morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-04-26
From: Elizebthontin

To: Iron Mountains Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

So we woke up to a HUGE breakfast today, it was freakin awesome! eggs, buiscuts, orange juice and fruit. sooo nice. then we finished packing up all our stuff and headed out for the trail. we got there at about 12:30pm and probebly started hiking at around 1pm.poor goggle realized that he left his socks and hiking boots at the lake when we got picked up from knees's friends mom the day before! so we were all holding our breath on the ride down to the lake from her house. luckily they were still there! (i dont think anyone wanted to snatch a stinky hikers boots, lol).so it was sooooo hot today when we started hiking. there were tons of people out on the lake and stuff since it was a sunday and so beautiful out. we made it the first shelter in 1 hr and sat down for something to eat. i headed out agani first and had 7.6 miles to the next shelter. it was hell. the climes were horrible! and all i kept thinking was, "just get to the next shelter and you can have the two pieces of pizza that you packed of the left overs from yesterday" that was definitly my modivation. so when i finally got there after the horrible climes i sat down on the rocks and looked at the view overlooking the lake. it was so great. the pizza was amazing too! i decided to keep moving onward to the next shelter which was another 7 miles. goggle decided to stay though and catch up the next day. the terrain looked pretty flat so i figured it wouldnt be so bad. i didnt have any water on me though the entire 7 miles so that was touch. my mouth was so stinkin dry it was horrible. but i got there at about 7:30pm and there was only one other person there. it was a retired pilot whos name is 'sky king' he was REALLY REALLY nice. he was telling me that he hung his food bag himself since there were no bear cables, and then i told him that i never hang my food bag and just hang it in the shelters! he thought i was crazy! lol. (but no bears have taken my food yet)i made some been buritoes which were sooooo good to end the day with. we headed to bed and at about 9:30pm i hear knees come stumbling in the shelter. he night hiked th elast few miles and said there was an animal following him most of the way. he seemed pretty spooked, kinda funny actually. i told him that i heard some strange yelling and screaming about a half hr ago and he said was him yelling at the animal to scare it away. lol. so funny
Date: 2009-04-28
From: Damascus, VA

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

I woke up this morning, hit the library for the internet and then got a pizza for lunch from a local place. it was soooo good. i covered it with blue cheese, mmmm...After lunch i went outside and saw knees, he had just gotten into town and looked a mess!!! the poor kid! i packed up my stuff and decided to head out that day and do an easy 10 miles to the first shelter. i left at about 3pm. but first i had a strawberry milkshake, oohhh yeeaahhh...so Chelle and i headed out together and i lost him real quick. the clime up was hell man! espeically after eating like i did! there were just crazy amounts of switch backs (zig zaggin up a mountain rather then going striaght up it) which are great, but they get soooo monitinous after about 8 in 1 mountain! i was really happy to get to the shelter in the end.i was exhusted and hot at hell! knees ended up coming later which i was totally surprised, i never thought he'd make it with the way he looked. lol. hes a trouper man.later that night i was telling knees how i lost my headlamp the other night coming into damascus and chelle said, what does it look like? i found one by the outfitter, which is exactly where i thought i lost it! it was mine! he had picked it up and taken it with him, even though he had a headlamp already, i dont know why he did it, either does he! it was fate. i was soo happy to get that thing back.
Date: 2009-04-29
From: Saunders Shelter

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

so today was a long day. i did alright though i guess. i was the last to leave the shelter, it was at 930am though, so everyone else just left crazy early!it was hot as hell in the morning and then it rained and hailed later! crazy! chelle and i had to stop hiking cause the hial was stinging us to badly! we didnt get stuck on top of a mountain or bald during the thunder and lightening storms which was really luckey cause we passed a bunch of them. the last 5 miles i hiked with chelle which was nice cause we got lost in conversation and the rain was making us race it, so it distracted my mind and i didnt notice the pain in my feet. im trying to push some miles in so i can mnake it to joe kickass's next trail magic (i missed the last one. its saturday in atkins, so i think i can make it if i do high teens every day. when i got to the shelter at the end of the day i was reading the register and everyone had written that they saw ponies! there are wild ponies around here, but we didnt see any cause it was pooring when we passed that area. i guess tomorrow we have another chance of seeing them. I WANNA SEE THE PONIES!!!there is this deaf guy of that trail, western, hes about my age, ive been spending a lot of time with him. hes really really cool. im learning some sign language and stuff! he actually night hiked 'til 3am one night, not like 11pm or 12am, but 3am!! and without sound! he said he suddenly felt this pressure strange feeling thing in his chest and he looked up and there was a bear not tooo far away! he coudlt hear it but he could feel it. so nuts! so said he banged his poles together and it ran away. he wants me to night hike with him so i can be his ears, but i dont know about that. i found out on the way into damascus that my headlamp suuuucks. so probebly not...
Date: 2009-05-01
From: Baptist Church Hostel

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: light rain

So i got a grrreat breakfast in before i left town and headed out in the rain, ugh. surprise surprise. i went out with chele and we hiked together for the day. it was really nice getting to know him. we stopped a few times and had some food. his mom sent him some home made cookies so he shared them with me which was awesome!when we arrived to the shelter i realized that this was the first shelter i was at when i hiked 4 years ago. i cant believe i am already at this point. i totally remember it the shelter though. things were so different when i was last here, i had no idea what i was getting into. its a nice shelter too, it has a nice bathroom and a shower! craziness.but the best part about this shelter is that you can order pizza and it can be delivered to the shelter! it right next to the raod so they can get it to real easy! so obviously we all ordered pizza, you gotta when your here. everyone at the shelter went in on it and it was amazing! also got a 2 liter of pop which i think i enjoyed better than the pizza. the night before i read in the register that there were 24 people and they ordered 30 pizzas! thats more pizza then people! loli met some new poeple today, stuff sack and guitar dan, they're really awesome. i hope to travel with them a lot more. guitar dan carries a small guitar with him, nuts huh? its sweet for who ever is around cause we dont carry the weight but get to enjoy the music
Date: 2009-05-02
From: Partnership Shelter

To: camp
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: light rain

today was a fabulous day.... today was joe kickass's trail magic which we have been reading about in the registers. i hauled ass to get here in time for it. i woke up early and hiked into atkins, va 12 miles. got rained on a little bit came up to a whole bunch of people and there were burgers (even veggie burgers) dogs, candy, chips, pop, and beer! it was tooootally awesome! also it was sooo great to finally have caught up to joe kickass. i havn't seen him since the first day in the smokies.the food was amazing and the beer was fabulous. i met back up with knees who i had parted with a few days before then. knees and i went to the gas station after eating and socialing for a few hrs at the trail magic. we stocked up on some things, baught some more beer to pack out with and headed out for another 14 miles! we would stop every 2 hrs and have a drink and talk for a bit. we passed a bunch of cows and stuff, they were adorible! the babies! ah!we had to whip out our head lamps cause it was just about getting dark and we figured the shelter should be here any minute. so when we saw a fire i thought for sure it was the shleter, but instead it was 4 section hikers about 2 miles south of the shelter! we had two more miles, so we said forget it and camped with these guys. which worked out well cause they gave us left over food and cold beers! so i never made it to the shelter but a 23 mile day aint to shabby...
Date: 2009-05-03
From: camp

To: chestnut shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: moderate rain

so today was an unexpected short day. i wanted to do 21 miles, but knees and i could not get modivated to hike after all the beer we drank the day before. so we didnt leave until 11am. but joe kickass was dropped off by his parents right where we were camped so the 3 of us headed out together.after the frist 2 miles to the shelter we never made it to the night before, we had 9 more to the next. we set off and there were tons of climes! the entire 9 miles was uphill. not cool. especially when being hung over. knees was having a bad day he was a big debbie downer and was just negative about everything. it was kinda funny actually. it was raining again all freakin day, ugh. but there were a couple shout outs to me in the registers from truckin and from western, so that always puts a smile on your face when we got to the shelter i realized this was one of the shelters ive been waiting to come back to cause the view is so nice and i wanted to sleep under the stars. well... it was pooring and cloudy and cold so none of that happened. ugh. they say this privy has the best view of all privies too. i wouldnt know though.
Date: 2009-05-04
From: chestnut shelter

To: Helveys Mill Shetler
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: broken clouds

so we woke up to some crazy ass winds. i mean it sounded like we were ganna blow away. we all considered zeroing at the shelter until joe kickass went out side and realized that is sounded a lot worse than it was. this shelter had 4 walls and a door so you couldnt tell how it really was unless you were out there. so we sat around and it was raining and windy and we had 24 miles ahead of us to hike. ugh. the forst 10 miles were HORRIBLE! i dont know what was going on. the elivation charts made it looks so nice and flat but it did not seem that way when i was hiking it. my shoulders were killing me so much that i had to attatch my hiking poles to my pack so i could have my hands free to help hold my shoulder straps up to take some of the pressure off. it washorrible. i had to keep stopping almost every hr. and we passed and few places where there could have been some really nice views, but it was just white. knees, tank and i stopped at a raod for a snack and a break about 4 miles beforoe the shelter. and these two woman came up in they're car and they gave us lemonade, apples and granola bars! well... i actually asked them "would you happen to have any extra liquids in your car?" lol i was sooo thirsty that i was not shy about it! the lemonade was the best tasting lemanade i have ever had. it was wonderful and the apples were ice cold we got to the first shelter and ate some food got some water and then knees and i decided to go on another 14 miles. leaving at 2:30pm is a little late for that though. we had to stop almost every hour for my damn shoulders, its so annoying! everything else feels great. we did get more trail magic though and found a cooler full of gatorade so that was nice. ice cold gatorade. and then more trail magic of jugs of water. it was a good day in that respect. we walked along the raod for a while and then the trail took us up a HUUUGE clime of only 1.5 miles, the last til the shelter. so i was dieing. i was going sooo slow i could not phsycally go any faster if my life depended on it. when we rolled up to the shetler it was 7:30pm and there were like 20 other poeple there. it was packed. so was had to set up tents, which is always kinda sucky when you know it ganna rain. but we ran into leon and his pooch ruffus which was suuuuch a pleasant surprise. i love those two! so my shoulders killed me today and my heels rubbed raw and were aweful. but i did get a lot of trail magic and it didnt rain the entire time we walked.
Date: 2009-05-05
From: Helveys Mill Shetler

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: moderate rain

yeah it was another long day. 24 miles. but you wouldn thave though i had a long day ahead of me with how late i slept im. knees and leon headed out together at about 8am, me on the other hand slept in til 11am! ii just woudlnt get up. it was horrible. i was in my tent too and i feel like im in my own little world when im in my tent. so i finally headed out at 11:40 with 24 miles to go! i dont know what i was thinking. i hauled ass. i mean i have never hiked this fast before. i had to make up for loss time. i hiked the fist 11 miles in 3 hrs, which is crazy fast for me. usually im at 3 milse per hour, and thats fast!since i didnt have much day light i couldnt really stop for long break. luckily my shoulders werent hurting as much (i have no idea why) so it allowed me to hike for longer periods of time. i only stopped 2 times for 10 minutes. i ended up getting to the shelter at 7:30pm. the terrian was nice a flat so it wasnt a bad 24 miles. but it rained a whole bunch so i was good and wet, but was soooo happy to find there was a spot in the shetler. there were onlly 3 poeple there! i could not believe it. i got water immidiatly when i got there and just chugged like crazy. i was sooo thirsty and had been out of water for miles!so i changed and dried off and made some dinner. it just felt so good to have a spot in the shetler. leon, ruffus and knees were sopposed to meet me at the shetler but they never showed. i heard they were 8 miles back camping cause it got too late. it was nice though, the clouds kinda cleared at night and you could see some blue/black sky and the moon was even visable. something i havnt seen in days!so no more sleeping in late when i have miles in the 20's... no more no more.
Date: 2009-05-06
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Pearisburge, VA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: light rain

woke up and started hiking at 8:30am. a good start for me. i was tired as hell, but a good start. i thought i only had about 16 miles and figured i get into town at about 2pm, well... that 16 miles turned into 18 and two more unexpected miles are long!and i also had one of my super low moments on the trail today... i had about 1 1/2 hrs left of hiking and it all of a sudden started to down poor. i dont mean rain, i mean pooring! i got soo pissed off. its like i get it, its raining, but does it have to be pooring like this? i was sooo wet and muddy it was discusting.then the down hill into town was horrible. it was just slick muddy clay like crap that without hiking poles i dont know what i would have done. i slipped a few times but never fell. it just took so freakin long to get to the bottom and with the pooring rain i was actually yelling at the trail and mother earth out loud. i was yelling! so i was really mad. i got into town i had another mile to get to the motel, but mad let me tell you the hot shower i had once i got there was aaaaaamazing. i was in there for about an hr. it felt like how i felt in hiawassee. i ate some pizza buffet, got some food and relaxed in the queen sized bed. im hoping to get some good rest today and my body so badly needs after all these miles ive been doing. my back was alright today, but my heels are a mess. some other hikers looked at it and said "what the hell happened to you feet?" they are all swolen and red and cracking with blood. it sucks.so its weird being back in the same place i was 4 yrs ago. it was straight from hell back then, but to me this time, its sooo flat and well... the easist part of the trail yet. actually the part that went down hill when i was in the rain at my lowest point, but actually the same exact part i remember hiking and crying. sooo crazy. i will NEVER hike that part of the trail agian. its just bad. very very bad. plus... this time it was the 8th straight day in a row of rain. ugh. talk about dipressing...
Date: 2009-05-07
From: Pearisburge, VA

To: Pine Swamp Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: light rain

so what a surprise, we woke up to rain again today. luckily we were in a motel room though. knees ended up coming into town really late and split a room with me. always nice to save some cash we slept in since it was raining, there wasnt much reason to rush out into bad weather. so we ended up leaving town at 1pm, a little later than we wanted but it still worked out alright. the rain had stopped by the time we started,so that was nice. the sun actually came out and i was sweating my butt off!the frist 6 miles were a nice big clime. i felt really good though since i reasted for almost 24 hrs. but leaving town is always a little tough b/c your leaving with a heavy pack full of food and usually theres a clime involved. so its never the best day... when i got to the frist shelter for lunch i was sooo happy to find that i caught crank! it was aewsome to see him. i guess he had to slow down cause he was meeting a buddy in the next town whos ganna hike with him for about a week. so we had lunch together and caught up, but then when i headed out, he was staying there cause he didnt need to push the miles since he was meeting his freind so we split again. so i still had 13 miles to go when i left the shelter and its was 330, so i had to haul ass. it kinda sucks when i dont give myself enough time, i really need to stop doing this. but the terrain was nice a flat so it allowed me to walk fast. but for some reason my freakin feet were throbbinh! and my knees hurt like hell! i actually thought to myself that the first water source i come down i was just ganna set up my tent and not make it to the shelter cause i was so tired. but then i hit a sign that said the shelter was onlly 5.2 miles away, so thats under 2 hrs so i just firgured id push it all the way. well i found out that the sign was wrong it was actulaly 7.7 more miles, so it felt like a REALLY long 5 miles. but i walked through this area that went along a nice stream where everything was covered in moss and there was a ton of young plant growth, it was probebly one of the most beautiful areas so far. i got the last spot in the shelter which was nice cause itwas soppposed to rain that night i just didnt want to deal with packing up a wet tent. i really hate doing that. and i read that truckin and narwhal and skips and them are only a 1/2 day ahead of me and spaceman, tax dollar, crank and westers and leon at 1/2 day behind. so thats cool.
Date: 2009-05-08
From: Pine Swamp Shelter

To: Laural Creek Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: broken clouds

so we had two big climes today, but the first one in the morning wasn't bad. i hiked most of the day with jerimiah johnson and rolling stone with his dog coal. it was really nice. they're pretty chill people. we passed windy rock which had a kickass view! the frist we had in a long time. so that was cool. it was sopposed to rain all day but it didnt start til we got to the shelter. thunder and lightening storms, it was kinda cool actually. at the end of the day we had a 1700 foot clime in 1.5 miles. it was haaarrd! i was pretty damn tired after it and had to stop a few times just to catch my breath and give my calves a break. my shoulders hurt again a little bit today but not too bad, i think its the way im packing my pack up. rolling stone helped me a bit so i wouldnt bow the back of the pack, so hopfully thatll help.i dont know why, but todays 19 miler felt more like a 25 miler. i was just exhusted. there were a ton of rocky areas and lots of tricky stream crossings cause the water was so high from all the rain. so that definitly made it interesting, which helps take your mind of all the pain while hikin.
Date: 2009-05-09
From: Laural Creek Shelter

To: Pickle Bransh Shelter
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: broken clouds

waking up to thunder and lightening storms is not the most modivating thing to hear when you had 23 miles to hike. but i forced myself outa my sleeping bag and was actually the first one to leave the shelter. i didnt wanna make myself rush the hike like ive been latly. today was actually pretty nice cause i gave myself so much time to hike. i havnt done that latly. so i got to take long breaks and enjoy the day, rest my body in between. at the sheltre i stopped for lunch i met a bunch of new people who were headed another 10 miles to the next shelter with me. there was a HUGE black snake in living in the privy who just ate a mouse i guess, and no one would use it. i had to go so badly though and watned to sit down, so i went in there and didnt see the snake or anything, so i did waht i had to do and go outa there. evreyong couldnt bleieve that i stayed in there and used the privy knowikng that snake was in there. lol its kinda funny how scared some of the guys out here are of the animals. way more scared than me. i mean, if the snake just ate a mouse, he cant move very fast and its probebly a rat tail snake which arn't poisanous, so i wasn't worried. it was a nice day today once the storms stopped, i actually never hiked in rain. i cut my stupid rain pants into rain shorts, cause they were worthless from the knee down any ways, all ripped and stuff.
Date: 2009-05-10
From: Pickle Bransh Shelter

To: Catawba Shetler
Miles today: 14.4

so half the shelter woke up at 430am to hike into catawba and be first in line at this restaurant called the homeplace that everyone goes to. i didnt leave til 7am, i hiked out with sir richard who i surprisingly caught the day before. i met him at the airport, so it was sooo awesome to see him! i love that guy!any ways, it was one of the nicest days we have had in weeks! the sun was shining, the sky was blue. i was sooo happy to not be threatended by rain clouds. it was soo nice to hike with sir richard. we talked all the way to the homeplace. first we hit dragons tooth which was really cool. it was these HUGE rocks on the top of a mounttain. richard climed it, which was abosolutly crazy! i didnt even think of the idea, i mean if a fire tower scares me i cant imagin how id feel on the top of this thing. and it was crazy windy. but the views up there were soooooooo beautiful. everything had grown in so the trees are all green, looks like jerassic park. so we get to the homeplace and its mothers day, so this plcae is packed! you woudlnt believe how busy it was for one resturant. so we had a 2 hr wait, not too bad. cause up on some phone calls. so me sir richard and ninja ate together and its a family style all you can eat. so they just keep bringing you food until you dont want it anymore. it was amazing! the mashed potatoes were some of the best ive ever tasted. and they had apple butter and the dessert, hooooly crap! b/w the three of us we sent out waitress back soo many times, she asked "are your legs hollow? where is all this food oging?" it was great. i asked her if it was entertaining to them when hikers came in and she said yes, but sometimes they smell soo bad you dread going over to their table! lol. but she said that we didtn smell bad, phew. so we layed down in the sun after stuffing outself and then went off to hike anouther 2 miles to the 2ns shelter. it was an easy hike and sir richard and i talked the whole time. so it went by in what felt like 10 minutes. rolling stone and coal met up with us so that was nice.