morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-04-25
From: Past Dragons Tooth

To: Laurel Creek Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

Hey everybody, I am here to update on the last few days. It is the morning of the 25th. Basically after Woods Hole, Wild Blue and I did a twenty-mile day, camped out. And then we did a 27 mile day to Laurel Creek Shelter where we slept in today. We ran into some really cool terrain. There are definitely some nice flat ridges up here in Virginia, and then it also changes from flat into really rocky ridges. Somebody even wrote on a rock, ¢Go back to Pennsylvania¢ to a few of the rocks, so I guess it must be more like PA terrain. I guess we will find that out later. Yeah, really beautiful days. Yesterday around five we got rained on, and then again at nine cause we were hiking through the night. We had a nice swim at a place called The Captains, where you zip line across this river to stay at the Captain¢s house. We did not stay there but he had nice swimming hole, so we got in and took a little bath, and then kept on walking. Hopefully tonight we will do a bunch of miles. We have done about twenty and do some full moon walking. So that is it.
Date: 2013-04-26
From: Past Pearisburg, VA

To: Past Dragons Tooth
Miles today: 30.0

Here Wild Blue and I are on top of the Dragon¢s Tooth late night on the 25th. We hiked about 27 miles, and may do a few more, I don¢t know if we will do more than that. It is about 11:30 p.m. We had a slow start to the morning, got started around 11 a.m. and took our time on the first ten miles and then we busted out the next ten pretty quick and we got to the Addie Murphy monument, WWII decorated vet, and there was a monument at the top. Then we walked this amazing ridgeline. We had a beautiful sunset along that ridge. We were tempted to sit and stop but it was just as good to slowly walk that ridge and watch the sun go down behind the mountain. It had the classic Blue Ridge look to all the mountains, which was awesome. We were doing some full moon hiking and we were climbing the next mountain, Dragon¢s Tooth. It was about five miles up from the valley. We got on top of the ridge and it was really rocky and hard to see how to go so it was slow. But we finally made it to the Dragon¢s Tooth where we are sitting right now, this kind of rock monolith. Pretty cool. You can see all the valleys around us, 360 degrees around, just pretty awesome.¢Anything from you Wild Blue? ¢My feet hurt!¢ His feet hurt which is very true, this is a very true fact.
Date: 2013-04-27
From: Past Dragons Tooth

To: Daleville
Miles today: 27.0

So day before yesterday we hiked about 30 miles, ending past Dragon¢s Tooth camping just past the road -- so yesterday we hiked from the foot bridge and did about 26 miles into Daleville. We went over McKaffey Knob, excellent viewpoint, a bit more tourist like, but a really nice trail and then really nice rock cropping outlook, beautiful views. Then we headed down on got on top of Tinker Cliffs, after a nice ridgeline walk, and then descended down into Daleville. And right before we got into Daleville I looked over into this little field and thought I saw a stump, but it turned out to be a bear, so we got our second bear sighting. It was pretty cool, just a little guy hanging out in the field. I got a bad picture of him. But it was cool to see another bear and this time not while I was not sleeping!   That is always a good thing. So I am here in Daleville, taking a rest day. I will start walking tomorrow. It is going to rain a bunch this next week, so just kind of mentally preparing to being wet! Other than that, all is well, it feels good not to walking today. Yeah, that is basically it.
Date: 2013-04-29
From: Daleville

To: Cove Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, hey everybody. It is April 29. I just got done with two rest days in Daleville. We stayed at the Howard Johnson hotel there and now we did about 25 miles out of Daleville. We are staying at the Cove Mountain Shelter. It was a pretty smooth 25 today. We thought it was going to rain, but in the morning it just misted. It was actually a perfect weather for hiking. Fog just rolled in. Fog everywhere. You could not see much else around you except the path you were walking and a very small surrounding area for the first half of the day. It was really beautiful. It has just rained a lot so everything was really green, nice bright, light green color. It was cool because everything just now started budding out here in the lower altitudes. There are still a few trees that have not quite budded yet, but it is getting to be a different atmosphere with a lot of leaves starting to bud. Yeah, then we walked along the Blue Ridge Parkway for the rest of the day, a really mellow terrain, not too rocky, not too up and down, just nice and flat and smooth.   So we will see. We will try to get up early tomorrow and see what we can do, and push off from there. So it was pretty good day. Ended up being beautiful. I think it is supposed to clear up and not rain too much this week which is a positive. All right that is about it.
Date: 2013-05-04
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Waynesboro
Miles today: 90.0

Hey guys, it¢s May 3rd. I haven¢t had voice recording for about three days and I am bit confused where I may have left off, so let me start back from Daleville and work my way through. From Daleville we went about 25 miles to Cove Mountain Shelter and from there we had a lot of up, about 3,000, then 4,000 feet, a total of about 7,000 feet of uphill on the one day.   We ended up staying at Matt¢s Creek Shelter. It was a beautiful day. All the mornings have been foggy and cool this whole section, but everything is budding green. From Matt¢s Creek Shelter we did another 30 mile day to Fresh Grounds at Hog Camp Gap. Another day of 4,000 uphill at the beginning and then another 3,000 at the end of the day, so a lot of uphill going on. It was pretty good stuff. We made good time and it was beautiful terrain. At Hog Camp Gap we caught this really awesome sunset, it basically sat for what felt like an hour and half, the sky was red forever. Really awesome. Then we got up real early at Fresh Grounds, by 5:45 and saw the sunrise, so I got a sunset and sunrise at the same place really pretty awesome views there. After Fresh Grounds and after four hot dogs, chicken, then breakfast with pancakes and eggs with sausage and completely full, we ended up doing another 30 mile day yesterday, we ended up sleeping, not at a shelter but just by the side of the trail, and we walked up this big mountain called Three Ridges Mountain. That was a biggest climb of the day. That took us good little while. We ended up camping at about 8:40, so that would put us at around 32 and half miles for the day. That was yesterday. We got in late. We took our time during the day. Now here on the 3rd I got up around 5:30 and started walking around 6:00 or so and we have already done 12-13 miles and we are going to try to make it another 30 miles today. We are just outside Waynesboro, about five miles out, so we will get into Waynesboro in pretty good time. So that is about it. Bye guys.
Date: 2013-05-05
From: Waynesboro

To: Lewis Mountain Campground
Miles today: 29.0

Well, hello there ¢ it 5/5/13. Today was pretty cool day. I got to rejoin with Mr. Josh Garrison. We started our hike at Doyle Creek Parking Lot and we are ending at Lewis Mountain Campground. A beautiful day for hiking, around 40-50 degrees most of the day, it was perfect, good sunshine. We are going to get rained on the next few days so will see what happens with and will have to stay warm.We saw some, well, Josh has a growing interest in birds, so far in the first day back, so we looked at a lot of birds. I feel like I have learned quite a bit about plants and stuff in the short hike we had with Roger and Michelle, so that was cool. Last night we stayed at a hotel. That was really nice. I got a good shower and I ate a lot of buffet stuff. Yeah, a beautiful night so far tonight, hopefully it stays that way cause I am not going to put up my tarp. That is it.
Date: 2013-05-06
From: Lewis Mountain Campground

To: Elk Wallow Wayside
Miles today: 35.0

Well, here¢s the Joshes hanging out in our spot on the 6th. We just went from Lewis Mountain Campground all the way to Elk Wallow Wayside, which is about 35 miles. It was unintentional. We got a nice misting for most of the day. We were only trying to go to Pass Mountain Hut, but when we got there at 8:00 it was basically packed. So we decided to keep going and we just got dumped on. We had already done 31 miles and it was 9:00 and getting dark and we did another four in the dark and it just rained on us the whole way. So we made to this Elk Wallow Wayside and we are going to get up in the morning before anyone spots us and yells at us for sleeping in the little room of gasoline that we are in. Hopefully that will work well. We might have to take it slow tomorrow cause we definitely have some soreness going on. The incidental 35, not always the highlight.Josh G: Tell them about the hamburger.Josh L: Oh, yeah, we stopped at Skyline Resort and Restaurant and we crushed this hummus plate, and this huge hamburger with steak fries, and we then both got a chocolate dessert. It was unbelievable. And then that went away in about an hour cause we just kept walking.   Yep pretty full on day today.Anything to add Josh?Josh G: Did we learn any lessons today?Josh L: Did we learn any lessons today? You are asking me? Yes. When you are wet and cold, keep walking. Or stop at the shelter before the pack gets there. Those are the two lessons. Basically we had to keep walking cause we would have possibly gotten hypothermic. Okay that is it.
Date: 2013-05-09
From: Elk Wallow Wayside

To: Myron Glasser Cabin
Miles today: 22.0

Hey, today is May 9th. We started out from Ft. Royal after a rest day there, where we sat around, watched basketball, iced feet, and just basically relaxed. And ate food.We started around 10:45 from Front Royal, a beautiful day. We had a really beautiful day, we thought it was going to rain, but it did not rain today which was fantastic. The rain has made everything a lot greener today. We walked through some beautiful field areas where there were a lot of this flower called Trillium, it has three leaves in pink and white, just fields of them and even through the forest. We also identified some birds. Let¢s see if we can identify them. We heard a bunch of Towhee and then saw this little redbird but I cannot remember the name.Do you remember Josh?I think it was the Red Warbler.It was a cool day. Our only problem is that we are hitting some grassy areas and are starting to hit some ticks. I ripped off two ticks and Josh got two or three. So we have to keep a lookout for ticks.We stopped today at the Myron Glasser Cabin and we are sleeping on the porch.   So it is not really a cabin but a locked building in the middle of the woods with a picnic table. So we are sleeping near the cabin. We did around 22 miles today. A good day. Hopefully we get a similar day tomorrow and we will get into Harper¢s Ferry by tomorrow.
Date: 2013-05-10
From: Myron Glasser Cabin

To: Torrelone's Restaurant
Miles today: 22.0

Well here Josh and I are eating dinner at Torrelone¢s Pizza Bar and Restaurant. We had a pretty good day today. We went through the roller coaster section of Virginia, which is not nearly as fun as a roller coaster. It is not very aptly named. In fact it made me want to go to a roller coaster park and ride some roller coasters! And eat a ton of funnel cake with whip cream on it, down some cotton candy and drink a large soda, and then ride some rides. Instead I was just walking up and down hills a bunch of times, which is why it¢s named the Roller Coaster.We got into a lightening storm in the evening, late in the day, hiking in the dark and rain to this restaurant. Pretty cool day though.   Really hot and humid, we were sweating for most of the day and that we got rained and it is now colder. We saw 4-5 Rat snakes. The first one we saw was 3.5 to 4 feet long, fat, huge snake. Then we saw this other snake that was like black and yellow checkered, which was cool. I don¢t know what it was.So a good day. I don¢t know if we will keep hiking or what, will see after dinner. And that is about it.
Date: 2013-05-11
From: Torrelone's Restaurant

To: Pine Tree in Maryland
Miles today: 22.0

Here we are again, May 11 2013. We are hanging out in a field where some civil war battles took place, a historic site. We are sleeping under a pine tree I think on someone¢s property, not sure on that, but a pretty sick spot. Hopefully today was the last day of getting rained on. Basically been rained on the last three or four days in a row, at least some part of the day. We got rained on, not too bad, but a hard thunderstorm this afternoon. I think it is supposed to clear up in the next few days, at least we hope it does that.So another good day today coming out of Harper¢s Ferry and got to hook up with my good friends Colin and Brendan Hickey, so I guess this is a good point to talk about all the people I got to see so far on this trip -- Jon Spicher and his brother came down and visited me in Daleville, then Joe and Erica came and visited for a little bit, and then Mattias Clymer hiked with me, and now Brendan and Colin. And of course my mom! So definitely feeling a lot of support. It is good to see people at different points. It is a fun change of pace to hike with somebody for a little bit. It is pretty awesome. So Josh and I are just chilling under this tree and hoping it's not going to rain here for the next few hours which is what it is expected to do, but we will see what happens. That is about it. Oh, we are Maryland. That is cool. We went through West Virginia and the long Virginia haul is over. And that is it.
Date: 2013-05-12
From: Pine Tree in Maryland

To: Pennsylvania Border
Miles today: 22.0

Well today we walked through most of Maryland. We are on the border of MD and PA. We hope to reach Waynesboro, PA tomorrow. We walked about 22 miles for today. The terrain was flat, some rocks, a rocky section, but mainly a cruiser trail. Last night¢s bivey spot under that lone pine where we were close to a rock overlook, here it is open. There is a road close to here just below us.We walked through some historic terrain today. We saw the first Washington monument that was built in Maryland. We walked passed the Annapolis Rocks and some other historical sights. The AT goes right by the Washington Monument, and it was cool to go up there and see it. We spent the day walking through basically civil war history. Where we slept last night was a spot where people at one point in time were fighting, a big part of history, so it was interesting to walk through this area. We saw a really awesome bright orange bird I think it might have been an Oriole or a Tangier.Tomorrow we get into Waynesboro. We will take a day off. We have some soreness and injury stuff going on and we need to take care of that. So I think we will go until the 22nd and then try to get off the trail on the 23rd and fly home on the 24th for my mom¢s birthday. So wishing her a happy mother¢s day cause we are just out here in the woods and I think today is that day. Yeah, today was a rougher day for myself, just like mentally. I don¢t know what makes the difference. But just felt a little bit lower motivation. It brought into perspective, you know, thought about you mom and wanting to stay out here for the fundraiser, and for you, and just pushing through some of that mental tiredness, more than physical tiredness, cause the miles are smaller. But overall, really beautiful sunset tonight, not bad. Just had one of those days for a couple of hours where you just want to sit in a Jacuzzi or something, but overall not a bad day.And that is it for today.
Date: 2013-05-13
From: Pennsylvania Border

To: First night in PA
Miles today: 25.0

Hey guys, today, this is my birthday, May 15. Today we left our hotel where we had been a couple of nights in Waynesboro, PA. We were hanging out. Josh got a new pair of shoes in the mail. We watched some basketball, kind of took it easy and ate a lot of food. We started hiking today around 10 or 10:30. Yeah, I had a good birthday today.PA started pretty flat and not too many views to look out, but we did see a rattlesnake on the trail. It is always freaky when you come across a snake on the trail, whoever is in front jumps like three feet backwards, so Josh G. jumped backwards into me because I was riding his heels. Then later I almost stepped on this little snake. I did not even see him. We checked him out for a while.We also found this cool bouldering rock and we ended up with some climbing during the break, we made two or three routes on it, fun to mess around. Nothing serious, but it had a nice crack and we got some a nice hand jam in and some crimps going. So it was fun.Other than that we are sleeping under this sweet tree for protection in case it rains. I don¢t think it will rain but you never know.Anything else Josh?The Zebra cakes, dude.Oh yeah I ate some Zebra cakes for my birthday and they are not as good as I remember. I bought a whole box of them in Waynesboro and it has been like a suffer fest to get through them, so basically taking Zebra cakes to the face, pretty disgusting. Let¢s see that is basically it. Nothing else to say about today, other than tomorrow we will probably try to do bigger days to end the trip. All right that is it.
Date: 2013-05-16
From: First night in PA

To: Boiling Springs
Miles today: 36.0

Well today we had a good day, 36 mile hike. We got rained on in the morning, sprinkling but the tree protected us pretty well. We just laid the tarps over us, draped over during the rain. We got up at 6 and were on the AT by 6:30. First two and half hours were sprinkling off and on and then it dried up and even got hot.Highlights from today, we saw some cool birds, another Scarlett Tangier, bright orange bird. I saw a huge red headed woodpecker and a wild turkey that scared the begees out of me. I was about ten feet from it an then it took off flying and startled me in that moment.We ran into some cool rocks, the rock maze they call it. There were some established boulder problems that we checked. We could not do much about it cause we did not have climbing shoes or bouldering pads, so we played around on the rocks and climbed for about an hour. And then we went into Boiling Springs had a pizza and then we hiked another four miles tonight. We are camped alongside the trail. Did I miss anything Josh G?Uh, I ¢¦uhJosh does not know. Well Josh is zoned out, ready to sleep and listening to the nighttime entertainment.That is about it. A clear night tonight.
Date: 2013-05-17
From: Duncannon

To: Duncannon
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: broken clouds

Well, here we are, what is the date? It is Friday. We had an easier day today. We hiked out of Boiling Springs toward Duncannon where we were today. Mixed fields and flat today, some mountains. A small taste of what is coming in PA by way of the rock though we have not hit the rocks yet.It was a good day, not a lot happened. We did go swimming in the river which was glorious. We have not had many rivers where we can do that. It was great to just sit down and wash up, very pleasant.We hiked the four miles into Duncannon. We had a little rage Session into Duncannon we went a lot faster. Got there and got the package, restocked, then went for ice cream.We saw John Spicher and Jason. They took us into Hershey so we went into the Trogues Brewing company. It was nice to hang out.Tomorrow we will just feel the day out. It may be our last full day of hiking. We will hike on Sunday and meet Josh¢s parents and maybe hike some with them. So that is the idea right there, and that is it for tonight.
Date: 2013-05-18
From: Duncannon

To: Mining Site in PA
Miles today: 23.0

Today is May the 18th. We had a pretty good day today, relatively casual. We got and started around 8:00. We had decent views off the side of a great ridgeline. We had this little mix up at the beginning. Josh climbed a boulder. He thought I was doing something else and I walked right past him. He did not know I went passed him. I stopped. He stopped. We were confused and not sure for a couple of hours where the other one was at, so we could not figure out if we were ahead or behind of each other. But it worked itself out.We found this nice little river around 3:00 and took a nap, and got a good wash on. That was nice. Then we hiked another few miles. We are not sure where we are right now, camped by an old mining site.   We did about 23 miles. I did almost step on a rat snake today. It was about three and half feet long. I almost stepped right on its head, just did not see it. Not a rattler, a rat snake, big black snake.Did I miss anything Josh?No, don¢t think so.So tomorrow is our last day, tonight our last night. It is going to rain on us.And that is about it for today.
Date: 2013-03-09
From: AmicalOla fall cabin

To: Campfire
Miles today: 0.0

Kickoff has been great. Joel Zachary spoke last night on black bears. Brother and I walked back afterwards under the night sky to the cabin. Spent the evening with the family next to our fire drinking wine and telling stories. I awoke and walked the mile to the lodge this morning. 2 more siblings arrive today. Gene espy, and David AWOL miller will be talking soon. Time for a stroll. Gorgeous weather outside. I turn 30 tomorrow.
Date: 2013-03-13
From: Neels Gap, Mountain Crossings Hostel

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 31.7
Weather: few clouds

So its been a few days since my last entry. I haven't had any internet access since I left the cabin at Amicalola Falls. Monday, March 11, day 1 was interesting. My brother, our friend Aubry Hatch and I were dropped off by my parents at the Springer Mountain parking lot and away we went. The weather was brisk and humid, with a mystical fog surrounding us and a 60% chance of rain on the forecast. We knew it was going to rain, but were not anticipating the dumping we received. we trucked along, stopping at Hawk mountain shelter for water and a snack break. we encountered a handful of thru hikers waiting out the storm. We decided to continue ahead pushing for our destination: Justus Mountain, 12.8 miles from where we started. We were about 20 minutes away from setting up camp when it began to dump down on us. Pack covers and rain shells went on, and ahead we trudged. Soaked, my brother set up his 3 person tent while Aubry constructed his minimalist tarp shelter. Wet and cold, but in good spirits, we piled in Coreys tent and ate Indian food and drank Sailor Jerry's Rum. I think it rained around 9 hours. I slept pretty well, falling into a deep sleep. The temp got down to a frigid 28 degrees. yikesDay 2, March 12, began cold and wet, but the sun came out and ended up being beautiful. After packing up camp, I said goodbye to Corey and Aubry and continued ahead on to Lance's Creek campsite. There I was in the company of 25+ thru hikers all avoiding the bear canister law. Infinally got to set up the hammock and soundly did I sleep. I had a dream involving a bear...it was quite lucid. I also met a really nice group of hikers that I'm in the company of tonight at the hostel. Dinner is almost ready here, and I'm using the community laptop, so I will depart now. My next destination is Low Gap shelter, 11.5 miles away from Neels Gap. ten four