morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-05-02
From: Stan Murray Shelter

To: Tent site 387.8
Miles today: 5.2

When we left the shelter at 8:30 this morning, it had already warmed up enough to hike in shorts and shirt sleeves. Our plan for the day was to take a short distance day after yesterday¢s hike over three mountains wore us out. One thing I¢ve learned from this year¢s hike is that Woofie¢s bionic legs are more powerful than my battery powered heart. I know this because when we go up hill, I slow down and she doesn¢t. And when we go down hill, she slows down and I don¢t.  So she¢s better at powering up the hills, and I¢m better at coasting down them. Half a mile after we started, we passed the side trail to Overmountain Shelter, but decided to hike on because it was a quarter mile off the AT down hill.  So we climbed up Little Hump Mountain. Half way up we stopped for a breather and along came Half-Slow, who is Vietnamese. After chatting with us a few minutes, he was so impressed by our hiking at our age, that he recited a poem by Shakespeare as a gift in our honor. Just then another couple he already knew from the trail arrived. They are Marcie and Mary, trail name M&M, who are both from Ireland. We took a group photo to remember the occasion. We got to the top of Little Hump Mountain by 12:30. It was so pretty we stayed to eat lunch and even napped in the sun. From there it was only a mile to where we¢re camping tonight. On the way we passed through a low forest where the ground was all covered with white.  But it was from flowers instead of snow ¢ so pretty.  And that is where we met Chip, a class of 2015 AT thru-hiker, and his wife, who is trying avoid getting the trail name Dale. They are doing a two-week section hike. Our camp site has just a few places for tents, but it¢s a very nice spot with the same ground covering of white flowers. The only other hiker staying here tonight is a young girl, trail name Produce, from Quebec hiking alone.  She carries fresh vegetables to eat on the trail.  And tonight she is cowboy camping, sleeping on top of her tent instead of in it, so she can look up at the stars. Tomorrow we hike over Hump Mountain and finally reach our car that¢s parked at Mountain Harbour Hostel.
Date: 2018-05-03
From: Tent site 387.8

To: US 19E Mountain Harbour Hostel
Miles today: 7.0

We got an earlier start this morning so we could stop on the trail for water before tackling Hump Mountain, the summit of which was 1.5 miles away and a strenuous climb. The water stop was a nice piped spring next to the trail after walking just .2 miles. We continued descending off Little Hump Mountain until we reached Bradley Gap, which is similar to a bald, no trees¢just grass, but at the bottom of a valley instead of on top of a mountain. It gave us magnificent views down on both sides and up at the two Hump mountains, behind and in front of us. Too soon to have developed our hiker legs yet, we had to stop several times on the way up for a breather¢but also to take in the ever improving views and take pictures. We finally reached the summit by 9:30. While resting at the top and enjoying the 360-degree panorama, two more hikers arrived, Papa J, a 59 year old from the mid west, and Tumble, a 40-something guy from Devonshire, England. Tumble had a hard time staying on his feet in the bad weather at the beginning of his hike, but he¢s currently on a new record of two weeks without a tumble. We started down the other side of Hump Mountain around 10am. The first mile was an easy hike down the grassy slope. But the next mile took an hour and a half because of the difficult rock scrambles and trees blown across the trail. We finally reached Doll Flats, half way down the mountain and a nice place to camp or just stop for lunch, by lunch time, and we ate and rested there until 1pm. The last three miles down to the road and the hostel where our car waited for us was much easier. We stopped at a spring to get some more water and rest with just a mile to go because it was in the high 80s, and were hot and getting tired. When we made it to the road, we were offered a lift to our car almost immediately by Crazy Wolf, a former thru-hiker, himself.  An hour later we¢d made it to Black Bear Resort, where we¢ll be taking a zero day, and have a much needed shower.  We don¢t have our hiker legs yet, but we do have our hiker hunger. We each ate a whole medium pizza, drank two sodas, and then a bowl of ice cream.
Date: 2018-05-04
From: Black Bear Resort

To: Black Bear Resort
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Our cottage sits right at the edge of a swift stream, perfect for relaxing during the day and sleeping at night. There is no cell or Wifi service except for a computer for hikers to use for email, so I had to upload all the photos and journals from our phones at McDonalds in Hampton, where they have Wifi. While we got some laundry done in the afternoon, we visited with several other hikers. A couple of them have their dogs with them on the hike. For supper we drove to Elizabethton and went to an AYCE Chinese buffet, where we lost count of how many times we refilled our plates. Then we stopped at McDonald¢s on the way back to our resort for ice cream sundaes while I uploaded photos. It was dark when we finally left there. The drive back up over the mountain gave us the most exciting view of the Hampton city lights. It¢s something that most hikers would never see.
Date: 2018-05-05
From: Black Bear Resort

To: Black Bear Resort
Miles today: 0.0

With the legs and feet feeling better today, Woofie decided she wanted to walk around downtown Elizabethton and visit all the antique stores we saw as we drove through yesterday.  So that¢s what we did this morning after breakfast at McDonald¢s. Elizabethton is only a five minute drive from Hampton where the McDonald¢s is. The main street through the historic business center of Elizabethton is lined with several antique stores, so Woofie had plenty to see. Unfortunately, none of the stuff in the stores was antique, just old, outdated, unwanted, or useless.  We also noticed that, although the city was clean and nice, the main street on Saturday morning was empty. No cars and just a handful of people. I guess Elizabethton is suffering the same fate as most towns and cities in that all the real businesses have relocated to the edges of the metropolitan areas where the malls and big box stores are. But we still had a good time talking to the people we met in the stores we visited. And that reminds me of the place we visited yesterday. We went to Brown¢s Grocery and Hardware store in Hampton yesterday afternoon, and when we pulled into the parking lot, we parked right next to the headstone of Mr & Mrs Brown, located right next to the store. Woofie went into the store and had to ask if they were really buried there in the parking lot next to the store. Well, the person she asked turned out to be Sutton Brown, the current owner of the store and the great grandson of the gentleman named on the headstone. He laughed and assured us that no one, as far as he knows, is buried in the parking lot. But it really is his great grandparents¢ headstone. The reason is that his great grandmother died at age 30, but her husband lived another 35 years. Because of the long time between the times they passed, they couldn¢t be buried next to each other in the cemetery. But when his grandfather had the stone made with both of their names on it, he didn¢t know they weren¢t buried together. So when he did find out, he decided to bring the headstone back to the store. So now it¢s in the parking lot for all the store visitors to see and enjoy. The rest of the day we spent back at our cottage relaxing and preparing for tomorrow¢s return to the trail. We¢re getting a shuttle south about 25 mile, back to the trail head on Rt 19E, where Crazy Wolf picked us up three days ago. We expect to take three or four days to get back here to Black Bear Resort.
Date: 2018-05-06
From: US 19E Trail head

To: Mountaineer Shelter
Miles today: 8.8

We were shuttled south to the trail head at 19E, where we left off three days ago. When we got out of the car, it started raining, so we had to hurry and put on the pack covers and the rest of our rain gear before we could start hiking. We finally got going by 10:20. It rained on and off all day until just after 3:30 in the afternoon, but it was a fine misty type of rain and was quite refreshing to walk in. It did stop long enough around lunch time for us to sit and eat, and it cleared up nicely by 4 pm. We met loads of hikers today as they passed us. We made it to the shelter just before 6 pm, but well after most of the other hikers had arrived and picked the most suitable tent sites. Needless to say the spot we finally chose pretty much sucks. Although it looked ok with a nice bed of leaves, it¢s not even close to level. We won¢t be sleeping late tomorrow.
Date: 2018-05-07
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Tent site 410.8
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up early this morning, and were hiking by 7:40. It was cool and clear, and we saw the sun come up over the ridges as we walked. About an hour later we stopped to eat breakfast, our morning Clif Bar and whatever other snacks we feel like. By the time we stopped again for lunch at 11.25, we had covered 4.5 miles, so we had been maintaining a 1.5 mph pace all morning. Pretty good for us, considering that we were both still tired from our poor night¢s sleep last night. As we walked, I began thinking about rocks. We¢re surrounded by all kinds, sizes, and shapes of rocks, a wonder to behold. Then I thought, that really rocks!, an expression meaning that¢s really good. I hear people say that all the time. This rocks, that rocks, he rocks, she rocks.  Everything is terrific. So here¢s a question. When is it bad, when you say something rocks?Not long after we got going this morning, we met a nice 61 year old lady, trail name Sloth, obviously a reference to her hiking speed. She walked along with us for the next hour chattering away a mile a minute, a much faster talker than walker. She was in the Navy and then the Foreign Service and his lived in many countries around the world. A very interesting lady, who is now hiking the AT. Then we met Croft, another lady hiker about that same age. She posts her hiking journals on Trail Journals dot Com just like we do, so we hope to see her journal when we get home. Just after we got water at Cascade Falls, we found a nice tent site around 2pm and decided to take advantage of having first pick. We¢re happy to make today a short day, both because we didn¢t rest well last night and because it might storm later in the afternoon, so we¢re ready in our tent for anything. In fact, I just heard thunder as I type. So, when is it bad when you say something rocks?  When it¢s a rock. As in, ¢Watch out when you step on that rock!  It rocks.¢
Date: 2018-05-08
From: Tent site 410.8

To: Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 8.8

When I put up the tent last night, I also put a tarp over the whole tent to give us more protection from stormy weather. The thunder storm that popped up yesterday afternoon, seeing my rain deterring tarp, gave up and headed some other direction. It never rained on us at all. Also tenting with us at our site are Ninja & Josh.  We met them yesterday as they passed us. Ninja hobbled into our tent site with an injured ankle. Since she couldn¢t make to the shelter, they set up their tent and sang songs the rest of the evening. We got an early start this morning. When we got to Moreland Gap Shelter, we met Choo Choo. She¢s the same age as Woofie and is hiking with her nephew and his girlfriend, Josh & Ninja, who we tented next to last night. She began her hike in 2002, but got sick. Four years of health problems later, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. It took her three years to recover. Now she¢s back to finish her hike. We stopped for lunch and to get water at 12.30.  While we sat eating, Woofie saw a scarlet tanager.  Then within five minutes it got much colder and started to rain. We put the pack covers on the packs, threw on our rain jackets, and started hiking again. So lunch was over just like that. As we meandered down the mountain the last three miles to the road, where the hostel and our car are, it got sunny and warm again. We made it to the road by 4:15 and then had to walk the road to our cottage at the hostel another.4 miles. In the 20 minutes it took to get there, it started raining again. We got into our cottage just as it started pouring hard.
Date: 2018-05-09
From: Black Bear Resort

To: Black Bear Resort 
Miles today: 0.0

Today is a rest day. The two most important things we need to do today is eat as much as possible and walk as little as possible.  It¢s nice and sunny, so it didn¢t take long to dry out the tent, tarp, and rain jackets. Unlike Woofie, I like to snack as I¢m hiking. Lots of hikers carry trail mix, a mixture of nuts, dried fruits, and candies like M&Ms. Some trail mixes can be bought in the store, but most hikers like to make their own blend. I usually carry a bag of raisins in one pocket and a bag of M&Ms in the other. I never mix them together; I¢m a purist. The raisins are a good snack in the morning before we stop for our breakfast meal. After that the M&Ms are fair game for the rest of the day. But when I have the misfortune to drop one or more M&Ms on the ground, I always practice the leave no trace code and pick them up and eat them. Mmmm, trail mix.
Date: 2018-05-10
From: Black Bear Resort 

To: Black Bear Resort 
Miles today: 0.0

Today was another good rest day. It rained most of the day, so it was good to be in our cottage, warm and dry, watching movies. Although there is no Wifi, cell phone service or TV cable, we do have at TV and DVD player, and there is a well stocked DVD library in the common room. We made our arrangements to be shuttled north 29 miles to the TN 91 trail head tomorrow morning at 8:30. We expect the hike back to take us five days. Granted, that¢s only about 6 miles a day on average.  But the shorter distance days make for a much more pleasant hiking experience. It gives us time to enjoy very nice places as well as to talk to some very interesting hikers along the way. We¢ve also learned that shorter distance days let us get to our intended campsite early enough to pick a good place to tent before they¢re all taken.  There are a lot of hikers at this time of the year, and the shelters and surrounding tenting spaces can get quite crowded.
Date: 2018-05-11
From: TN 91

To: Tent Site at 441.1
Miles today: 7.6

Today was the day we threw everything we didn¢t want to carry on the trail back into the car. With our backpacks loaded with food, water, and other essentials for five days of hiking and camping, we climbed into the shuttle van at 8:45 for the long drive to the TN 91 trail head. We got a break on the fare because three other hikers were also going there. So, we split the cost of the ride. An hour later we arrived at the trail head. We got under way hiking south back to Dennis Cove Road by 9:50. The other hikers departed northward toward Damascus. The hiking today was along the ridge on the mountain range. We had no mountains to climb or descend, just a pretty much straight path through the woods with some minor hills up or down. The most tiring thing today was the heat: sunny, clear, no wind, and temps in the mid 80s. But walking high along a nice ridge all day does have one big drawback. Without any major changes in altitude, there are few natural sources of water, and the few there are don¢t have much water to offer. The trail was alive with hikers. We were meeting about 25-30 an hour, all of them heading north. Some we even recognized from the week before on the trail. They¢ve hiked to where we are now, but we got driven north past them so we¢re now meeting them going the opposite direction. We went 7.5 miles today, which is pretty good for us considering our late start. We passed the Iron Mountain Shelter after having lunch there, and hiked three more miles to a tent site near a weak spring, where we¢re spending the night.
Date: 2018-05-12
From: Tent Site at 441.1

To: Tent Site at 435.7
Miles today: 5.4

Because of the high temperature yesterday and the prognosis of the same today, we got up at 5am this morning and got on the trail by 6:40. We were rewarded with a beautiful view of the town¢s street lights below before dawn, a new crescent moon, a glorious sun rise, and wonderful temps in the low 60s to hike in. As we hiked along the trail in a cool, clear breeze, we could see the valley below through the forest, whose leaves still haven¢t grown enough to obscure the view. And we could see that the valley below was covered with a layer of clouds¢overcast for the people down there; undercast for us mountain top dwellers, reveling in the morning sun. Hiking along at our usual pace of about 1.5 miles/ hour, we took our first break after two miles. We went two more miles and stopped at the Vanderventner Shelter for another break. By then it had warmed into the mid 70s. The only water source at that shelter is down a side trail and located at an elevation 300 feet lower. It is also a steep down and up, so not many hikers make the trip, nor did we. Instead we hiked another 1.6 miles to a spring right on the trail. But by that time the temperature had risen to the mid 80s. We decided to hike back .2 miles to a tent site we had passed and spend the rest of the day and tonight there. That puts us just a 7.5 mile hike to our planned stopping point tomorrow, the Boots Off Hostel and Campground. Most of tomorrow¢s hike takes us past Watauga Lake, a popular place for the general public to visit. But because of the trash left by all the visitors, the entire area has been declared a no camping area for AT hikers due to aggressive bear activity as a result of the availability of all the trash. That hostel is the only place we can stop to camp for the next 7.5 miles. That¢s why we¢re waiting here today. It would have been too far to hike there today. Also, we¢ll be able to hike it in tomorrow morning¢s cooler temperatures.
Date: 2018-05-13
To: Boots Off Hostel & Campground 
Miles today: 7.8

Before we got to sleep last night, we were serenaded by a whippoorwill in the distance. Up early enough to be on the trail by 6:25 this morning, we made it back down the trail to the spring we¢d visited yesterday before any of the hikers who¢d camped there over night had gotten up. We refilled our water bottles and went on our way. We made it down the mountainside to the Watauga Dam by 8:30 before it had even warmed into the 70s. We took lots of pictures as we walked across the dam. We saw the sign commemorating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that built the dam in the 1940s, creating the man-made Lake Watauga. The next two miles to the road where the hostel & campground are posted as a no-stopping area. We weren't even allowed to visit the Watauga Shelter to take a break.  But the trail goes right around the lake, yielding pleasant views. To our good fortune a couple from Ohio had driven to the parking lot by the lake to offer trail magic to hikers. Ron, a 2012 thru-hiker trail named Bucket, and his wife Joy were serving chili dogs and soft drinks to hikers that happened by. We got there starving at 11:30, and those chili dogs couldn¢t have tasted better. After that it was just a short walk across the road to get to the hostel. It¢s a great place. With our tent site that has its own picnic table, we also had showers, laundry, and a ride to town for supper. Life is good.
Date: 2018-05-14
To: Laurel Fork Shelter
Miles today: 6.5
Weather: few clouds

Fifty years ago today I enlisted in the US Air Force. Although I didn¢t know it at the time, I had begun a 44-year span of service in the USAF, which included 22 years active duty as a Russian linguist and 22 years as an AF civil servant providing IT support in the Pentagon. Although now retired, this month I¢m a full time AT hiker. Today we were awake at 5am and ready to hike by 6:15. But we didn¢t get a very good night¢s sleep. The people at the hostel never stopped partying until 4am, and we weren¢t tenting far enough away to avoid hearing all the goings on. Anyway, just as we were about to leave the campground, we met a hiker coming to the campground. He had hiked passed it the day before but stopped and camped in the no-camping restricted zone. He hung his food bag as normal before he went to bed, but bears had gotten his food bag by 11pm. So he had to come back to the campground to replace his food, bag, and ropes. But he should also be given a hefty fine for violating the no-camping area rule. Now the bears have gotten another free meal, and the restrictions will have to stay in place even longer. We finally got going by 6.25. It took us til 9.30 to reach the top of Pond Mountain. We rested on top at Pond Flats for a while. Going down the other side was as hard as going up, because the temperature was climbing into the 80s on the way down.We reached the bottom by 12.30. A stream was there, so we both cooled our feet in the water while we ate lunch. Then we had only a mile to go to get to the shelter. The Laurel Fork Shelter was tough climb and a scary one for Woofie, because it went along a high cliff for a while. Tomorrow we get back to Black Bear Resort where our car is. We¢re looking forward to clean clothes, town food, and a couple days of rest before going out on the trail again.
Date: 2018-05-15
To: Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 1.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night just after it had gotten dark, we were treated to a concert, compliments of several whippoorwills singing out to each other. One must have landed briefly on the log next to our tent because it was so loud, it was like having a front row seat at the concert. Since we had data service at the shelter, we checked the weather forecast for today and saw there was a chance of thunderstorms in the morning. So we got up early to hike to Dennis Cove Rd before it rained. It didn¢t start raining until 4pm, so we made it with hours to spare. Along the way the trail ran next to the Laurel Fork River and crossed a very nice foot bridge over it. Before we got to the road, we met Highlander, an interesting and very nice hiker from Washington State, who got his name because he hikes in a kilt. We walked from the trail head to Black Bear Resort and got one of the rustic cottages.  After a shower, laundry, and a pizza for lunch, we spent the day relaxing and watching movies. Tomorrow we move the car to Abingdon, Va.  It¢s the closest city to Damascus, Va, which will be our hiking destination for the next two legs of our hike.
Date: 2018-05-16
From: Black Bear Resort 

To: Abingdon, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Having completed both a north and a southbound leg of hiking back to Dennis Cove Road, today we said our final farewell to the Black Bear Resort. In all we¢ve spent seven nights there in three different cottages. We enjoyed our time there immensely, and we felt sad to leave our ¢home away from home¢ for the last time. It was a wonderful place to stay, and we hope to return there again for an actual vacation stay some time in the future. With the exception of a common use computer, there is no access to the internet or cell phone service there. If you¢re interested in a peaceful, disconnected vacation place, we highly recommend the Black Bear Resort. The family who own and operate it make every effort to accommodate and please their guests. So, today we drove about an hour north to Abingdon, VA.  It was a good day for driving instead of hiking because it rained steadily all day.  We¢re staying in the Super8 motel for at least a couple days. One reason, of course, is to rest our tired old bodies.  But the forecast of thunder and lightning storms for the next few days may make it necessary to wait even longer just to be cautious.  We¢ll have see how it looks in a couple days. When we do return to the trail, we¢ll be hiking a north and a southbound section back to Damascus, VA, the so-called ¢friendliest town for hikers¢ on the AT.