morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-03-25
From: Cosby Nob Shelter

To: Painter Branch Camp
Miles today: 12.7

Today was truly a day of two halves. In the morning it was all down hill in the final section of the Smokies. It sucked. We hate the Smokies.After lunch, we were out into Cherokee national forest. These trails were a blast. So much better than the Smokies. Just before the I40 Interstate we found a water hole at the bottom of the river. Cold but couldn't be passed up... just like climbing out on Charlies Bunion, Xena wasn't going to let me show her up, so dived in last. I dont know how far we will get if we are jumping in every spring and waterhole and river we pass in the summer.Talk about refreshing. Mmmm swimming. Oh I miss hot summer and the beach at Xmas time and fishing.Standing Bear made an interesting short stop. Nobody was home. Spit, a fat ole rottweiler was lazing about... made me think of Cass... I miss having a dog...Have discovered that here in the USA they call Mars Bars, Milkyway.. not sure what they would call our Milkyway bar... at least I have found something besides Snickers bars to eat now.I'm all peanutted out, but its still good for peanut n honey tortillas...Boy is my appetite coming in more and more each day.... dreading food packweight soon...Note to self, kfc goes straight through if you havnt eaten it for 3 years.. Must also start on eating some meat... maybe.. no guarantees.Have a hankering for scones now.. been thinking about the ones Mrs H brought down to Fontana Dam...Also need to get rid of some gear.. I think this time it's the thermarest and the wetrib.. and the longjohns.. and I dunno what else yet. Must drop some weight.Also ned to journal better than what I have been.. I always get inspiration when hiking and mentally write a huge entry, then when pocketmail comes, it suddenly shortens...
Date: 2004-03-26
From: Painter Branch Camp

To: Walnut Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We were tricked! 18 miles. Someone read the book wrong... and yes it hurts.Our feet thundered the dry earth, sweat dripping like rain. my stomach growled loudly. all I could think of was Weird Al Yankovics parody song "eat it" and thoughts of second breakfast going through my head. but low on food, I had little to look forward too. xena came to my rescue with a baked apple oatmeal bar. that saves me 1 poptart for lunch tomorow. it was then I learned we had done 5 miles in 2 hours.we did a haaard climb straight up max patch. we had a beaut day on top, layed out in just the kilt and made myself a cooked lunch.might have a little sunburn from laying out on the bald.I might have to look into getting a new kilt coz its waist is large and I have trouble keeping it on my hips, and putting in a kilt pin makes it not sit right..Now we are doing some miles my boots are crunching the last couple of toes on my right foot... will see how things progress. Knees aren't too bad today but have sore heels.Dinner was a laugh, Xena had beef ramen, and decided to use the leftover water to add mash potato too.. well that turned out bad and watery, to this was added a spoon of peanut butter.. nobody could eat it.If Xena offers to cook for you, be careful, I don't think she has her mums knack for it!The shelter here is very bad, poor floor and walls. It's the very picture of mouse infestation.Tomorrow Hot Springs. Bring it on. Show me the hot tub. We may zero two days and see if the others can catch up. To say we are hanging out for the Hot Springs spa is an understatement.
Date: 2004-03-27
From: Walnut Mountain Shelter

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

We hiked in this morning at breakneck pace. Bushwack and Bramble were speeding ahead to get to the post office but it shut at 10:30 am!So the speed hiking didnt pay off, but for ourselves, Xena and I did 13 miles before lunch. ouch.Hot Springs is a tiny town. You can see it all from coming down the mountain. During lunch we met Grizzly Adams, who was hanging around for the weekend.We did dinner at the pub, and had a bottle of wine, white zinfindel. which comes from Biltmore Estate. After dinner we did some icecream...Burn showed up walking down the street like a hobo and wildman with hair everywhere. He and Griz crashed in our room. There was some light snores.This town gig gets so stressfull each time we come in.Oh and I should add we ran into Baltimore Jack at the outfitters, he is a really cool guy. They hired him for the season, so if any other hikers come through, he is loaded with info.
Date: 2004-03-28
To: Hot Springs (still)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was Ashville day for Xena and I, Grizz did the driving and we went off to Ashville, to find an outfitter that stocked a good range of boots. being a Sunday nothing opened till 1pm which was very annoying... so we cruised an Ingles supermarket with cups of Earlgrey tea we got from Borders Bookstore.The first outfitter was a bust, but we found a bigger place and the guy there was a professional bootfitter, man he was good. Joy got new boots and seems happy so far...I traded my osprey 75litre aether for a black diamond 45litre lynx or something. It's a climbing pack. Ditched the tent for a tarp too, so packweight dropped considerably.I initially was not going to get a tarp but was not going to let Joy show me up! hahahah.. doh.. so now I have this tiny piece of silicone impregnated nylon.. since we only tented about 3 times, it was time to loose the 3 pound tent.We managed to spend about 3 hours just trying boots and packs. outfitters just suck you in with all the gear...The highlight of the evening was watching Burn accidentlly put a lit cigarette to his thigh when not paying any attention... hahahahha very funny...
Date: 2004-03-29
To: Hot Springs ( tub/spa city )
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Today has been a slow and delightfull zero. Wer'e still in Hot Springs, going out tomorow.Today I spent time being envious of Joy getting a full body massage. After which both of us jumped into the hot springs / hot tub aka spa for an hour. That was fan bloody tastic.If you come to Hot Springs you gotta do the spa.The rest of the day was spent doing nothing, except pack the new pack...Later. See you all in Erwin at Miss Janets house...Oh Joy might be coming down with a cold... thanks heaps Bushwack! I just hope my immune system can hold up.
Date: 2004-03-30
To: Still at Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Yes another zero in Hot Springs. We were supposed to hike out, but it was raining and Joy had still some vestiges of her migraine. So we basicaly took it zero-zero and did nothing.In the evening we ran into a couple called, Maxi and Jimmy who turned out to be Heather and Arwens aunt and uncle... wow. they did a 20 to get into town. Yay.We had a huge reunion at Paddlers pub. We loaded that place with 20 plus hikers. Jan and Tom (Wolfcookie and Dances with Wolfcookie). Leki, the Nuffster, Heather, Arwen, and loads of others.During the night Icabod sang the scotsman kilt song and changed the name to mine, it was really cool and funny.It's great to have our gang back together, it's really like family. Sooo... we are taking another zero so we can all hike out together. The pull of family is too strong and we couldn't leave them.We also got replaced by Heather and Arwen with two others.. replaced! Sundance and Skyline. We will have to do some work to get back into the fold.Mr H said on the phone"you will get to Maine a whole lot faster if you start hiking.".
Date: 2004-04-01
From: Hot Springs

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

An early breakfast of tea and french toast started me off well. The new pack takes some getting used to. I think I am carrying the upper limit on weight for it, but so far so good.The trail was good today, straight out of Hot Springs along the river and up to a very strange dam. Apparently some kid of duck breeding ground. Xena and I both stood and looked a bit confused by the thing.Since Nuffy went ahread of us, and we new the trail a bit, we thought we would be sneaky and road walk up, bypass the firetower and jump ahead and surprise her at the shelter... it didnt quitework out and we arrived 20 minutes after her... so close.. would have been a good April 1st trick.The snow is here an abundance around the shelter and its 1pm.. gonna be a long cold night and day in here..We crammed 6 people into the shelter and it was very squishy, I was half on the gap that rose two inches so I had half a space that I could only lay sideways, not enough to lay on my back... woke with sore spots all over. sore back, sore feet, and its bloody snowing....
Date: 2004-04-02
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: snow

We woke to snow and the mood turned to gloom. Nuffy was still cold and took off early to zero with the camera crew and Leki...It took a lot of coaxing but I finally got Xena out of her sleeping bag and we were off...And here the fun started.. the snow started coming heavier and lay thicker on the ground... it wasn't deep but I broke snow to Little Laurel sheltrer, where we had a FREEZING lunch. I broke out early to the next shelter, what a mistake. The snow was thick, trail impossible to find and frozen rhododendrons hang very low.At first I banged snow off, later I just charged through them. I hate rhodies with snow on! The trail was only 6 miles but took me 4 hours.. it's tough to brew snow. I fell near 20 times.Stupid me, I went over the exposed ridge line instead of the blue blaze for bad weather. I had thought the blue would take me to a road and miss the shelter, so went high. Ouch. I fell heaps. Once I jammed my leg to my hip and my body kept going with pack on, I was sure I was going to break a leg up there. All along in the snow banks I left messages, just on word things. First was "fun" then "not fun" and they just kept getting worse from that point on, I won't repeat them here...There was no foot prints to follow so I was blown away to hear a bunch of people came through 3 hours before me.. there was no trace...At the full shelter we found Castro, and a bunch of section hikers. Wer'e spooning about 10 or more people in a 6 person shelter. It's very cozy.We may hike out tomorow as it's going to snow more and drop to about 10 degrees farenheight....
Date: 2004-04-03
From: Jerry Cabin Shelter

To: Devil Fork Gap
Miles today: 9.0

Today was a messy day. We had a shortage of food and fuel after last night, so we need to hitch into Erwin as well as avoiding more bad weather. It was supposed to drop to 0 degrees f tonight.That being the case we did 9 miles down to Devil Fork Gap, which isn't too bad in 15 inches of snow. There isn't much between the shelter and the gap, but you will see some shellshocked scouts, totally blown away by a flying Cactus, who ran topspeed on the downhills skating the slush and ice.We also passed the Civil War graves of the Sheltons. They were covered in snow so I was quite miffed.Down at the gap, where the plan was to meet a ride at 4pm, we were met, most fortuitously by Miss Janet who is an awesome trail angel. She runs a hiker hostel in Erwin .After lots of umming and ahhing, we are presently on a Greyhound bus headed for Joys home in Virginia. We plan on hiking south from Skyline drive back down to Erwin, where we hope the snow will be gone by the time we get back...Sitting at the Greyhound office in Jacksonville was a real eye opener. We had severl cruisers go by in pickup trucks and a drug deal or two go down and was chatted to by a drunk Marine guy...This is a 12 hour bus ride so we will see how it goes. We have a bus change somewhere.. that will be fun... I dont know if I can sleep or miss it or what...Now it's 2am and we are sleeping on the floor of the tiny regional Greyhound office. It's about 100 degrees F in here its ridiculous.
Date: 2004-04-04
From: Devil Fork Gap

To: Joy's parents house
Miles today: 0.0

After a loooong bus ride from Erwin to Harrisonburg, we are finally at Joys house. Talk about exhausting. Another night of no sleep.Arriving here Gwyn went into hysterics, and we had a 90 pound akita running berserk in the hosue. They we so glad to see each other. Makes me miss Cass... maybe one day i will have another dog around..First things first on a hikers mind and that's food and shower. I did the monkey bread for breakfast and then the shower . After that we went to her grandparents for lunch where we met Officer Taco, who started a month before us. He is flying and was going to do 25 and 38, 30 miles just to make Harpers Ferry by Friday.We're going to zero tomorow and hike out southbound on Tuesday. The plan is to do 20, 21, 20, 16 mile days to get this part done by Friday, which is the James River to Rockfish Gap section,thats 76.7 miles.The maps really look a lot easier than some of the stuff we have already done. Not thrilled by 20 mile days that looks double.I'm sacked out right now so just killing time before I take a nap I guess. Chilling on my own and doing the whole thought process thing.Back in town so soon, and it's confusing but not as nearly as stressfull and a real town visit. Mr and Mrs H are cool and it helps a lot.I have got to get a replacement part for my stove, it's just a little screw but it keeps it pressurised and makes cooking easier. Oh and refuel the denatured alchohol and restock my food bag...We've other things to do tomorow like lunch at Paneroes (its a fancy sandwhich bar) and Joy really want's to go to the movies, so we will see....It's going to be a busy zero..Oh lets not forget trying to get some wet icy gear to dry as well....
Date: 2004-04-05
From: Joys house

To: Joys house
Miles today: 0.0

Today was our zero, so little happened. I got my head shaved again which is nice to be clean... and we re supplied, this time I have opted for french toast poptarts instead of some fruit frosted thing .Got a new screw for my brasslite stove and now were watching Legends of the Fall which is really cool.Tomorrow we start our south bound hike towards Glasgow and Erwin...And Panera here in Harrisonburg does not serve sweet tea, even though we are in the south...See ya on the trail...
Date: 2004-04-06
From: Rockfish Gap

To: Maupin Shelter
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was the easiest 20 mile we've done so far, and it goes well since we have organised a month of it. We took 3 hours of breaks and still did 20 miles with full packs on in 11 hours, so 8 hours of hiking.The firt shelter we found called Paul something shelter, and it was haunted, and a very very nice shelter too. Big, airy and new looking. Shame it was only 5 miles in.At one point we ran clear of water, just after Dripping Rock parking area, there was a load of timeshare type houses on the ski fields, so we walked down and a lady pulled in out the front, we asked if we could get water but she was starting a meeting, anyway she asked us in and we got water, they also asked us if we needed a shower and gave us lemon cake and zuccini cake.. which I of course did not eat!Tomorrow we do 20 over the Priest which is like the climb out of the Nantahala Outdoor Centre.fun.
Date: 2004-04-07
From: Maupin Shelter

To: The Priest Shelter
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Bad day. Climbed the Priest, which was like climbing out of the Nantahala Outdoor Centre. Stayed just after the mountain. Nothing more to say.Oh, we got buzzed just after dark by an airforce fighter with its lights on, flying fast and low. Kinda cool.
Date: 2004-04-08
From: The Priest Shelter

To: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: broken clouds

Wow! Today was long and tough on the feet. We had some nice views. Tonight we are staying here with two troops of boy scouts, who have been kind enough to give us shelter space. Today I hit some realisations too. Old wives sayings that are older than Adam hit me today..Not sure to be thankful or not.Xena surprised me by sneaking up on me during a down hill singing evanesence, my immortal. Made me do a double take.We also got buzzed by an airforce fighter, saw a grouse and white tail deer.
Date: 2004-04-09
From: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter

To: US Highway 501
Miles today: 21.0

Today we were shooting toward the 501 to get picked up for easter.We busted butt and managed to get there, nothing remarkable but some excellent views, and the eerie ruins of a freed slave community along Brown Mountain Creek. All these stone ruins laying around along the river bank.The foot bridge over the river, I expected one like over the Tye river, but it's a big rusted hulk with wood. What an eyesore.Today was blister day as well, I scored a huge one the size of my big toe on my big toe.. kinda nasty. Couple on the backs of my heels, but it feels like deep tissue soreness all over my feet.Knees are holding up over the high mileage which is good, but remains to be seen how long it lasts.We are recuperating at Joys folks, with an awesome parmesan chicken dinner and peanut pie (which reminded me of a peanut flavour lemon merangue pie type thing).Tomorow is a big busy day, see you all then.
Date: 2004-04-13
From: Matts Creek Shelter

To: Cornelius Creek Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: moderate rain

Today was a day of two halves, the first wet socks and monsoon rain, the second, wet socks and bright sunshine.Our camp awoke to torrential rain gushing down, small rivers forwarded down the trail in front of the shelter. Our entourage headed out after a breakfast of 8 cinnamon rolls, clad in full rain battle regalia and armed with pack, rain shell, gaiters and rain pants.We were ready.Soon, the impassable. A flooded creek. No amount of rock dancing and prancing would save us, we had to get down and dirty, well wet. In we waded. Water rose, toes went squishy.It was as they say, a poor start to the morning. It was a trend the enemy would use upon us multiple times, and we had no recourse.At lunch time, we huddled out of the torrential downpour at Thunder Ridge Shelter, there an ally showed up, northbound by the name of Boy Wonder, who started with us, and whom we hadn't seen since Gooch Mountain Shelter, which was day 3 of the campaign.To say we were flabergasted was an understatement. Boy Wonder and Enoch imparted knowledge of the trail up ahead, but it was not enough to prepare us for the flooded river called the trail. It was ankle deep for meters. Squishy toes returned.Suriving the Guillotine was an experience. I took some photos of the conquest in the rain. We didn't want to tempt fate of the Guillotine rock falling so hurried under it.That's when the scond part of the day started. The sun came out, the weather change rocked through. It was totally amazing. We had won out the day.We made good time to the shelter, where upon arrival, the company disrobed all wet gear and covered the picnic table with it.Our hiking posse of banditos have the shelter to ourselves, so all two of us dumped gear all over the shelter and cherry picked the best two sleep spots.
Date: 2004-04-14
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Still at Cornelius Creek
Miles today: 0.0

Yes, we zeroed at the shelter. We awoke to thunderstorms and pounding rain, it was hammering the shelter roof, porch and picnic table. At first we waited half an hour thinking it might break, as it was supposed to, but that didn't happen, then we waited an hour, and still it didn't happen. Then it started to snow. Reluctantly we redid our mileage, at breakfast, and did it all from our sleeping bags where we spent all day.The only time we got out was to use the privy and me going down to the creek to get water.The whole day was spent laying in, listening to and watching the rain spatter down, and talking about travel, and places in the world and dogs.
Date: 2004-04-15
From: Still at Cornelius Creek

To: I 80 Interchange
Miles today: 36.0

Have squishy, will travel. Thanks Bushwack. We busted out the miles today.We did 6 miles in an hour and a bit down to the Peaks of Otter for breakfast, wow, what a menu. Breakfast was awesome and we had a lakeside window seat. It really was spot on. Xena put away an entire belgian waffle with vanilla and half a dozen rashers of bacon. Myself I put away 2 egg omelette, juice, 2 cups of tea, 4 slices of toast, and a bowl of cinnamon drizzled apples. It was great and I could have eaten it all over again.Back on the trail, powered by squishy we motored. When we got close to the shelter, some geologists we had met earlier in the day offered us a ride down to the I80 huge huge huge intersection.Upon arrival, we dropped packs at the coffee shop and had a breve with a shot of vanilla chased down a with a chocolate cookie covered with espresso. So thats mega coffee to the max.. will I sleep tonight, mmm I dunno... maybe with the miles it will win out.Conversation today was kind of limited to grunts and some singing, i'm sure you can guess who was the grunting one and who did the singing.After being rained on for 48 hours and sweating out everything I own, a quick laundry and shower will be nice. Tomorow is a 21 mile day so it's breakfast early...It will be interesting to see how it goes, as I have blisters all over my feet. I wore my fat hiker socks and squished my feet. Mmmm blisters. I knife popped them and they are sooooore. Pulling the shoes on.. shudder. if you hear a scream all thre way down to Australia, you know what i'm doing....
Date: 2004-04-16
From: I 80 Interchange

To: Campbell Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: clear sky

Today was really tough. It started out with a nosebleed. I dropped my puzzle ring on the floor of the bathroom, bent to pick it up and slammed into the basin. Typical Cactus behaviour.After dripping blood on the white tiles, I thought a shower would be in order, whereby I found new blisters, and was required to pop and drain the old ones.All this before the days hiking had started, better yet, all before breakfast.Several things stood out on the hike, firstly coming out of Dalleville, we had some really nice terrain with pines and granite rocks, managed to get a few photos of the resevoir. We also passed under one of the huge high voltage power lines, the really big ones. This thing was so noisy, and worse, you could hear the electricity arcing off it, it made the hair on my arms stand up.Today we ran into Mel, who we hadn't seen since Gooch Mountain Shelter, like so many others. He looked good, said he had sore knees, but he remembered who we were, that's pretty cool. He was well chuffed to see us, and told us of a few hikers we would run into over the next few days.After yesterday, I found today really hard going. All my blisters were acting up, feet sore with deep kinda bruising or soreness. And the heat made things just as bad, and I didn't drink enough either.We stopped for lunch at a campsite just before a shelter, this had a fast flowing brook and we met Boneman and Pinwheel. It turned out to be a cold place to soak feet too. Brrr. Had to be done and not passed up on tho.Another bad thing, loads of insects here at the shelter tonight too. but wow, you should see the sunset, it's coloured all the distant mountains red, and we should get an awesome ripper of a sunrise in the morning.Tomorow is going to be fun, Xenas folks, sister and dog Gwyn are gonna hike Mcafees Knob with us. It should be a blast.