morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-05-15
From: Davis path campsite

To: lick Creek campsite
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up in the middle of the night and realized it had started to rain. I quickly checked the tent if everything was at the right spot to keep it dry and went back to sleep. In the morning we yelled to toasted toad tent that we would sleep in, in the hope that it would stop raining in the next couple of hours. It didn't and an hour later toasted toad told us that the inside of his tent got wet. So we decided to get up. We got lucky and had a few minutes without rain and were able to pack our tent. My backpack got a bit wet but not bad. We started hiking and just after we had lunch in the rain, it stopped raining and our rain clothes started to dry. We hopped this was the rain for today but unfortunately not. The last hill before the shelter the rain started again and this time it just poured down. Even with rain clothes we got soaked. Arriving at the shelter we had to find out that we didn't have space. The hikers who had stayed last night didn't hike on but stayed in the dry shelter and took up all the space. This made us really mad but what could we do? We can't make them leave and they were selfish enough to not care about us. We didn't have a choice and hiked 3 more miles to a campsite. We got lucky again and the rain stopped for those 5 minutes which it takes us to set up our tent. Our tent is wet inside and out, but it still keeps the rain out. I hope it does so the rest of the night. I cooked in the rain and we ate inside the tent. Our backpacks are wet, our rain clothes are soaked and only because we carry everything in extra rain safe bags we had dry clothes we could change into. Now we hope we have sun tomorrow and we will be able to dry everything. If not, I really don't know what to do!
Date: 2014-05-16
From: lick Creek campsite

To: Davis farm campsite
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: broken clouds

It had stopped raining in the night and then I was finally able to go to pee. I don't like to go when its raining because I get too wet. And not only because I had to go to the bathroom also due to strange noises I woke up quite often. I heard some scratching and I heard a tree fall. Both noises that I don't like! We hadn't hanged our bear bag last night because it poured down when we went to bed, and at night I was scared of animals smelling the food and coming to our tent. We slept in and got up when toasted toad woke us. We tried to hang everything in the hope it would dry. By the time we packed our tent was almost dry, the clothes unfortunately not. I hanged my rain jacket over my backpack so it could dry while walking. After the lunch it was dry and I was able to do the same with my rain pants. Just when both was dry the rain started again. It also hailed and toasted toad told us that here hail often comes with tornadoes. So we took shelter under a big rock and waited for the storm to pass. It cleared up a bit later and we were able to go a bit further. We didn't do as many miles as planned, the changing of clothes and unplanned breaks took up too much time. We put up our tent on an unofficial tent site without water. Fortunately we have enough for the night. It already looks like rain again and it is extremely cold for may. Now we planned the next few days and had to realize that we have a water source only about every ten miles. This means we have to carry more water over longer distances, which also means more weight! There are also not many tent sites in this area and it will always be a bit of luck if we find a good one where we would like to stay.
Date: 2014-05-17
From: Davis farm campsite

To: campsite
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: overcast clouds

It is great to wake up and see the sun shining into our tent! We had a really cold night, I don't think the temperature was higher than 40? Fahrenheit and the wind made it feel even colder. It was still cold in the morning and the breeze kept going all day. We never felt really warm today except when we were hiking uphill, we had 2 high hills and a few small ones. It looked like it was going to rain all day and we kept our rain gear on but we got lucky, it never rained where we were. But we could see the rain from where we were! Our maps, books and apps don't give us much information about the region where we are hiking right now. So already when we started this morning we couldn't say where we would sleep tonight. We had no idea where we would find a tent site. Sometimes its so easy to find one and on other days you don't find one within 2 or 3 miles. We said we will do at least 12 miles and then start looking for a tent site. We hiked 16 miles until we found a place where we could put our tents up. It is not a tent site but an old forest road which is not in use anymore. It is just far enough from a paved road so driving by cars can't see us. For the same reason we didn't make a fire. We just don't want to give bad ideas to bad people! It looks like we will have another cold night but at least the place seems almost wind still. We have right now 6? Celsius in our tent! Good news: the rhododendron started to bloom! It looks beautiful and more flowers to come!
Date: 2014-05-18
From: campsite

To: crandon campsite
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

It had started to rain last night just after I had finished writing the Blog. But it didn't for long and our tent was just a little wet in the morning. We had slept in till 8:30am and made a slow start. We knew we would only go 12 miles today. The sun shone all day and we enjoyed the warmer temperature. Marco hurt himself tripping over a rock. I was glad we had toasted toad with us who had a look at his foot. But it was all good and marco was able to hike on. The foot looks good its not swollen and it doesn't hurt him anymore. I'm really glad because it looked bad for a moment. We have now a quarter of the trail done! But I am scared we will not make it in the time limit our visa gives us. From today we have about 120 days left for hiking. We have to be on mount kathadin, get off, and get to a border before the 23rd of September. This means we have to do 13.3 miles every day without a day of! It sounds impossible to me and it stresses me.When marco was hurt and we had to take zero days, not knowing if we can hike on, we decided to try to go as far as Harpers ferry (official half way). We would be proud of us if we make it that far and that we decide when we are there if we want to go further. I think that's a good plan but I also think we should be there soon enough so it actually is possible to decide to go all the way! We have arguments about it because I would like to push forward. On the other hand I know that we shouldn't pressure our bodies because this is when injuries occur. We have heard of so many people who had to leave the trail because they have pushed too hard and got hurt. The third thought is: this is supposed to be a vacation and fun! But it's not when you have to do a certain mileage every day without being able to take a zero day or do an extra trail to a water fall because of no time or being too tired. Honestly, we don't know what to do. For now we just keep hiking, knowing what we should be doing and decide every day new, change our plans by the hour and see how far we get. Happy trail!
Date: 2014-05-19
From: crandon campsite

To: big horse gap
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We got up early to hike 6 miles to a gas station where they serve cheap food and offer shower and laundry for a good price. We were also able to do a small resupply there since we thought it would take us two more days to get to the next town. We got there before 11am and had showered and the laundry running by 12am. Then we had a great lunch, cheap and a lot better than expected. We enjoyed to relax in the sun until the laundry was done. We only wanted to go 5 more miles. We got to a blue blaze trail after maybe 2 miles to a water fall. Marco and me went down and enjoyed the beautiful place while toasted toad made a phone call home. His family had some bad news and the next few miles he hiked really fast, in silence and in deep thoughts. Then he took a break and made some more phone calls. He said he had fixed everything and it should be fine and that now he could hike more miles. So we decided to keep hiking since all of us felt very good. We did a lot more miles than planned, we hiked some of it on a side trail that was rocky but fun and we found a good tent site just before it got dark. We will probably be already in town by tomorrow night and hopefully get wifi! We haven't had wifi/Internet for a week and I look forward to check my email and read the news.
Date: 2014-05-20
From: big horse gap

To: pearisburg
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We got up early and hiked as fast as possible the 12 miles to town. It was an easy hike on the ridge and we came along some great view points. We posted some pictures! But then came the steep downhill. It was really bad and our feet and knees hurt badly. We had thought about going into town, resupply and go a few more miles. But after the downhill we knew we wouldn't go on today. We got us a room at a bad motel. I think they made the price higher because of hiker season. I don't think they would have anyone staying for this price usually. We decided to share a room with toasted toad. Like that we paid each as much as we would have paid for the hikers bunk room. Anyway the room had a hot shower, 2 beds and a bathroom. We don't really need more!We did grocery shopping and went for dinner at an all you can eat Asian restaurant. The food was okay and we didn't leave hungry. We had beer in the hotel room, watched tv while we checked our emails and went to bed early.
Date: 2014-05-21
From: pearisburg

To: symms gap Meadow
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up a few times and wasn't sure what time it is and what time we wanted to get up, so I just kept dreaming until toasted toad got up. We had slept till 8:30am and it felt great. The two men went for breakfast, i don't like the fast food breakfast and stayed at the motel. I had good orange/mango juice and donuts while I try to pack. My pack is a lot heavier today than the last two days. Marco had taken some of my luggage since he didn't have much food to carry. Now I had those things back plus some of the food. But marcos pack is even worse. He has at least 14 pounds of food. We had a horrible steep uphill to climb this morning and it was no fun with the heavy pack. We took many breaks and wondered a few times why we were doing that! We each hiked our own pace today and waited for each other when we took water breaks.Marco saw a deer and a snake! Plus he hiked additional miles because he had lost the trail once and followed a dirt road for about a mile until he realized it wasn't the trail. We found out later that it had not only happened to him. Since our packs are so heavy and the hill was a bady we decided to camp early and not to do as many miles as planned. Weather forecast said we will have rain and thunderstorm tonight and tomorrow. So far its still dry but all around us we can see rain. We hope it goes past us!
Date: 2014-05-22
From: symms gap Meadow

To: Bailey gap shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: overcast clouds

The thunderstorm came around midnight last night. We had chosen an extremely exposed tent site on top of a hill with only a few trees. We knew it wasn't great with the thunderstorm warning out but we didn't have much of a choice. So when the lighting started I was really scared. It was mainly cloud to cloud lighting and we didn't hear much thunder. I think it wasn't a bad thunderstorm. But what really scared me was the storm, it shook our tent hard and I just hoped it wouldn't rip. Marco woke up too and tried to calm me. Finally we both got back to sleep and the storm went on. When we woke up the tent was still in one piece, lucky us!It took us a while to get up and going. We all had a bad night, not enough and no good sleep. We all didn't feel like hiking, we needed breaks every mile and were just a lot slower than usually. After 7 miles we got to the first shelter and had our lunch break there. Marco has a swollen Achilles on his left foot and we decided not to go as far as planned. His pain got worse but he wanted to keep hiking to the next shelter. There should be another thunderstorm tonight and I think that's why he wanted to go as far as the shelter (he didn't want another night with a scared lady in his tent!). I know we haven't done our required miles but health comes first! I hope the few miles and early rest helps all of us to have more power tomorrow. I know our bodies would need more rest but right now that's all we can do. Another hiker showed me his credit/debit calculation, I think I will start doing that. It makes sense to know when we can take another near0 or even a zero. We saw 4 snakes today, 4 too many in my opinion! Two small ones, one about 2 feet long, one about 4 feet long! All none poisonous, but the big one was a Indigo snake and they can bite really bad.My shoes got ripped by the stones, they will definitely not make it to mount kathadin! We saw beautiful wild orchids - see pics.
Date: 2014-05-23
From: Bailey gap shelter

To: laurel creek shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: clear sky

The night in the shelter wasn't great. Toasted toad had told me that sometimes snakes hunt in the shelter since there are usually mice. Whenever I woke up I was scared and wondered if there was a snake crawling around. Marcos foot is better today and he took some painkillers. We did some good miles. We were trying to figure out our next few days till resupply. We are still not sure what we should do. We see how far we get tomorrow and probably just have to take it day by day. We had some great views which meant we had some mean up- and downhills. We were really exhausted by the time we arrived at the shelter. Our dinner tonight was tasty and enough. We had an Asian noodle dinner and had added a ramen soup and pistachios. We will definitely do that again!
Date: 2014-05-24
From: laurel creek shelter

To: Craig Creek valley
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: clear sky

Last night I woke up feeling sick. It didn't get better and in the morning we decided to sleep a little longer in the hope it would get better. It didn't, but we got up anyways, packed and left. Toasted toad made the pacemaker, he's usually the slowest of the three of us, today I could barely keep up. We took many breaks and I started to feel better in the afternoon. Its memorial Day weekend and we had really hoped for some trail magic, but there was none today where we crossed roads. In the afternoon the hiker bandana bill catched up with us. We had met him before and he's a lot of fun. So we hiked with two old men today who both are fitter than me...We camp in a beautiful valley surrounded by creeks and forest. I'm glad its not raining, then it would be a wet and muddy place.
Date: 2014-05-25
From: Craig Creek valley

To: 4 Pines hostel
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: clear sky

Our day was full of surprises. Bandana bill woke us up as agreed at 7am. He had already left camp when I got out of the tent. Then the hiker mighty blue passed us, he slack packed today and I felt really jealous. He told us about a hostel 16 miles from where we were and that this town has an all you can eat home style restaurant. I decided right then that we would hike those 16 miles today. We had to hike a long long uphill first thing in the morning. We hiked up for 3 miles! On the top a girl waited there doing trail magic! She has thru hiked 2011 and now she came back to do trail magic. That was a great surprise! She told us that she lived just across from the hostel and I just had to ask her if she would take our bags there and we could do slack packing. She agreed and made our day. Thank you so much! The rest of the hike would have been horrible with a pack on. It was more or less some hard uphill and rock climbing downhill. It took us longer than expected but we made it to the hostel and were able to go to the restaurant. Now I'm stuffed, drinking an apple cider, talking to other hikers and just enjoy to be not on the trail for the moment. We tent since the hostel doesn't seem to be too clean, like most of the hostels so far. We plan to hike into Daleville in two days. There we will have an own motel room, wifi and a laundromat. So exciting!
Date: 2014-05-26
From: 4 Pines hostel

To: Lambert Meadow campsite
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: clear sky

Today we started full of expectations. We are two months on the trail today, we will pass the 770 miles mark and we knew we would pass McAfee knob. Its probably the most famous place on the AT! Marco had put this place on his bucket list when he saw a picture of it. Its also a tourist attraction and we passed several day hikers when we went up. It wasn't as crowded as we had expected it to be. I guess mainly because you have to hike 4 miles uphill to get there!The view was extraordinary great, the best so far! And we took many pictures sitting on the very edge of the rock.We decided to go as far as possible today so we would make it to town early tomorrow. It meant that we had to hike on. Otherwise we probably would have just stayed there. We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up at a hunting place of two weird guys. So we had to hike straight up through the woods to get back on the trail. By the time we got to tinker cliffs the sun was setting and my feet, ankles and knees hurt. Due to the late hour we saw a bunch of deers grazing, they didn't really care about us until we took the camera out. Then they left before we could take pictures. Finally we made it to the tent site. Dinner was fast cooked since we made hot dogs and then we went to bed. Hoping we make it out of bed early tomorrow morning.
Date: 2014-05-27
From: Lambert Meadow campsite

To: Daleville
Miles today: 9.8

We got up at 6 am, we want to get to Daleville as fast as possible. So we made those 9 miles with only a few short breaks. On the way down from the ridge I kept scanning the ground fo snakes, knowing they love the hot temperature we have now. All of a sudden I hear it rattling just ahead of me. My body stopped before my mind knew what it was. Then I saw the huge rattlesnake just two meters in front of me lying on the trail being really mad! We waited for toasted toad, he's not scared of snakes, so he moved it with his hiking pole out of the way. This made her even less happy, but she stayed under a log and let us pass. This meeting made me unhappy, knowing it will not be the last poisonous snake I will meet on the trail. We got to town, met a bunch of old hiker friends at the outfitter and the motel we are staying at. We did the usual town errands and weren't able to enjoy the pool We tried to figure out how to do aqua blazing down the Shenandoah river. One of the company is out of business, the other is extremely expensive and doesn't really give the service we want. Now we don't know what to do. We both looked forward to do the aqua blazing/canoeing and our bodies would need the break. If you have any idea, recommendations or a boat/canoe you would like to rent us, please leave me a note. We expect to be there in about 10 days. I hope to be able to get online before, but I can't promise. But I will definitely be online as soon as we are in Waynesboro. Thank you!
Date: 2014-05-28
From: Daleville

To: fullhardt knob shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: broken clouds

It's so hard to leave town! We slept in this morning and went for breakfast at a coffee place. Then we went to the outfitter again. Marcos boots are falling apart. The sole comes off and the front is completely damaged. He got himself a pair of shoes from salewa. They aren't boots but also not trail runners, something in between with good vibram soles. And since we were there and they had shoes on sale I got me a pair too! I got almost the same as marco. Since my boots aren't broken yet, I decided to send them north. I think I could use them in the "real" mountains in new Hampshire. For now I'm glad I have some lighter shoes. I also got me a new headlamp, now I'm ready to do some real night hiking! After shopping we went back to the motel, packed and checked out. Then we did our emails which we haven't finished yesterday and some other online stuff. We were in no hurry to leave town so we went for lunch at pizza hut. I definitely didn't feel like hiking, but we finally left town around 3pm. We did our planned 5 miles to the first shelter. There was a lot of trash from other people who haven't carried out. Marco cleaned up but we will not carry it out, we have enough ourselves. We decided to sleep in our tent and just hope the trash doesn't attract bears. I can't believe other hikers are so ignorant! They come in the woods to enjoy nature and then leave it like that. Please, when you go to the woods carry your trash out so future visitors and generations have also nature they can enjoy!
Date: 2014-05-29
From: fullhardt knob shelter

To: bobblets gap shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

We got an early start and were able to hike 8 miles till noon. I felt very good in the morning but after lunch I just couldn't get myself motivated. We are hiking along the blue Ridge Parkway. This is a road with parking lots at all the view points. You don't even have to leave the car to see the pretty sights. For me, that's typically American! All day today we had clouds and we were just waiting for the rain. There was no question if it would rain, the question was when. At noon the fog had reached the ridge and we didn't see any of the views. We thought about hiking along the road for it has less steep up and downs. But we didn't, I guess these ideas come when the motivation is low.We made it early to the shelter. Unfortunately it has no big tentspots so we decided to sleep in the shelter. Later more hikers came in and now the shelter is full. Just when we had finished dinner the rain finally came bringing a thunderstorm with it. We had to find out that the shelter isn't built properly. The rain comes in at the front. Due to that I haven't taken my sleeping bag out yet, it would get wet...
Date: 2014-05-30
From: bobblets gap shelter

To: Bryant ridge shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

We had quite a thunderstorm last night and I was glad we slept in the shelter. Even so a mouse tried to eat my hair! We got up late since marco read the time wrong, I think nobody did really mind. It was foggy in the morning but got hot and humid around noon. We stopped for lunch at a river and bathed our feet, it felt great. But hiking more afterwards was really tough. We had another steep uphill to climb, halfway up toasted toad and me needed a break. We couldn't really motivate ourselves to go on and I seriously started to think about quitting. This uphill/downhill thing is so annoying. I guess you wondered about our mileage since I wrote that we passed the 700 mile mark. I know our mileage doesn't sax the same miles. One reason is when we went off trail because of marcos feet, we didn't make up for all the miles. The other reason is that I probably did some wrong calculation and the book I use is from 2012, the mileage isn't correct anymore. Our maps, the app our book and the new book never agree on the miles, so just take it as an estimate. I will fix the mileage when we get to Harpers Ferry, there we will know exactly at what mileage we are.