiked on to a campsite.
Date: 2008-06-14
From: Campsite

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: scattered clouds

And today it all went awry and I am stuck with Pre forever. The goal was to catch the OSU boys at the shelter 7 miles outside of Waynesboro, VA. Today. That would make a 25 mile day. This was plausible and it was the intention from the very beginning. I was a wee bit sore from the previous day's excursion. We came across Cedar Cliffs which were beautiful but we merely glanced at the view because we were in such a rush to put in the miles. About 5 miles back from Waynesboror a storm came through and stream crossings were now raging rivers. I am hobbling along today. My feet are not doing well. I really need to look into getting a new set of poles because climbing downhill without poles is a tedious process for someone with bad knees and I don't think it is helping my feet either. What a difference the poles make! Pre was in front of me for most of the day because I could not keep with his pace. But, eventually, Waynesboro did come. Pre had been hiking the last hundred miles or so with a broken waistbelt on his backpack and although he ran to make it to the outfitter before it closed, they could not help him. He also got a phone message from the OSU boys saying they had pushed on... an additional 20 miles. Sooooo... all that rushing for naught. Pre and I talked -- it wasn't much fun the last few days pushing on into the night and rushing through the miles to play catch up. It was stressful. It was everything we didn't want the trail to be. We settled on hiking our own pace and to enjoy the last few weeks Pre had before he had to get off the trail. Pre, unfortunately, has to tend to that "work" thing (what an ugly four letter word!) come July. Pre also had a friend, Troy, in the area who picked us up and took us to his apartment and then later out on the town for some R&R. Going out was fun. Before getting on the trail I had a tough time going out with friends and just enjoying an evening. I felt heavy. I felt like I was constantly carrying the weight of so many things that I had not let go of. I felt like I wasn't myself, that I was a fraud, a fake; I was pretending to be someone I wasn't. I was pretending to be happy. I was full of anger, frustration, hurt and fear -- but, I kept a smile on my face. Tonight I could tell how different it was. Even with strangers I feel like the smile on my face is finally real. I feel like the person people see is finally the person I am. The miles go by and the things I think about change -- how I think about them change -- it is like a desk covered a foot deep in papers and then purchasing a filing cabinet and putting each piece of paper in its place. Trashing the things that aren't meaningful; finding a place for the things that may need to be retrieved in the future. I have felt overwhelmed for so long -- I am starting to feel order, to feel content, to feel truly happy with myself, with my accomplishments, with the reality of my fears. How silly. An evening out on the town, an evening back in reality, and I finally see the difference.
Date: 2008-06-15
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

There is no consistency in my hike. I am still trying to find my rythm. I am adjusting to a new hiking partner. I have to find a happy medium in my hiking between days off and days on. We spent the day with Troy. I was not feeling well and my feet are causing more problems. I am having a pair of new shoes mailed to me because I have found the tread on my boots to be wearing down. I guess 800+ miles on a pair of hiking boots is sufficient.
Date: 2008-06-16
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: clear sky

I am still not feeling well but I don't want to spend any more time off the trail so we made our way back... BUT, before we did, I received new poles!! They were gifted to me by none other than Pre. They are really pretty. I mean that. They have flowers on them! We are entering the Shenendoah National Park and I am excited to be able to do the big miles that everyone has talked about for so long... right? maybe not. I am feeling sluggish. I am dragging Pre down as he is a much faster hiker and 7.0 mile days were not in his repetoir before he started hiking with me... On a good note: at the shelter we ran into Barley and Rain, Hell on Bad Wheels (Texas), White Lightning, and MacGuyver and Lemur -- all hikers who started with me back in March! I was so excited to see familiar faces. I am also looking forward to tomorrow because Miss Rosemary is coming to visit me on the trail and she is bringing along Rich so that I can meet the "lucky guy" for the first time. So, despite being a little under the weather I can't complain about anything. I have wonderful friends both on and off the trail and I am pretty darn lucky. Cheers to the trail and this amazing adventure.
Date: 2008-06-17
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: Skyline Drive, mile 95.3
Miles today: 2.8

So much for hiking. Rosemary and Rich (along with his son) took a long while to get to our meeting location so Pre and I spent the afternoon reading while we waited. It was enjoyable and getting to see Rosemary after a few hours was even better. We tried to talk and catch up on everything in so little time but seeing her -- and seeing her happy -- was so important to me. I like Rich (see, I told everyone). We all went back to Waynesboro for an early dinner and then the three of them had to make the long drive back home. It was too late get back on the trail so Pre and I decided to stay at the church hostel.
Date: 2008-06-18
From: Skyline Drive, mile 95.3

To: Skyline Drive, mile 95.3
Miles today: 0.1

I refuse to call this a zero day! Now I will tell you why. We were out of the hostel in the morning and we did our resupply, ate breakfast, and found a ride back to Shenandoah National Park. The entrance. Well, specifically, the first overlook. We were about 8 miles from where Rosemary and Rich had picked us up yesterday. The gentleman who had given us a ride out of town had to get back to work and could not take us any further. As I had never had any problems finding a ride before I was not concerned about finding another hitch up the road a little ways. BUT, I should have been. Usually we are in towns that know about the trail and the residence see hikers on a pretty regular basis. Up in the Sheni's there are all tourists -- tourists who give funny looks to hikers -- ones who certainly don't offer rides to hikers. So after a few hours of hitching to no avail we started walking... 8 miles later we finally got someone to stop. They took us a little ways up the road and dropped us at the overlook. Too bad it was the wrong one and we still had another mile or so to go until we reached the right one. Figures. By the time we got there we cooked dinner and set up camp a little ways into the woods. No miles. But we DID hike... just not on the AT. No miles. But not a zero day.
Date: 2008-06-19
From: Skyline Drive, mile 95.3

To: Loft Mountain Campground
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: scattered clouds

So this is what it is like to hike? Ha. Well, I wish it was good news, but my feet are sore and I am still feeling like I am pushing through the miles. But, today was exciting none the less. Why is that? Well, because I saw.... my first bear! I always ruin the story -- tell the ending first. But, I guess it is because there really isn't much of a story to go with it. Pre and I were walking along the trail. I was in a trance because I really just wanted to get to the next shelter to rest. And there it was. A little cub. He was just standing in the middle of the trail and was none to bothered by the fact that he had two intruders. He looked back at us for a second, let us take a few pictures (YES, I have pictures!), and then sauntered off into the woods. I did not see momma bear. Thank goodness. I find the picture quite humorous because a similar picture of my parent's dog, a black chow, for a comparison would probably be almost interchangeable. Well, that put a smile back on my face. FINALLY, a bear. We had heard about the waysides that are in the park. At these waysides we can get food and beverages and they are right along the trail. This is hiker heaven. So despite the fact that I wasn't feeling a hundred percent the goal was to make it up to our first wayside for dinner. Too bad, dinner has to happen before 7 because we didn't make it until after that. BUT, to give a good spin to the tale, at the campground near the wayside a few gentlemen offered us up a tentsite for the evening at no charge. Aside from a nice place to set up camp and build a fire this just means we are close to breakfast in the morning!
Date: 2008-06-20
From: Loft Mountain Campground

To: Hightop Hut
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Breakfast was everything I hoped it would be. There is actually not too much to say about today. I am STILL not feeling well and therefore not even able to enjoy all the things that are said to be great about the Sheni's. I am supposed to be able to do big miles with easy climbs and see lots of views. No big miles. No easy climbs. And although there are lots of views they are usually either on the road (Skyline Drive) or you can see the road in the view. Pre hates the park and although I have no ill feelings as I think that every part of the trail is unique and special I do see why he has such a distaste. At least the Smokey's were remote. We are never more than 0.5 miles from the road and tourists. There are a lot of section hikers out as well. It just isn't the same. But, at least we have waysides to look forward to :0) We are not making the miles that I have been planning on making so I keep running out of water -- silly, I know.
Date: 2008-06-21
From: Hightop Hut

To: Big Meadows
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

Glad to finally get in a good mileage day. I know that in the long run things will be alright. The short run is sometimes frustrating. I am still having problems with my plantar fasciitis and my feet ache pretty constantly. I am still not feeling well, either. I feel lethargic most of the day. I wish I could figure out what is wrong. I kind of feel like I am constantly on the verge of something... wish I knew what so I could fix it. I thought I was on the verge of another bronchitis invasion but I headed that off coming out of Waynesboro... now I feel like something else is wrong. I do not have medical insurance so I have to stay on top of things. Over the counter remedies are much less expensive. But, I feel like a hypochondriac lately. I feel like a big baby! I don't know how Pre puts up with me. We did make it to Big Meadows today. More importantly, we made it to Big Meadows before they stopped serving food!
Date: 2008-06-22
From: Big Meadows

To: Luray, VA
Miles today: 17.6

Today in the Shenendoah National Park: bear sighting #2, hailstorm, Mary's Rock, and Luray. Exciting, eh? Bear two ran off when we came up on him on the trail... until he found a fallen tree to hide behind. Then he stopped and peaked over back at us. And we kept looking at him. And we took pictures. I will post. He wasn't full grown but he wasn't as small as #1. I did not know whether momma bear would still be around or not, but I was looking while Pre went in for the photo. We needed to go into Luray for a resupply and it seemed like a storm was coming our way all day long. We could see down into the valley and the clouds were daunting. We took our last break in a picnic shelter and I pleaded with Pre to let me take my shoes off for ten minutes or so. By the time I was ready to make a go for our last leg into town the sky wasn't in our favor. A few minutes later it opened up and a pretty significant amount of hail began to come down. Thank goodness we stopped! So, when everything subsided we did make our way back onto the trail. We were sidetracked again though by Mary's Rock. It was hands down the best views of the entire park and we had a lot of fun boulder climbing and taking crazy photos. By the time we were finished up we realized that we needed to make it down to the road in a rather quick fashion because hitching into town late in the evening is near impossible. If people are adverse to hitchers during the day you can imagine the problems that can arise at night... and they did. We made it to the road just as the sun was setting and it wasn't until after nightfall that a young girl in a pickup finally took pity on us and let us ride in the back... and then we made our way to Hardy's and then to the shady motel. Hoping to make it to the outfitter in the morning to check out new shoe options?
Date: 2008-06-23
From: Luray, VA

To: Luray, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Another zero day by default rather than intent. What the heck? We woke up and made our way to the outfitter... which was closed on Monday. And it was Monday. Then we made our way to the second outfitter which was also closed on Monday. Conspiracy? I say so. Given that it was still Monday at that point... no outfitter. So instead we washed clothes, consumed food, post office, visited the used book store and resupplied at the supermarket. As always, this took a while -- approximately the entirety of the day. After dinner we decided to work on a ride back to the trail. And to no avail the hours passed and we had no ride. Finally a lady offered to take us about half way. Well, half way is progress. But, half way would get us no where (except half way, of course) because as the evening hours fell we ran into a similar predicament as we had the night before. Unfortunately this time we had no young girl with a pickup truck taking pity on us. We had no one. The cabins/hotel we were in front of were far too expensive. So... we cowboy camped on some flat ground across a creek behind the cabins. It was extremely frustrating as another day has gone by without miles to add.
Date: 2008-06-24
From: Luray, VA

To: Rattlesnake Point Overlook
Miles today: 10.4

We finally got a hitch to the trail por la manana after we grabbed breakfast at the restaurant we were camped out behind. I am not feeling well at all. So we hiked into Elkwallow by mid afternoon and spent the rest of our time playing rummy. I was so tired and I did not feel like going anywhere. I felt like I had a fever and my stomach was cramping up pretty badly... among other things. I have figured out that I probably have a UTI. One of the symptoms of a UTI is urgency when it comes to using the bathroom... so you can imagine how humorous the situation was when that night in camp we had a visitor or two of the non human, bear like species. I woke up to a bear sniffing around the tent. Needless to say, I was sleeping with my food. At one point in time the bear had an itch. I am serious. All I could hear was the thumping of his paw hitting the ground. It sounded like a rather large dog scratching himself. The humorous part of all this is I felt like I was going to die because I needed to use the bathroom so badly. In fact, as soon as I could not hear any more noises I exited my tent about three steps and took care of business. I did this with my eyes closed and sang to myself so I would remain ignorant to the fact that there may still be a bear in close proximity. Of course, a couple hours later when I had the urge to again use the restroom we AGAIN had visitors in camp. This time there were two -- which made matter worse because it was probably a momma/cub combo and that is definitely a dangerous duo. I didn't get much sleep. Between the bear parade, my need to use the restroom every hour or so, and the fever I was pretty much not a happy hiker. I also have a feeling that this UTI may have developed partly because of my lack of sufficient water consumption...
Date: 2008-06-25
From: Rattlesnake Point Overlook

To: Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 1.0
Weather: broken clouds

One mile. I made it one mile. I wasn't feeling well at all. I was sweaty and cramping and yadda yadda yadda. We made it to the first road crossing and Pre found us a ride into Front Royal while I discussed symptoms and over the counter solutions with my mother on the phone. We are 17 miles short of finishing the Sheni's and it just doesn't seem like it will ever happen. After a long shower and a trip to the pharmacist as well as the post office -- I settled down and finally got some rest. The good news: I finally got a new pair of shoes in the mail!
Date: 2008-06-26
From: Front Royal, VA

To: Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I was going to slack pack today but I still wasn't feeling well. The medication is helping... I was able to update a few trail journals today. I will hike tomorrow. Barley and Rain were also staying at our hotel and it was great to catch up with them! The four of us went out to dinner and it really made me feel better. I can't wait to catch back up to them on the trail.