morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-11-16
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 1568.5
Weather: clear sky

I am switching to daily journal entries to break up the previously rather long posts. I also think that it will help me keep track of what I'm writing. So, I didn't really hike 1568.5 miles today, but from now on the miles at the top of my journal should be accurate for what I've hiked. As of today, I have 605.5 miles left.After I left the library in Pearisburg, where I wrote my last post, we headed back to the motel and watched it snow for the whole rest of the day. Woodward came over to our room because Tartar Sauce kept throwing up and felt really bad. We eventually hit the sack, and at midnight I awoke to find an ambulance idling outside of our room. Tartar Sauce went to the hospital and ended up having to get off of the trail. I woke up in the morning ready to head out of town. I had talked Clay (Woodward) into finishing on the 15th with me, but he ended up having to stay in town to watch Tartar Sauce and Squigglywhampus' stuff. Clay, El Prez and I grabbed lunch at Dairy Queen and I headed out of town at 12:30 with 16.6 miles to do. I got attacked by a little ankle-biter dog walking out of town and had to repeatedly hit it in the face with my walking sticks while the little girl that owned it kept shouting its name from the front porch. I felt kind of bad hitting her dog in the face with a stick while she watched, but I wasn't a big fan of being bitten on the leg by some stupid dog, either, and figured it'd look even worse if I kicked it in the face and sent it flying across the street. The climb out of town was pretty intense, and after I was about halfway up, I got into accumulated snow (it hadn't stuck in town). This was my first walking in snow experience on the trail, and my shoes got thoroughly soaked. There were some cool views from the ridge, and it started to get dark just as I got into the area of the shelter. The Companion said that the shelter was 1/10th of a mile before a stream. I got to the first stream and figured that I had passed the shelter. I filled up my water, and then headed back the way I had come and still didn't find the shelter. I could swear that I heard people talking, but apparently not, because when I shouted nobody responded. I was struck with the thought that there might be more than one stream, and continued on southwards to finally locate the shelter. Turns out that the whole valley is full of streams, and I gathered from the register in the shelter that I wasn't the only person to have trouble finding the shelter in the dark. I had the place to myself, and discovered from the register that two people had been "slaughtered" in the shelter back in the 80s. How comforting.
Date: 2007-11-17
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Helvey's Mill Shelter
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Had a pretty easy day today. Since I set my goal of finishing on December 15th, I am having to step up my daily miles, hence today I did 24. I have to average just below 21 miles per day in order to finish, so we'll see how things go. 581.5 miles to Springer.Everything was frozen solid when I woke up. Boots were hard as rocks. Flexible canteen was nearly as hard as a rock. Luckily I started keeping my contact case in my sleeping bag with me at night; I think frozen contacts would be an interesting challenge in the morning! I heard a few animals come through the area last night, one of which I believe was a deer. There was something that made a lot of noise in the leaves, and there was a strong showing of mice in the shelter. Each of my shoes had a little mouse turd right in the middle of the heal area when I went to put them on.It was interesting trying to walk in frozen shoes, but they quickly softened up from the heat of my feet. I awoke nice and early so that I would have plenty of time to get my miles in. I came across lots of hunters (first day of regular deer season), and when I got to the first road crossing walked a half mile to a little country store. I got a burger and fries, which tasted great. It was here that I came to the conclusion that Southwest Virginia is about as culturally distant from Northern and Tidewater Virginia as you can get! Some kid came up to me and started talking and I truly could not understand half of what he was saying. He was shifting from side to side, which threw me off; couldn't figure out why he couldn't just stand still to talk. He insisted that he had seen me sitting in the same spot a week before; I assured him that a week before I was more than 100 miles away.There weren't any really good views during the day, but I arrived at the shelter to find another hiker, which was exciting. He was Bob, from Michigan, and is doing a NOBO section hike. He didn't have much to say other than "uh-huh," so he wasn't too exciting to talk to, but he offered more interaction than my book or iPod.
Date: 2007-11-18
From: Helvey's Mill Shelter

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 23.8
Weather: clear sky

I thought that today was going to be an easy day from looking at the elevations in the book. How wrong I was. The morning was actually not that bad; it was pretty flat from the shelter for the first 10 miles or so. To facilitate my increased mileage days, I have established a "10 by 10" standard; I should have 10 miles done by 10 in the morning. This means being on the trail by 7 at the latest. The ridge that I walked in the morning was rather low, and the ridge that I had to climb up for the afternoon looked really, really, high. I had a nice little lunch at the shelter I reached at 11, and from there it was all uphill physically, and downhill mentally!The shelter I was headed to didn't have any water, and from talking to Bob, I had gathered that there was no water between where I had lunch and where I was headed, so I packed an extra 3.3 pounds of water; no fun!!! The trail went up 1300 feet in the first mile and a half, which is pretty darn steep! I did meet the Dept. Chair of Industrial Engineering and Design from Virginia Tech. He and his son are section hiking; they started this spring and have already completed 350 miles. I got up on top of the ridge that surrounds Burke's Garden. It's a big bowl, about 10 miles in diameter, that'd surrounded totally by a continuous ring of mountains. It was the Vanderbilt's first choice for the location of Biltmore, which they ended up putting in North Carolina, instead. It was pretty cool to look down into, but it was rather scary to look across it and see the 4400 foot mountain that I had to climb to the top of to get to the shelter. While I was taking a mid-afternoon break, FoxTrot came along. He's one of those people who seems to do nothing but hike. He gave me some info on water availability, and we parted ways. He's hiking back to his parents' house in PA from Springer, and was just about to cross his 500 mile mark.The trail followed the ridge line rather exactingly; too exactingly in my opinion. If there was a little bump, we climbed over the top of it. If there was a big bump, we climbed over the top of it. There were never any switchbacks or anything, and we didn't once skirt one of the bumps on the ridge. The true pisser was that there were not views all that often. I did make it to the shelter alive, however, and was pleased to find that it was fully enclosed, with a picnic table inside and everything. It was an old firewarden's cabin, but unfortunately they had bricked up the fireplace. I stepped outside at dusk to find about 7 deer standing right outside to door in the field. I turned on my phone to see if I had reception, and the noise that it makes when it turns on made them make a rather strange noise and run off, crashing through the woods at light speed. The shelter was all mine for the evening, and I slept pretty well. It was really windy, and also rather cold. At 4,409 feet, it was the highest elevation that I had slept at since New Hampshire.
Date: 2007-11-20
From: Groseclose, VA

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 22.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up nice and early and packed up my things and headed over to the truck stop to get some breakfast. I had two biscuits, neither of which was very special, and a bottled Starbucks, which gave me a mega calorie blast.I was on the trail at 8:15, which was a bit of a late start, but my stomach was full of grease and sugar, which gave me a good boost. I climbed up out of town and towards the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area Headquarters. I arrived there to find one of the nicest shelters that I've ever seen. It had running water and a hot shower, however both were shut off for the winter. It's also close to a highway and Pizza Hut delivers to the gate. Too bad that I didn't have any extra time! I ate a quick lunch and found that there were two other SOBOs who had spent the night there; Sketch and Rambo. I headed out ready to climb some mountains and try to catch Sketch and Rambo. The walk was uneventful; not a single good view the whole day! It was just lots of ridge walking. I arrived at the shelter at 3:56, but had 4 more miles and a difficult hitch to a hostel, or 12 miles to a shelter. I went down to check the shelter out, and the spring was flowing and there was a fireplace, so I decided to stay. I scavenged the surrounding woods for firewood and was pretty successful. It's a good thing that no one else came, because they probably would have thought I was insane. My hair was freshly washed from staying in the motel, and was still explosively large, and I was standing in front of the shelter lifting a 20 pound rock above my head and throwing it at logs in an attempt to break them; very caveman-esque! I busted up what ended up being the perfect amount of firewood; I put the last two pieces on the fire as I climbed into my sleeping bag. I set my alarm for 6 again, as I had to do 25.1 miles the next day.512.6 miles to Springer!
Date: 2007-11-23
From: Damascus, VA

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

Ended up having a great day after Thanksgiving in Damascus. After eating breakfast at the Dairy King and doing a load of laundry, I hit up the coffee shop and then headed to the outfitter to spend some cash. I ended up spending $285 on a down vest, a pair of rain pants, a sleeping bag liner to replace the one I sold to Uly, and three Peppermint Stick Luna Bars. This was after the 20% black Friday discount. I am now totally prepared for winter as far as gear, which is good.After spending a bunch of money, I headed across the street to the hostel and packed up all my stuff and headed over to the Old Mill Inn, where I had eaten dinner on Thanksgiving. Betty handed me a key to a room and told me I could come down to the kitchen and grab drinks or whatever I needed and to make myself totally at home. I ran to the grocery store and resupplied for the four night hostel hop. I sat around and watched TV, took a shower and rested up before heading downstairs to the restaurant, where I had a massive steak, some Dos Equis and mashed potatoes. I told Betty that she had totally made my day and that I was super duper appreciative, and promised to send a picture when I got to Springer. I stayed up really late watching TV and eating Ben & Jerry¢s and Gushers while my shoes finished drying out on top of the heater.
Date: 2007-11-24
From: Damascus, VA

To: Iron Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 25.9

Woke up nice and early and packed up in the morning, but had to go back to the grocery store because I had forgotten to purchase contact solution when I went to resupply. I grabbed a big breakfast at the grocery store, and headed out of town at 8:30.The climb out of town was rather tough, but I was not warm enough in my long johns and shorts, so I stopped at the VA/TN state line and put on my new rain pants; they were great! Came across some hunters, but that was about it. Towards the end of the day, I came to a shelter that I had considered staying at to find smoke rising up from the fire pit. I was really tempted to stay, but decided to push on to the planned shelter in order to set up my hostel hop. I came across two old guys standing on the side of a field with an old coon dog standing next to them. I started walking and the coon dog followed me for the next 5 miles. It walked right along at my heels the whole day, but about a mile before I got to the shelter I stopped to pee, and the dog caught a scent and took off down the hill to never be seen again.There was smoke rising from the fire pit of the shelter as I rolled in at 5:15, which made me super happy! There were two guys from the town at the bottom of the mountain, and they were in the process of setting up a tent inside of the shelter. The one guy pulled out a little flask and I had true mountain moonshine on my first night in Tennessee! It was grape, and it tasted pretty good, but was rather fiery.433.6 miles to Springer!
Date: 2007-11-25
From: Iron Mtn. Shelter

To: Kincora Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 24.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Day one of the hostel hop! Left the shelter early in the morning and spent the whole morning going up and down along a ridge that paralleled Lake Watauga. It looked like the water was super duper low; there was a massive band of brown around the water, and most of the islands were no longer islands; they were connected to the shore by now-exposed ground.I was happy to find water at the second shelter I came to, because it was a long way to the next water source. It was quite a climb up from the lake, and when we got to the top, there was a dry spring. It had been an 1800 foot climb, and right after we passed the dry spring, the trail dropped down an other 1800 feet, in what was probably the steepest trail that I have seen since Maine--it was insane! When I got to the bottom, however, there was a stream, which the trail followed up towards Laurel Falls. I¢m pretty sure that the falls were the best single falls on the trail. The water fell down about a 75 foot drop into a big pool at the bottom, and there were some day hikers sitting there. Two of the people had no idea that they had hiked to the falls on the Appalachian Trail, let alone what the AT was. The third guy, however, did know about the AT, and said that Snack Time, who is about a day ahead of me, is from his home town and is writing a regular column for their local weekly newspaper.I left the falls and about 40 minutes later arrived at Kincora Hiker¢s Hostel, run by Bob and Pat Peoples. I took a shower, cooked up some dinner and sat back and relaxed. Leader of the Pack, who flipped, arrived about 6:30 from a slack pack. I had been following him for a while, but didn¢t expect to see him there, because I had been about four days behind him the last time he had written in a register. We sat around for the evening drinking tea and eating microwave popcorn. Bob and Pat came over and visited with us, which was nice. Bob gave us information on water south of the hostel, and talked about his fellow trail legends and maintenance. Slept well through the evening after eating 12 ounces of Skittles while lounging in my sleeping bag and reading an Outdoors magazine.409.3 miles to Springer!
Date: 2007-11-26
From: Kincora Hiker Hostel

To: Mountain Harbor Hostel
Miles today: 23.8

I woke up at 6, intent on being hiking by 7. I ended up sitting down and picking up Yogi¢s PCT Handbook as I ate breakfast, I sat there and read for a good hour, and didn¢t leave until 8, which wasn¢t the best plan, since I had a decent number of miles to do.   The PCT (Pacific Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada) looks like quite the adventure.It was raining when I left, which was no fun, but I had my new rain pants, so it wasn¢t too bad. I decided to listen to my iPod because I was bored, so I wrapped it in my hat and put it in my jacket pocket and did not have any problems. Spent some time thinking about what to do next summer, and I think that it¢ll be the Southern Tier bike route, kayak the Mississippi and maybe hike the John Muir Trail, which is part of the PCT in the High Sierra of California. It¢s only 200 some miles, so it wouldn¢t take too long, but the pictures in Yogi¢s book looked absolutely amazing. Got to cross into North Carolina for the first time, which was exciting, because it is the last state that the trail goes through before getting into Georgia. I passed by a little country cemetery towards the end of the day, and people in Tennessee seem to be super big fans of silk flowers on graves! I¢d never seen so many fake flowers in one place before in my life. There was also a Jesus statue wrapped in a garbage bag and duct tape; guess he was not the weatherproof edition! He was standing over a grave stone for a couple, the husband of which had died, and the two people¢s pictures were on the stone. The lady was wearing a white suit, a huge costume jewelry pearl necklace and had a hardcore, white mullet! Definitely in Tennessee!!!Got to the bottom of the hill to the road crossing that¢s been deemed the least friendly on the trail. The trail dropped down next to the road, but there was a creak between the two. Apparently people around the area don¢t like the trail, so they threw about every kind of trash, appliance and tires over the embankment down into the stream and trail area! Had to walk .3 miles down the road to get to the hostel, which was a really nice place. Leader of the Pack was there, along with Mystery Chicken, a NOBO who was in the area for Thanksgiving and decided that he couldn¢t pass up hiking over Roan Mountain since he was around.Tina and Emily, two SOBOs that I had never met before, showed up later on in the evening. They had hiked 9 miles South from the hostel that day, but said the weather was so bad that they turned around came back--yuck!Mystery Chicken took us down to a local diner, gas station and Dollar General. While we were in Dollar General, Emily overheard a girl making a comment about how we all smelled. We all decided that the girl looked like a horse. The hostel was super nice, and we sat around talking for a while before falling asleep rather late, ready to hike up Roan Mountain.385.5 miles to Springer!
Date: 2007-11-27
From: Mountain Harbor Hostel

To: Greasy Creek Friendly Hostel
Miles today: 23.5
Weather: broken clouds

Wow, what a day! Got up nice and early in order to make it over Hump and Roan Mountains. Didn't make it out quite as early as I had hoped for, but I hit the road at 7:20. There were clouds and mist everywhere; I didn't have much hope for views on top of the mountains, which people had told me were absolutely amazing. I got a partially up the mountain and called Greasy Creek Friendly Hostel to check that they were still open for the season, which they were. I got about half a mile away from the summit of Hump Mountain and there started to be ice everywhere. The wind was blowing like crazy, and the clouds were freezing to the trees and grass; I had never seen anything like it before in my life.I stopped to put on another shirt under my jacket, and pushed on. I had to stick my left pole off to the side as I walked to keep from blowing over. As the trail dropped down to the Overmountain Shelter, I came down from the clouds, and saw ice all over the side of Roan Mtn., which I hadn't been able to see all morning because of the icy clouds on Hump and Little Hump. I ate some cookies and things, and headed out from the shelter, with 2 miles to the next shelter.When I got to the next shelter, Stan Murray, the sun peaked through the clouds for a few seconds, but then disappeared again. As I climbed up out of the shelter, the clouds totally cleared, and as I entered the bald area, it was 100% clear, I could see Roan and Hump, Little Hump and everything around me; it was like being on the top of the world, covered in ice! It was absolutely amazing; I took so many pictures that it slowed my hiking quite a bit. The higher I got, the more ice was on the trees and grass, and the balds were absolutely stunning, because everywhere you looked the sun was glistening on the ice. I got to the highest shelter on the trail to find that it was 29.0 degrees, after having another nasty dog come at me barking and baring its teeth at the road crossing in Carver Notch.I am now staying at Greasy Creek Friendly Hostel, which is an awesome place. Tomorrow will bring me into Erwin, Tennessee, where I'll be staying at Uncle Johnie's hostel. After that it's two nights outside (shock, horror, gasp!) before Hot Springs, where I'll get to sleep inside again and take another shower. This shower every night concept is really nice!362.0 miles to Springer! I've checked my mileages, and I'm on track to finish a day earlier than the 15th, which means that I have already earned another zero!!! I think that I'll take one in Hot Springs, and spend it sitting in a hot tub.
Date: 2007-11-29
From: Erwin, TN

To: Bald Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: clear sky

Short day, kind of a nice change of pace!When I checked into Uncle Johnny's Hostel the night before, he said to pay in the morning, which I didn't think anything of, except for the fact that he didn't open until 8. I had myself down for a 26 mile day, but that did not happen. We ended up leaving the hostel at 9:30, after sitting around and watching TV and eating breakfast.I had an enjoyable time walking with Snack Time, since I hadn't walked with anyone for a while. He's a fellow Eagle Scout, so we talked about our past scouting adventures, and plans for after the AT. We passed the first shelter out of town, No Business Knob Shelter, after eating lunch because there is apparently a nuisance bear in the area.We found Pepsis in a stream at Spivey Gap, which was really exciting; my second day of finding Pepsis on the trail! We sat there and drank them, and headed up a massive climb up to Bald Mtn. Shelter. Met a bear hunter on the trail as we approached the shelter, and apparently he's had hikers removing the radio collars from his dogs, so he was not too incredibly excited to see us. We came across another bit of trail magic, an ammo can with some powdered mashed potatoes, so I ate my first Loaded Mashed potatoes of the trail for dinner. The water source at the shelter was flowing nice and strong, which is a bit of a change from some of the shelters, and was definitely welcomed.
Date: 2007-11-30
From: Bald Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 24.7
Weather: clear sky

Great day! It was frosty when we woke up, and even frostier when we got to the top of Big Bald, which had an amazing view. The shelter was at 5,100 feet, one of the highest on the trail, and the bald is at 5,516. We were able to see 360 degrees around, including a ski resort condo development on top of one of the ridges next to the summit.There was more trail magic at the interstate crossing; a water cache from Farsang's Mom and Dad, and two cans of Coke sitting next to a weather station. I grabbed a Coke, which was a nice addition to my lunch. I don't think that I've ever had to carry two empty soda cans in my trash bag before!At the last road crossing of the day, there was a 15 passenger van, which I wasn't too excited about, because I hadn't seen anyone headed NOBO, and figured that there would be a bunch of people coming up. I got to the first shelter, where I filled up with water because the Jerry Cabin Shelter was said to be dry. I had done the 3 miles from the road totally dry, so it was quite a shock to heft 6 1/2 pounds of water onto my back when I left the spring! I arrived at the shelter to find 10 students from Southern Adventist University, but they were all sleeping in tents and were pleasant to be around, which was nice. Most large groups do a pretty good job of ruining a night at a shelter. There was a girl in the group who wanted to hike the AT through Virginia next summer with her dog, and I spent 10 minutes telling her all of the reasons she shouldn't bring her dog with her. I don't think she was too enthused about my points.