morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-04-24
From: Black Bear Hostel

To: Tent site
Miles today: 21.5

After zeroing yesterday it was so great to get back on the trail today! We started our hike with an easy 3 miles to Laurel Falls and then uphill on Pond Mtn. I ran into Bamboo Bob and then Grandbob on the mountain, Grandbob telling me of trail magic at the beach of Watauga Lake! I got steak, hard-boiled eggs, and donuts! After getting to Watauga Dam, a nasty storm blew in. Wind and cold rain for a little while made for great company while walking up a steep mountain! Miles and Biscuits caught up to us about 2 miles from Vanderver Shelter and I convinced them to move on 3.8 more miles to a campsite. We made it 1:10 and had a nice fire before bed. The photo on this post is a ¢Chuck Norris¢ meme of sorts about Bob Peoples, owner of Kincora Hostel and a trail legend
Date: 2012-04-25
From: Tent site

To: Tent site
Miles today: 22.9

Had another long day today, 22.9 miles, but easy terrain! After going to bed in the pouring rain and waking up in the pouring rain, I got to hike for about an hour in the pouring rain After stopping at Iron Mountain Shelter to change my clothes and wring out my socks, the hiking was easy and damp. I came across some trail magic from a church at 11 a.m. and then less than 5 minutes later ran into Sipsey and his wife doing trail magic! Then, I got to walk on a handicapped accessible trail that ended in a cow field full of cows! It was very cool to walk through with all of them. The sun finally came out around 12 and stayed out all day, giving pretty views into the valley below as I was on a ridge line all day. I got to a good campsite around 6 pm and ate yet again (7 times today)! TP showed up around 8 and we built a good fire, only to have it start raining and get a strike of lightening in on us! We dove for cover in our tents and now I¢m listening to it rain, talking to TP through our rain flys! Can¢t wait to get into Damascus tomorrow and see my husband and wear dry clothes!
Date: 2012-04-26
From: Tent site

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: light rain

Today I hit my fourth state line and Damascus! It¢s been so amazing to hit my fourth state in under a month to say the least. Sadly, it rained the entire two hours down to town. I¢m sort of getting used to the town rain. It¢s rained on my way into every town other than Hot Springs. Anyway, I made it down to Damascus in less than 2 hours and got to eat two big meals before David came to meet me! I¢m very happy to see him for sure. We did all the typical town stuff, hitting the outfitter and grocery, getting laundry done, and eating. He even had the owner of Sweet P¢s make me a special batch of meatloaf for today, so thank you Chris! Everyone in town is trying to convince me to zero tomorrow. Since it will be my month anniversary (calendar wise) tomorrow, I might do just that.
Date: 2012-04-27
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

It¢s my one-month calendar anniversary on the trail and the guys in town convinced me to zero. Even though the weather was nice, I was glad to take the day off for sure! Nokey and I went to Dairy King and ate and had magical milk shakes. I also got to catch up on Days of Our Lives! After lunch, Nokey and I went to the park with pints of Ben and Jerry¢s and played on the playground. We ended the night at Quincey¢s, where I met Greg and his family courtesy of Lisa. We stayed out late and had a lot of laughs. A great way to celebrate a month on trail.
Date: 2012-04-28
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 21.8

We needed to head out of town today. We went to Mojoes for coffee and Flash had mentioned he wished there was a way we could stay one more day¢¦ Then it came to me, SLACKPACKING! We found auto to take us up to mile 485 so we could come back to Damascus. We did 18 miles in 5 hours and it was amazing! It was a super hot day, but it was so great to get the weight off our backs. There wasn¢t much to see today, just a lot of hot sun. We got back to Damascus at 6:15 and Nokey and I went back to Dairy King for a milkshake. We then proceeded to Food City for food and beer and then stayed up late just hanging out. It will be sad to leave Damascus, but it feels like we¢ve been here forever so it¢s definitely time to move on. Heading out late tomorrow to mile 500!
Date: 2012-04-29
From: Damascus, VA

To: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 20.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Today Nokey and I needed to make big miles if we were going to catch up to the rest of our crew! We planned to wake up at 6 and get moving to catch them all at Thomas Knob. We did get up early and saw a gorgeous sunrise in the meadow, but motivation escaped us for sure! We didn¢t roll out of camp until 8:45 and had to get moving. The scenery today was gorgeous, but the terrain proved to be rough, rocky, and the trails were poorly maintained to say the least. We made it to Grayson Highlands and got to see tons of wild ponies and pretty views. The sun got hot again today, but we were thankful for an afternoon with lots of level walking and cloud cover after lunch! We reached mile 500 around 1 pm and celebrated with a can of Heinekin we packed in for the occasion. We pushed on to Old Orchard where we caught Flash to find out we only had five more miles to go. Thunder started rumbling and we got down to VA 603 to find SOS¢s wife with trail magic! We got a Snickers and a bottle of water before our last big climb. We made it the last 3.5 miles in exactly one hour to get to camp just in time to set up our tents before the rain started! Thankfully, none of my gear got wet and we had just enough time to get ready for round 2, HAIL! The storm blew through quickly and we were then able to go up to the shelter and see our friends again! A great end to a 21-mile day. Tomorrow we set out for Partnership Shelter, where they have showers and pizza delivery! The photo is a wild pony licking the salty sweat off Nokey¢s leg. They like hikers for sure.
Date: 2012-04-30
From: Tent Site

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: broken clouds

Today was another longer day, close to 20 miles again to get to Partnership Shelter. Nokey and I were hiking together all day and had a blast. We left Hurricane Mtn late and had a gentle downhill early that morning. We saw a pretty waterfall and had some mountain climbing as well. When we stopped at Trimpi Shelter, Nitrous showed up on our way out! Toward the end of the day, my Achilles tendon was pulling again and we had to slow down a bit, but we put on some music for the last four miles and had some fun. When we got to Partnership, Dances with Flies handed us beer and James Brown¢s ¢I feel good¢ started playing on Nokey¢s phone. Snagglefoot, Cowtail, and I got a ride into Marion and bought a bunch of brats, hot dogs, chilli, and beer. We had a huge cookout at the shelter and had an awesome night!
Date: 2012-05-02
From: Atkins, VA

To: Tent site
Miles today: 17.3

Today we got an insanely late start out of Atkins, 10 am, and immediately had some climbs to do. We pushed pretty hard to get the first few miles out of the way before the afternoon heat and we all had lunch together about 6.5 miles in. Nokey and I pushed out front and ran into Dirty Girl a few minutes after lunch. Then, as Nokey was ahead of me, we spotted a black bear drinking out of the creek! We climbed another large hill before walking through some more pasture land and made it to Maul Knob around 4:30. Since it was only 14 miles in, we ate a huge dinner and then decided to press onward over the next big hill and stop wherever called to us. About 3 miles later, we came to an awesome bridge at Lick Creek and no one else was there, so Nokey and I decided to call it a night.
Date: 2012-05-03
From: Tent site

To: Jenkins Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Today Nokey and I woke up and decided we felt better and wanted to try for our first 30-mile day. The terrain profile looked easy and we were pumped! We pushed our first 6 miles pretty quick and we were pumped, then we came to a monster downhill followed immediately by a ¢ridgeline¢ walk on rocks for six miles. It took us way too long to walk that and by 3 pm we were beat. We made it to Jenkins Shelter about 5 pm and were going to push on five more miles, but we decided to hang out at the shelter. Turns out, everyone came here, including some other people we knew as well! Today was also my birthday, so we celebrated in the best way we could. Nokey gave me a brownie and Dirty Girl gave me a Twix bar. Even though it was a tough hiking day, it was still awesome. We even coined a new phrase ¢birthday rocks¢ since birthdays are awesome and rocks are not. The rocks killed our pace and we only did 15.7 in about 9 hours. Rough going for sure, but we all had a great day.
Date: 2012-05-04
From: Jenkins Ridge Shelter

To: Tent site
Miles today: 25.0

Today we woke up to torrential rain! It started about 1 am and kept going until about 6:45. Nokey and I were thankful we slept in the shelter and didn¢t have to lug around wet tents. We started the day with a tough climb up, five miles, and we decided today we¢d not set any expectations. We called it ¢meander morning.¢ Less than 2 hours went by and we hit our first 5. We were making good time today and then Brownie and Wall-e came flying by! Brownie made the comment that it just felt wrong to pass me and Wall-e said he would document it in his journal, ha! They started the same day as me and this is the first time they¢ve ever passed me hiking! We met up with them again at trail magic about 10 miles in! Free cokes and granola made me happy! The next 7 miles were long and undulating with no views yet again. Virginia, you¢re wearing me out! When I met up with Nokey again, we¢d gone 20.7 in 8 hours with long breaks, so I was making good time, but I was spent! We pushed on, however, to camp at the 600-mile mark. We were psyched to have done it and hiked 25-mile day in less than 9.5 hours. We celebrated by eating a ton of food, mostly because we were starving! The photo below is of some cascades at the 5-mile mark this morning.
Date: 2012-05-05
From: Jenkins Ridge Shelter

To: Dismal Falls
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: light rain

Today started out to be an awesome day. Our first real climb was only 0.25 miles away so we had a short warm up before we got going. I woke up last night with some killer cramps in my legs, but I was feeling much better this morning. It was only 5 miles to the road crossing, so when we got there we had a decision to make: keep hiking or go the half mile to Trent¢s Grocery for mini resupply and greasy grill food. Nokey made the call that since we¢re on the AT we should just go and have fun, so we ¢yellow blazed¢ to Trent¢s (when you walk the road). We met Wall-e and Brownie there an had hamburgers and chili cheese fries, sodas, chocolate milk, and Debbie cakes before heading back to the trail. From here, there was a 2.7-mile walk to Dismal Falls, which was 0.3 miles off trail. We packed in a 6-pack and went down to the falls. After hanging out for about 2 hours and swimming, we decided to take a Nero at the falls. The whole group other than Dirty Girl showed up and we had a huge party of hikers, about 12 of us chilling there. There was a parking lot across the creek and some locals took a few hikers back to Trent¢s for more provisions. It was a blast hanging out and swimming, taking an unexpected Nero. The photo is of me taking the ¢yellow blaze¢ to Trent¢s.
Date: 2012-05-06
From: Dismal Falls

To: Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: clear sky

We had 12-mile hike today to Woods Hole Hostel, which is another ¢famous¢ hostel on the trail. We were excited to go, as they make organic food mostly from their own farm and we were craving real food. From Dismal Falls, we hiked through flat low land and rhododendron with lots of mud and creeks. After about 6.5 miles we reached Wapiti Shelter, which we all called the murder shelter as two women were killed there about 20 years ago. After that, we had a monster of a climb to a ¢lookout¢ tower. This tower turned out to be a freaking cell phone tower with no view. I¢ve found Virginia had three main themes: Ridgelines (without a view), Rocks, and Rhododendron. I am so far really disliking Virginia, as I¢ve been here for over a week and seen hardly a view at all, terribly maintained trails, and bad water, but I digress¢¦ We pushed on to Woods Hole and got here to find out they don¢t shuttle to Pearisburg (which we needed) and they don¢t have wifi (which they advertised and we were looking forward to using). The hostel was great though and they had a hot outdoor shower in a bed of river rock. They recycle, compost, and grow all the food they eat here. They even keep their own bees! I¢m definitely looking forward to breakfast in the morning and getting to Pearisburg in the morning for a resupply and new shoes and clothes! The photo is of the hostel, which is so far my favorite one on the trail.
Date: 2012-05-07
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Today we woke up to terrible weather, downpour and about 45 degrees in the rocky VA mountains. We decided that we¢d zero at Woods Hole Hostel. The breakfast they had here was phenomenal - grits casserole, farm fresh eggs from their chickens, homemade cinnamon rolls, and fresh bread with homemade apple butter, jams, and real churned butter. They even hand roast their coffee and use fresh cream and raw sugar to serve. It was absolutely phenomenal and not a hard decision to stay. Before you eat, you get in a circle and they go around and ask your trail name, your hometown, and then you offer a few things you¢re thankful for. I told them I was thankful I slowed down to hike with new friends After breakfast, I volunteered to help with a few chores, dishes and sweeping the bunkhouse, and we sat around in rocking chairs playing with the dogs. Spicerack and his wife offered us a ride to town to get our supplies and drops, so Nokey, Snagglefoot, and I jumped in and rode the half hour to Pearisburg. We were able to get and mail out our stuff, resupply, and eat while Spicerack and his wife got their stuff done as well. We got back to Woods Hole to meet everyone just before dinner. I opted out of dinner tonight since I was so full from lunch and had such a heavy food bag from my resupply. I¢m looking forward to getting back on the trail tomorrow for sure. The terrain tomorrow looks brutal, so we¢ll be getting an early start for sure.
Date: 2012-05-08
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: overcast clouds

We were sad to leave Woods Hole today, but it was time to head out. We had a few cups of coffee and hit the trail a little late, but we had a short day planned. We started ¢down¢ the mountain to Pearisburg and were actually going uphill the first 7 miles. The terrain was again rocky, rhododendron, and ridgelines with no views. Today, however, I got a fourth ¢R¢, RAIN! It began raining about noon and continued to steadily rain while the temperature dropped as well. We got to Angel¢s Rest at 1 pm and began an immediate descent down to town. The rain and the terrible trails in VA made for a muddy, steep, rocky, slow descent into town. After nearly falling down the hill several times, we made it to Pearisburg around 2. We wanted to go to Dairy Queen, but it was a mile off trail. We stepped back on trail and made a few calls and had lunch. While eating, we got really cold and tried to warm up. Snagglefoot called and asked if we wanted to split a hotel room. Being frozen and wet, we decided it would be a great idea and that we were terrible hikers! We got the last room in town as well! The rain and cold made a lot of hikers stay in town and we got to reunite with several hikers as well. The photo is of Snagglefoot, Nokey, and me freezing on the porch at The Rendezvous.
Date: 2012-05-09
From: Pearisburg

To: The Captain's Place
Miles today: 20.5

Today we said goodbye to Pearisburg and hello to better weather! The wind was blowing, but the sun was shining and it was about 55 degrees. We stopped at Hardee¢s on the way put of town, a 0.8-mile walk back to the trail. For about 3 miles we walked on or near a road and some sort of industrial plant. We began a big climb immediately after. This section of trail is better maintained that 90% of VA so far, so the walking was a bit easier. When we reached the top, we were in for a surprise¢¦ A view! One of the first we¢ve had in nearly 100 miles! We ate lunch at Rice Field Shelter and then began a tedious ridge walk (with no views at all, but I¢m guessing you knew that). Around mile 17, Nokey and I started to get grumpy and the trail maintenance was again lacking and ridiculous. Of course, on our way down to Pine Swamp Shelter there were switchbacks¢¦ There are never any on the south side of the hills, only on the north, so southbounders have a cake walk in VA! We get to the shelter and it¢s full, so Snagglefoot made an executive decision that we move on to The Captain¢s Place about a mile away. Captain has a house just across the creek from the AT and you get there via zip line! We moved on and set up camp there for the night. We had a big fire and it was awesome considering it was only 40 degrees! The photo is of Captain¢s house.
Date: 2012-05-10
From: The Captain's Place

To: Laurel Creek Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: broken clouds

We started late again, 10 am. We left The Captain¢s and walked along a level bank by the river for a little while. We had a big climb to a rocky ridgeline, which slowed us down a bit. There was a great view past this though called Wind Rock. Two views in two days?! Say it isn¢t so! From here we had more pleasant walking until mile 14, when we began a big uphill. The hill wasn¢t do bad and there was trail magic by a road about 2/3 up! Got a grapefruit for breakfast from the box too! We pushed up the last part of the hill, over Kelly Knob (yep, the second one of the trip) and then downhill to the shelter. It was full of section hikers, but they moved to their tents to let the thru hikers use it, which was awesome. I got to use my new trail name all day today too, Sprinkles! It suits me a lot better. The guys call me Sprinkles because I always want more dessert The photo is of Nokey on the ¢trail¢ today, which is a term I use loosely since the trail is covered in rocks!
Date: 2012-05-11
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: clear sky

Waking up today after sleeping in the shelter was rough! I was achy and sore, plus we woke up in cold weather as well. We had a short 3 miles to go to Keiffer Oak, the largest oak tree in the south and it¢s over 300 years old. From here, we walked through a meadow and up Bruiser Knob. The hill was tough and rocky and I was over it. I¢d had enough and had to cry. I told Flash I was pretty sure I was dropping out in Daleville as I was struggling for two weeks and I¢m no longer enjoying the hiking. Finally, I get to the top of the hill. All of a sudden, the trail was maintained. No more rocks, no more straight ups. Now we have views! The boys got tired and I all of a sudden got my legs! I ran three miles in less than 45 minutes with Nokey and Snagglefoot behind me. We got to Niday Shelter and the boys wanted to stop for the night. I felt like I had 10 miles left in me, but I wanted to hang out with them. It was awesome to finally have a good note to end my day. The photo is of the meadow we walked through in the morning.
Date: 2012-05-12
From: Niday Shelter

To: Four Pines
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: clear sky

Today was an early morning and we got up at 6 a.m. The trail was easy again and I was so psyched to get back to my old self. We pushed up the mountain to the Audie Murphy monument and then back down the mountain. We were already at our halfway point at 11 am and were well on our way up to Dragon¢s Tooth. This took longer than we expected, but the hike was totally worth it when we arrived. There were plenty of tourists up there, but we had a lot of fun hanging out on the rocks. We pushed down the mountain and did lots of rock scrambling and climbing and it was a blast! We got down to 4 Pines Hostel and found out they didn¢t shuttle to Homeplace on Mother¢s Day. We are probably zeroing here since McAfee¢s Knob is coming up soon and we¢d love to have good weather there. The photo is of me at a view on the way up to Dragon¢s Tooth.
Date: 2012-05-13
From: Four Pines

To: Lamberts Meadow Shelter
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: scattered clouds

We zeroed yesterday and absolutely nothing of interest happened, hence the missing day 47 post Today, Nokey and I got up early and headed out for McAfee Knob! We have been waiting for McAfee for nearly 700 miles! Before we got there though, we had to climb up and away from 4 Pines and up to mile 700. We had pretty decent trail and stopped at the parking lot for an early, long lunch. We met Anna and Vijay also, who we¢d see again later. The climb up to McAfee¢s was super easy and went quickly. We hung out up there for two hours and took a ton of photos with our friends before moving onward. We stopped again for a long snack break just before Tinker Cliffs. Snagglefoot was with us now and we all hiked together until the cliffs. This is where we lost Snagglefoot for a while. He was right with us and we didn¢t see him, so we figured he moved on without looking at the view. We took more photos and watched a storm blow in, so we decided to push on the 1.2 to the shelter. It started pouring rain about 10 minutes later so we ran for it! We got to the shelter and Snagglefoot wasn¢t there. He showed up 30 minutes later. Turns out he fell off Tinker Cliffs! He was thankfully okay with the exception of a tweaked knee. Trog and Alpo showed up too in the rain. Tomorrow, we head back into Daleville for laundry and showers with resupply! The photo is Snagglefoot, me, and Nokey at McAfee¢s Knob.
Date: 2012-05-15
To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: light rain

We planned to do a longer day today then we actually did, sadly. We left the shelter a little later than I would have liked, but we had a short 8 miles or so to get down to Daleville to resupply. We had some good ridgeline walking and got down close to Daleville when we came into the cicada swarm! Those guys were everywhere and flew into me like you wouldn¢t believe! I even had some stuck in my hair. We got to the HoJo and it was like a hiker reunion. Snagglefoot decided to get a room, so Nokey and I decided to stay as well. We did a resupply, laundry, and ate at the Mexican restaurant across the street. Snagglefoot¢s old hiking partner, Birdman, showed up too. It was a great easy day, but I¢m looking forward to longer hiking tomorrow!
Date: 2012-05-16
From: Daleville, VA

To: Bobblet Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: broken clouds

We headed out of Daleville this morning and had the easiest day out of town we have ever done! We started the day with a gradual climb and the first 5 miles went quick. We stopped for a few breaks and went to have lunch down by Curry Creek. We headed up to the next shelter and hung out with Swamprat for a while before pushing on to Bobblet Gap and our first of many run-ins with the Blue Ridge Parkway. When we got to Black Horse Gap, we also left the beautifully maintained Roanoke ATC trail and ran back into rocky, steep terrain again. It was amazing to see the difference! We crossed the BRP several times and finally made it to Bobblet Gap to see Feathers, Wild Turky, and Dances With Flies were there. It was a great group to see at the end of the day. The photo is of an old overlook on part of the BRP that is no longer used. The old wall is massive!